What kind of Strat bridge is on my Hwy 1?

I hear a lot of buzz about callaham bridge blocks, what kind of block and bridge is on my Highway One Strat? What's it made of? What are the callaham ones made of?

Does anybody know? I just put Lindy Fralin vintage hots in my strat and it sounds great, but I wonder what kind of difference it would make if I were to change out the bridge with a glendale or callaham.

www.callahamguitars.com

if you look at the block details section.

I put a callaham bridge, saddle and block in my strat and I love it. It adds a lot of sustain. I would recommend this to any strat owner

both should be make out of steel or some steel alloy, but most of the concern with the newer fender bridges is with the mass of the tremolo block. the theory is that better tone is achieved with the higher mass of the vintage block, which is callaham's or glandale's size. then the only differences are pop in vs. screw in tremolo arms. the saddles are the same. its really all about the block and the mounting type, 6 hole vs. 2 hole for the newer American standards. your hw1 uses a slightly different mounting screw spacing than the vintage size so me careful if you upgrade... honestly i believe the tremolo upgrade is significant improvement to most recent strat type guitars....

How much different is the screw spacing between the highway one and vintage bridges? Also, how much difference is there between the mass of the vintage block vs. the mass of the highway one block?

I'm not sure how the Highway One stacks up against Callaham or vintage stuff, but the block on my 2006 Highway One is significanlty larger than the one on my 2003 Lone Star Strat with the USA fulcrum tremolo. If you want to sell me the trem from your Highway One, I'll buy it.

I hear a lot of buzz about callaham bridge blocks, what kind of block and bridge is on my Highway One Strat? What's it made of? What are the callaham ones made of?


The Callaham parts are made of a much higher grade of steel, lead free steel. Just a much higher level of precision. The whammy on a Callaham is basically lifetime quality, the H1 stocker will wear out. The precision of the bent steel saddles, very impressive, palpable improvement. The Callaham block holds the string ends out to the bottom of the block. And the hardened mount screws are the biggest fastest improvement for pocket change I know of. I've got this precise setup on one of my Strats, very nice.

Except that it is sold out right now, there's also the Glendale Chimemaster in brass saddles and brass block. NOT a whammy monster, the Chimemaster is what I have on my Highway One. I love it, my favorite Fender Strat for now. With the Callaham hardened mount screws, of course.

What is the benefit of hardened mount screws?

Sounds like your sold on an upgrade anyway, but first let me ask if your Highway One is the "2006 upgrade" model or not. If so, it has what Fender touts to be a high-mass trem block compared to the older one, and also has different string spacing compared to the bridge used in the MIM standards (apparently the highway one had the same bridge until the upgrade).

The 2006 or newer HWY1's do have a full sized block but its not steel its the same ping bridge used on several MIM Strats.

Replacing the trem block does make some difference but its mostly heard acousticly changing pickups makes a bigger difference.

By the time you buy some nice Fralins and a Callaham bridge you easily have $350 tied up in upgrades.

What is the benefit of hardened mount screws?


From a layman's view, I reason that the chain of connection between the Strat body wood and the higher end trem bridge assembly materials is only as good as the fasteners than bring the two parts together.

I have seen improvements, over an over, using high quality stainless fasteners on bridge attachment hardware, necks bolts, even sleeving inside of tuner bushings. I can only assume that the increase in sustain and clarity (that sounds like what I hear, ok) is due once again to the higher quality of the hardened fasteners.

I am certain they will last forever, and I can hear the difference in use, and they're like $ 6 a set; I feel that's a safe wager.