Kahler tremolo's

[JJ Rodriguez]

I hear these things are the shit, and then I heard someone in another thread say they are fussier than a floyd rose. Anyone want to shoot me some pros/cons to these things? I really want to try one out, I've never seen one around here, so I'm probably going to have to ebay a guitar with one, or get that conversion kit they have in the works for guitars with floyd's. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[darren]

I had one on an old Lado i owned for a few years, and it was really great. Super-smooth and with a light touch. I don't feel its return to pitch was quite as consistent as a Floyd, and you have to reinforce the ball ends of your strings or they'll snap. (I used to use solder to coat the wraps at the ball end before installing new strings.) That alone was a bit of a nuisance, but they're nicely engineered and have a great feel. You can also rest your palm on them without knocking the guitar out of tune.

 

[Doctor J]

I had one in a cheap POS Aria Pro II years ago, still prefer them to the Floyd design. I found them more stable and the ability to heavily palm mute without things going woefully sharp was another bonus. They respond well to a light touch and, yeah, I love them.

 

[metalfiend666]

It's personal preferance really. Some guys play Floyd-types, others play Kahlers. My old guitar teacher used to swear by Kahlers, but he blocked all his trems years ago because of all the re-tuning he used to do working songs out for people, so I never got the chance to try one.

 

[eaeolian]

I never had any success with Kahlers. They wouldn't stay in tune for me - even the good "pro" ones - and I don't like the feel of the trem motion or under my hand.

I far prefer Floyds. Noodles will be along presently to discuss the merits of Kahlers, I'm sure. I've never found any, personally.

 

[noodles]

Really, you can't compare the two that easily, since I feel they have completely different applications. If you wank to do cricket chrips, bounces, and dives until the strings are sticking to the pickups, a Floyd is the only way to go. To me, a Floyd feels way too touchy, like I'm going to mess up everything by breathing on it wrong, you can't rest your hand heavily on it without pushing it sharp, string changes require a box of tools and an hour of your time, and the feel of the bar is absolute shit.

Kahlers feel a lot smoother, but were never designed for the heavy trem abuse brought on by the EVH school of playing. It's great for vibrato, dives and pull-ups, and basicly anything that doesn't involve you jumping up and down on the bar or holding the entire guitar by the bar. To this day, I think most of the tuning problems people experience are related to gummed up rollers, burs in the nut slots, or failure to seat the ball ends properly. I've had no problems out of mine, but I use the Pro models with the stainless steel rollers and heavy spring set. The light spring set and Flyer models are shit, don't touch them.

They require a little more maintanence, but they work just fine for me. The tone is nice and thick, since I've got a solid hunk of brass on the top of my guitar. The cam gives a nice smooth feel. Honestly, the only drawback is the lack of a locking mechanism at th bridge.