Your favourite trem type?

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

Floatin' Floyd! I really like Strat and PRS trems, too. The only really sucks ones are the goofy Fenders (like the Mustang), vintage Gibson and Bigsbys. Those three are totally worthless!

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

Floyd Rose Original: When you absolutely, positively have to stay in tune, accept no other tremelo.


Also, while there may be some models I'm not familiar with, I've never seen a Bigsby that you could divebomb with. And when I say divebomb, I mean a full octave or greater. A bigsby is very cool in it's own right. It sounds and looks great on many SG's and semi-hollows. It's almost like comparing apples and oranges, though.

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

Well, im not sure how i did it, but i managed to whammy the bigsby so hard that there was no tension left in the strings.... and it actually came back (almost) in tune!

I suppose its how you set it up though.
FR'es are great, just not my cup of tea . If i'm going to get a metal axe sometime, i'll sure have a nice FR on it, but i don't think it works for playing blues or similar .

-Erlend

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

If i'm going to get a metal axe sometime, i'll sure have a nice FR on it, but i don't think it works for playing blues or similar .

-Erlend

Well, at least on mine, it's too bright for blues - at least my taste in blues. I can get buy with it, but would prefer to switch to my Peavey.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

Floyd...mounted with an angled neck so it sits about 1/8" off the face of the guitar, with or without Recess (Think along the lines of an early ontario Jackson )

 

[Davey]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

I must say that i really dislike recessed floyd roses, they kill the tone, make tuning a bitch, and when you bend a note, all the other strings go down in pitch. Anyone else feel the same way?

that's just BS.
since of yesterday i got a schaller floyd and they most certainly do not kill off the tone.. that might be the case with cheap knock offs such as the ibeenhad ones. i thought at one point i'm gonna break it, but it came back in perfect tune. got 3 springs on it too so no string goes down in pitch when i bend.
the more i play with it, the more i see why people dislike floyds. it's cos they judge the original by the licenced ones. hopefully tomorrow a friend with an ibeenhad will come by and i'll compare em side by side (the floyds)

like said before.. floyds, for what they do, accept NO substitutes as nothing else works as well as they do.

and they do change tone for a bit brighter one, but they most certainly dont kill it

oh.. blues.. hehe no. the bridge is a bit too 80's metal oriented for that one.. the neck, maaaybe if you tweak it right, but i wont be playin no blues with this one hehe

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

I prefer G&L's dual fulcrum tremelo. It works well, and you don't have to mess with locking components!


Sprinter

+1. Fabulous tone and response.

 

[pac112]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

fixed bridge for me.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

....I must say that i really dislike recessed floyd roses, they kill the tone, make tuning a bitch, and when you bend a note, all the other strings go down in pitch. Anyone else feel the same way?...

1. PLease don´t take this personally Earl, you know I like you. But I always have to laugh when somebody says "Kills the tone" about ANYTHING regarding to constriction.

If Floyds, Double expanding truss rods, Neck-thru Construction, SS Frets and active pickups ALL kill the tone, then half of my guitars were dead before they left the factory, or were even built for that matter. One 0of my Main axes would be a vegetable and the other one 6 feet under.

NOTHING kills tone (exception is thick paint)....it CHANGES tone, yes, and you may not like the change....but (as a fitting analogy) cutting and coloring your hair is still a slightly different thing from shooting yourself in the head w/ a shotgun.

2. Make tuning a bitch: Only if you constantly change to alternate tunings or don´t know how to set one up properly. IF you constantly change tunings, NO trem that is set up for up and down pull will hold up...blocked or hardtail is the only option here. But set to one tuning and left that way, your tuning problems should be gone forever, esp. after using the bar or bending strings farther than a whole tone.

3. Bending changes pitch on all other strings: This is also a problem inherent to ALL tremolo systems, including vintage trems, bigsbys, Ibanez ZR trems, Wilkinsons......it´s just most noticable on a Floyd (and after that on a Vilk VS-100) because the design is the most sensitive.

BTW, ALL of these problems can be milded if not alleviated by a neat new gadjet (that´s been around for almost 20 years): The Hipshot Tremsetter.

I agree with you on your reasons for not liking Floyds, Erlend, and have full understanding for them....I just wanted to note that for those reasons you essentially shouldn´t really like any trem at all, not just Floyds

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: "Real men play Bigsbys". :wink:

Well put. I voted Bigsby, 'cause they're by far the coolest, but I love a vintage Strat vibrato backed against the body so it only goes down. That floating business where you break a string and go totally out of tune is for the birds. Also, with it flush, you can palm-mute and do double stop bends without the non-bent note going flat. You can do that on a Bibsby as well, even though it is sort of floating. I am of the opinion that a floating Floyd really has a negative effect on a guitar's tone. If I was gonna go Floyd (I'm not), I'd have it non-recessed and down only, flush with the body, like EVH. To each his own.

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

1. NOTHING kills tone (exception is thick paint)....it CHANGES tone, yes, and you may not like the change....but (as a fitting analogy) cutting and coloring your hair is still a slightly different thing from shooting yourself in the head w/ a shotgun.


3. Bending changes pitch on all other strings: This is also a problem inherent to ALL tremolo systems, including vintage trems, bigsbys, Ibanez ZR trems, Wilkinsons......it´s just most noticable on a Floyd (and after that on a Vilk VS-100) because the design is the most sensitive.

BTW, ALL of these problems can be milded if not alleviated by a neat new gadjet (that´s been around for almost 20 years): The Hipshot Tremsetter.

Well, I went back and read them all after my previous post. :smack:
1. I guess that's a better way to think of things, not killing tone, just changing it.
3. Vibratos that are backed down flush with the body with sufficient springs do not have the problem of 5 strings sagging when one is bent. Bigsbys don't either (at least not to a degree that I think makes a significant difference). Floating vibratos have this problem. It is why I backed the unit down on my old Strat Plus - when it was floating, even with the Tremsetter, 5 strings would sag when one was bent, and the whole thing would go out of tune when a string broke. As far as I could tell, the Tremsetter didn't do much, and I took it out and put more springs in.
It's always a compromise - while I liked being able to subtly bend chords up and down, the other headaches weren't worth it. You can't go nuts on a Bigsby like an FR, but it does go up and down, and you can do double stop bends. It seems like the bottom line is, if you wanna go nuts on the thing, get a Floyd. If you don't plan to do such radical things with a vibrato, save yourself the grief and get a different style. Floyds are a hassle, but they do stay in tune for all the crazy stuff.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

Yes, I forgot the word Floating, my bad :smack:

BTW: Hipshot openly states that the tremsetter isn´t designed to hold tuning when a string breaks, so IMO it´s not something that´s to be expected from the unit

 

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

MY favorite trem is a hardtail!!!!! :burnout:

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

How can you argue with this guy:

"My Oh man, this radical guitar has a FLOYD ROSE. floyd roses are the best. They NEVER go out of tune even when I whammy. Sometimes I whammy so hard that my mother has to tell me to stop, but this guitar can handle that....When ever i go out of key, I just whammy, but i dont even know what key is, all i know is that this guitar has a FLOYD ROSE!!! "


Hahahaha, I'll never get tired of reading that review.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

The Hipshot Contour Trem. Best trem I've ever used - low-profile and sleek (sort of looks like the PRS trem) with some notable improvements in performance and tone. It's a direct replacement for the Fender USA 2-post trem, but is soooo much better.

It's got a no-wobble bar. You can set the bar to spin as freely as you want and there won't be any play in it when you go to dive with it. The best part is the lack of a knife-edge against the posts - the trem unit is balanced against the post on ball bearings that fit into the grooves of the post. This results in vastly improved resonance coupling due to a much greater contact area, especially when the trem is in use. You also notice smoother action and better return-to-pitch.

I have mine set up to float, and I can pull off all the floyd-like tricks with it (dive bombs, bar flicking, etc.) and don't need an allan wrench to change strings.

 

[Loserchief]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

I opt for the kahler Flatmount systems. Those rule and they don't change the tone as much as a floyd(ok,they have little less range but i don't need it anyway). But floyds are the second-best

 

[Stringmachine]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

I used to play Floyd equiped guitars back in the dark ages. But they are damn hard to set up properly and IMO they suck out the tone a bit too. Anyway I dont divebomb any more so I dont really need it.

I got a Strat with a Wilkinson and it does exactly what it is supposed to. Keeps in tune and stays out of trouble. I like it a lot!

 

[BornToShred]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

A two-point strat bridge is my favorite. Feels great and sounds a lot better than a Floyd IMO. Stays in tune nicely if properly set up (a graphite nut and/or locking tuners certainly help!) unless you go completely nuts on the whammy.

I haven't tried a Wilkinson, but would like to.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

While I am a Floyd addict I like the old classic Fender trem the best, I always set mine up floating, and that is not just alittle float

 

[MikeS]

Re: Your favourite trem type?

I like both the Wilkinson and a vintage 6 screw. The Wilk, IMO, is the best all-around trem out on the market. I like the tone, love the response, and the feel is just right. You can't dive bomb and expect perfect tuning every time you release like on a Floyd, and the vibrato has a much different feel to it than say a Bigsby, but it is a very versatile tremolo that when coupled with locking tuners is VERY stable (more stable than ANY vintage 6 hole I've ever played).

Vintage 6 holes with stamped saddles with all 5 springs installed and the claw screwed tight to the body just has a tone that makes me melt. The spring tension practically fixes it so the trem is almost useless, but the tone is unbeatable to my ears.

Also, I bought a Wilkinson made 6 hole replacement for strat. WOW. looks, feels, and has a tone very similar to a vintage with stamped saddles. I also upgraded the guitar to closed gear Schaller tuners and have found it to be very stable. Dive bombs will throw it out of tune, but using it for vibrato and 1 - 1 1/2 note dips is great (no tuning issues).