Blocking a UV777...

[006]

Ok, so I want a Universe real bad. They are gorgeous guitars. Reminds me a lot of my EC-1000 with it's black finish and white binding with abalone all over the guitar. I love it. But, I hate Floyd Rose bridges. I have several guitars with them, but they all stay at the studio, and my boss does string changes and tunings, etc on them. I hate them. I never really took the time to just patiently work with the bridge(s) so that I could learn how to tune them and change strings. I mean, I could get it close...but I could never get it to stay in tune. So, if I got the Universe, I would be blocking the trem.

Does that sound stupid? Blocking the trem? On a guitar like that? I mean, I just don't even need the trem though. I like hard-tail/stop-tail bridges. I don't use tremelo, at all. So, I was wondering how you guys would block a trem. When I bought an Ibanez S470 years ago, it had a the Lo-TRSII trem, and I just measured and cut some little blocks of wood and slid them into the cavity to block both sides of the trem. It worked great. Is that pretty much the best/only way, or does anyone have a better mothod? I was thinking that surely somebody had invented something by now that I could order online, or something. But I haven't really looked yet. Thoughts?

~006+1

 

[Elysian]

nothing wrong with blocking the trem... i personally think every model guitar thats going to have a tremelo should also have an option with no tremelo... tremelo equipped guitars oversaturate the market imo.

 

[LordOVchaoS]

I love floyds and have owned SEVERAL over the years. Tuning and changing strings tdoesn't take all that much getting used to. It's like a second nature now.

The best option (when it comes out) is the tremol-no

Check out the demos, it's the best of both worlds.

 

[JJ Rodriguez]

Unless you're in love with the pickguard, I'd say go for a Schecter. Hard tail, and nice black finish, and a lot of their models have binding as well, that and it's cheaper, and made of mahogany if you prefer that for a body wood. It seems for your taste it may be a better, cheaper, and less hassle free option.

 

[Chris]

I block my 7620, as I'm a hardtail guy as well. If it helps, I can snap some pics of it this evening.

 

[7slinger]

The best option (when it comes out) is the tremol-no

I can't wait for that thing

 

[Drew]

Um, I'm not really in a position to drop a hard date or anything, but I can tell you the release date is probabably a lot closer than you think...

 

[006]

That is really cool. I found a thread here with Drew giving an install tutorial with pictures. It's already Feb 2006 in a week or so and still no Tremol-no!? I want like 6 of them, hehe.

~006+1

 

[006]

JJ Rodriguez...

I own a Schecter Hellraiser C7 already. I love it. But I have always liked the UV777 Universe. I just do. I have always like the RG body style, but I hate Floyd's. With this Tremol-No, I'm now looking at a ton of guitars that I've always wanted for myself but never bought because of their trems, hehe. Like I said, I have a lot of FR equipped guitars, but they all stay at the studio, I bought them just to have them, I like collecting things, and they are studio instruments. I don't really play them, except a few of them.

All of my personal guitars are hard-tail or stop-tail. I don't have a use for a trem, at all. Not even diving. I would use the T-No to just basically convert any guitar into a "hard-tail" bridge. I can't wait until they come out, hopefully it's yesterday! I'll be checking allparts.com every day now as well, lol.

~006+1

 

[Chad]

I'll agree. The Tremol-No also has me looking at guitars that I previously would not have considered. The buzz that gadget is creating is pretty awesome considering it's not even available yet!!

 

[Elysian]

i'd like to get one some day...

 

[7stringninja]

I've always loved Floyd Roses personally. I rarely use the tremolo for massive dives, but occassionally use it for vibrato, but most of the time I don't even have the bar in.

My guitar equipped with the Floyd stays in tune better than any Guitar I've ever owned. It's just that the actual tuning process takes slightly longer, but not much longer once you get the hang of it. The fine tuners at the bridge location are a plus IMO as well.

 

[006]

Yeah, I mean they stay in tune amazingly...but at the cost of string changing hassles. Break a string..you have to either unlock the nuts, and retune...or replace the string..in which you have to do everything over again anyway. It's just a pain the ass. I would rather break a string and be able to finish a song, say in a live situation, and then grab my backup afterwards...than have to finish the song sounding like complete shit. Or have to stop altogether to grab a backup..I mean, it's just not practical for me. I'm good enough at guitar to be able to play my riffs anywhere in case a string breaks that I need to use. A lot of people don't spend the time to get that down, so a string breaking on them just screws everything up, regardless of what type of bridge.

For me, I prefer having more sustain, and a thicker tone with better bass response from my guitars. You simply can't beat the sustain from a bridge that is mounted to the guitar's body and delivers that vibration directly to the wood. A neck-thru guitar with a tune-o-matic and string thru setup surpasses a floating bridge in terms of sustain, bass response, and thickness of the tone. Even a neck-thru with a floater doesn't match it. It's just fact. I don't ever need to dive bomb. And I don't need to use a trem arm to do my vibrato, I have fingers on the strings for that.

I don't really HATE floating trems, I mean, I own a lot of guitars with them, I just HATE the string changing, tuning, and setup hassles that come with them. You can't just string up a floater and go. I don't care how good you are at it. It's a much more time consuming process, whether by mere minutes or whatever...it still takes longer. Sometimes you are on stage and for some reason you only have one guitar with you, but you have an extra set of strings in your case. You break a string, you finish the song. You can replace that string in less than 3 minutes flat including tuning and get on with the show. The vocalist can bullshit for 3 minutes easily. Good luck trying that with a floater.

To me, the only advantage is the tuning stability. That's it. But then again, I have locking Schallers and Sperzels on a lot of my guitars, and they stay in tune perfect as well once I lock them down. I dunno, I don't mean to offend anyone or start any arguments, these are just my opinions from my experiences with tons of guitars.

~006+1

 

[tongueofcolicab]

if you look at the parker fly guitars, they have a trem that has a switch to make the trem stop 'floating' and just stay in place. plus it has piezos.

uhm, i usually block my sevens. at first, i didnt want to waste time cutting up blocks of wood everytime, so i took cardboard from a box, cut them up, and taped them all together. while not perfect, it worked like a charm.

but yeah. the tremel-no sounds like the best bet

 

[Kevan]

Ahhh...so it was 006 who called me earlier.

I'm going as fast as I can, guys. AllParts is doing the packaging right now, and the factory is kicking ass cutting parts and putting them together. It'll probably be a couple of months yet. But when they are available, they'll be fantastic.

Didn't you guys know that NAMM stands for "Not Available until Mid-March"?


P.S.- It's not February for a few more days. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

[XEN]

I got this little number straight from Floyd Rose before there was such a thing as a Tremol-No. Personally I like having the fine tuners on the Floyd, but only use the trem for dives. I guess it's my Van Halen influence, the fact that I'm always retuning the guitar from song to song, and that having played a Steinberger with TransTrem for over 10 years, I got used to playing without using the trem like Steve Vai.

Oh, and sorry about the huge pic. I can't edit it from work. They blocked FTP access! Damn Army....

 

[006]

Thats actually a pretty neat concept. More like a quick fix version though. I need something that will hold it both ways. I don't want to dive bomb, pull up...or anything. I won't be using a floating trem for what it's made for at all. I want to turn it into a hard-tail. So I can't wait for the T-No, I'm already sifting around all the guitars I have wanted for myself over the years that have Floyd's on them, so I can contemplate my next purchase and throw a T-No on it.

~006+1

 

[XEN]

At one point I did block it completely using a block of wood I cut to fit on the other side. I found out that I ddin't really need it with all four screws in there, tightened up to the max. I set it so that it is not loose enough to go down without serious pressure on the bar. That's just me, I'm cheap as hell.

 

[Oogadee Boogadee]

My KV3 is blocked.

I'm thinking about removing all the springs and spring anchors and having a clear cavity so I can shove a huge block in there. one that butts up against the inside of the body, as well as the end of the cavity near the neck. I might experiment with different woods to see what effect all this will have on punch. Probably go with maple. with a maple wedge on the narrow side to block from both sides.

anybody ever experiment with such an idea?

 

[006]

I use to block my S470 this way, but I used just regular oak, scrap wood laying around the workshop since my dad was into carpentry at the time. Just adding any wood to the cavity and blocking the trem will make the tone thicker and add some sustain, even if it's crappy wood. It's still going to help bring all the vibration directly to the body. Now, I'm sure different woods will affect the quality of the tone for sure. I'm interested in finding out which ones add what when used.

~006+1