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.
Comments
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.
is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?
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.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Floyd-Rose-Brass-Tremolo-Back-Stop-Lock-SL1/141825338522?epid=1691075051&hash=item210572ec9a:g:SM0AAOSwhcJWQx8G
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 ?
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.
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?