Adjusting B bender tension?

Just got a 2004 Fender B bender body and mated it with one of my necks. This is an excellent sounding and playing guitar. I have not had a B Bender since trading my Evans back in the early 90's. What I find interesting about this newer guitar is that it is fairly hard to push down on the neck and it clunks at the bottom of the throw. Can I adjust the tension on this? I find that the guitar strap wants to slide a bit over my neck due to the presure it takes to activate the bender. Its not terrible, but I was thinking a slightly lighter touch might make it a bit more useable. Its easy to not get it fully pulled to pitch on short/quick bends.

Thougts?

Also the body had B Lawarence Keystone pups. The bridge pickup sounds pretty good, but I think the neck pup is a bit week. Any thoughts on a neck pup?

(I will admit that my favorite tele has a P90 in the neck and a Klein Fatman in the bridge. Both are huge sounding pups. )

Maybe go to Home Depot and get a more forgiving spring? (Mine was too loose, I cut two loops out).

Contact Hipshot and ask about a new spring?

The keystones seem to work well with a 4 way wiring switch where the 1st position gives you both pickups in series and produces a a lot fuller tone quality much like a low out put humbucker or p-90.
Might give it a shot the switches run less than $20.00.

@ Joe: Have you tried to use a strap with a rough surface shoulder piece, maybe made of split leather? These are my choice with strap-activated benders and may work satisfying even with your stiff spring. A looser spring can cause issues, too - I have one guitar which partially actuates the bender by it's own weight. Everytime I forget to lift the neck up all the time I get the magic "Mel-Bay"-sound... ;)

Fender factory springs for P/G benders are somewhat stiff. You can easily replace them with a lighter spring available in most full sized hardware stores. The Hipshot P/G spring is a little lighter and is available from Hipshot.

The clunking is the result of one of the pads coming off the brass stops. See this thread.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/b-bender-forum/268011-b-bender-going-out-tune.html