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On all of my genuine Strats the trem arm is not drilled into the block perpendicularly. The arm leans backwards so that when swivelled towards the right elbow contour it lies almost flat on the body, therefore no need to unscrew. This way you don't lose the spring, or wear out the threads. No PTFE tape or anything else, it stays where you put it. Never had a problem with one in 55yrs.
Hope this helps
Pete

neil2726 wrote:Only relaying what the shop owner told me! It was in good condition when I part exchanged it with no sign of a crack!

A professional tale of woe, as they say in the trade!

I must have owned over 40 Strats in my life time and never, ever had to remove the tremolo arm as they are designed to swing back out of the way when in the case.
A properly setup Fender tremolo arm swings to it's lowest when pointed to the South East position on your guitar (That's opposite to the position you use it) if you look at it from above with the neck to the left. It even had it printed in the little flyers that used to come with them from brand new in the case candy.
That said, I often leave mine in the position I use it and let the lid of the case push it down to relieve tension on neck, as it slackens the strings in transit.

JimN wrote:I owned a 1965 Burns Marvin from 1972 to 2022 and never adjusted the tremolo arm when it was its case (the majority of its time. The case was not an original Burns case; ii was a Fender-style case which had been supplied with a Mosrite guitar I bought in 1970. I PXd the Mosrite for the Marvin in a London shop and kept the Mosrite case because there wasn't a case with the Burns. It fitted well (largely because of the reverse offset shape of both instruments).

There was never the slightest issue with the Marvin's tremolo arm in that case.

Thanks, that's re-assuring, and it confirms what I thought, even though it "feels" wrong to me. Logically, if a guitar could be damaged by a depressed trem arm, the same would happen when using it "in play".

chaddopete wrote:On all of my genuine Strats the trem arm is not drilled into the block perpendicularly. The arm leans backwards so that when swivelled towards the right elbow contour it lies almost flat on the body, therefore no need to unscrew. This way you don't lose the spring, or wear out the threads. No PTFE tape or anything else, it stays where you put it. Never had a problem with one in 55yrs.
Hope this helps
Pete

Just had a look at my Strat, and you're right! Never noticed that before, but to be fair, I've only had the guitar for 45 years!! It's now back in its case, with the trem arm in place for the very fist time

dave robinson wrote:I must have owned over 40 Strats in my life time and never, ever had to remove the tremolo arm as they are designed to swing back out of the way when in the case.
A properly setup Fender tremolo arm swings to it's lowest when pointed to the South East position on your guitar (That's opposite to the position you use it) if you look at it from above with the neck to the left. It even had it printed in the little flyers that used to come with them from brand new in the case candy.
That said, I often leave mine in the position I use it and let the lid of the case push it down to relieve tension on neck, as it slackens the strings in transit.

As I have just discovered, you're absolutely right - every day is a school day. Can't wait to share this new found knowledge at the next Shad Club night- I wonder if I'm the only one there that had no idea?

Thanks guys,

Cliff

With a Burns Marvin, you can leave the arm in it's natural playing position as all it will do is release string tension on the neck. I had mine stored mostly in it's case for the past 19 years before recently parting with it.
With a Bigsby equipped guitar you do the same thing, either swing it to it's lowest point out of the way, or close the lid with it in playing position and any pressure will slacken the tension on the strings, thus preserving the neck.

dave robinson wrote:With a Burns Marvin, you can leave the arm in it's natural playing position as all it will do is release string tension on the neck. I had mine stored mostly in it's case for the past 19 years before recently parting with it.
With a Bigsby equipped guitar you do the same thing, either swing it to it's lowest point out of the way, or close the lid with it in playing position and any pressure will slacken the tension on the strings, thus preserving the neck.

Thanks Dave. I shall stop fiddling with Allen bolts and just chill

Cliff

I have a staytrem arm on my strat which I do not remove.I found a simple solution is to cut a 1 inch wide slot in the top paddng of the case with the arm rotated to the lowest resting height.This hsppens to be dibirectly over the jack socket in my case. The arm niw does not touch anything when the guitar us in the case and the guitar is dtill firmly held bythe padfong just as before.

I have modified the tremolo arm on all my Strats in the workshop on the vice so that it lies slim in the ball of my hand.
This makes it easier for me to play permanently without a big bend upwards. In the case, I then turn the tremolo arm
in the opposite direction of the jack so that hardly any pressure is exerted by the case lid. I have never had a problem
with this over many years and the guitar even stays in tune.
Greetings, Roland

My question with all these types of enquiry is “what would the young Hank or Bruce have done?” I mean in the early days before they had “people” around them.
I suspect the simple answer is the right one. The equipment will have been treated with a degree of laxity in those times - and it will have stood up to it.

The conclusion one might draw from this discussion is that the arm can be kept on without damaging the guitar. The arm can also be removed before packing the guitar, and there also seems no disadvantage there, other than the risk of losing the tiny trem arm spring. Removing is especially easy with the pop-in arms of the Jazzmaster and Jaguar. Being paranoid, I'm likely to continue past practice and remove the trem arm. Many of my guitars stay in their cases for long periods.

By the way, the strings leave an imprint on the inside of the top cover, which shows how closely the case cradles the guitar. I assume the cover will press against the vertical corner of the trem arm, if left on, and likely the length of the arm as well.

The case is closed (pardon the pun) on this topic, I think.

Andy