The tonal impact of saddle rollers?

[Artie]

I'm bringing my MIA Peavey Predator out of the cobwebs, that has the Kahler Flyer trem. (This was the only guitar I owned when I first joined this forum in the late 90's.) I want to do a couple of tweaks to it. I ran across a website that sells Kahler bridge replacement parts and mods. One of the things I'm going to grab is a steel "locking clip" that replaces the springs, to effectively convert it to a hardtail. (Completely reversible.) I noticed that they also have replacement saddle rollers. Stock are the brass.

Here's their marketing prose:

Brass rollers: (original)
Brass rollers are the most popular for a reason, they sound warmer with beautiful classic bell tone highs that are excellent for all types of music.

Steel rollers:
For the classic shredder in you, this is the 80's revisited. Clean harmonic highs and mid's with not too much on the bottom end. If you shred wearing a black T-shirt and like crushed skulls and blood, steel is for you. Heavy metal all the way!

Teflon rollers:
Teflon glass rollers will release the full tonal spectrum from your guitar and keep your notes cleanly separated with a mix cutting, mid hump frequency! Spewing out a soloists dream tone, these rollers really stand out in the mix with clarity and sustain! Constantly lubricating the axle pin, they have a hard time seizing up from hand gunk and grime which adds up to increased long term tuning stability.

They have a video that's supposed to demonstrate the difference, but it wasn't very revealing. The Teflon ones, may have been a bit brighter. At $36 for the set, I wonder what you all think of this.

 

[jeremy]

im curious about the teflon ones, never tried those. ive only used the brass ones and im sure i wouldnt like the steel

 

[Artie]

Me too. And the Kahler Flyer has a bad rep. (Possibly deserved.) I'm thinking of moving my PATB-1's over to it from my EPI LP.

 

[ICTGoober]

I'm with Jeremy - what do teflon rollers sound like?

I assume the vendor is Whammy Parts? If so, I've done quite a bit of business with them, and they are good people. I'm hip to the clip you mentioned, but have never installed one. On most Kahler units there are other ways to hardtail a whammy. Haven't worked with enough Flyers to comment. They are a budget Kahler, but a proper setup should yield good results. You know Kahler offers a hardtail unit that looks exactly like a flatmount Kahler without the bar?

 

[Artie]

I'm with Jeremy - what do teflon rollers sound like?

I assume the vendor is Whammy Parts? If so, I've done quite a bit of business with them, and they are good people. I'm hip to the clip you mentioned, but have never installed one. On most Kahler units there are other ways to hardtail a whammy. Haven't worked with enough Flyers to comment. They are a budget Kahler, but a proper setup should yield good results. You know Kahler offers a hardtail unit that looks exactly like a flatmount Kahler without the bar?

Yes to Whammy Parts, and thanks for the micro review. Good to know. There are some versions of the Kahler trem that have a rear set screw. You use the whammy bar to place it in the right position, then screw it in, locking it into place. The "Flyer", unfortunately, doesn't have that provision.

I've looked at their hardtail bridge many times, but it costs more than this guitar cost me. And, at my age and health, I want to be able to easily revert it back to "whammy" operation for a potential new owner. Also, the steel locking clip, is only about $12.