Raw Vintage Strat Spring Review

I recently read about some Strat springs that are allegedly designed according to the ancient specs, sold by a company called Raw Vintage. They claim awesome tonefulness, the springs are larger diameter as God and Leo intended and yadda yadda.

What got my attention is that they advertised them as being less stiff than the common, modern springs. My Warmoth / Squier mutant with 10-46 strings on an American Standard bridge took two standard springs and even then they were so stiff that when I loosened the claw enough to get the bridge level the springs would stack limiting lift on the bar. I tried every spring I could get my hands on; cheap Asian knock-offs, various Fender products, nothing really balanced well.

The Raw Vintage springs are indeed much softer than the others. I used four to replace the two with only a minor tweak of the claw and the arm is far more supple and much, much more effective for subtle effects. It is well enough balanced that I can dive bomb and come back to tune as well as could possibly be hoped (locking sperzels and a clean nut help) excellent tuning stability. Oh, and now I can pull up some, Hooray! In vibrato function these are brilliant; from slight wavers to slams the bar works much better than ever before and is much easier to modulate.

As for tone, I'm still a bit skeptical. I'm inclined to feel that the guitar now has more chime unplugged and plugged, but since I wasn't looking for that I wasn't paying enough attention before I made the change to give a fair comparison. If I had expected it, I would have listened close before or done a recording for a before and after demonstration.

I may yet do a tone test on these, it doesn't take much time to swap springs. They clearly don't hurt the sound and the improvement in trem action is so great that is reason enough to keep them. Oh and they're $20 for a set. Other than your first setup and intonation job, this is the biggest bang for the buck I've ever seen in guitar function. No, I do not sell these. Yes, I am considering it. Let me know if you aren't finding them at a price you like and I'll see what I can do.

Regardless, they are highly recommended. If you EVER use the bar, you want these. Even if you have a six-screw bridge, set to rest on the body with five springs you want the bar to come down with a reasonable effort, enough spring to come back solidly, but still relaxed enough that you can modulate the arm. These will help. Yeah, I'm a fan.

Bottom Line: 5 star improvement in Vibrato bar function. Jury still out gathering evidence on tone.