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It can only be sheer clearance if you want to really wang the trem down.

I presume you mean the Standard USA Strat. I would guess that it allows for extreme 'Guitar God' whammy bar abuse, being a more modern feature. They are more easy to manufacture too, being a compound of sintered (powdered) steel & some kind of resin, & therefore easy to make in a mould. Although I have a Standard USA Strat, which sounds really good, I still prefer my vintage-style models with a proper milled steel block.

Tony.

Hi Alan,
I guess if you have a block that has more or less the same hardness as the arm, they wont wear each other out. I reckon the US Standard Strat's 'Sintered' block is probably a little less hard than the arm & will wear eventually, although mine hasn't yet, but I don't play it anywhere near as much as my 'Vintage' Fiesta Reds. I bought a Squier 'Biffy Clyro' F.Red Strat a few months ago, & although everything about it was really good for a £250 guitar, the Trem block was the usual thin soft Squier budget job, which is a real shame. Needless to say it went wobbly within a couple of weeks, so I replaced it with a full-size steel block. It has been superb ever since, & although I wouldn't say it made a great deal of difference to the tone (it had a great tone anyway), the trem arm is perfect with no wobbles at all.

Tony.

The tendency of (some) Stratocaster tremolo arms to wear loose in their threaded sockets has been driving me mad since I got my first example - new - in 1975. That was a later post-CBS model with the one-piece cast Mazak block, and whilst it was easy to pack the threads (with plumber's tape or cotton thread), it seemed to me that this should not be necessary and that Fender really should have got it right by now.

Mind you, as others say, on the proper American-made unit with the steel block (as fitted to the American Vintage Reissue series), this problem seems not to come up at all. The two '62 VRIs I bought in 2007 have never suffered from it.

JN