To all who have used LSR & TusqXL for their trems.
Ha ha ha. I just Googled to find the review, and it turns out that you are the OP of that thread. So, you've already started an entire thread on the issue, and had some quality replies.
Here it is:
Long post comin' up...
I have a Bladerunner on my Mexican Strat.
It is "just OK," and overpriced IMO.
As far as an improvement in staying in tune when using the vibrato, there is a nice difference, but not a game changing one. I have Sperzel locking tuners, which I wrap about half a turn, and a professionally installed and slotted white Tusq XL nut. I imagine that without these helpful features up at the head, there would be even less of an improvement in stability due to installing a Bladerunner.
Over half of the height adjustment screws on the unit I got were visibly oversized and/or rounded out in the hex holes, and would not adjust with the supplied wrench (which is very cheap) or with my own "good" Allen wrench. The company sent me replacements, and about 1/3 of those were stripped out as well. Luckily they sent me enough that between them and the good original ones, I was able to cobble together a working, though not perfect, set.
The saddles, screws, springs, and claw seem cheaply made (or at least cheaply plated). The fellow at Super Vee claims that they have put all this research into their design and material selection, but the saddles still look pretty cheesy to me.
The bridge plate and block seem well made enough.
They don't show you in the pix on the Website, but the standard vibrato arm does not have a plastic tip. That arm is $15 extra, and they don't come in white, only off white. I passed once I found out, and just kept the supplied arm with no tip.
The vibrato arm sits up very high, and at a fairly steep angle. I went to the metal shop at my college and one of the instructors bent it down for me with some sort of special rod bender tool.
The hold-down screws for the vibrato unit have threads too large to fit through the ovoid holes. You have to work them in...carefully, so you don't scratch the metal.
The four screw setup just so that they can display their brand name looks bad IMO.
The claw screw hole spacing did not match my stock claw's hole spacing, so I had to use its original claw. According to the guy at Super Vee, I am the first to ever mention such an issue, and some of their test guitars are MIMs. So, I don't know what's up with that. The holes in the Super Vee claw don't match any of my Strat claws, USA, MIJ, or MIM, so the problem is obviously theirs.
They require an Allen wrench for intonation adjustment.
I use 11's with a wound G, and the saddles sit pretty far forward, when normally I would set them pretty far back with the 11's. My D and G saddles are adjusted right up to the edge of the bridge plate, almost overhanging the "blade." If I used 10's or 9's with a plain G, I doubt I would be able to intonate the D string properly. If I used 9's or 10's with a wound G, the G would not be able to be set to intonate properly either. The proper spot for the saddles would be over the spring, right on the joint. And this is after I moved the vibrato slightly forward by way of doweling the original bridge holes.
It does not "feel" like a classic Strat vibrato, nor does it sound like one. It's pretty close, but definitely different. Not a problem for me, just something to be aware of before you order one.
It looks noticeably different than a classic Strat vibrato; it looks modern. Not a problem for me, but something to be aware of.
It will not accept an ashtray cover, and Super Vee do not make one for it.
I really wish that all of this was not my experience with the Bladerunner; I had high hopes, and I had actually played them on guitars in shops and thought they seemed OK. Over all, it's a nice design that I feel is mediocre and sloppy in its execution. What they've got is a lot of talk about this product as if it was this extremely well built thing, but the product itself doesn't back up the talk. They've obviously cut corners and/or slacked in their production of the unit. It feels like an outsourced version of a US-made product that was originally well built and well designed. An "Asian Floyd," if you will.
Is it better than the stock vibrato in terms of tuning stability? Yes. Will it blow you away in its greatness? No way; not even close. If it was $80 instead of $160, I'd recommend it. As it comes, with that "boutique" price tag on it, I do not recommend it. It is not bad enough that I will be selling it off, but I certainly won't be buying another. And that's really too bad, as I have three other Strats that are potential candidates.
