Riviera Tremolo for Headless/Headstock guitars

[Misumi]

Has anybody here heard of this tremolo? I was looking into a CSL Sophia Tremolo, but it looks like a pipe organ and thus I searched for alternatives and came across this Italian bridge.

https://rivieragear.com/

Unlike most of the other headless tremolo bridges, it looks more like a normal tremolo bridge. The pricing with the headless kit puts it at close to $400 shipped to me. Expensive, but still cheaper than a Sophia tremolo bridge. (And the Riviera kit includes the headless lock nut, while the Sophia does not).

The Sophia Tremolo seems to lock the strings at the bridge though, and the Riviera does not. The Riviera uses roller saddles, and the entire tuning system is inside the tremolo block.

I'm just looking for more opinions on this versus other alternatives before I spend $400+ on this or a Sophia.

 

[Mincer]

I hadn't seen this one. I'd love to try it, though. So far, I've only used 1 trem on a headless that I like, and that is the TransTrem 3. The bad part of that is that was attached to a guitar I didn't like, and can't really be retrofitted on another instrument yet. The one above looks pretty awesome, though.

 

[Misumi]

The other positive thing to me about the Riviera is the included locking nut, which mounts onto the surface, rather than wrapping around the end of the headless neck like many other headless nuts.

Even though I'm building it as a headless guitar, I'm still planning on keeping a headstock on it to retain the classic silhouette. The headstock will just be milled down to a thinner profile, since it no longer has to support tuners. The mounting on the Riviera nut is perfect for this.

The Riviera seems new (2020) so there's effectively zero information out there. So I'd be paying $400 for something that I cannot do any prior research on.

 

[Mincer]

I'd love to see in-progress pics of this guitar. I am always happy to read about new headless designs, too.

 

[Misumi]

If you mean the guitar I'm building, it's still in the designing phase, since there are some parts that need to be finalized. As it is now, it is a very thin body (about 34mm thick), so I designed it around a Stetsbar tremolo.

The headless idea came very recently, so these renders show the normal version. However, the headless version will keep the same overall design.

 

[Mincer]

Wow, some very cool ideas. I love it!