Tremolo and hardtail

rounce55

Senior Member
Messages
467
Ok guys I need your help. I have a gibson explorer with a tunomatic hardtail. Does this mean I cant put any tremolo on their because of the routing?
 
One option, if you don't want to rout, would be to try the Stetsbar.

www.stetsbar.com

I have no idea how good it is, or how well it works, but it advertises as a drop-in trem for guitars with stoptails.
 
that's totally awesome!!! If anybody has one, please write a review! I want one, if it's as good as I hope...
 
Never heard of those, cool link Xplorer.  Rockskate, there's also the Vibramate, which lets you replace a stopbar with a Bigsby, also without modification.
 
I do not personally have any experience with the Stetsbar, but a friend had one on a vintage Les Paul, and loved it.  He was able to go back to stock without any problems when he decided to sell the Paul.
 
Bigsby's are excellent for light trem stuff, so I'd definitely like one on my classier Gibby style guitar... but I'd like to know about the other trem too since it can supposedly divebomb or whatever...
 
Ok so I'm going with the stetsbar, because I talked to Eric, the owner/creator, and it can handle dive bombs and stuff which i]I enjoy, and that's the kind of music I play. So when I get it Ill take pics and a video to show you. Also it's ridiculously expensive. 400$$$$!!!!!!!
 
I think I'll be waiting a while for the technology to catch up with the price in that case... I've never seen any hardware that I would pay $400 for...
 
rockskate4x said:
I think I'll be waiting a while for the technology to catch up with the price in that case... I've never seen any hardware that I would pay $400 for...

For 400 dollars you could just buy a floyd rose and a body (or a tech to modify your guitar)

I have also seen that floyd rose thing that supposedly fits a Strat without requiring the nut/body modification.. also about 3-400 dollars.
 
well, the problem with the stetsbar is that you don't have a lot of travel, well, actually, virtually none. its like a bigsby.

if you want a tremolo, buy a kahler. best tremolo in the world. use the 2215; aluminium cam, brass sadles. just like on an older gibson bridge/tailstop combination. and yeah, you do have to rout. but thats a small price for a great tremolo. in my opinion.
 
Ok so I just sold my drum set and I have enough for the stets bar and when I get it I'll tell you guys how it is.
 
or if you want a more shreddy approach to things, I think there is a kahler trem that just drops into the tom/stop bridge like yours.

http://www.kahlerusa.com/home.html  -2200 series.
 
Ryan (Rounce55) said:
Ok so I'm going with the stetsbar, because I talked to Eric, the owner/creator,

Does anyone else find it odd that an owner/creator would speak positively of his invention to sell it to someone?  Strange.  Strange indeed.

It may be the greatest thing ever, but I'd get an unbiased opinion.
 
a stetsbar does NOT have the range of a nice trem like a floyd, kahler or wilkinson/hipshot. its more like a stratstyle trem, no, even less. but more than a bigsby.

a kahler does NOT  fit drop-in on a studmount bridge like the tune o matic. you NEED to rout.
 
Orpheo said:
a stetsbar does NOT have the range of a nice trem like a floyd, kahler or wilkinson/hipshot. its more like a stratstyle trem, no, even less. but more than a bigsby.

a kahler does NOT  fit drop-in on a studmount bridge like the tune o matic. you NEED to rout.

Thanks and yeah I figured I wouldn't get the full tremolo effect but it'd still be nice to have a tremolo.
 
I just got my kahler. its such a goddamn great unit. can't stop talking about it. its sleek, slender, looks great, and is HEAVY!!!! almost 500 grams. this baby will sustain for days!
 
Orpheo said:
I just got my kahler. its such a goddamn great unit. can't stop talking about it. its sleek, slender, looks great, and is HEAVY!!!! almost 500 grams. this baby will sustain for days!

But it won't fit on my guitar?
 
Ryan (Rounce55) said:
Orpheo said:
I just got my kahler. its such a goddamn great unit. can't stop talking about it. its sleek, slender, looks great, and is HEAVY!!!! almost 500 grams. this baby will sustain for days!

But it won't fit on my guitar?

sure it will fit. you need to rout a bit though, as I've always told people, and kahler too. You've got your tremblock underneath the unit, and that needs space to pivot.

the stetsbar will take away 'some' sustain, and change the tone a bit, a bit more fuzzy, and the range is just not enough for a nice divebomb or pull up. at least, in my opinion. and: it does not have finetuners! aka; useless if you have a locking nut. absolutely useless. and: it doesnt stay as good in tune as one would hope for. and its bloody expensive!

the kahler is more stable, weighs more, more solid brass, thus, more mass for the string to vibrate. the string doesnt have that kind of energy, so the energy which the string transfers to those metal blocks gets reflected, resulting in more energy in the string, thus: more sustain. the string has the same transferpoints of energy as with a tune o matic; saddle and tailstop, and that goes to studs into the body. a 2200 has, imho, a better tone than the 2300 (studmount vs flatmount). the flatmount is made for a strattype guitar, with those same transferpoints, so it doesn't differ in sound as much, a 2200 is made for a tune o matic style guitar.

the routing is very easy, and if you have the kahler in place, you dont see it. If you want to get your normal ToM bridge, you can fill it with a piece of wood, regular black nailpolish from your girlfriend, and you dont see it, well, you will ofcourse, but it wont be a hole anymore. your axe is black, as far as I can see, so a good luthier can blend the finish in with the old, so you dont see it, but why would you want to change it? a kahler ROCKS. if you look on youtube, and you watch the vids 'floyd vs kahler', you might think, damn, the kahler stinks! but bare in mind, the player there, has a bias towards floyd rose tremolo's, thats obvious. the bending issue, is a nonissue. I've had and tried 5 kahlers, old and new, and none of them had the 'bending' issue. true, the range isn't as far as with the floyd. but: if you take the other trem arm, the shorter one, you have just as much, no,even more range, than with the floyd.

also, sustain. the kahler has MORE sustain than a floyd. had a floyd guitar, tried it out, retrofitted it with a kahler, and the kahler had 8 seconds more sustain...

also, the kahler has more ways of adjusting. radius, saddleheight, stringspacing... thats what you can adjust. with the floyd; try it, and go bazurk. you can't do it with a floyd.

the kahler is also less prone to failure. sure you see this stuff on the site of kahler, those 14 points. but setting up a floyd is HELL. its a floating unit, where the kahler is more easy to work with, cause it acts like a fixed bridge (regarding intonation and stuff). oh, intonation is also easier...

the trem arm is on a kahler on a better location. my hand always bumps in the tremarm when I play, on any other trem, cause its so close to the saddles. I bruised my hand once, cause I was doing heavy palm mutes on a floyd-guitar, and my hand bumped into the arm, cause I forgot it was a floyd-guitar... try that with a kahler! the tremarm sits more backwards, so your hand wont hit it!

also, you can adjust the tremarm tension and springtension of the block on TOP of the unit! you don't have to turn it over or take it apart to adjust it. just 1 allen wrench, twist and turn, and its tone. the tremarmadjustment works great. with a floyd, you've got that sleeve. if you swirl the arm around a couple of times, the arm will come loose a bit, and you have to readjust that sleeve. with a kahler, no such thing. if you want it to stay in one place, it will, over and over again.

with a stetsbar, you've got several options of the kahler, but nowhere near as much as on the kahler, in every aspect...
 
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