Stratocaster whammy spring replacement/upgrade

**kiggidykev** · Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 7

hey crew, here's an easy little fix for replacing the spring in your Strat's whammy bar. my whammy's spring finally snapped after 6 months of furious use, and i thought the rubber band fix was (to be blunt) unbelievably ugly and ineffective, so here's a cheap and easy fix to replace your spring with a much thicker one:

you'll need the following:

Hillman Extension Spring

the extension spring costs around a buck at Canadian Tire. i'm not sure where you could find them in the States or elsewhere, but any sort of cabinet spring the same size would probably work. this one is long enough to make at least 6 replacement springs, and the part number is 851617.

before i get started, please don't try this and get mad at me since you could muck things up even worse inside. if your whammy breaks and you don't feel comfortable opening your guitar and voiding the warranty, follow EA's RMA procedure to get another guitar (with a whammy spring that will eventually break again. just saying...).

1. first of all, open up the guitar by taking all the screws off the back and not losing them. don't forget to disconnect the power cords from the board inside if you have a wireless Strat.

2. using your pliers, remove the broken/old spring from the whammy assembly. use this spring to measure against your Extension Spring and cut at a size close to the original (maybe one or two loops bigger, for the next step). but make sure to not stretch the spring out; instead, stretch out just before and after how big you want it so you can snip it while keeping the spring tight.

3. with your pliers, bend the loops on each end of your new spring back so it creates a hook to wrap around the whammy assembly. do not bend the new spring too much at this point, or it will become weaker and snap again under pressure, meaning you'll have to do this all over.

4. once again with the pliers, slip both ends of the new whammy spring over the hooks for each end of the whammy bar assembly in the guitar.

5. one thing i highly recommend is using some gel epoxy on each end of the new whammy spring to hold it in place and make sure it'll never slip out of its groove (which is important since this new spring is slightly thicker). put a little glob on each end while making sure to not get any on the spring itself, and it will hold nicely even while whammying intensely.

sorry for the lack of an actual guitar in my pictures; my wireless Strat and its whammy are undergoing a new coat of paint. here's a side-by-side comparison of the original spring (left) and a new spring made using this guide:

it may not look like a lot of difference, but it's much thicker and will stand up to more intense whammying.

i hope this helps those of you who dislike the rubber band fix as much as i do, and would rather void their warranty than wait for an RMA. haha...

**xsiick** · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 30 Location: up on stage~

excellent job!
i belevie the whammy is used the same way
in guitar hero not just the strat...
but good job
_________________

Gamertag: xsiick

after a score duel wrote:

(12:33)<bLiNdz0r> xsiick is good

You can find me opping most channels on www.socialgamer.com
or on some Guitar Hero/Rock Band streams on www.ustream.tv
I'm there 24/7!

**kiggidykev** · Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 7

thanks for the compliment. the whammy assemblies in the Guitar Hero guitars are set up rather differently, with the spring set horizontally between the two hook-type things that sandwich the whammy bar on either side. you can kind of see it in the bottom-left of this picture

i've fixed both GH and RB guitars, and found the Strat to be much easier because it allows more room for fitting a bigger/thicker spring

**TinPusher** · Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 178

Nice. Thanks for the tip. However, wouldn't adding epoxy preclude you from ever being able to replace the spring again if this new one were to break? It would seem to me to make more sense to very carefully widen the grooves in which the spring rests. This could easily be accomplished with an exacto knife and a steady hand.

**Kawigi** · Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 2879 Location: Redmond, WA

Heh, I was on a rare vaction with my RB strat when its whammy bar spring broke - I opened up the guitar, turned it over and the spring's two parts fell out. One part was just the end, little more than a loop. I just took that loop, threaded it through maybe 2 coils of the end of the spring, and put it back into the notches where it went before. I'm not sure it's quite like new, but I wouldn't suspect anything was wrong with it if I didn't know.

**kiggidykev** · Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 7

again, thanks for your feedback. it's true that it would be entirely possible to widen the spring's groove. the reason i chose epoxy was that the spring i made is not 100% centered on both ends, and sometimes twists out of the groove when it's pulled back and forth too much

i understand what you mean, though, since i like to epoxy everything in place instead of using tape or hot glue. the epoxy that i've been using is LePage Gel Epoxy, and it hardens quite nicely, but is still easy to remove (given that you use enough of a glob to grasp with a pair of thin pliers or the blade of a dull knife). most of the time, it comes off in one big chunk, without destroying the original surface underneath.

**RedSharkGuy** · Joined: 13 May 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: Indianapolis

My whammy broke like the third day I had RB.

It's still held with a rubber band. Kind of ghetto but so far so good.

**jogden** · Joined: 16 Jun 2007 Posts: 173 Location: Austin, TX

void the warranty my ass. I opened my guitar up several times before I successfully RMA'd it. I really don't think the RMA inspection is very thorough, just don't strip any screws or anything like that and you'll be alright

**marcin** · Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 58

Anyone found a reliable source for ordering this part (or similar?). This mod sounds awesome but Canadian Tire's website doesn't have it by part number that I've found...

**marcin** · Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 58

I can't find a link on their website but Home Depot has:

Everbilt "Spring Assortment Kit" - $3.49
Item: 471 864
UPC: 0 || 30699 || 15642 || 9

It has 84 different springs. One of which is almost exactly whats pictured above, a replacement spring for the whammy with slightly more tension. Its not huge, I was hoping for a lightning fast snap back into place, but its definately an upgrade to the stock strat spring.

A side note: there are also a few nice replacements for the strum bar spring in this kit. I replaced mine and now it has much quicker return to center.

**DirtyBird32** · Joined: 08 Jun 2008 Posts: 33

thanks for posting this...it helped a lot

**FiftyQuid** · Joined: 12 Jun 2008 Posts: 165 Location: Quebec, Canada

@kiggidykev - Thank you very much for posting this. I managed to find both springs at my local Canadian Tire in the nuts n' bolts aisle. I went with the 851614 from your .jpg file and it worked perfectly. The ends were already bent properly so I just counted out 8 loops from the end and added 1 extra to bend into place on the whammy bar. I even found the same epoxy you used. Man that stuff reeks.

I purchased two springs in case mine, or a friends, breaks in the future. CT was selling them for $1.99 I think. It might have been $1.49, but I'm too lazy to get the receipt and check.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH kiggidykev
_________________

My DLC

**RobertYields** · Joined: 18 Nov 2010 Posts: 1

Thanks for this helpful tutorial Kev.

**SylvainGirard77** · Joined: 06 Dec 2012 Posts: 1

Thanks for the tutorial Kev. I have been looking everywhere for this...

Canadian Tire's website was of no use for me until you mentioned that part number for this expansion spring...Thanks!