The Dynamic Fender Vibrato, in it's basic design, has remained largely unchanged for 50+ years, and is one of the most unchanged, and under-appreciated designs in the fender Catalog. The most variation you'll find comes with import vibratos.

These original bridge units featured a steel bridge with steel legs, with 2 tiny 3mm allen key "gross action adjustment screws" located in rivet-heads on each sides of the bridge - it was the same basic assembly as the one found on the Fender Jaguar and Jazzmaster, just with different saddles. These were fixed height saddles pre-set to a 7.25" fretboard radius. The rivet heads around the action adjustment screws are also how you tell a true vintage American Fender part from a later import part. The bridge was held into 2 "thimbles" pressed into the body by string tension alone, and the bridge "rocked" with string movement from the vibrato, making it rather gentle on the strings when the vibrato was used.

The tailpiece is a steel plate, with 5 inset screw holes, and 2 holes with a knife edge ground into them at the bottom. 2 Milled steel legs sit in these holes and screw into a tailpiece often referred to as the "Cigar Tube" - aso steel on these older units. A very small, vintage style, thread-less vibrato bar mounts on the hole on the treble side, and is held in place by a flat-head screw with a rubber tip on it, and the metal legs that go through teh plate, pivot on the knife edges, and pull on 2 1.5" long metal springs that hook onto the front of the plate via 2 stamped in mounts that are under the bridge. Spring tension is adjusted by switching between 2 notches in the legs, with the higher tension coming from moving the springs closer to the plate. The primary form of adjustment though is carried out via 2 holes in the tailpiece that raise or lower the tailpiece, increasing or decreasing the string breakover angle over the bridge, requirnig the springs to put fourth more force against the tailpiece to pull the legs back to counteract the string tension.

In 2021 Fender released the American Performer series Mustang, and on that instrument featured a new vibrato unit that featured a detachable knife edge unit in it, this facilitated new routing to alloow the bar of metal to be set under the tailpiece.

1.) The Bridge Design

Sorry about the blurry picture, it's the best I could do with the 3 megapixel camera I had at the time (2006). Anyway, see the cigar-tube-like bar at the bottom, you have 3 holes in it, the two innermost holes adjust the spring tension, the outer hole is for the trem bar, and the trem bar is held in by a grub screw. I'll go over this later on after reassembly. Above that is the bridge, the holes on each side adjust the action. The bridge uses a #2 Hex Wrench, the spring adjustment uses a #2.5, and the whammy bar uses a 3. My guitar was modified with a regular screw in place of the grub screw so I could just use a screwdriver. Currently I'm using the stock grub screw with a piece of rubber tire plug to approximate the assembly found on Vintage Mustangs.

2.) Dissassembling this monster

As you can see, the rocker bridge pulls right out, it's held in by spring tension alone. Just like the Jaguar/Jazzmaster units. Put this aside, we'll deal with it later.

Five screws hold the trem plate on, the trem is it's own assembly. As you can see, in this somewhat blurry picture, the cigar tube attaches to a post, and the post connects to a spring, there are 2 springs, and they simply snap onto the posts. These posts pivot on a "knife edge" on the metal plate. They can get worn, but surprisingly, the wear does not hinder the trem as much as one might think. The posts have 2 notches in the end going all the way around, these are used to increase spring tension in combination with the poles themselves, the closer the spring is to the bridge plate, the more tension is exerted on the tailpiece to pull it backward.

Right here we see the bottom of the bridge plate, the two springs hook into a pair of raised metal slots in the bottom of the plate. They can be removed with some care and a pair of needlenose pliars, if they need replacement, but chances are, considering how unpopular it is to use this trem system, they probably aren't, and are probably a pain to get off the bridge plate, so it's better just to leave em.

The posts protrude through the holes, but they are too wide to pull through, so here's how I remove them.....I just simply unscrew them from the bottom of the tailpiece....

Here's the posts removed with the tailpiece. Now it's time to clean off the trem plate, I try to get rid of as much of the black gunk around the pivots as possible. I use some kind of grease to lube the pivots and the screws. So far I've used the following stuff.......

• Vaseline, works great, but way too much to use one something I as little as this, and yields very funny looks at the checkout at some places.
• Blistex, what I used this time, it smells a little weird, but wears off after awhile.
• Trumpet Tuning Slide Grease, you school band people now have an excuse to buy band instrument supplies other than for a horn.
• STP High Temperature Grease - if it works for my wheel bearings on my old Explorer, it works for the vibrato in my old Jag-Stang, and quite well

The reason for lubing them up is to both protect from corrosion and other toxic elements from the metal. I'm probably the nastiest to their trem than anyone here. The other reason is friction, the less of it there is, the better the trem will stay in tune.

After greasing up the pivots, you'll want to install the posts, tailpiece, and springs again. Till it looks like this. It's at this time to decide upon first or second notch for the springs. I use the one closest to the trem plate (second) because my springs, after over 8 years of whammy'n action, will fall off the first one. You also might want to make a rough adjustment of the tailpiece, I'd say roughly a 3rd of a centimeter off the plate with the springs at-ease, that's what I use, fine adjustment comes later after the strings are installed. Make sure the tailpiece has the holes for the string's ball ends aimed towards the headstock, not toward the bridge. The trem bar hole should be on the right side (right handed guitars), or the left side (left handed guitars), basically, the trem bar hole should be towards the volume/tone controls.

Then I take some 3M tape, a VERY small amount, about as small as you can get off the container, and wrap it around the action screws on the bridge, and point some tape at the tip to act as a wedge to get the screw into the bridge post with the tape on it. The tape get's cut up on the threads of the posts, and gums it's ways into the post holes, creating a good amount of gumminess to hold the screws in place, but still leave them adjustable.

Then I put graphite in the nut slots. I usually use cheap mechanical pencils for this, mostly because I'm too friggin lazy to sharpen a regular wooden one. I also lightly deburr or clean out the gunk with a needle file if one is handy. In the end, the slots should be clean except for the graphite worked into them by the pencil.

After this, I install the strings, on some guitars, with some string gauges, the bar might be a little too low to start with, I start with the Low E for this reason, and press down on the trem bar while I run the string back through the hole out the back of the bar, then under the bar and over the bridge saddle, then up to the headstock. With stock kluscons, I hold the string about 3 tuners above the tuner it goes into for the lowest 3 strings, and cut them at that point, then insert the tip into the hole, bend it sideways into the slot, and wind them neatly on the capstans, with the excess going down towards the headstock. I cut at 4 tuners on the headstock on the g string, and don't even bother cutting the B and high E, of course, this is using 009-042 gauge strings (that's what I use). You might have to adjust the cutting for the Klusons if you use heavier strings. I usually have 2-3 winds on the lowest 3, and 4-8 on the highest 3.

The strings are then tuned up to the pitch that I usually set the guitar at (concert pitch in my case, though some use different tunings). After tuning them the first few times, I pull the string up off the fretboard about a centimeter to stretch it out, and then retune it. What this does is stretches the metal out, this is part of how the guitar's tuning becomes stable. I do this about 2-3 times, I don't stretch them too much or then when I use the whammy bar, the metal will retract, and the strings will go sharp, which comes to the next part, the whammy bar itself.......

4.) Installing/fixing the Whammy Bar

The whammy bar installs into the hole in the tailpiece nearest the volume/tone controls, and is held in by a grub screw. However, the pain in the arse about this thing, at least on the Jag-Stang (as I hear the old ones on vintage Mustangs have a rubber plunger to hold it in place), is that the screw tightened up against the bar wears a groove in the bar if you move it around, as well as wears the tip of the screw. I found a workaround to this using rubber plugs for car tire repair. I cut the small end off, insert it into the hole where the grub screw goes, then screw the screw in over the piece of rubber. The screw then holds the rubber against the bar, holding it in place, but not cutting a groove into it. This works really well so far as I've been doing it. Nice part is the bar can be moved out of the way when not in use, but no metal damage occurs.

This is an optional mod for more upward travel that I have done. The Mustang/Jag-Stang trem bar also acts as a "trem-lock" feature oddly enough. If locked into place without the grub, and a string breaks, I've had it hold the guitar in tune before because of the excess bar hanging out under the tailpiece and locked in with the grub screw. But since I do Dimebag type shreiks and squeals with this thing that involves upward bar movement, I wrapped a light coat of electrical tape around the end of the trem bar, leaving the metal below just as long as the tailpiece is thick, so that no extra metall protrudes under the tailpiece, allowing more upward pitch.

Now more string stretching.......

The key to stretching strings to work with a non-locking system like this is not to stretch them fully like you would on a hard-tail, but have them stretched out just enough to not go flat, but not so stretched out that you do a bar dive, and they go sharp from the metal particles pulling back together under the release in tension. So after stretching out the strings, now it's time to do a few bar dives to allow the metal to contract back onto itself, in the end leaving the guitar able to do a full bar dive and come back up to pitch. It's basically physics at work. As for upward pulls, because the strings are stretched out enough, it should be fine, but playing the strings in a little is not a bad idea.

The stem of the trem bar should also be about 85-75 degrees back from the vertical. 48 is too much, and 90 tends to bring out tuning problems when using the bar both ways, especially when the strings are stretched out.

Anyway, this is what I go through to get this thing to stay in tune, overkill, it is, but it does not need it every time, only once every few years or more. These photos were taken after my Jag-Stang had not had this done for almost 5-6 years of the 7-8 years it's been with me. The string stretching is the only thing I really do every time.

Fender Bullet 350XL .009-.040 Stainless Steel - These were some of my favorite strings Fender ever made. They sit between the Paradigms and the regular 250XLs I used before in longevity, usually getting about 6-8 months out of a set even with heavy playing. I used these while in Lithium, and continued to use them up until about 2006 when Fender discontinued these strings. The Bullet End offers an advantage of not just looking cool, almost like six little teeth added to the tailbar, but also giving literally NOTHING to stick or that will need special guidance while restringing to make sure there's Zero chance of a hangup at the bridge end. While they were designed for the inertial block in a Strat vibrato, they worked AMAZING on all Offset guitars with trem units.

Fender Bullet 250XL .009-.042 - These were the second best and what I used from about 2005-2011 when Fender stopped making them as reliable. These were not stainless so they lasted about 6 months maximum for me. They offered a little less dive-bomb range on the low E but still more than adequate enough for most of my needs. This problem seemed to be negated using a vintage Mustang vibrato however. They stayed in tune perfectly. You mostly saw me using these in Smokin' 66' and Ancient Tongues. I started having problems with newer sets around 2011, as well as just having a hard time finding these with the bullet end anymore, so I moved back to my old standby.

Ernie Ball Super Slinky .009-.042 - These work, they're effective, they play a little faster than the Fender's do because the Fenders have higher tension. That said, the drop rate is a little slower due to the "super slinky" nature of the strings. They also last nearly as long as the 250XLs did, but not nearly as durable. The nice part is unlike the Fender strings I don't have an extra piece of wire sticking out the end of the wound strings.

Ernie Ball Super Slinky .008-.038 - I decided to try these on a whim and I really like how they react with the vibrato. You get a more extended range out of it, and they are VERY light to play with. The only thing lighter would be a set of Billy Gibbons Mexican Peso Lottery Brand .007s (which I STILL have yet to try out). It really makes the guitar super easy to play, but they also don't last as well as the .009's because less material/mass, and I can be a HARD player.

Ernie Ball Paradigm Super Slinky .009-.042 - I moved to these after seeing the advertisements with Kirk Hammett, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani abusing the heck out of their guitars, some of the guys going as far as breaking thei whammy on tehir Floyd Rose whammies in half before a string broke. These are the longest lasting, but they suffer the same reduced drop rate that the Super Slinky's do. However, they will sound brighter the longest and take some incredible abuse before they go bad.

The new design has some changes that I think are an improvement, and some changes I think are a major drawback to what I plan to do. Firstly, immediatley visible is the addition of a "stop" of sorts on the legs on top of the plate. This totally defeats what I do with the vibrato. And I get it, nobody is doing what I'm doing with a Mustang trem, and nobody really has since Char and Todd Rundgren in the late 1970's/early 1980's. One of the greatest characteristics of the original, is the range and it's balance between control and super-warbly madness. It's like a stratocaster trem that you can land on the pitches with really well. But the legs "block" this capability. I suppose these limiters are to do one of two things - prevent the unit from going out of "center of pitch" by blocking the extremeness of the wiggle stick's capabilities without, or to prevent the pivots from sliding around. The latter of which I've never had an issue with so I question it's possibilities.

The new replaceable Knife Edge is a really solid improvement. What this means is instead of replacing the whole cosmetic plate on the guitar, instead you can remove and sharpen the knife edge, or just replace it entirely. This is an idea I've had long before Fender made this product, and was something I actually pulled from the old Floyd Rose II locking tremolos from the 80's found on budget Kramer guitars. The O.G. Floyd II had removable knife edges on the vibrato that allowed you to replace them by pulling them out with a pair of needle nose pliars, and then sliding 2 m ore knife edge inserts in. Cool idea.

While I commend addressing the loosening bar issue, this was not a problem on original Fender Mustangs though, as the flat-head grub screw (vintage=flat head, modern=hex) had a rubber tip on it that would jam the bar in place and provide the exact same functionality for less manufacturing cost. The only reason this is a problem is the Japanese guitars don't have this feature, nor do the Chinese Squier models, nor the import standalone vibratos - Fender Branded or not - that you find on E-bay. I got around this on my Jag-Stang and my Music Master by using chopped up bits of rubber tire plug to jam the bar in, since I never take it off anyway.

I like the replaceable knife edge idea of the Fender Performer, but this would require a special custom route...unless there was a way of modifying the legs of the tremolo to work. If I were to design an aftermarket Mustang trem, I would not want to make people have to route, modify, or cut up their Stangs to put the vibrato in it. I would want it to be a literal drop-in replacement. Also, the tailplates on their own are VERY heavy duty to begin with, and even when bent, stay in tune really good. So for alternative methods of pivot - this gives 3 options...

The first option would be to have the pivot/legs become part of the tailpiece (cigar tube as many call it). Then threaded inserts for hte "Legs" made of heavy stainless steel or hardened steel would be used for adjusting spring tension. This would also eliminate the problem with too little breakover angle for some people using light strings. This also could allow for a wider area of adjustment for the spring tension, allowing a VERY wide dive-bomb even with .011-.014 gauge string sets.

The second option would be the easiest, make the holes for the pivot bigger, and then open up the back side to allow the top bevel of stock Mustang trem legs come up THROUGH the tailplate. That means when you push the bar down to the pickguard, the back of the legs come up through the tailplate for that last 1/2" or more of travel.

A third idea eliminates 2 key features of the Mustang Vibrato, making it more like a Washburn Wonderbar. Instead you'd have a torsion bar spring inside the cigar tube, tension adjusted via a keeper (or two) on each side, and the strings would go OVER the tube, under a guide roller, and then over the bridge. Spring tension would be adjusted via hex screws on each side, and range would be determined by the string gauge and the cut of the spring. It would also make the majority of the mechanism on the TOP of the guitar. And would make it easier to impliement extended features like a potential transposing capability.

I've been playing around more recently with an idea of a Transposing Dynamic Vibrato. How Transposing/Calibrated whammies work such as the Steinberger Trans Trem and Washburn Wonderbar, is the fall rate is adjusted using a special cam that the ball end of the string attaches to. On the Wonderbar, the cams are adjusted up and down with a grub screw like a Stratocaster bridge saddle, raising the cam increases the fall rate, and lowering the cam decreases it. On a Steinberger, the same principle applies, however, Steinberger's cam design is different from washburns in that it does not require the use of a secondary set of rollers to pull the string down after it's raised up on the cam-end - by insted, embedding the cam INTO The tailpiece.

To achieve this with a user-swappable "Cigar Tube" replacement, without redesigning the whole device, would be awesome. My idea kind of works on the principle that Semie Moseley tried on one of his Mosrite vibrato units where the strings are raised and lowered through/under the tailpiece, except Semie's design was not adjustable like the Steinberger or Wonderbar units were. One idea I had was to setup the "Cam" as a rounded piece of metal that could be raised and lowered in front of the cigar tube where the strings pass through, maybe even to a point that the adjustment would be as wide as, or wider, than that found on any of the aforementioned units.

Another idea I had was to create some form of "D-Tuna" type device for this as well, in the form of a thumb-lever that increases or decreases the string tension on the Low E string, maybe even anotehr unique tailpiece design, or even just a piece that could fit onto the pre-existing Mustang trem.