NGD it"s got a whammy

baldy

After playing some now discontinued ESP, which I don"t know the model of, a while back I got the hankering for a 25.5" scale, 22 jumbo fret, flattish neck, Seymour Duncan JB & 59 hardtail as it was the most comfortable thing I had played to date & sounded great.
I looked for several weeks trying to find a guitar with that spec to go & try & really the only 2 guitars that seemed to match that spec were the Cort KX Custom & Charvel Pro Mod San Dimas style 1.
Unfortunately I couldn"t find anyone with the Cort in stock within a reasonable drive from me but managed to find a dealer with the Charvel.
I went to said dealers & when I got there found that the Charvel they had was the Floyd version not the hard tail, not sure who"s mistake that was, but I was there so tried it anyway.
I have an illogical fear of trems & block them off because I don"t trust their tuning stability & at present have 2 guitars with the trems "blocked.
Well one actually as one is with lamf68 being re-finished, but that will be another thread.
Anyway this guitar was very comfortable to play with it"s 12"-16" compound radius neck, had great tone, loads of sustain & the Floyd was extremely stable tuning wise (I know that they are a lot more fiddly to change strings on but as I am a home player it doesn"t matter to me if it takes longer).
After a while playing it I had to have it so on Wednesday it became mine.
I am at present getting used to picking slightly differently as I have been resting my hand on the stop tail or bridge of my other guitars which obviously with this guitar sharpens the pitch so I am resting my palm just behind where the strings come off the saddles, with varying degrees of success in not altering pitch but as they say practice makes perfect.
Here"s some pictures of it it.
It is more of a deep wine red than the colour it looks in my pictures, the official description is see through red I think.

Paul7926

Very nice.

Funkfingers

A friend of mine has a January 2014 version of your guitar. (Black Duncans. No tone control.) His guitar is set up with 9-42 gauge strings. The vibrato has three tension springs. It only squirms a little bit during string bends. This could be prevented with a Tremol-No doobrie. 

baldy said:

Floyd ... I know that they are a lot more fiddly to change strings on but, as I am a home player, it doesn"t matter to me if it takes longer.

During a recent visit to a guitar magazine website, I noticed a specially shaped plate device that is meant to make string changes easier. The web page mentioned no Dollar price, let alone one in Pounds Sterling. Not to worry. A much cheaper item already exists to keep a Floyd Rose vibrato bridge tilted up for string changing. The humble PP3 battery.

bloodandtears

Funkfingers said:

A friend of mine has a January 2014 version of your guitar. (Black Duncans. No tone control.) His guitar is set up with 9-42 gauge strings. The vibrato has three tension springs. It only squirms a little bit during string bends. This could be prevented with a Tremol-No doobrie. 

baldy said:

Floyd ... I know that they are a lot more fiddly to change strings on but, as I am a home player, it doesn"t matter to me if it takes longer.

During a recent visit to a guitar magazine website, I noticed a specially shaped plate device that is meant to make string changes easier. The web page mentioned no Dollar price, let alone one in Pounds Sterling. Not to worry. A much cheaper item already exists to keep a Floyd Rose vibrato bridge tilted up for string changing. The humble PP3 battery.

I use my strap, folded up, to perform the exact same purpose...  the closer to the neutral point it is when I wedge the strap underneath the bridge, the quicker the tune up process becomes..

baldy

Funkfingers said:

A friend of mine has a January 2014 version of your guitar. (Black Duncans. No tone control.) His guitar is set up with 9-42 gauge strings. The vibrato has three tension springs. It only squirms a little bit during string bends. This could be prevented with a Tremol-No doobrie. 

baldy said:

Floyd ... I know that they are a lot more fiddly to change strings on but, as I am a home player, it doesn"t matter to me if it takes longer.

During a recent visit to a guitar magazine website, I noticed a specially shaped plate device that is meant to make string changes easier. The web page mentioned no Dollar price, let alone one in Pounds Sterling. Not to worry. A much cheaper item already exists to keep a Floyd Rose vibrato bridge tilted up for string changing. The humble PP3 battery.

I am not really worried about changing strings TBH.
I have watched a few videos & chatted to the seller about it & I am not particularly fazed by it, I just realise that it will take longer than my hard tails & is not quite so straight forward.

baldy

Funkfingers said:

A friend of mine has a January 2014 version of your guitar. (Black Duncans. No tone control.) His guitar is set up with 9-42 gauge strings. The vibrato has three tension springs. It only squirms a little bit during string bends. This could be prevented with a Tremol-No doobrie. 

Mine also has 9-42"s on it.
My only concern is that I have got used to anchoring the corner of my picking hand on the corner of the stop tail on my LP style guitars & corner of the bridge on my others.
With this having a 2 way floating bridge obviously that makes the pitch go sharp.
My guitar tutor says it is just a matter of finding the "sweet spot" of where I can rest my palm without affecting pitch.
I have only played it for about an hour & a half since getting it home, a lot of that messing with the whammy bar, so it is still early days.

dbphoto

I have bought one of these for every Floyd equipped guitar I have ever had:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Floyd-Rose-Brass-Tremolo-Back-Stop-Lock-SL1/141825338522?epid=1691075051&hash=item210572ec9a:g:SM0AAOSwhcJWQx8G

baldy

That"s a handy looking little device dbphoto.
I wonder though if I am being to fussy as the pitch is only very slightly sharp by me resting my palm on the Bass E & B fine tuners, & it does feel very comfortable like that.
Since starting to play I have been a stickler for everything being 100% exact.
Tuning exact, intonation exact etc, which TBF the guitar is, even after "severe" whammy bar use.
My stepson is a far far better player than me & he takes more of a "that is close enough" approach & he sounds great ?

fastonebaz

I have this same guitar.  Is the best playing guitar I've ever owned.  Superb tone and neck

stonevibe

Nice guitars. I have a So Cal and it plays very well indeed with a lovely neck and good fretwork.

baldy

I agree that the quality of the guitar is superb.
I have gone to it from a Yamaha Pacifica 611 HFM (hard tail) which was a very good quality guitar also but this does feel a step up.
If I really can"t get on with the Floyd I do have options including the little gizmo dbphoto posted which would allow me to rest my palm where I want to or swapping it for the hard tail version although they are now only available in natural ash or white, neither of which colour I really like.
I have just had another 10-15 minutes playing it & if I rest my palm fractionally behind where the strings come off the saddles there is no pitch change but I occasionally very slightly mute a string, it is very slight though & may disappear with practice.
The very light pitch sharpening I mentioned is not really noticeable to my ear but bugs me because I can see that it is happening on the tuner.
As I said maybe I am being to picky.

Marshall_stax

Double post!

Marshall_stax

bloodandtears said:

Funkfingers said:

A friend of mine has a January 2014 version of your guitar. (Black Duncans. No tone control.) His guitar is set up with 9-42 gauge strings. The vibrato has three tension springs. It only squirms a little bit during string bends. This could be prevented with a Tremol-No doobrie. 

baldy said:

Floyd ... I know that they are a lot more fiddly to change strings on but, as I am a home player, it doesn"t matter to me if it takes longer.

During a recent visit to a guitar magazine website, I noticed a specially shaped plate device that is meant to make string changes easier. The web page mentioned no Dollar price, let alone one in Pounds Sterling. Not to worry. A much cheaper item already exists to keep a Floyd Rose vibrato bridge tilted up for string changing. The humble PP3 battery.

I use my strap, folded up, to perform the exact same purpose...  the closer to the neutral point it is when I wedge the strap underneath the bridge, the quicker the tune up process becomes..

I use a pack of cards as it allows a greater degree of accuracy getting the thing level. Too low, add some cards. Too high, take a couple out. Simples!

Marshall_stax

Marshall_stax

Henrytwang

dbphoto said:

I have bought one of these for every Floyd equipped guitar I have ever had:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Floyd-Rose-Brass-Tremolo-Back-Stop-Lock-SL1/141825338522?epid=1691075051&hash=item210572ec9a:g:SM0AAOSwhcJWQx8G

Handy looking little device, sometimes the simple ideas are the best.

DeeTee

For that little tremelo stop can I ask a question - what's the point of getting a FR equipped guitar if you're putting one of these on it? I'm not being facetious, I mean I think there's something I'm missing here, because I get the impression that gadget stops the Floyd from being a true floating trem.

Is it just that a Floyd gives a greater range of downward motion than a regular trem? Or is it for if you love everything about a guitar apart from the Floyd?

dbphoto

DeeTee said:

Or is it for if you love everything about a guitar apart from the Floyd?

Exactly this.

DeeTee

Gotcha, thanks. So it would be useful if I somehow got my hands on a Music Man Axis!