Headless trem options.

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Synesthesia

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So a good friend of mine is a luthier and was asking me, as a player, the other day what I thought was a good headless trem option. Hes fleshing out a headless model and wanted to have a trem option available. I've only had experience with strandberg hardware and I think supply and general finickyness (in my experience) undercuts that option. I thought mera had a trem setup but i cant seem to find it yet. Either way, hes had a bad experience with mera and might be shying away from them. What other options are out there? Or, I suppose, what would you like to see offered more? I know the about the Sophia bridge system. Dont know how good it is though. I believe hes thinking individual tuners as well because that opens up changing scales and string counts. What are your walls experiences? Any good ones? Any terrible ones?
 

diagrammatiks

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No one is going to offer a trem with only individual tuning options. The saddles all have to be mounted on the actual trem bass plate. That’s not something you can expand yourself.

The big question is does he need multiscale?

The hipshot does straight scale fine.

If he needs multiscale the only options right now are the t4m, the csl sophia

The Strandberg isn’t available for resell
 

Synesthesia

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No one is going to offer a trem with only individual tuning options. The saddles all have to be mounted on the actual trem bass plate. That’s not something you can expand yourself.

The big question is does he need multiscale?

The hipshot does straight scale fine.

If he needs multiscale the only options right now are the t4m, the csl sophia

The Strandberg isn’t available for resell
I know that, I mean individual barrels mounted to a trem plate. I think that's important because he can use the same unit for various multiscale lengths. Since a lot of people prefer different fans.
 

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diagrammatiks

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I know that, I mean individual barrels mounted to a trem plate. I think that's important because he can use the same unit for various multiscale lengths. Since a lot of people prefer different fans.
If he wants to do multiscale terms and fixed scale terms using the same hardware then the only 2 options I know of right now are the t4m and the csl Sophia. They both all for a maximum angle and you can use anything within that angle.

The hipshot contour does not support multiscale at all. Well the scale can be super tiny. Maybe.
 

Synesthesia

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The Sophia bridge looks like nice quality. Does anyone here have any hands on experience? Is it worth the price?
I've used T4M units very briefly but have no experience with their trem. I imagine it's the same quality however.
Anyone ever try the tengda headless trem? Or maybe the one from Aldridge?
 

Winspear

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T4M is great. The trem has about 1" of play for a fan I think. Remember to leave 4x string diameter for intonation on the bottom end. You can overhang the treble saddle out front by a few mm to maximize span.
 

frank falbo

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I’m releasing a new one with Apollo shortly. It has a wide fan range, and mounts in a Floyd cavity, until you fan it of course, then you’d extend the route. It can be headless, it’s using the headless ball bearing tuning mechanism. It can accept ball end or a bare end, because there’s a lock.

The biggest issue is that you can’t overcome the physics of the fan causing more pitch fluctuation on the lower strings. But that’s not an actual problem. It’s just “a thing”. The Kahlers don’t do that but it’s because the trem part is fixed and the saddles are extended. (And they’re not for headless)

Carbonized hardened knife edges (about 10x harder than typical oil quenched hardening) and milled/machined parts. The blocks are Floyd compatible too so you can swap for brass or titanium or whatever.
 

Synesthesia

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T4M is great. The trem has about 1" of play for a fan I think. Remember to leave 4x string diameter for intonation on the bottom end. You can overhang the treble saddle out front by a few mm to maximize span.
T4M seems like it may be the most reliable option
 

Synesthesia

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I’m releasing a new one with Apollo shortly. It has a wide fan range, and mounts in a Floyd cavity, until you fan it of course, then you’d extend the route. It can be headless, it’s using the headless ball bearing tuning mechanism. It can accept ball end or a bare end, because there’s a lock.

The biggest issue is that you can’t overcome the physics of the fan causing more pitch fluctuation on the lower strings. But that’s not an actual problem. It’s just “a thing”. The Kahlers don’t do that but it’s because the trem part is fixed and the saddles are extended. (And they’re not for headless)

Carbonized hardened knife edges (about 10x harder than typical oil quenched hardening) and milled/machined parts. The blocks are Floyd compatible too so you can swap for brass or titanium or whatever.
Thats really interesting. Any idea when that would drop? Any pics of the bridge itself thus far?
 
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