Trem users - you actually use that thing?
- Thread starter tfarny
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abandon_blink
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for me trem bars get in the way. plus i like the sense of solidity there is to a hardtail...not to mention i veryVery rarely bend strings, and never need to to the extent of needing a trem
mullyman
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Here is my trem situation.
Fender Clapton model. Has the 6 screw vintage trem. All scres tightened down to the body, 5 springs in the back. That thing won't move if you hit it with a bulldozer. Never/can't use it.
Warmoth Cherry Burst. Wilkinson trem. Every time I use the trem is goes out of tune. I've tried everything there is to get it to stop that but it won't. I've even given up my ego and taken it a pro. He couldn't get it either. He's certified by ESP so I trust him. Never touch the trem.
Warmoth white strat (Tomoko) has an American Standard trem. To be honest I've never put the bar on to see if it stays in tune or not. So.... I don't use the trem.
Music Man AXIS EX. Floyd Rose. Use it occasionally on some songs but for the most part I could survive without it.
Kramer 5150 Since I got it it's been in it's case. I haven't played that guitar more than 3 times. It's currently on auction here in Japan. I wish someone would buy it.
MULLY
Fender Clapton model. Has the 6 screw vintage trem. All scres tightened down to the body, 5 springs in the back. That thing won't move if you hit it with a bulldozer. Never/can't use it.
Warmoth Cherry Burst. Wilkinson trem. Every time I use the trem is goes out of tune. I've tried everything there is to get it to stop that but it won't. I've even given up my ego and taken it a pro. He couldn't get it either. He's certified by ESP so I trust him. Never touch the trem.
Warmoth white strat (Tomoko) has an American Standard trem. To be honest I've never put the bar on to see if it stays in tune or not. So.... I don't use the trem.
Music Man AXIS EX. Floyd Rose. Use it occasionally on some songs but for the most part I could survive without it.
Kramer 5150 Since I got it it's been in it's case. I haven't played that guitar more than 3 times. It's currently on auction here in Japan. I wish someone would buy it.
MULLY
Cagey
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mullyman said:
That's strange. I have a Wilkinson on my Strat, and I can practically hang the strings off the neck and it'll bounce right back into tune. But, they don't have a whole lotta choice. First, I use a straight headstock with no string trees, loaded wth locking Sperzel tuners. The strings feed through an LSR nut to the bridge, where I have hardened steel roller saddles...
Then, I use three springs on my vibrato block so they're not so stretched out to balance against the string tension. There's no place for the strings to hang up, and the spring vs. string tension is at a more repeatable place on the spring's length. Plus, I sacrifice three chickens and a virgin albino bunny to the guitar gods each week. Works like a charm. I've had other Strats set up the same way, with the same results.
Steve_Karl
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tfarny said:
"2. A large hunk of nonfunctional, heavy gear in the middle of your guitar crucially improves the tone. (?) "
I think that part ( "2 above ) is pure snake oil! My hard tail strat has a great tone and I'd never route it out to put a wang bar in it.
That's why I built ( almost finished ) and other W strat and this time with a wilkie but only for the bar.
I use my wang bar on my G&L when I'm playing it, but always end up going back to my hard tail because of tone ( just un amped tone... on my lap ) and stability.
Super Turbo Deluxe Custom
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I've never cared for trems of any kind. My Strat has 5 springs with the claw tightened all the way up.
As far as Strats having to have a trem, the first year for the Strat was 1954. It was offered in a trem and hardtail version.
As far as getting one from Fender, occasionally the Am. Standard is offered with a hardtail. The Big Apple Strat from years ago had a hardtail version. There's always the Custom Shop and the Robert Cray Strat. But...like most of you guys and gal, I'm done buying Fenders.
As far as Strats having to have a trem, the first year for the Strat was 1954. It was offered in a trem and hardtail version.
As far as getting one from Fender, occasionally the Am. Standard is offered with a hardtail. The Big Apple Strat from years ago had a hardtail version. There's always the Custom Shop and the Robert Cray Strat. But...like most of you guys and gal, I'm done buying Fenders.
Steve_Karl
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Cagey said:
Thanks!
They fit a VS-100 ?
Cagey
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Steve_Karl said:
Yes. They don't have the same range of adjustment, but what you lose you don't need anyway unless your mounting posts are too far from the nut, resulting in too long a scale length. The standard VS100 saddles are quite long, which allows for quite a bit of slop in the mounting post location. If you've got a Warmoth body, you don't need all that length. I also didn't have any trouble on my Fender or Levinson Strats. I can't say for other bodies. I imagine they make them that way because those bridges are often installed after the fact rather than at the factory, so they have to have a lot of compensation available "just in case".
I have one guitar with a Floyd, and I never wang on it like it deserves. Don't get me wrong, it does it's job perfectly! For the odd show where I've actually USED the vibrato, it's stayed in tune PERFECTLY. However, I don't find that it's worth the side effects.
Steve_Karl
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Cagey said:
Great info. Thanks!
Superlizard
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GoDrex said:
EJ does the same ( can be found in "Manhattan" for ex).
At 1:07 here:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUsjURfdQ4g[/youtube]
Basically speaking, you know your standard harmonics (12th fret, 5th, 7th etc)... it's all about nodes along the string length.
So, fret any note anywhere, then tap *on* the fret (to produce harmonic) 12 frets up... that's one way.
Intersperse that with actual plucked notes (be it with pick or finger), or tapped (hard) notes for extra pizazz.
EVH does this too - the harmonic tapping part, that is (Women In Love intro, for ex).
Superlizard
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Steve_Karl said:
He's just exaggerating because I mentioned:
Superlizard said:
Of course, the trem, the saddles on the trem, the springs, the block and the huge bunch of wood missing to fit all
that in the guitar *does* affect the tone.
Whether or not the above "crucially improves the tone" (as he implies I "said") is purely subjective from one player to the next...
and is certainly nothing close to what I even stated. :icon_scratch:
But the standard Strat tone does include these items... putting a Bigsby or tune-o-matic (for ex)
on a Strat will definitely stray from said standard Strat tone.
W
wolf5150
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A trem is absolutely crucial to me.
I use it to slur into and out of notes and to add vibrato to notes and chords... when I've played a guitar without one, I miss it.
My guitars have plenty of sustain and bottom end, so having one isn't handicapping me in any way :headbang1:
I use it to slur into and out of notes and to add vibrato to notes and chords... when I've played a guitar without one, I miss it.
My guitars have plenty of sustain and bottom end, so having one isn't handicapping me in any way :headbang1:
I used to hate them, but because of Jeff Beck specifically, I built a guitar with a good two-point bridge 3 years ago. I also play steel guitar, and that ability to shape the notes.... I got real fanatic about it, practicing scales, half-step raises and whole step lowers all over the neck, but as time went by that has become one of my least-played guitars. It's easier and more predictable for me to get those notes with a steel guitar, or a slide - Beck is really the only guitarist doing with it what I'd want it to do, and for some reason (bad luck? celestial mis-alignment?) my guitar doesn't make me sound like Jeff Beck. :sad1: :sad1: :sad1:
One of these years I may yet build an exact-er Beck-o-caster with the right roller net, a Fender standard two-point, mebbe a scalloped boatneck... I have a lot of guitars right now, I'd need to get rid of one to have any room for another. Floyds ruin tone, Van Halen never sounded as good after he went Floyd and though I'm sure Vai and Satriani try everything possible, I'd never put them in the tone category of a Johnson, Morse, Santana, Allman etc. Supposedly the six-screw whammies sound more woody than the two-point ones, but they absolutely won't do the precise whole-step bends that I would want a whammy for in the first place.
One of these years I may yet build an exact-er Beck-o-caster with the right roller net, a Fender standard two-point, mebbe a scalloped boatneck... I have a lot of guitars right now, I'd need to get rid of one to have any room for another. Floyds ruin tone, Van Halen never sounded as good after he went Floyd and though I'm sure Vai and Satriani try everything possible, I'd never put them in the tone category of a Johnson, Morse, Santana, Allman etc. Supposedly the six-screw whammies sound more woody than the two-point ones, but they absolutely won't do the precise whole-step bends that I would want a whammy for in the first place.
Superlizard
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stubhead said:
Ah, you've noticed too.
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