For this article a practical tip to solve the flutter on Strat style tremolos.
Anyone who has ever used a tremolo on a Fender Strat will know what I am talking about: Often the tremolos units do have a bit of play (or flutter if you like) which makes accurate use a pain.

The solution for this problem is to use something which is called in England PTFE seal tape. It is basically a tape which is used to seal gas. The advange of this tape is it is not sticky and does not harm your tremolounit. It will wear out over time, just apply again a little bit of tape and that will do the job for a while.

Why does Fender make so many different Tremolosizes you may wonder? I do not know, all I know is that there are many, many different sizes, and to find the correct size wich fits your guitar may not be easy.
If you have a brand new Strat you may be lucky, I have seen people with brand new Strats, and the feel on those tremolos was fabulous, spot on. But for the people who use second hand ones it may be harder to find the correct size trem. Dealers often swap tremolos without thinking about it fitting snug or not.
If you do not use your trem you may not even know!
The tremolo is a wonderful unit and with a bit of practise you can get wonderful sounds out of it. Do not listen to the people who will claim that it messes up your tuning: Once your guitar is set-up correctly the vintage style tremolo can give you lots of sounds without too much tuninghassle. Wanna dive bomb? Okay, be prepared to tune up from time to time, but in between that radical sound, there are lots of other ideas you can get with the trem, and they are all musically very satifsying.

Stay tuned and hope to see you soon again!
Eddie