Has anyone a wilkinson recessed?

[Bruno]

Hi all,
there're big difference with not recessed tremolo rout?
Aesthetically, the route is fully covered from the base of VS100?
Do you have same pics?
Thanks in advance

 

[Cagey]

LJBarbeau (among a number of others) did a recessed Wilkinson late last year...

...although he said he wouldn't do another. There's nothing functional to be gained from it. The travel isn't increased at all because the limiting factor is the sustain block hitting the wall of the route internally, not the base plate running out of pivot space. No surprise there, really.

Although, sitting down in the guitar can clean up the lines a bit, as in SeanM's Soloist...

So, there may be some minor aesthetic gain by recessing the thing, but they're not tall or complex bridges to begin with.

 

[crash]

...although he said he wouldn't do another. There's nothing functional to be gained from it. The travel isn't increased at all because the limiting factor is the sustain block hitting the wall of the route internally, not the base plate running out of pivot space. No surprise there, really.

By bridge sits pretty low so I do gain some room with the recessed area.

I'm pulling back the trem bar as far as I can in the picture.

 

[Cagey]

It does appear that you're gaining a bit there.

 

[NLD09]

I gain a bit of extra room with mine. The main thing is that with a standard vibrato unit you hit the body pretty hard when you pull up, but with the route pulling up feels a bit... softer I guess?

 

[Cagey]

Well, that's two votes "for", and one "against".

I know with mine I always get the top-mount route and "float" them, and hitting the body or the cavity wall seems to happen at about the same point, which seems to be what Mr. Barbeau experienced with his VIP as well. I've been tempted a couple times to whip out the router and move that inner wall forward a bit, but then it gets dangerously close to the mounting bushing holes. That seems a bit scary - I gotta think you want some decent wood around those holes or they're liable to get sloppy over time. That would be NFG, as it would be difficult to repair.

 

[m4rk0]

I have a bunch of them:

and here is Luke's:

 

[Steve_Karl]

I've been tempted a couple times to whip out the router and move that ...

The back wall is the one that bothers me. No real loss there.

 

[Cagey]

I don't understand what you're saying. If there's no loss in moving the back wall, why would it bother you to move it? And while we're on the subject, why move it? It's rarely in the way. Or, perhaps we're not talking about the same wall? I'm talking about the vibrato's cavity wall that's closer to the bridge pickup. The sustain block hits it in some cases, which limits how far up you can pull on the vibrato. In that case, moving that wall forward (toward the neck) allows you a greater arc of travel on the bridge.

 

[pabloman]

- I gotta think you want some decent wood around those holes or they're liable to get sloppy over time. That would be NFG, as it would be difficult to repair.

:icon_scratch: :dontknow: :doh: :icon_biggrin:

 

[Steve_Karl]

More clear for Cagey: ( sorry for being vague )

Yes. I understand you mean the wall under the studs.

The back wall is the one that bothers me as I'm not getting the depth of dive I'm used to with a kahler flat mount because the block is hitting it.
I'm sure some of it is the big brass block I got as a replacement for the stock block, but since I've never had the stock
block springed up, I don't know how much range I'm really missing.

It's on my "get to" list to swap in the stock block to experience the depth of dive, and also see if the big brass one is just snake oil, or not, when it comes to tone.

Anyway, there'd be no danger of damaging anything by taking some wood out of the back wall if I discover I can't live without the big brass block.

( KGC made the block )
http://www.killerguitarcomponents.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=41&category_id=12&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=53

 

[Cagey]

Ok, I understand now.

 

[Steve_Karl]

Well ... I got the stock block on there now for the first time other than the initial out of the box (make sure the strings line up) test,
and yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ........ I've got the dive range I need.
The tone is very slightly different, now a bit less solid in the mids, but a bit more sparkle ... no noticeable loss in sustain.
I suspect I'm gonna be happier with the stock block.

 

[Cagey]

Good to know. I suspected as much, but not having done it I couldn't say for sure. Reading the testimonials, you'd think installing one of those blocks would cause your guitar to crap gold nuggets faster than you could cast them into ingots and sell them, not to mention making you sound like Jimi Hendrix, SRV, and Steve Vai all rolled into one.

 

[Steve_Karl]

Yea.
You'd think that they'd have been aware that they were drastically changing the dive range with that design.