Guitar Bridges for Solidbodies

[Metalman_666]

I have a question about tremolo bridges for solidbodies. I was looking through some websites and guitar mags when I noticed many people use Kahler trems instead of Floyd Rose or any other type of bridge. What makes Kahler bridges so good? And what's the difference between brands of trems in general?

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Guitar Bridges for Solidbodies

If I remember correctly, a Khaler is usually a flat mount unit, while a Floyd involves routing out more wood from the body. The Khaler will do the same things as a Floyd will, but you take less wood out of the body to install one.

As we all know, the more wood you have, the better off you are. :wall: :burnout:

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Guitar Bridges for Solidbodies

I've tried real floyds, licensed floyds, and ONE real kahler. The Kayler was a very complicated system compared to the floyd but I think it gives better tone b/c you don't have to route out so much. I think Zerb could tell you how much wood you can save with a Kahler. That was back on the old forum that someone asked what the wood removal difference was. When I looked over the Kahler (I didn't change strings or anything so I don't know everything. It seemed to me to be a bigsby on CRACK. It uses a bar instead of the whole unit moving. They seem like good systems. I don't like licensed floyds at all.

Luke

 

[Stringer]

Re: Guitar Bridges for Solidbodies

I had a guitar with a Kahler-style trem on it, and I ended up bolting it down. Basically, there were a lot of moving parts, and in this model, some of those parts were giving way. The floating knife edge was bending and the cams weren't returning to pitch. Basically, it never stayed in tune and was impossible to intonate. So I bolted it down and now I have a nice, hefty fixed bridge. I can't speak for how well the better-made units worked, but I can say that the cheaper units aren't worth the hassle. Of course, I'm also a guy who cringes at the thought of needing a toolbox full of allen wrenches to change strings.

 

[JeffB]

Re: Guitar Bridges for Solidbodies

I had a guitar with a Kahler-style trem on it, and I ended up bolting it down. Basically, there were a lot of moving parts, and in this model, some of those parts were giving way. The floating knife edge was bending and the cams weren't returning to pitch. Basically, it never stayed in tune and was impossible to intonate.

My experience with Kahlers as well...I think possibly they had the tone edge on the Floyds...but a fair tradeoff IMO.

Best one's, IMO (..i.e. easy to use, simple to setup...stay in tune pretty well unless you're a dive bomb freak, and have good "tone") are the wilkinsons, and the Paul Reed Smith. use some good locking tuners and a good nut. I'm more of a GaryMoore/Jeff Beck subtle bar user, so they worked quite well for me.

I really like the ZR rose copy from Ibanez...from what Little I've used it...it very easy to work with and will take all the dive bombs you can shell out. I purposefully divebombed the crap out of it for 10 minutes...and it came back perfectly in tune.

The Floyd copy on my Jackson DK2 is the exact opposite....every time I grab the bar and just give a little vocal prhasing to a note, it goes out... and the strings are very well stretched in :shrug: I stopped using it for the most part.

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Guitar Bridges for Solidbodies

Maybe I should look at an Ibanez ZR trem instead of a floyd then?

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Guitar Bridges for Solidbodies

ZR's just a floyd with 'zero resistance point' technology. it works so that it floats back to the right spot for you to stay in tune.