Gotoh trem GE1996T quality question. Is this normal?

[MASS DEFECT]

So, I bought this bnew from a Reverb seller. The plating/metal plate finishing looks like this. My FR originals, Schallers, and even my FR1000 and cheap floyds have a smoother finish than this.

Is this normal? Or a reasonable return? For Gotoh trem owners, how does yours look like?

 

[CleansingCarnage]

I would say that is not normal and is not representative of the Gotohs I've seen.

 

[Grindspine]

So, I bought this bnew from a Reverb seller. The plating/metal plate finishing looks like this. My FR originals, Schallers, and even my FR1000 and cheap floyds have a smoother finish than this.

Is this normal? Or a reasonable return? For Gotoh trem owners, how does yours look like?

View attachment 146264View attachment 146265View attachment 146266View attachment 146267View attachment 146268View attachment 146269View attachment 146270

Seriously,

If you have to zoom in with your iphone, it is not a fucking issue.

Customers like you, who want unreasonable perfection, are annoying as fuck, and part of the problem of western society wanting everything perfect and immediately.

Get over yourself. It looks like you haven't even installed it on the fucking guitar yet.

 

[MASS DEFECT]

Seriously,

If you have to zoom in with your iphone, it is not a fucking issue.

Customers like you, who want unreasonable perfection, are annoying as fuck, and part of the problem of western society wanting everything perfect and immediately.

Get over yourself. It looks like you haven't even installed it on the fucking guitar yet.

Who hurt you today bro? Relaaaax.
Lol the camera isnt even zoomed in. Point and shoot in natural light.

Why are you Americans so angry geeeeezzzz

 

[MaxOfMetal]

So, I bought this bnew from a Reverb seller. The plating/metal plate finishing looks like this. My FR originals, Schallers, and even my FR1000 and cheap floyds have a smoother finish than this.

Is this normal? Or a reasonable return? For Gotoh trem owners, how does yours look like?

View attachment 146264View attachment 146265View attachment 146266View attachment 146267View attachment 146268View attachment 146269View attachment 146270

I've had some with rough plating, especially black, but that's the worst I've seen that I can remember off hand.

 

[MASS DEFECT]

I've had some with rough plating, especially black, but that's the worst I've seen that I can remember off hand.

Thanks for the straightforward and reasonable response, goodsir!

Does it make the plating weaker in the long run?

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Thanks for the straightforward and reasonable response, goodsir!

Does it make the plating weaker in the long run?

Not that I've noticed so long as you keep it clean-ish, but that's normal stuff. Schallers looked like this in the 90's, and most of them look almost new.

 

[Randy]

Worst I've seen on one of these.

 

[Grindspine]

Who hurt you today bro? Relaaaax.
Lol the camera isnt even zoomed in. Point and shoot in natural light.

Why are you Americans so angry geeeeezzzz

Probably an exaggerated response to years of dealing with people wanting perfection. Seriously, working with metal, wood, or flesh, imperfection exists. 100% perfection is a great goal to have, but nothing is perfect, and I am tired of dealing with the facade that anything is perfect. Those pictures are taken within two inches of the surface in question. I would consider that pretty damn zoomed based on my phone camera.

I literally just ordered a Gotoh 1996 7 string trem for my E-II arrow 7 to replace the Floyd that it has now. Seeing an imperfection on the edge like that, which does not affect performance or feel would not encourage me to go to a forum to question if it was a return or not.

Back when I worked in the music instrument industry, I dealt with returns that required a zoom lens to capture. I got fed up with customer expectations back then. Apparently the sentiment has not faded much with time.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Probably an exaggerated response to years of dealing with people wanting perfection. Seriously, working with metal, wood, or flesh, imperfection exists. 100% perfection is a great goal to have, but nothing is perfect, and I am tired of dealing with the facade that anything is perfect. Those pictures are taken within two inches of the surface in question. I would consider that pretty damn zoomed based on my phone camera.

I literally just ordered a Gotoh 1996 7 string trem for my E-II arrow 7 to replace the Floyd that it has now. Seeing an imperfection on the edge like that, which does not affect performance or feel would not encourage me to go to a forum to question if it was a return or not.

Back when I worked in the music instrument industry, I dealt with returns that required a zoom lens to capture. I got fed up with customer expectations back then. Apparently the sentiment has not faded much with time.

Yeah, nothing is perfect, but that's not an excuse to say "fuck it" and not even try.

I make stuff for a living, and if I put that out I'd be embarrassed. That's a Monday Morning/Friday Afternoon job. Maybe 15 more minutes on the bench grinder and it would have been as near perfect as possible, but dude just wasn't feeling it that day.

And sure, this isn't going to render the bridge inoperable, but it could lead to premature failure of the finish, which can have an impact down the road, especially on resale.

 

[MatrixClaw]

IMO, that looks bad and I'd send it back. Imperfections like that on the inside, like #4 and #5 wouldn't bother me, but the outside looks like it was improperly cast. I would be embarrassed to sell that if it were me, and the fact that someone would have a problem with that being returned is wild it's not like that's the part of the trem that is typically covered at the edges by wood... It's the metal that's supposed to float above the body.

 

[Grindspine]

My 1990 B.C. Rich Platinum Virgin and 1995 Washburn Dime 333 have both been retrofitted with Gotoh 1996t tremolo bridges. Here are pictures of all of their edges. None of them are polished smooth. Those bridges have been on the respective guitars since 2016 and have not had any premature finish wear.

Those edges are not meant to be polished. The OG post was bitching about finished metal edges that were never meant to be polished smooth as they are not edges that are used as a palm rest while playing.

As I said in my previous post, I just ordered another Gotoh bridge as I have never had issues with the finish quality. I guess you could say that my expectations are reasonable based on my experience with thousands of factory guitars and various tremolo bridges. Max, you should realize my experience level, being that you were the moderator who chewed me out for posting about where I worked when I was working in the MI industry.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

My 1990 B.C. Rich Platinum Virgin and 1995 Washburn Dime 333 have both been retrofitted with Gotoh 1996t tremolo bridges. Here are pictures of all of their edges. None of them are polished smooth. Those bridges have been on the respective guitars since 2016 and have not had any premature finish wear.

Those edges are not meant to be polished. The OG post was bitching about finished metal edges that were never meant to be polished smooth as they are not edges that are used as a palm rest while playing.

As I said in my previous post, I just ordered another Gotoh bridge as I have never had issues with the finish quality. I guess you could say that my expectations are reasonable based on my experience with thousands of factory guitars and various tremolo bridges. Max, you should realize my experience level, being that you were the moderator who chewed me out for posting about where I worked when I was working in the MI industry.

Those don't even seem as bad as the OP.

Like I said, the black Gotoh bridges tend to be like this, but that doesn't mean that the OP's aren't especially bad, or that they deserved whatever you felt they needed scolding about.

I have no idea who you are. Sorry if I should know. I don't remember chewing you out, but if it was uncalled for, I'm sorry.

 

[Grindspine]

It only doesn't look as bad because my camera isn't as capable of doing super zoomed-in shots as his is. The OP is splitting hairs over something that really doesn't matter in the end. As stated, the finish on those edges does not affect playability, feel, or function of the bridge in any way. If the OP wants polished perfection, he needs to look at other bridges.

As far as me, I've been posting here for a decade, had multiple jobs in media and the MI industry, and don't really expect you to remember.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

If the OP wants polished perfection, he needs to look at other bridges.

I think that's what they were asking.

 

[Grindspine]

Is this normal? Or a reasonable return? For Gotoh trem owners, how does yours look like?

Yes, it is normal. No, it is not a reasonable return. For the Gotoh trems that I own, see pictures above.

I think that's what they were asking.

 

[Emperoff]

Well, it sure gives a low quality vibe to what it's supposed to be a high quality unit. I know it is just cosmetic, but when every other manufacturer can do it right (even for worse quality units), I'm sure Gotoh can too.

With that being said, I'd probably noticed it after a year of owning the guitar, or something

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Damn OP asks a reasonable question and then gets fucking eviscerated for no reason. I definitely would be asking the same thing if my "Floyd Killer" looked like that. This thread is weird

 

[BrutalRob]

i am with @CleansingCarnage on this. Have switched to Gotoh on all my guitars but none of them look like this.

 

[MASS DEFECT]

I definitely would be asking the same thing if my "Floyd Killer" looked like that.

I apologize for sounding like an unreasonable customer but this exactly was my train of thought why I came here to ask a question to people who have more experience with Gotoh than me.

I never bought a Gotoh bridge. I always played what is stock in my guitars. This is the first time I got a Gotoh 1996 after reading and watching all the hype about them being paragons of Japanese precision and meticulous machining.

Was just perplexed when I first saw mine and right away noticed this.

Two people here sent me pics of their 1996 bridges and it absolutely looks nothing like mine:

A.


B.


And after seeing Grindspine’s Gotoh bridge, I am even more convinced that what I got should have been caught in the QC process.

Again, I’m not expecting perfection. I’ll play an Edge 3 and a Jackson Takeuchi no problem. But, I think it was a valid question.