Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

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BluesGuyJ

New member
Its such an interesting topic to me. I've dived into learning as much as I can about these things since I ordered a Carvin C66 with a Wilkinson that turned out to be a cruddy model. I believe they use the VS50. THey also offer OFRS and a new VIntage Tremolo on their 6 strings. I am tempted to purchase another Carvin, but know I will either get one with an OFR or replace the Wilkinson unit with another aftermarket tremolo. I ended up swapping out the Wilk for a hipshot trem with a tremsetter. She works great now, but still have to wiggle the whammy bar to get her back in tune some times.


I am a lite whammy bar user and would love to get a unit that stays in tune when you do string bends. RIght now, I go to bend the B or high E and those two strings go out of tune slightly and I have to quickly push down on the bar to get it back in tune.

What tremolo units do you all prefer? Has anyone here used the Super V/Blade runner tremolo system? It's a double locking trem unit that drops right into standard trem routed guitars.

Discuss!

P.S. - anyone also tried out the new Vintage Tremolo unit Carb came out with?
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

If you set up the vibrato well, have properly cut nut slots, and wrap your strings around the posts in a self locking manner with a bare minimum of wraps, any vibrato will stay in tune for the very light use you described.

That said, G&L's vibratos seem to stay in tune the best IME.
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

The TransTrem3, the only one that will bend entire chords in tune.
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

I like vintage Strat style units, I dig Bigsby's and Jazzmaster/Jag units as well.

One word of advise...no bar in the world properly if your nut is junk and your set up sucks...

I say this over and over in discussion about vibrato units...set up, set up , set up...after those 3 things are right they can all work properly!
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

My guitar has the tremolo blocked at the moment but for what I use it for any fender style unit works just fine.
 
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Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

the Wilkinson was junk. I had an amazing tech set it up (does repairs/work for Berklee community) and it would not hold tune at all.
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

BluesGuyJ said:
the Wilkinson was junk. I had an amazing tech set it up (does repairs/work for Berklee community) and it would not hold tune at all.
Click to expand...

Wrong...Wilkinson makes a GREAT unit.

If the guitar wouldn't stay in tune it was not the Wilkinson it was either the set up or the user.

Don't trust the hype around many guitar techs...I've gone to guys that are held up very high and gotten some of the worst work you can imagine...
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

I use a OFR and love it for the tuning stability and ease. Now If you don't have a proper set up then any trem or guitar wont play right. For you I would recommend a dive only model and not the full floating one.
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

BluesGuyJ said:
the Wilkinson was junk. I had an amazing tech set it up (does repairs/work for Berklee community) and it would not hold tune at all.
Click to expand...

Like what someone previously said a lot of so called guitar techs do horrible set ups even so called professional guys. Unless its set up up to your satisfactory it's not a good set up.
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

I've got Wilkinsons on three guitars now and don't seem to have any issues at all with them. When I bought my Classic Player 50's Strat over Christmas, the first mod I did within days of acquisition, was to put a Wilkinson VS50 on it. They are my first choice aftermarket trem unit.
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

My personal favorite is the Gotoh Floyd Rose, looks great, feels great and always returns to zero, no "wiggling" required.
However I am a tad on the opposite side of EVH the man. Whereas he puts locking nuts even on hardtails, I put regular nuts on my Floyded guitars, opting for locking tuners instead. Yeah, I am weird like that.

As for the Wilkinson, I have owned all of the more common iterations. The original US-made, the most common Gotoh-made VS100, the Korean VS50 and even the newer and extremely good VSV400 (it's the 6-point variety).

The issue I had with the VS50 wasn't about stability, it stayed in tune just fine, but rather the quality of the metals used which, TBH was really crappy. I couldn't even tighten a screw without something stripping and it would honestly get nicked if a string were to hit it while breaking.

My current stable consists of the old US-made variety and the newer VSV400 and I can honestly say that I cannot see a difference in tuning stability, which is great.
Still, the subtlety and feel of a Floyd can't be beat...
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

Occasionally, I get one that wont stay in tune no matter what. I get the feeling sometimes that the neck itself is the culprit. I saw an interview somewhere with Jeff becks tech saying Jeff would use an even fatter neck if he could keep it in tune. It didn't make much sense when I saw it. Maybe there's more to the story.
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

He does wonderful setups/work... there are numerous posts/stories online about folks having serious issues with the Wilkinson units Carvin puts on their axes...

It's possible my VS50 had a manufacturers deffect... He knows Wilkinson and Mann made bridges the best...

I had mine full floating, perhaps it works best as dive only. oh well, the hipshot trem on my Carvin now is great.

What do folks think about swapping out the blocks for largers ones or ones made of titanium? online demonstrations only go so far
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

I know it's just GFS, but I like the bridge I got from them... my strat seems to never go out of tune. :)
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

BluesGuyJ said:
He does wonderful setups/work... there are numerous posts/stories online about folks having serious issues with the Wilkinson units Carvin puts on their axes...

It's possible my VS50 had a manufacturers deffect... He knows Wilkinson and Mann made bridges the best...

I had mine full floating, perhaps it works best as dive only. oh well, the hipshot trem on my Carvin now is great.

What do folks think about swapping out the blocks for largers ones or ones made of titanium? online demonstrations only go so far
Click to expand...

I use a big brass block from Floydupgrades.com I never had a chance to try the stock block on a OFR because I swapped it out as I was building the guitar but it sounds good to me sustains very well and sounds full.
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

OFR by far!!! Particularly the early ones with the Screw In Arm rather than the later Collared Version.
 
Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?

I usually stick with the Floyd varieties. Of the 11 guitars, 2 don't have a floating trem. 2 of the floyd'd gits are top mounted, 1 on my mim squier has a partial recessed cavity, and the rest are recessed. I got have a Jackson low-pro, Gotoh Floyd(going into a project guitar, see my npgd thread) Kahler killer on hand in case I do more projects.
 
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