Are OFR Arms + Couplers Still a Crapshoot After the 2022 Redesign?

[groverj3]

Question in the title.

I see that the Original Floyd Rose has undergone some minor redesigns in the past couple years. I've noticed that the locking nuts are much more consistent and less likely to produce "sitar" noises due to rough metal where strings leave the nut, plus the markings are different on the buttom now.

Lo and behold the website details using more modern CNC, changes to markings on the baseplate and nuts. But buried in the website is also that the arm coupler has been redesigned: https://www.floydrose.com/products/frtachwsp

I'd been moving to the push-in arm when I have a coupler with poor fit. I also tried the Sophia tremolo arm + coupler and it's better than a bad stock arm but still not as solid as the push-in arm.

However, are these any better now after this redesign?

 

[Emperoff]

Who cares? Just replace it with the push-in arm either way

 

[MetalDestroyer]

Red bishop magik arm is better

 

[SamSam]

Red bishop magik arm is better

Red Bishop arms are indeed excellent!

 

[Grindspine]

Red bishop magik arm is better

I just received the one that I ordered and plan on installing it this weekend to compare to my Lo-Pro with the Ibanez UTA20 ultra-lite push in arm, my ESP with a Floyd Original, my guitars with Gotoh 1996t, and my guitars with the Edge Zero 2 arm. If the Red Bishop is as nice as the Edge Zero 2 arm (push-in with a torque adjust nut), then it will be a definite win!

 

[MetalDestroyer]

I just received the one that I ordered and plan on installing it this weekend to compare to my Lo-Pro with the Ibanez UTA20 ultra-lite push in arm, my ESP with a Floyd Original, my guitars with Gotoh 1996t, and my guitars with the Edge Zero 2 arm. If the Red Bishop is as nice as the Edge Zero 2 arm (push-in with a torque adjust nut), then it will be a definite win!

I dunno about Ibanez, but last summer I took two identical ESP Standard Horizon NT-II’s and installed an OFR push-in arm in one and a magik arm in the other. The OFR push-in arm is barely an upgrade. I just wanna wiggle without the arm clicking back and forth in its socket, and only the magik arm eliminates the slop. If you don’t wiggle, I’d say the stock bar is fine and if you wiggle you need the red bishop. Not sure who the in-between would realistically be aimed at aside from people who don’t know the red bishop arm exists.

 

[groverj3]

So, nobody knows. I like the push-in bar, but maybe order one of these to see for myself.

 

[Grindspine]

I dunno about Ibanez, but last summer I took two identical ESP Standard Horizon NT-II’s and installed an OFR push-in arm in one and a magik arm in the other. The OFR push-in arm is barely an upgrade. I just wanna wiggle without the arm clicking back and forth in its socket, and only the magik arm eliminates the slop. If you don’t wiggle, I’d say the stock bar is fine and if you wiggle you need the red bishop. Not sure who the in-between would realistically be aimed at aside from people who don’t know the red bishop arm exists.

I posted on this thread already; while doing some guitar maintenance, I installed the Majik arm, but realized how loose the original Edge bar holder was. After some tightening, the original Edge bar feels just like the Majik arm.

Ibanez Edge series trem arm question

BTW here's Jemsite on the bar around the time it came out. they have their biases, but generally the tecnical info is good, and this is WAY lighter, 1/3 the weight of the regular. It's not just a sleeve around a regular bar. https://www.jemsite.com/threads/carbon-fiber-tremolo-bar.127000/...

www.sevenstring.org

I have a Floyd push-in arm with collar on my E-II Arrow 7. So far, I am not a huge fan of that design. It definitely has the clunky, loose feeling of the bar having play in it.