Hey guys,

This is my first post in the forum (been following it for a long time though).

I have a question about the bridge state/height in which you have it. If you don't care about the story behind it you can skip the long part!

When i got my Fender Classic 60's Strat a year or 2 ago. The bridge was in a good state/height.

I could use the tremolo arm without the guitar going out of tune and the guitar didnt go out of tune by normal playing nor by heavy bending. When my strings got a bit old i decided to buy a new set of fender 009's as i assumed those were on it when i got the guitar (thats what they told me). When i put them on i noticed the bridge being a lot higher than before. I immediately knew it were the strings but as I always prefered 009's over 010's i decided to just fix the bridge height by adjusting the bridge. After putting the bridge back to the normal height (as it was before) i noticed that the guitar did get out of tune by using the arm and also playing for a longer time. The thing that really attracted my attention was that the bridge froze in some ways. When i trem'ed the tone up (so pulled the arm up) and then let go, the bridge did pop back, but not totally back. It froze into another position with false tuning. I took it to the nearest guitarstore and let them have a look. they tried things too but the bridge kept freezing (and most important, the guitar got out of tune fast and also by bending). They advised me to just put 5 springs in it and get it stuck to the body to avoid moving. This is what i did. Now the guitar doesnt really go out of tune (only the G string is always out of tune kind of fast). The store also put 010's on it again, but as i really want to play 009's soon im asking you this.

Heres my question: What state/height do you recommend to get the Dire straits/mk sound (i love the sound on the first album) or doesn't it matter at all? (states: floating, stuck to body etc)

Since most DS songs don't really require a tremolo arm, can i leave it off and avoid moving the bridge while it still being in floating state to avoid freezing it in the wrong tuning for example?

Sorry for the long story, but i really hope you can help me out here.

Thanks in forward

Thomas

Thanks for your response. Gonna switch to 009's soon and I will let the store adjust my guitar to it in all ways including truss rod and bridge. After thinking about it, this seemed a pretty stupid question as bridge height doesn't really involve sound at all right?

 Thomas