Guitar Tremolo Arm

[JOHN HABS]

I recently purchased a Fender Squire Affinity has a project guitar to refurbish, unfortunately it didn't come with the Tremolo arm and I have tried without much success to obtain one.

This may sound like an easy job to do, but believe me its proving to be a real pain.

 

Having done a bit of research into the Fender Affinity Strat on the web's music stores, I have seen there are 4 different versions of trem bars: 5mm, 5.7mm, 6mm and 10-24.

 

I took a trem bar from one of my other guitars and tried it in the Affinity and it went straight through the threads ( too small ), I tried another trem arm from another guitar and it fitted perfectly, so I measured its diameter and came up with 5mm.

 

I ordered a 5mm threaded trem bar from an online music store, when it arrived I tried it in the Affinity and it went straight through the threads ( again too small ), I contacted the supplier who told me I needed a 5.7mm and to send the other one back for replacement.

 

Whilst waiting for the replacement to arrive ( still waiting ) I had a look on the web at other music stores and their spares - some stocked 5mm and 5.7mm, and one stocked only 6mm.

 

I contacted an online music store to ask their advice and told them what guitar I had got and the problems I was having - they came back to me and said that trem arms are only made in two sizes: 5mm and 5.7mm.

 

I looked on the website of Fender UK and saw they had trem arms for the Squire Affinity, the size given was 10 -24, having never heard of this size contacted them, they would not give away any info but told me I could order one from any Fender Dealer.

 

I looked on the web for a thread conversion table to see what the metric equivalent of 10-24 was and it came up M5x08.

 

I finally looked on the Gear4music website and they have 3 trem arms in stock which they say will fit Squire Affinity guitars that have a serial number beginning with ' IC ' and researched again found this ' IC ' to mean that the guitar was made in Indonesia at the Cort factory.......gear4music however do not state what the thread size is.

 

You can see what problems I am having.........one person says that only two sizes of trem arms are made: 5mm and 5.7mm, research has told me that there are 4 sizes made, Fender UK tell me the thread size is 10-24.........what size is the damn thing.

 

Anyone on here owning a Fender Squire Affinity Strat with serial number starting ' IC ' I would be grateful if you could let me know what the proper size of the trem arm's thread is.

[nortonlees]

Al at http://telemods.co.uk/ should be able to help