Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

[Artie]

There was a thread awhile back where, I think it was Lew, who commented that locking nuts and Kahler bridges were "tone-suckers", or something to that effect. (I'm paraphrasing somewhat.)

Anyway, I've seen those same sentiments expressed in other forums and threads and was wondering:

Is there some charateristic in a pickups specs that one should look for to counter these shortcomings? Should one look for high output, or scooped mids, or boosted mids, tweaked highs, etc?

All comments welcome.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

I look for medium to high output pickups with big low mids, solid lows, and round highs when swapping into an axe with a floating trem. I have a CC in my all maple Carvin DC127T and I couldn't be happier. Other pickups to look at is the PA (Parallel Axis) line. They are designed to put the beef back into Floyd equipped axes.

 

[rspst14]

Re: Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

The Blues Trembucker is a great pickup for that reason. It was designed specifically to offset any tonal differences caused by locking tremolos. It has a little more low end and midrange for a thicker sound. It really does make a locking trem guitar sound almost like a Les Paul.

My Wolfgang exhibits none of the sound characteristics of a typical locking tremolo guitar. I don't know why exactly, but it has a beautiful natural acoustic sound, and it sustains very well. Peavey really hit the mark with this guitar if you ask me.

One thing that will kill the tone of any trem guitar is floating the bridge. I much prefer to have the bridge flat against the body.

Ryan

 

[Artie]

Re: Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

Its interesting that you'ld mention the Wolfgang. Its my Predator that I'm refering to. (Although, obviously not a Wolfgang.) I never use the tremolo, and have the handle removed, but I don't see any way to "lock" it per se.

The one thing that I do like about it, is the fine-tuners on the bridge. I love being able to "tweak" the tuning after everything has settled.

However, I'ld dump the Kahler in a second if it made a significant improvement in the sound.

 

[y2stevo]

Re: Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

The Blues Trembucker is a great pickup for that reason. It was designed specifically to offset any tonal differences caused by locking tremolos. It has a little more low end and midrange for a thicker sound. It really does make a locking trem guitar sound almost like a Les Paul.

My Wolfgang exhibits none of the sound characteristics of a typical locking tremolo guitar. I don't know why exactly, but it has a beautiful natural acoustic sound, and it sustains very well. Peavey really hit the mark with this guitar if you ask me.

One thing that will kill the tone of any trem guitar is floating the bridge. I much prefer to have the bridge flat against the body.

Ryan

Yep peavey hit it dead on alright..It seriously kicked the crap out of any high end ibanez hand down no contest IMO..But yeh those floating bridges do suck tone..

 

[Artie]

Re: Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

..But yeh those floating bridges do suck tone..

Thats one of the things I'm wondering about. When you say "suck tone" - what exactly do you mean? Lose highs, diminish sustain, lost harmonics, smear definition, all of the above? What?

 

[rspst14]

Re: Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

What I've noticed most with floating trem guitars is the loss of sustain, and a thinner tone. It doesn't have any growl in the lows and mids, and the highs sound shrill rather than sweet.

Artie, if you don't use that trem, you can block it with a piece of wood. This will still let you use the fine tuners, but the bridge will not move. The only tricky part is finding/cutting a piece of wood that fits solidly in the gap. It's the next best thing to having a true hardtail

Ryan

 

[Artie]

Re: Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

I'm not sure that I can do that with the Kahler Flyer though. There is no gap in the conventional sense. Its not like a Strat tremolo that has the panel in the back with the springs. This is all front mounted.

 

[Farkus]

Re: Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

The Blues Trembucker is a great pickup for that reason. It was designed specifically to offset any tonal differences caused by locking tremolos. It has a little more low end and midrange for a thicker sound. It really does make a locking trem guitar sound almost like a Les Paul.

My Wolfgang exhibits none of the sound characteristics of a typical locking tremolo guitar. I don't know why exactly, but it has a beautiful natural acoustic sound, and it sustains very well. Peavey really hit the mark with this guitar if you ask me.

One thing that will kill the tone of any trem guitar is floating the bridge. I much prefer to have the bridge flat against the body.

Ryan

Couldn't agree with this more...

Farkus

 

[some_dude]

Re: Tremelo's, locking nuts, and "tone suckers"

Thats one of the things I'm wondering about. When you say "suck tone" - what exactly do you mean? Lose highs, diminish sustain, lost harmonics, smear definition, all of the above? What?

Keep in mind that Kahler used different materials and construction techniques in the manufacture of their trems. For some reason they generally have a warmer tone, and less of that edgy, thinness that Original Floyd Rose bridges have.

I leave mine floating, and the only problem I've found is a slight loss in sustain. But personally, how often do you let your guitar ring for more than 30 seconds? With gain and feedback I can get it to sustain for hours if I wanted to, so one or two seconds less natural sustain really doesn't bother me.

Besides, if you think Peavey nailed the tone when they made you're guitar, and you like the way it sounds, why start f*cking with it?