by JimN » Wed Feb 23, 2022 2:06 pm
The tremolo arms supplied with Stratocasters (and copies) have been problematic for the last forty years.
The 1982 Fender catalogue showed the (American) 1962 Vintage Reissue with the period-correct almost-straight arm, but as it turns out, it was a 50:50 chance whether you got the correct shape or the one from the 1950s with that upward crook in it. That was just the American product; the the Japanese 1962 VRs all had the "wrong" (50s-style) arm.
The Wilkinson bridge I installed on my Vista Series Jagmaster (a fantastic guitar except for the crumbly bridge block and the nondescript humbuckers) had the same upward-hooked pop-in arm. The problem was that the business end was at about the right height, but further back, the arm was rising out of the bridge block at an impossibly-low angle, meaning that it fouled the volume control when moved. I got hold of a (long) Jazzmaster arm made from rod of the same diameter and cut off the right angled bit. I measured the depth inside the socket and added nearly an inch to that as the correct length for the vertical part of the arm. The bending was done in a vice with wooden cushions to prevent damage to the chrome. I bent it to an angle of about 100 degrees. The arm now rises out of the block high enough to stand clear of every other part of the guitar throughout its 360 degree "sweep" and is only slightly higher at the handle end than it is at the block end. It is perfect.