The amount of clearance of my vibrato bar off the deck of the pick guard is very important to me. It can’t be too high, I want to be able to grab it in the middle of a melodic line. And not so low that it hits the jack when you spin it around. So I keep a two foot long piece of 2×4 wood on my workbench that says: Carl’s Wang Bar Adjuster: Do Not Toss! It’s decorated with a skull and crossbones to deter anyone from accidentally thinking it’s scrap and throwing it away. In the center is a hole that’s the exact diameter of the threaded end of a Fender Stratocaster wang bar. When I stick that end of the bar into the hole I can bend the bar to the exact angle I want, up or down. There’s usually a bit of trial and error until it’s perfect, and then I wrap a bit of Teflon tape around the threads so it doesn’t swing down. I want it to stay where I left it and not hang like Eddie Van Halen’s bar. I’ve watched my buddy Scott Henderson go through the same process to get his bar in the exact place it needs to be. And I never take it off when putting it in the case. Just spin it around towards the jack and it will lie fairly flat. I change out the Teflon tape every three or four string changes. To my ears it’s still the most musical system out there, invented in 1954!
Wang Bar Height Adjustment
