Strat Micro tilt neck

I am wondering about the group`s thoughts on the micro tilt adjustment on the Fender Strat. Mine has one. I am thinking of just shimming the neck as the tilt set screw keeps backing out causing the neck to go out of adjustment. Has anyone else had this happen? wonder what others out there have done if anything. You may wonder why this screw is backing out. Maybe I play the guitar pretty hard, Who knows. Just wanting to hear your thoughts. thanks. Jeff

I thought I might be having some `lack of stability` with my micro tilt as well. I disengaged it. Here is how I did it.
Disclaimer: I`m on the learning curve for this stuff so my method is only worth as much as the email its typed in, but it did seem to work for me.
Note: I removed my tremelo and blocked the bridge. If I was a more talented player I wouldn`t have done this. Having said that...
Optional) I removed the neck (I was courious to see how the micro tilt mechanism worked) and found that there was a factory bar code sticker laying lengthwise on the high E side of the neck. I peeled it off and put it in an empty routed hole (to keep it with the guitar). You will see what I mean if your guitar has this. Anyway, I wanted to make sure I had good neck to body contact(I didn`t try to remove paint between them). I bolted the neck back on.
1) I backed the micro tilt screw until it did not come into play and made sure the neck bolts were snug.
2) I decided on the string brand and guage I would use. I`m using Fender bullets .009-.042s. I put a fresh set on.
3) I tuned the strings to pitch.
4) I made sure the neck relief was correct using the truss rod.
5) I lowered the string height for each string individually to the action I wanted I think mine are set approx: 4/64th to 6/64th from EBGDAE at the 17th fret (or the first fret over the body).
6) I tuned the strings to pitch and checked the string height again.
7) I set the intonation for each string.
8) I basically repeated steps 6 and 7 until I was satisfied.
One of the reasons I choose to use Fender Bullets is because they are a Fender item. I figured Fender would make their guitars in such a way that they could be setup without needing to engage the micro tilt using their own brand of light guage strings. Probably just my good luck it worked for me.
Like I said, I`m on a learning curve here so I don`t know if this will work for you, but it might!

... or a little bit of blue loctite should do the trick.
"Catalina Thunders" wrote in

Thanks for taking the time to write what you did, Thanks as well to John too. I have been working on this guitar for about a year and as time goes by, it gets more correctly set-up. Nice to see that I am not alone in the quest for the perfect playing strat.
A lot of the things you have done to your guitar are the same things I have done to mine. i.e. Blocked the trem on mine as I tried it and didn`t like the way you have to chase the tuning all over the place when you touch the whammy. Fact of life, strings do not follow the path well after a dive or pull.
Anyway, I love the strat sounds and when it plays well, it`s a gas. I also use .009 ga bullets but I am thinking of going higher in gauge as the .009 seems to lack guts for lead work. I know I`ll have to rework the set-up when I change gauges. But that`s all part of the fun......

over the place when you touch the whammy" _IF_ the Strat is a qualty Strat and is _properly_ set up and maintained.
A quality Strat _WILL_ stay in tune with whammy use when correctly set up and maintained.