Volute redux

  • Thread starter Thread starter Biddlin
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Amen and I post that in the most secular way.
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Yngwie does indeed prefer the stock Fender tremolo. He employs 5 springs so it is dive-only and he goes on record to state that he prefers a brass nut for reasons of tonality. It certainly seems to work for him.

Interestingly, no one has ever asked me to install a stock Fender tremolo....but requests for Floyd Rose systems are an everyday occurrence.
 
Yngwie does indeed prefer the stock Fender tremolo. He employs 5 springs so it is dive-only and he goes on record to state that he prefers a brass nut for reasons of tonality. It certainly seems to work for him.

Interestingly, no one has ever asked me to install a stock Fender tremolo....but requests for Floyd Rose systems are an everyday occurrence.

Well, Fender tend to take on that work themselves ;-)
 
Very cool! It is in quite incredible shape!!

It wasn't when I got it - virtually a flatpack. I had to re-attach the fingerboard to the neck, and the soundboard was only attached at one point. It had no soundpost and the tuning pegs were all jammed. It took me about three weeks to get it back into playable shape. I didn't want to do a "restoration" with sanding, new varnish - all that stuff. I just wanted it looking the way it would if it had been looked after a bit better.
 
It wasn't when I got it - virtually a flatpack. I had to re-attach the fingerboard to the neck, and the soundboard was only attached at one point. It had no soundpost and the tuning pegs were all jammed. It took me about three weeks to get it back into playable shape. I didn't want to do a "restoration" with sanding, new varnish - all that stuff. I just wanted it looking the way it would if it had been looked after a bit better.
A great job and a worthy project. I do not want to step on Robert's thread too much, but I would be curious as to the history of the instrument and how you acquired it. I am used to guitars where 1953 is very old, so 1700's is super exciting
 
No Sir. In that quote I was referring to a stock Fender tremolo.
Hahahaha! That's priceless!
So...let me make sure I've got this straight... So, you're saying it's easier to keep a pair of wire cutters, and a 2mm Allen key on hand for when(yes when) a string breaks in a live performance...on a nice dark stage....hmmmmm...do you suggest wearing a headlamp throughout the show too? Or just to keep it with the string clipper, and Allen key?:wink:
Nothing against Floyd Rose systems, but speaking from my experiences, when they fail(and they do fail, even under normal use...like when palm muting etc.) in a live performance situation, that guitar is not going to continue without a new string. Installing a string on a Floyd Rose trem takes an unacceptable length of time to be undertaken in a live performance situation.
That guitar gets put on a stand, and is replaced with a backup guitar, if one would like to gig in that establishment again.

It takes me about the same amount of time as it takes me to fish the right string from an unopened pack to install and tune a string on my Strat, or either of my Stetsbar equipped guitars...or any of my other hard tail guitars with locking tuners. No tools necessary. I still don't like attempting that live though... but it is doable at rehearsal, easily.

(I did spend the better part of a decade maintaining a pair of Floyd Rose equipped guitars as my main guitars, A and B, while gigging regularly. The problem with the system is that every movement of the strings that moves the bridge, at all, works on that little spot on each string where it locks into the bridge, leading to failure at that spot eventually. Use of the bar, bends, double stops, and palm muting all cause the bridge on a Floyd Rose system to travel...eventually leading to an unpredictable string failure. Expected string life on my Floyd equipped guitars was about 2 weeks while gigging regularly...4 shows, 2 rehearsals, and whatever practice/writing time.):cheers:
 
It wasn't when I got it - virtually a flatpack. I had to re-attach the fingerboard to the neck, and the soundboard was only attached at one point. It had no soundpost and the tuning pegs were all jammed. It took me about three weeks to get it back into playable shape. I didn't want to do a "restoration" with sanding, new varnish - all that stuff. I just wanted it looking the way it would if it had been looked after a bit better.

Is it an Amati??
 
Hahahaha! That's priceless!
So...let me make sure I've got this straight...So, you're saying it's easier to keep a pair of wire cutters, and a 2mm Allen key on hand for when(yes when) a string breaks in a live performance...on a nice dark stage....hmmmmm...do you suggest wearing a headlamp throughout the show too? Or just to keep it with the string clipper, and Allen key?

Not at all....My comment was "I've never personally played one (stock Fender tremolo) that could be relied upon in a live situation (to stay in tune). Perhaps with roadies and multiple guitar changes, yes, but not playing the same guitar 4 hours at a time..."

I had a Floyd on my 1984 Ibanez Destroyer DT555 and gigged with it as my only source of income from 1984 until it was stolen in 1989. Strings seemed to last me as long on it as they did on my other guitars.

Back in those days I didn't have a backup guitar or amp. I couldn't afford either one. What I had I played and that was that....I still don't take multiple guitars with me when I play, can't give you any reason why, I just never have and still do not.

I seem to recall the Floyd on my Destroyer was "decked" like my 1987 Squire Stratocaster has been since I bought it, so a broken string would not have affected me.

I have two guitars currently in the build process for me personally. Both of them will replace all of my current guitars (the Schecter and the Gibson SG) and serve as my main and only guitars.

One is my own design - the all mahogany, 3 humbucker (3 way switch all pickups have tone control) Strat-esque guitar with 1" profile 22 fret 'U' shaped neck, 6230 fretwire, Gibson LPC style lock inlay and a Floyd Rose, built from a Warmoth body with a custom neck by Musikraft.

The other is a 1984 Ibanez Destroyer II Replica, 24.75" scale (which was stock on this model) with 3 pickups and a Floyd Rose. This is a 100% scratch build.

Several colleagues of mine use an adjustable block device to immobilize the Floyd for live work, just in case you break a string, and that sounds like a good idea to me. It could always be pulled off for studio work....
 
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and now for a both non related and related post...

I don't need no Floyd Rose gizmoption. (new word gang!)
I have an EBMM Luke. It has a stock EBMM vibrato on it.
3 springs and no locks anywhere. I routinely yank up on the
bar hard enough to lift the guitar off my hip or push down
on it as hard as I can or shake the entire guitar with it.
It returns to proper pitch and tune every time.

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I lied. It has Schaller locking tuners (Stock from EBMM).
The vibrato works and string changes are quick and easy.
 

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A great job and a worthy project. I do not want to step on Robert's thread too much, but I would be curious as to the history of the instrument and how you acquired it. I am used to guitars where 1953 is very old, so 1700's is super exciting

I'd love to have a tale of shady meetings in a cafe in Vienna late at night. A hundred quid on Ebay for what he described as a pile of wreckage. Turned out I was the only bidder.
 
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