Installing the VegaTrem! - The Most EXPRESSIVE Trem For Your Strat! 

"It's small size enables you to go past the body" Me explaining how I broke all 6 strings at the same time

Thanks a lot Darrell you got my bank account in the negatives

Maybe Fender should just do an "update" to a trem. Pop in trem arm should be as standard ages ago. Changes with player series were nice but some features are still missing.

now thats one nice bit of kit Darrell, really looks and sounds awesome, thank you for sharing with us, Cheers,

I am absolutely blown away thank you for the video this is freaking awesome!

Thanks for this! Phil McKnight just installed one of these on a $200 Strat-type and didn't go into much detail on its added improvement-he was adding several mods at once-and I remembered seeing this video of you changing just this trem. You did a good job of checking the unit out and, except for the price, I want one of these.

I am amazed it stays in tune as well as it does! Thanks Darrell!

Nice-looking trem system and a good demo of it. Thanks, Darrell.

Loved seeing the install in addition to the demo. Thanks!

Thank you for this review. I purchased it after watching your review. I love my Vega Trem. I’ve played a strat for 41 years, this trem is by far my favorite. Ive used babicz schaller floyds and all Fender versions. 🙏

your sound check was just awesome! its feels like keep listening and listening.

I like it. Seems perfect for getting the pop in trem arm and letting it float. Truly impressed. As usual.

Tasty playing on this one. Thank you for all of the various vibrato bridge reviews, showing options for my Stratocasters.

Was going to ask about return to tune but, WOW,...that's great.

Cool design i like the minimalistic look of it and the flush fit

An engineering masterpiece, it's amazing. Rock on!!!

This is the best demo of the Vega Trem I have seen. 👍

Great review Darrell - Thanks so much for this. I'm considering it for my 1999 CIJ Strat and am looking forward to your long term review. I suspect it will stand the test of time though. Keep up the great work.

Love the videos Darrel! Please keep them coming!

Nice watching a how to vid from Darrell! This helped so much thanks Darrell

Darrell, thanks so much for info on this trem! I just installed the Vega-Trem on my Korean Squier Strat, and the results are impressive! I finally have a useable trem system on my Strat, and I did not even do any work to the nut or add locking tuners. Just a bit of Nut Sauce at the nut and under the hold-down posts on the headstock (yes, I left them on) and it works fantastic! Great product!!

That trem design has got to be a winner Darrel.....does everything a player could want and it looks a quality piece of gear.

Thanks for the video sir. My specialty dealer just started carrying these. I have an old Mex Strat that I really enjoy that's about 25 years old. This looks like the solution to an issue that I have been looking to solve.

Thanks Darrell! Got my new shirts today, love the print on them.

Now it's official, I'm going to have to alter my beautiful Daphne Blue 50's Mexican Strat. You are a great salesman Darrell... another very well made video!

I just wanna point that, this bridge was designed to not destroy vintage strats with routing. I played two of this trems on different strats and it's just amazing, as Darrell said, plays like butter. It would be really nice to get some of this to stores so people can try them. (Yeah, i know one of the guys behind that trem hahahaha)

I love how FACT ORIENTED your clips are, man. Congrats on maintaining a healthy Sales-Smoke-Free Zone. That two grooves per saddle thing is also used by Mr. Trevor Wilkinson in some of his newest Tremolos... It's a good feature that works well with locking the saddles down onto the base plate to minimize kinetic energy loss in the vibrating strings. Wilkinson already does that too. In a well-designed bridge, vibrating is all the strings have to do, not work part-time holding floppy, energy sucking saddles in place. This Vega Trem looks like a great idea for guitars with that wretched 6 screw system with its high friction losses. Where the Vega seems to truly excel is in offering extremely good trem bar elevation due to the base plate's small size. That is their competitive edge.

Idk why i even watch these. i have my trem blocked off lol

Looks good and pretty well engineered. Personally, it's just too expensive for the amount of whammy bar shenanigans I use.

Darrell, like yourself, I am a huge fan of the floating tremolo and have it on most of my guitars. I love the innovations of this new tremolo design and hope to try out this cool bridge sometime in the not too distant future. Nice video as always! Although my first car was a Vega so that makes me a little skeptical😭

Might have to get one of these for my modified MIM. Last thing it needs is a new bridge. Thanks for video never would have heard of them if not for video.

Another great video from the one and only DB!

Dam I'm going to have to add this to my other upgrades to my player strat, love your vids Darrell always look forward to them.

awesome trem I love how you can actually pull up to those Steve via harmonic notes where it sounds like a dying horse but in a cool way :)

A Floyd rose mini? Looks great

Mine arrived today! Thanks Darrell

That thing looks crazy kool. I love it ❤

Absolutely the best addition I've seen yet ! Got to get one of these !

Nice and smooth sounding.

What a beautiful tone!

Looks pretty good and sounds very good! I liked that.

I was looking for a replacement tremolo for my strat anyways! This is definitely the one!

I love how thought out the design of this is. It's really impressive.

Very informative. Thank you Darrell.

I’m buying it. No wonder why it’s been a successful product being SO GOOD.

Hi Darrell: Thank you for the pleasant presentation. There are a few things that I would like to point out if I may. I don't understand Vega's thinking regarding the springs. You say that the light gauge string springs are for .008 and .008, and that the "heavy" gauge string springs are for .010-.012 respectively. Based on close to 40 years of experience, and as as a life-long user of .012 or .013 gauge strings on all of my guitars, I can tell you and Vega, that with absolute certainty, that there is a more than significant difference between .010 and .012 gauged string sets, and that the difference between .010 and anything lighter is almost non existent. As far as setting up other Strat trems, you are correct in setting them up to "float," so that they can be pushed downwards, or pulled upwards; however, the user should be able to set up the bridge to the desired range of motion and pitch change, without the "problem" of the bridge plate being limited by the surface of the guitar body. This of course is very subjective, and largely related to the gauge and tension for the strings the individual user installs. Most complaints about the standard vintage Stratocaster are unfounded. First off, string gauge standards were much different when vintage Stratocaster, Jazzmaster/Jaguar, and Bigsby (as well as other manufacturers) "trems" were designed. The standard string sets in the '50s and '60s had a .012 or .013 high E and usually a .054 or .056 low E, with a wound .026 or .028 G. So when someone says that their Stat won't stay in tune, or that their vintage Strat tremolo is broken, the problem, is that the there is not enough tension to hold the tremelo/vibarato in place to begin with due to strings that are too light; furthermore, the early designs were not meant to dive-bombed with. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't dive bomb with them, or slam or pull hard with them. Listen to any live recordings of Jimi Hendrix, pre-Tommy era Pete Townshend, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and you will hear some serious vintage Strat trem pulling and pouncing, and all returning to pitch! Well, sometimes Jimi didn't because of the light strings he used. Stevie Ray used .013, and Pete used .012 or .013. Thanks!

Just got one! INCREDIBLE‼️ 💪🏼🤘🏼

Thank you! Great vid. Lots of good info!

Great video dude!

at 7:30 there is a noise that intrigued me, until i noticed your palm squeazing the low e string to the pickup ;) nice playing, great tones!! It seems like grade a tremolo!!

this looks fabulous!

Another great demo my friend!

The VegaTrem is certainly very nice and playable, but I must compliment you on the distortion and delay you are using for the recording - just out of site... VERY NICE!!! I'm checking out the details that you kindly listed for the pedals!!! Thanks - very enjoyable!!!1

I very enjoy watching your videos

Thanks Darrell! This is actually one of three products that I was considering for my strat, and this is by far the most stable.

Awesome video sir

imo Absolutely slick...both the trem and the vid! imo

Sweet trem skills man!

Super smooth!

Darrel: “little bit of vibrato will do it” Me: “DIVE BOMB FOR DAYS BRA”

Wow that sounded absolutely amazing and so smooth!!!

I can tell you're very Gilmour Influenced. Incredible man. Good choice:)

I want one! :D Great video, thank you.

Really nice playing.

Hi Darrell, thank you for all the great videos you produce. Awesome work. Regarding this trem unit it would have been also very cool and important to hear the tonal difference between the Vintage Style Trem and this unit. Especially because of the small block compared to the massive blocks of a Fender Vintage Trems or a Callaham Steel Blocks. Does the tone thin out, or does it get thicker/bigger, that would be very important information for every player. It's not only the functionality that matters most, at the end of the day if it doesn't sound at least as good or better it remains a nice product for whammy enthusiasts but not for sound/tone improvement. Thanks a lot and keep up the great work. Cheers Horst Keller

I recently upgraded my vintage tremolo on my Fender CS strat with Highwood saddles and I notice sustain increase and even faster attack, while tone stays the same! Because of design of the saddles, the intonational issues are no longer a problem in my case (I dont use tremolo too much).

it's like a reversible 2 post conversion, but as mentioned the shorter base plate allows for floyd rose kinda action, just without fine tuning screws, however a good set up/service would help iron out some the tuning instability

Looks great!

Beautiful guitar and nice trem..i think it work like floydrose

Hello. Very interesting video as always. In my opinion it's a very cool system. Well designed but my only question is about the small block under the bridge. It seems to me small compared to the the big massive standard one. Do you notice any differences in sound?

Looks like an amazing bridge. I am actually building my own strat (still purchasing all of the pieces I want) which led me to this video. However I see this bridge online for $279 ….. I just cannot see myself spending that much on a bridge. lol

Mateus would love to use that!

Interesting. Thanks for sharing ✌🏻

That’s pretty cool! The only thing I don’t like is the bar doesn’t have the plastic tip, which imho, is an iconic look for the Strat.

OMG. I need one of these!

Maybe I'm missing something, but unlike a floyd, you're still gonna have the problems associated w/ binding and sawing in the nut. The floyd rose locking nut was key to its stability. Essentially, you're right where the first gen of floyd started, before the locking nut and fine tuners perfected it. Also, the most annoying aspect of any free floating trem still haunts it: The looming live performance quick guitar switch, as unlike a traditional strat trem resting against the body, the guitar is rendered useless when ya break a string. And although I never had one, f.r. eventually developed a counter tensioning sys which purportedly rectified that issue too. Naw, while I've since gravitated away from much trem, if or when I do wanna revisit it, I think I'll just opt for a floyd rose.

darrell, king of trems

Another great video💪

Nice tone!

Este puente lo quiero para mi Strato......GRacias por el video amigo..Saludos desde Colombia.....gran contenido el tuyo...abrazos !

I would like to see some string bends combined with dive bombs to check the tuning stability of this trem.

Hi Darrell, I just installed one of these on my strat after watching your review and a few other's as well. It certainly appears to be a great trem design, but I'm not really happy with the particular unit I got. When using the bar in both the up and down directions the treble side knife edge does not stay in place in the fulcrum slot, it moves up and down slightly in the slot which is easily felt and a popping noise that can be heard both acoustically and through the amp. This issue makes an otherwise nicely designed and built trem feel cheap and poorly made. I can definitely feel the thing moving when I use the trem. I have seen many You Tube videos with people using the bar quite aggressively and they aren't mentioning this issue so I think there is just something off with my unit. I have my unit adjusted flat and am using EB 9-42 Super Slinky's, and the Medium tension springs. I tried the recommended Low tension springs but the claw was almost touching the front edge of the trem cavity so I swapped them out for the Medium tension springs. Just curious if you noticed the same thing with the one you installed Darrell.

extremely light sound's awesome, I have a 79 strat wich weighs a TON and half that ton is the trem block.

I'm just waiting for your top 5 trem-system video.

Great!!! Now im not sure if i should go with this or the super vee!! Thank Darrel for Fkn me up AGAIN!!

that's like the smoothest tremolo i've ever seen-

congrats on your channel !!! im lucky to get 100 views a video but I always check out your stuff

Liked and subscribed!!! I want one of these asap

Have this trim installed in my Aerodyne Strat now.......dang. This Vega Trim is awesome...expensive...but awesome.

I have no use for one of these, but I do enjoy your playing.

I believe this is the coolest and innovative non-locking tremolo systems on the market. It has a different "Arc" in the bend than a locking Floyd Rose type of trem. In a Floyd type of system, there is a little bit more clarity in the note as you dive-bomb till it falls out of its frequency and the string goes slack. Maybe the difference in how the strings slacken, and the tonal character between a locking and non-locking systems. The physics of the designs. Another option that I believe that Vega Trem could offer, and this might attract a wider range of interest to their selling market, is to offer, maybe a different bar length as an option. Something more in the length and bend as a Wilkinson Trem. They are quite a bit shorter, and fit in the palm of your hand when your hand is positioned more in the "center" of the guitars picking area, rather than over the neck pickup, which is much more "Natural" feeling, and also more aesthetically pleasing to look at, in my opinion. We can dream, can't we? The Vega Trem system is definitely revolutionary in its simplicity, and is also an attractive piece of machinery that won't make you alter your instrument to install it.

Very clever design.

DANGIT. This is awesome. I wish they had color options. Just started doing all black hardware after I got my Fishman Fluence kit. Looking at the hipshot locking open back tuners and I'm hunting for a trem.

Darrell!!! Thank you for this video!!!! I’m wondering if this system will work on a Kramer Baretta Special!? I hope so! Dude, can’t thank you enough. Subbed up Bro!!!

Wow, I love the consistency with your reviews, I'm glad I subscribed, as others are saying, your becoming the trem' king! Keep up the good work, also just out of curiosity are you interested in the new floyd rose frx? (The frontloaded replacement trem for tune-o-matic's) would love to see it on a V

Cool. I think that would improve my Mexican Strat. I rarely play it but might start as soon as the 22 fret Might Mite neck arrives.

God I want one, killer playing int this video!!!!

Please keep posting these trem reviews! What's the string spacing on this one?

Hey Darrel could you please make a video about refretting a strat? I would really appreciate it.

I'ma try this soon