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Callaham Guitars
Callaham Trem Arm, Virtual Pop-In
Callaham Trem Arm, Virtual Pop-In
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Callaham's Virtual Pop-In arms are designed for use only with Callaham's Enhanced Vintage blocks. These blocks are used in all of the Callaham trem products we sell, including complete tremolos, and upgrade kits. Enhanced Vintage refers to the fact that Callaham inserts a Delrin sleeve into the block's arm hole, which mitigates any play in the threads, resulting in a better trem feel.
Note: These pop-in arms are not appropriate for use with Fender blocks. Use Callaham's fully-threaded arms for Fender blocks.
Callaham's pop-in arm has a shorter threaded area than traditional arms (see photos). It is therefore unthreaded where it bears against the Delrin sleeve inside the block so that you have full contact between the sleeve and the arm, eliminating play in the arm. This allows you to push it in and use it, often with no need to screw it into the block. If more aggressive users find they inadvertently pull the arm out of the block occasionally, they can spin the arm a couple of times to engage a couple of threads, which will prevent this. So the arm is virtually a pop-in design - hence the name.
Specs
Callaham's arms are made of stainless steel, so there's no plating to worry about, and the arm will never corrode. Also, if you bend the arm to suit your playing style, you don't have to worry about plating flaking off like you do with a plated arm.
- Made in USA
- Thread: 10-32 UNF
- Compatible with Callaham's Enhanced Vintage Blocks
- Tip color: parchment (we stock Fender tips in other colors at extra cost)
Note: Callaham's pop-in arms are suitable for use only with Callaham Enhanced Vintage blocks (all Callaham blocks are Enhanced Vintage unless special-ordered without this feature). If you have a traditional threaded block, then Callaham's fully-threaded arms are what you'll want.
Lengths
Callaham makes arms in three lengths, please see images for comparison.
4-1/8" | 105mm (DG) - Based on the stubby arm on David Gilmour's famous black Strat
5-1/4" | 133mm (64) - based on an original arm from a 1964 Strat
6" | 152mm (FE) - based on Fender's current production
Customer Reviews
Arm is almost identical length and size to a genuine 1963 (body and neck are stamped '63; pickups are stamped '64 - meaning this Strat was assembled over the new year's break between 63 and 64). See photo for comparison. Original arm had snapped off in tremolo block and the shortened stump was rethreaded. Sadly, it wobbled far too much for my liking. Matched with a Callaham Vintage block, the Callaham arm is superb quality, and no regrets with purchase.
Just Perfect.
Perfect match for the Callahan Narrow Vintage Strat Bridge installed on an upgraded Eric Clapton Strat I purchased from another guitarist. They had the bridge locked down and included a Fender arm. When I set the guitar up to float the bridge I found the Fender arm was of poor performance and quality. Bought the 64 with the shorter length to try something different than current specs and I am glad I did. Absolutely love it and ToneShapers customer service was excellent.
The bar works well as described, but I have two issues. The first is that it's not polished chrome but rather a brushed finish. This doesn't look nearly as nice as a polished trem bar. I couldn't really tell that this was the finish in the pic so I was a little disappointed. My second complaint is a weird one. The bar smelled like straight up gnarly body odor. After setting everything up, I kept smelling something terrible while playing. I thought maybe I had left some cleaning or polishing compound on the guitar so I wiped everything (but the bar) down and still smelled it. It took me a while to realize that the trem bar was what smelled so bad. It came in a sealed plastic bag so I'm not sure how this happened but I had to unscrew the plastic tip and scrub both components with dish soap. They smell fine now but it honestly grossed me out.
We think the images pretty clearly show that the arm isn't polished/plated.
Regarding the smell, we have no idea what to make of that. We've processed many thousands of Callaham arms over the last 20 years or so and have never had this experience.
Sorry your experience was subpar.
Much shorter than the one that is on my Strat so im gonna see if i get use to it. I had an aged white tip that i replaced the stock tip with and it seems to fit well.
maestro
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