You can cut the spring down in size with a good sharp pair of side-cutters, that will give you a bit more room if you need it to move the saddle back even more if a new set of stings requires a different intonation. That's the main drawback of having a fully compressed spring, the lack of further movement. The other thing to be careful of is the string path from the hole in the trem baseplate to up and over the saddle. You don't want the saddle so far back that the string bends backwards around the saddle before bending forwards over the top.
You are constrained by the trem block slot as to where you can position the bridge, so you don't have a lot of play in where it can be put. It really needs to be in the middle of the slot if you want both up and down floating trem action, but with down only, you can have the block slightly more forwards (towards the neck). You also don't want the trem so far back that the fixing screws are very near the edge of the trem block hole.
That’s a great tip on cutting the spring down, thanks Simon. I’ll have to check about the string coming up through the saddle too, I didn’t even look at that.
Finally posting some pics of this with decals which actually went on ages ago. I’ve played this guitar heaps and am really happy with it. Thanks to everyone who provided such great advice along the way!
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