Guitar with trem

[heymisterk]

Hey All! Been awhile.

 

So after selling my Kramer Pacer a couple of years ago, it is clear that I need another guitar with a trem, as my teacher and I have been working on some Van Halen and While Lion stuff.

 

Here's the thing: I HATED the Floyd Rose tremolo. I know a lot of people love it, but I really found it a hassle to cut off the balls of the strings and the fine tuning hex nuts. It just seems needlessly complex, but it seems that all the Van Halens and wannabes all use them.

 

To my question is this: What is a guitar with a trem that is a little easier to use, but can still do the "hot" stuff? What do you guys recommend?

 

Thanks!

[surfpup]

Hey MisterK!

 

Remember VHI was recorded with a Srat that had a standard trem! Just put a good set of locking tuners on a Strat. I generally use these Sperzels but I have a decent set of Schaller made Fender locking tuners on one of my Strats as well. Since they lock the string, you only need like one wind on the post. Also they have staggered heights which eliminates nut pinching. Mine will stay in tune with some pretty severe trem action.

 

 

[nick_s]

Surfpup, I had the same tuners on my old USA Deluxe Strat, they were superb with the Fender 2 point trem, was more stable than my old LP Standard for tuning. I also tried a Tremonti and that was superbly stable for some epic bombing.

 

As for cutting the ball end off the string, it's a pain, but I found nipping the non ball end off and feeding that through the post and down leaving the ball end at the 'wrong end' worked wonders for me on my Sambora Strats. I've got to the point now where I can cut the strings to the correct length and leave the ball against the tuner.....no slippage :D

[Golden]

Yup, I use them on my Strat also. No tuning issue or adjustment. Add a Callahan and the Trem/tuning problems should be solved with a Fender

 

http://www.callahamguitars.com/blocks.htm

 

PRS and the Mann made Trems are excellent also. I don't know how good there locking tuners are. They seem fine.

 

The Locking Grovers Gibson is using seem fine also. And the Trem SGs work fine, I don't have any issues with mine. I use the Trem so I have a few equipped trem guitars around.

 

Bigsby is not for everyone but I played a Gretsch equipped with one for years and never had a tuning issue. Back then Gretsch used Waverly Tuners also though and with the Zero-Fret they stayed in tune very well.

 

FR I have owned and worked on many, I just have no use for all that...imho.

[heymisterk]

Thanks everyone! Good to see the "crew" still here. Don't get to spend as much time here as I used to: "Life" gets in the way!

[capmaster]

Basically this is around how much effort a perfect and reliably stable tuning is worth to the player.

 

There is nothing on the market that can anyhow compete against Floyd Rose vibrato systems when it goes around tuning stability. Once the decision is made to play a certain string brand and gauge, there is a certain work to be done for setting up the guitar, and that's it. Changing strings is fast and easy when doing this one by one - it takes not that much more time than on hardtail guitars.

 

Breaking a string on stage isn't fine with any guitar and fouls up playing due to lack of tuning on next to all of them immediately. But the most awkward thing for me is playing a guitar which is detuned most of the time during gigging. It is a constant fight for pitches, and people think you're playing wrong the whole time. That's why I finally gave up Strats with vintage vibratos in 1983 and switched to Floyd Rose systems in 1987.

 

I never had any trouble with my six Floyd Rose axes. In contrary, I just don't use the Lyra vibrato of my Frank Zappa "Roxy" SGs. No matter which bridge you may use, it just doesn't work, and tuners won't help out in this case. The very advantage of this system is that these SG guitars have no dull notes.

 

No one of the four mates playing Strats in three bands of mine uses the vintage vibrato, and the player who formerly owned a PRS Custom 22 Moon didn't use his Wilkinson, too. You may put hours and days of work into them, these systems simply perform very poorly.

 

I think that Eddy Van Halen, Richie Sambora, Ian Crighton, Alex Lifeson, Steve Morse and many others know what they want. Their music and their audiences are worth the effort to them.

 

But this will be everyone's own decision. For me this is not a real question.

[moparguy]

Surfpup, I had the same tuners on my old USA Deluxe Strat, they were superb with the Fender 2 point trem, was more stable than my old LP Standard for tuning. I also tried a Tremonti and that was superbly stable for some epic bombing.

 

As for cutting the ball end off the string, it's a pain, but I found nipping the non ball end off and feeding that through the post and down leaving the ball end at the 'wrong end' worked wonders for me on my Sambora Strats. I've got to the point now where I can cut the strings to the correct length and leave the ball against the tuner.....no slippage :D

Can you post a pic of that, that sounds really interesting, never seen one done like that

[Karloff]

Kahler ?

[EVOL!]

 

To my question is this: What is a guitar with a trem that is a little easier to use, but can still do the "hot" stuff? What do you guys recommend?

 

Thanks!

 

Check out a Jazzmaster or Jaguar. They have the original floating tremolo system, but it is a lot easier to set up and maintain than a Floyd Rose and you can still do a lot of tricks like pulling sharps and pitch dives. I haven't ever tried a dive bomb on mine, but you can bend the pitch pretty low. The bridges are rocking so you get pretty decent tuning stability.