Guitar talk, and easy guitar lessons from beginner to jazz with Birdsnake Brown
My original block was stripped and I wasn’t able to use the tremolo arm, so I replaced it with a brass block.
I can not hear a difference but it is a solid feeling block and it works great for mild whammy bar usage.
If you have a stripped whammy hole you can get a new block from amazon https://amzn.to/30BEG8I or just about any guitar parts web site
I like to get as much life out of my strings as I can, and how often I change them really depends on the situation.
When I have fresh strings I can be reluctant to take them to a gig if it’s going to be humid or if there is a chance that someone else will play my guitar. In the summer time I will even pick one guitar and just leave terrible strings on it for the season.
If a set of guitar strings starts to physically feel bad I will always change them, even if they still sound good. Over time the strings will get bent at the frets and stop intonation properly, but that’s usually way after they start to sound dull.