Tomatonator said:
What's modified about the bridge? I'm not familiar enough to see it
I think it's the same one I'm considering.
I think the way the operator arm mounts is improved on the Wilkinson design vs. the vintage Fender part, so you don't end up with an excessively loose, sloppy operation. Other than that, it's the same dysfunctional bridge.
If you're building a new guitar and you want a vibrato bridge, and you have a choice, you have the opportunity to take advantage of design improvements that have been around for 40+ years rather than suffer Leo's lack of a basic mechanical engineering background. While the 6-point vibrato certainly isn't his worst design, and for roughly 15 years or so was the best available, it's still less than ideal. Its ability to maintain tuning is erratic at best, and if you're one of those people who's on a 24/7 mission to maintain tuning within ±1 cent (which is a pointless ambition, but another rant), you'll quickly question your will to live playing a guitar so equipped. They also have a limited range, and the tendency to rob the instrument of sustain and articulation. And yes, I know Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Robin Trower, Stevie Ray Vaugn,
et al played on those bridges and achieved some well-deserved success, but the fact is all those guys were
very fluid players who never heard a note they didn't think couldn't be improved by bending, vibrating or sliding into or out of it. Most of them probably haven't been in tune for more than a minute at a time their entire lives, but what their playing style doesn't hide, the recording studio engineers do.
If you want a vibrato bridge, you want something with a two-point knife edge fulcrum like Floyd Rose used on his original design. His design, along with a locking nut, was the first vibrato that worked so effectively that you could slacken the strings until they were practically hanging off the neck and still come back very close to tune. At least, close enough for ork 'n' orr at high volumes, which is no mean feat. VanHalen was one of the first to use that bridge, and I'm sure you've heard some of what he's done for rock music.
Simultaneously or not very long after Floyd started producing his bridge commercially, the ever-industrious and crafty Germans (Schaller or Sperzel, not sure which) came up with locking tuners, which essentially eliminated the need for Mr. Rose's locking nut (although it's still widely used because guitarists are ornery that way) and dramatically reduced the need for the complexity of the bridge itself by eliminating the need for microtuners at the saddles.
Today, everybody and their brother uses the two-point knife edge fulcrum on the vibrato bridges they want to work well, even Fender. Those manufacturers who still make the 6-point version available do so only because there are still a surprising number of players out there who
need to be slapped about the head and shoulders until they get their mind right believe they need them to achieve some tonal performance. The market is too lucrative/large to ignore, so you still see the things even on some new instruments.
But, don't be fooled. The two-point is the way to go, in conjunction with locking tuners and a well-cut nut. You get simplicity, more range, better tone, greater stability and a more reliable return to neutral. The Wilkinson VS-100 is one of the more popular, but as I said,
everybody in the bridge business makes that style now.
