I have a Fender vintage style tremolo system on a stratocaster I built. While unscrewing the trem bar during routine maintenance the threaded end snapped off inside the spring block. I have had people ask me to fix this before and I always ended up just replacing the block. Once on my own guitar that I was given for payment for work I did, came with the threaded end broken off in the block. It was a 90’s Mexi Fender strat. I took it to my fathers shop and used his mill to ream the threaded hole out bigger than the original hole in the block. Then I used Metal Set epoxy to glue a brass insert into the milled hole. After it set I was able to redrill the hole and tap new threads in. It worked but it was far to much work to do for a regular strat. Its much easier to just replace the block. But, if I got a vintage instrument that the customer wanted to keep as original as possible, what could you do to fix this issue? Thank you
Corey
CHM Instruments
Responses
I second the LH drill bit- it generates heat, and vibration, and will usually end up snatching the broken portion out of the hole. Its works like gold on a stripped screw too, because you have a fat screw head to drill and snatch into. Bonus, if it doesn’t snatch the piece out, you’ve got a hole for an ez-out.