US quality...erm yeah right...

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Vasshu the humanoid typhoon

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So I went to the land of the rising sun and bought myself a Katana vibrato;)
Well not quite....
But this http://www.g-gotoh.com/international/?btp_product=510t-fe1
In chrome and all that...
My CS JB Strats vib, gave up the first ghost at 2 years of use, soft crap I might add to that....
While the unit sounds good, I was kinda hoping it would last longer.....but no no, had to sand the plate and rotate the studs alittle....first time I ever took that guitar apart....grrr
Bugged me so much that I dug around, and went with the usual suspects for my strats...Gotoh!
 
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Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

When you wear out a wang bar faster than Jeff Beck that's when you need to cool off on all the virtuoso wanking. :D
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

or buy a Hipshot bridge with bearings in stead of knife edges.
 
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I`m actually fairly sure that the American Standard Trem is MIJ or at least used to be, but I may be remembering wrong.
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

Hipshot.....bearings....not gonna happend....
The Fender one is a POS piece of steel;) Gotoh on the other hand has never failed me.
I'm pretty sure Mr Beck have worn out a few, if he has the same hardware...hehe

I think used to be....MIJ
But what does an US Standard bridge do on a CS guitar?? :D
I have 25 year plus old Gotoh pieces with very little signs of any wear on the knifes.
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

Have it your way...I've worn out a few of those Gotoh vibrato tailpieces over the years. I've never really been that impressed with them.

Now, on the other hand my, handmade in the USA Callaham...still going VERY strong!

No slop and killer tone to boot.
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

I have old Gotohs....as in old Gotohs...I use the vib alot.....I have no need of any other proof, they have lasted through alot!...Callaham on the other hand I do not like the sound of, have tried a few....well made and all that...but I really dislike the sound of them!
Sorry not my thing!
My new Gotohs are even more nice....
Have a VSVG, another 6 point 510 piece....
Have installed alot of Gotoh hardware on my mates guitars, no complaining....and one I did install in 1990.....no wear writing home about.
Dunno, find that hard to compete with.
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

Vasshu the humanoid typhoon said:
....
But what does an US Standard bridge do on a CS guitar?? :D...
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Very simple: it`s a SIGNATURE guitar. It is made to the specs that Jeff Beck prefers, NOT to any other specs. Which is exactly the way a signature guitar should be. You`re not paying for top of the line hardware and yaddayadda, you`re paying to have as close to a 1:1 copy of JBs guitar as you can.

If it were any different, EVH`s striped series would be available with tune-o matics, Les Pauls would be available with a Strat body shape, the PRS Santana would have a huge 12000$ dragon inlay and a copy of Clapton`s Blackie would be green ;)
 
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The vibrato bridge on the Fender Jeff Beck signature Stratocaster is closer to the Deluxe American model. Solid, machined stainless steel saddle blocks rather than compressed powder ones.

On my Nineties Am Std Strat, I followed the advise on the Callaham website and upgraded the more critical parts.
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

I meant in Standard;)
Why is the steel not higher grade?
Like CS grade....the saddles are made with different stuff, they are very hard almost like an old Floyd or a Gotoh High Stability, and the chrome is different from the normal ones, the Sperzels are not made with the usual material either...so why not the bridgeplate too?
I do not mind anything on the strat, I bought it because it has all the things I like on a strat.
I'm not a traditionalist, neither is the Beck strat.....I bought it because it was everything I want in a strat, and not something I should waste my time on modding...that I have had plenty of, and not why I wanted this one:)
Hehe guess I am just miffed over it being worn out haha!
Forget about the Callaham...not ever buying any of that!
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

Vasshu the humanoid typhoon said:
I meant in Standard;)
Why is the steel not higher grade?
Like CS grade....the saddles are made with different stuff, they are very hard almost like an old Floyd or a Gotoh High Stability, and the chrome is different from the normal ones, the Sperzels are not made with the usual material either...so why not the bridgeplate too?
I do not mind anything on the strat, I bought it because it has all the things I like on a strat.
I'm not a traditionalist, neither is the Beck strat.....I bought it because it was everything I want in a strat, and not something I should waste my time on modding...that I have had plenty of, and not why I wanted this one:)
Hehe guess I am just miffed over it being worn out haha!
Forget about the Callaham...not ever buying any of that!
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I understand you completely. But I see it as "If somebody comes into my shop and orders a guitar with a POS GFS Fastloader trem, I will do all I can to explain the merits and drawbacks of this and other floyds. But ultimately, HE`S paying ME and not the other way arounmd, so if he wants the POS for whatever adamant reasons, he gets the POS. :beerchug:

And just like a bone nut sounds fofferent from a Graphite nut, a 330 steel will sound different to a 440. In this case, it`s all about what the artist wants, and any every other consideration or "important factor" is irrelevant unless the desired result is technically impossible.

For ex. if JB wanted the necks glued in, a sacrilege on a strat, then they would be, at the factory. ;)
 
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Yeah.....but since when did CS mean POS???
I hate modern times haha!
It is not like I'm some green confused kid anymore, nor am I anywhere new to this end of things.....
F... it I'll just wait for that 510 to arrive, and the install it and forget about:)
Not that I am much thrilled about it....
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

Vasshu the humanoid typhoon said:
Yeah.....but since when did CS mean POS???
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Both never and always. CS means "Exactly what you want". If what you want is crap, then you`ll get crap. As long as you`re paying for it.

It`s no hard task to build an otherwise perfect guitar around a piece of shoddy hardware, but it`s usually a deal- and trust-breaker to decide of your own accord that hardware x will be used instead of hardware Y, which the customer specifically asked for and probably had reasons for doing so. That customer will not only pass on the instrument making all of your work for naught, but will almost certainly never, EVER return to your shop. This is the kind of mistake you make once, shortly after your apprenticeship, and never again.

Side note: Had I not made this fatal mistake, I`m fairly certain that my name would regularly be spoken in the same breath as Jerry Auerswald`s, possibly even without his. This was a very high profile customer with international acclaim that had been directed to me by a boutique-shop in Basel, or more correctly by Gary Levinson of Blade guitars who the shop had initially sent him to. And I dropped the ball becasue I was young and stupid. About 1500$ in materials down the tubes, and the guitar had to be destroyed because the design was the customer`s IP.

Look at how many "custom" guitars have Kahler Flyer trems, or excessively heavy and bright exotic hardwood bodies, or an absolutely unergonomic shape. Most of those were probably not the luthier`s idea, but were speced that way and paid for by the original customer. ;)
 
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Arguably, Leo Fender's synchronised fulcrum vibrato bridge is one of the most cheapskate pieces of guitar hardware ever invented. Seven pieces of stamped of steel sheet, some drilling operations and a flash of electroplating to pretty it up a little.

At the same time, this piece of penny-pinching engineering does the job and sounds right.
 
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Still makes me wonder.....did he wanted it with the soft sh!t or not??
Funny when the rest of it is just working without any hiccups, but a measly two years before wearing a groove into the plate.....oh well
The frets are great, hell everything else besides the baseplate of the vib is great.....
I know they wear out very fast on the normal ones.....we usually do not even sand them anymore, now they just pay for a new plate and the work hours spent.

^Well it may be a simple and crude unit, the old 6 holer, but the steel was solid enough.
Maybe Beck likes the sound of the soft plate??
Dunno...but off it goes!


Hehe yeah Zerb I get what you say....customers are sometimes....well let's leave it at that!
:D
 
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^^ wlll, JB can probably get a new trem overnighted to him anywhere in teh World free of charge, just by picking up the phone. So he really doesn`t have to worry about hardware longevity, rather just tone and playability. I could well imagine that being a factor ;)
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

Zerberus said:
^^ wlll, JB can probably get a new trem overnighted to him anywhere in teh World free of charge, just by picking up the phone. So he really doesn`t have to worry about hardware longevity, rather just tone and playability. I could well imagine that being a factor ;)
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I suspect that, if he burned through a trem plate in one concert and had to have it replaced before the next show, it would still be worth it to him if it gave him the tone and response he wanted.
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

Little Pigbacon said:
I suspect that, if he burned through a trem plate in one concert and had to have it replaced before the next show, it would still be worth it to him if it gave him the tone and response he wanted.
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I doubt that his trems are that Sh!#y that he would burn through one in one night
 
Re: US quality...erm yeah right...

Rockstar216 said:
I doubt that his trems are that Sh!#y that he would burn through one in one night
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So do I. It was just a heavy-handed way of illustrating my point that Jeff Beck can probably afford to care a lot more about tone than durability, were he presented with some kind of trade-off between the two.
 
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