Gotoh Wilkinson VS100 + LSR Roller Nut + Locking Tuners vs Floyd Rose

[Miskatonic]

I was curious to find out how well the Wilkinson VS100 tremolo, matched up with the LSR roller nut and a set of locking tuners, stays in tune compared to a Floyd Rose setup.

 

[Funky Phil]

I don't think any other trem system will stay in tune like a (genuine) Floyd.

Having said that, the combination you have in mind will be amongst the best of the rest.

 

[stubhead]

My aversion to Floyd Roses is simply based on the fact that when I make up a list of the best-sounding, "Tone God"-type guitarists, no Floyd users show up. Steve Vai and Joe Satriani struggle mightily to sound good - and they do - but compared to Steve Morse, Eric Johnson, Julien Kasper, Oz Noy, SRV? You can be sure these guys all wanted to sound their best, and they all tried a Floyd, for Pete's sakes - and rejected it. Van Halen's best-sounding work was pre-Floyd, IMO.

 

[Ace Flibble]

Eh, I dunno. You can get good tone with Floyds, you just have to really work at it. There are ways to compensate for everything. The main problem with Floyds I think is that they often come on guitars with very thin necks, so it's no wonder those have a thin and overly-bright tone. Try a Floyd on a Les Paul or a more traditional Strat though, something with a little more weight to it - they can sound fine.

As for the Wilkinson & gubbinz vs a Floyd, if you don't pull up much (if at all) and don't want to do full dives often then the Wilkinson, locking tuners and LSR are the way to go. They stay in tune perfectly for regular vibrato and the occasional dive. If you want to do full-on Dragonforce whammy antics then it's the Floyd all the way.

 

[tangent]

I use wilkinson with graphtec saddles and graphtec black tusq nut (so there is teflon coating at both nut and saddle), and planet waves tuners.. the range is a bit less than what you could do with a floyd but I can work it hard and it stays in tune.  It works fine without the graphtec saddles but I find that they are useful if you want to pull up on the trem much, they will keep strings from breaking (the only time I've broken one using string saver saddles was when I was testing them, actively trying to break a string)

I owned a guitar with a floyd once, would never use one again.. too bulky, too complex, ugly IMO.  The only reason I can see for needing a floyd is if you want to do 'special effects' like crazy divebombs, for actually making music instead of effects wilkinson is superior.. its low mass and blade style design make it more sensitive and nimble than floyd/kahler style

 

[Death by Uberschall]

Put a Floyd Upgrades brass block on the OFR and you'll never look back.  :headbang1:

 

[back2thefutre]

I dont like floyds. I like the fender american strat trem, but like a wilk more. Although I hate the wilk wobble...

 

[Justinginn]

I've got a wilk and it stays in pretty near perfect tune up to about the 3rd divebomb (in a row). Like tangent said, I think a wilk will get you anywhere you need to go as long as it's music, not effects. And a wilk is way easier to set up and, in my opinion more reliable.

 

[Cagey]

I was curious to find out how well the Wilkinson VS100 tremolo, matched up with the LSR roller nut and a set of locking tuners, stays in tune compared to a Floyd Rose setup.

What you describe is my favorite setup, although I have a couple guitars with Graphtec nuts instead of LSRs. They work well, too. No string trees on any of them, and they all tune like a dream and stay that way. The Floyds might have a little more range, but it's slight and not really musically useful. For the amount of hardship, cost, discomfort, complexity and aesthetic degradation a Floyd brings, the small added range isn't worth it at all. But, it would be my next choice if the VS100 wasn't available. After those two, a vibrato unit just isn't worth having.

 

[stubhead]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cLWO-8RBes&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYqN-3JEe1Y

Fender US standard two-point. When I hear Jeff's gone Wilky, I'll follow.... :toothy10:

 

[Superlizard]

Van Halen's best-sounding work was pre-Floyd, IMO.

:icon_thumright:

 

[Strat Avenger]

I don't find Floyds to be unattractive.

I also don't get the whole "tone" issue either. A Floyd produces a little less low-end than a typical Strat or hardtail bridge. So what's the problem? Turn up the bass on your amp.
EVH has always gotten excellent tone, and so did John Petrucci when he was using the Ibanez Edge, which is basically a modified version of a Floyd Rose. Vai's tone is amazing, I don't know of any "struggling" happening for him to achieve that. I admit it's not quite going to produce authentic E.J. or S.R.V. tones, but for everything else, it performs quite nicely. I used to know a guy who had a Custom Shop Tom Anderson with a Floyd. It had an alder body with a flame-maple top, maple neck with rosewood fretboard. The tone of that guitar was to die for. That would simply be impossible if the Floyd were a "tone sucker".

 

[Steve_Karl]

I was curious to find out how well the Wilkinson VS100 tremolo, matched up with the LSR roller nut and a set of locking tuners, stays in tune compared to a Floyd Rose setup.

<snip> The Floyds might have a little more range <snip>

The range limit on the VS100 is caused by the block hitting the body. Mine is even a bit more limited because I bought a large brass block.
I'm surprised no one has dremeled out a little pocket to accommodate the butt end of the block where it bumps.
I've been toying with the idea.

 

[Cagey]

That's true. I suspect nobody opens the cavity up because there's little point to it. As it is, you can very nearly get the strings hanging off the neck - where do you go from there? In the case such as yours where a larger "sustain" block has been installed, it would probably make some sense if you were inclined to do Ritchie Blackmore style gyrations, but how often do you need that?

 

[Steve_Karl]

Only very rarely would I need the total dive but I have used it effectively with my G+L that has a Kahler flat mount on it on a few recordings.
I've never had the original block on this one. I put the larger block on there right at the beginning.
Maybe I'll put the original block on first to see if that extra 1/4 inch makes a difference and if the tone changes in a way that I don't like.
Right now it has a lot of "crang" on the bridge pup which I'd hate to loose.

 

[Cagey]

I don't think you'll hear a whole lot of difference, but I haven't tried it so I can't say. It's an easy enough mod that doesn't affect anything, so there's no risk. Do it at the next string change, and leave it until the following string change. Unless, of course, it does make a lot of difference and you don't like it. Then, the price of another set of strings ahead of schedule is small.

 

[DangerousR6]

My aversion to Floyd Roses is simply based on the fact that when I make up a list of the best-sounding, "Tone God"-type guitarists, no Floyd users show up. Steve Vai and Joe Satriani struggle mightily to sound good - and they do - but compared to Steve Morse, Eric Johnson, Julien Kasper, Oz Noy, SRV? You can be sure these guys all wanted to sound their best, and they all tried a Floyd, for Pete's sakes - and rejected it. Van Halen's best-sounding work was pre-Floyd, IMO.

SRV never used a floyd on any of his guitars, Vai and Satch have their own sound, and I've never heard either of them trying to mimic other guitarists' tone. And I've listened ti VH for years and years from begining to now, and his sound hasn't changed much, what changes have occurred were not attributed to Floyd or no Floyd. :doh:

 

[m4rk0]

long story short,

I have been a live long floyd rose fan, but a couple of years ago,. I built a strat for a friend who was tired of changing strings on floyd roses, but wasn't happy with vintage trems either.
so I built him this:

He dive bombs the hell out of it, and gigs it without backup!

Anyway, I loved it so much, I made this for myself:

which in it's turn inspired Luke to build this:

so to answer your question: Yes, great alternative for the Floyd Rose!

 

[Steve_Karl]

woah ... how'd you get this to happen with the black posts.

Did you buy 2 sets, 1 gold and 1 black and swap out the posts?

 

[SustainerPlayer]

woah ... how'd you get this to happen with the black posts.

Did you buy 2 sets, 1 gold and 1 black and swap out the posts?

Planet Waves auto trim tuners always have black posts.