Re: Lets talk tremolo units: whats your favorite?
For me, OFR >Kahler >Wilkinson VS-100/VS-50 > everything else. That´s may preference when considering a new trem. I currently USE all of the above as well as vintage style trems and 2 or 3 styles of floyd copy, notable Jackson`sJT-6 and the Ibanezez Edge series. All of them stay in tune PERFECTLY. And none of them are blocked /dive only. Particularly the Vilkinson VS-100/VS-50 is out of the box one of THE best vintage style trems I`ve seen come to market in the last 20-25 years.
The bottom line is that ANY trem that is not physically damaged or truly defective (Worn knife edges, crushed bearings, hairline crasks, stripped threads...) can be made to hold it`s tuning properly,
even the cheapest POS chinese pot metal jobbies for 3$ wholesale. If it can`t be made to stay perfectly in tune, then whowever is setting it up isn`t worth being paid to do so. Period.
Case in point, the brand new, high quality Hipshot even has a tremsetter, and STILL has problems returning to zero. That means either the nut is too tight, too deep, or the trem and /or tremsetter flat out aren`t set up properly. I suspect too much grease on the tremsetter rod is causing your current problem. Possibly a small amount of nut binding compounding it, especially if youre using the same guage of strings that you were using when it had the Wilkinson which had the same problem from what I understand, "just bigger".
IIRC this is not the first time I`ve suspected your tech to be sub par judging the evidence as presented, and I really think you should at least be taking a look at who else is out there. The fact of the matter is that it doesn`t jack **** of good for you if everybody constantly says how great he is and you continue to consistently get all of his Monday Morning defects. :beerchug:
Each time these threads come up I read about issues that with 99.9% certainity can really only be general setup issues, and how your primary reponse is usually that your tech is top notch and others say so too... I can understand that, but that doesn`t change that I and others also have decades of experience, combined I`d say the forum has well over a century of collective, unique experience, and even those of us that don`t consider themselves professionals are telling you your tech may not be what he`s cracked up to be. If that`d not a sign to at least be more critical, I`m not sure what is.
I mean, If I can tell instantly you your tremsetter and/or nut are off without ever seeing, hearing or feeling the guitar (and I still think it`s primarily the nut), and somebody else can`t solve those issues with the actual instrument in hand, then something is amiss....
