Looking for advice on FU Tome bridge build

Nashville Riff Co

Nashville Riff Co

Well-known member
if I wanted to upgrade a top mount Floyd on a mexi-charvel…what options are worth it and what options are just over the top and unnecessary in your opinion?

Just looking for some advice from people who have had one done
 
I wound up not going through with it, but you can call the guy up and he'll talk you through some options based on what you're looking for tonally.
 
I bought an FU-Tone bridge early last year for a specific reason - to try to get something Floyd-like that would intonate correctly on an early Sinclair sporting ESP Mirage. This era of Sinclair had a much shorter saddle length (and where the break point was on said saddle), and it was designed so that when I threw on a regular floyd, I could not move the saddles up far enough to get it to intonate properly. The FU-Tone bridge did allow for that to happen because of how the baseplate was drilled out for the intonation screws.

However, I wasn't blown away by the quality - the fine tuners were very rough and felt almost cross threaded, and no amount of penetrating oil seemed to help them move smoothly. It worked for my specific use case but I wouldn't buy one over a Gotoh 1996T unless I had no other choice.
 
grimmchaos said:
I bought an FU-Tone bridge early last year for a specific reason - to try to get something Floyd-like that would intonate correctly on an early Sinclair sporting ESP Mirage. This era of Sinclair had a much shorter saddle length (and where the break point was on said saddle), and it was designed so that when I threw on a regular floyd, I could not move the saddles up far enough to get it to intonate properly. The FU-Tone bridge did allow for that to happen because of how the baseplate was drilled out for the intonation screws.

However, I wasn't blown away by the quality - the fine tuners were very rough and felt almost cross threaded, and no amount of penetrating oil seemed to help them move smoothly. It worked for my specific use case but I wouldn't buy one over a Gotoh 1996T unless I had no other choice.
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If it ever happens again, you can run a tap through the tuner hole threads. Common problem.
 
I'm a former Floyd elitist. Only the finest OFR or Schaller's for me. I used to privately scoff at people putting in those cheap garbage Gotoh GE-1996T's.. Recently I rebuilt a 87 ESP Mirage and it had a beat up OFR, Sinclair posts/inserts and a lot of weird crossover stuff. I grabbed a Gotoh 1996T from Philadelphia Luthier Supply.. Holy shit was I wrong. That thing is rock solid, balanced great, held tune, etc.. If I need a Floyd, I'll grab one of those now.
 
vultures said:
I'm a former Floyd elitist. Only the finest OFR or Schaller's for me. I used to privately scoff at people putting in those cheap garbage Gotoh GE-1996T's.. Recently I rebuilt a 87 ESP Mirage and it had a beat up OFR, Sinclair posts/inserts and a lot of weird crossover stuff. I grabbed a Gotoh 1996T from Philadelphia Luthier Supply.. Holy shit was I wrong. That thing is rock solid, balanced great, held tune, etc.. If I need a Floyd, I'll grab one of those now.
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Exactly what happened to me. I believe part of if is the saddles. The Floyd saddle hinges are either too tight or too loose some times.
 
FUs prices are ridiculous, though they do have some cool ideas or products, just priced a bit prohibitively. With the previous comment about quality being off in regards to the fine tuners, I wonder if he's buying factory 2nd Gotoh Floyds and just putting a fancy finish on them.
 
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