Floyd foe San Dimas?

[SFW]

Ok, I'm getting ready to tackle another project guitar. I want it to be a single humbucker superstrat. I know that I want to use alder for the body wood, and a solid maple neck. Where I'm stuck right now is at the bridge. Oh one hand I want the floyd, because every self respecting superstrat should have one- right? On the other hand I kinda want the tone of a brass vintage trem.

Tuning would be much easier with a vintage trem, as I do switch between standard and drop-d tunings alot. But I really don't know which direction to go. For those of you with San Dimas style guitars, can you tell me the pros and cons of both bridges, and which one you find more toneful... because in the end, tone is what it's all about.

 

[Capulin Overdrive]

i don't jack squat about tone deferences, but you could do a De-tuna thingy on a floyd.

 

[Code001]

Solution: Brass block on the floyd + a tremol-no

 

[Chubtone]

I think the new USA production San Dimas Charvels really should make someone think twice about putting their own Charvel "inspired" parts guitar together. I have four Warmoths and a couple of half Charvel/half Musikraft guitars and by the time you are done financially you end up with at least $800 into the parts guitars and that's if you oil finish it. Then the depreciation 10 minutes after they're done is about 50% of what you paid.

I'd definitely check out the new production model Charvels for about what a painted parts guitar will cost you.

As for the difference between the brass V-Trem and the Floyd...... well in my opinion they are both very good sounding bridges. The V Trem will go out of tune if you even look at it no matter how well the nut is set up in my experience. Plus the brass saddles will wear down faster than any other type of electric guitar bridge. And this drop tuning with a Floyd thing? I don't understand the problem everyone has with this or even the need for a D-Tuna. I set the fine tuner on my Low E almost all the way tight. I have a couple of turns for if my low E goes flat I can tighten it, but I also have room to drop it down a full step. A slight touch up on some other strings may be necessary but normally isn't the way my guitars are set up.

YMMV

 

[Copperhead]

It's been my experience that dropping the tuning on a string with a FREE FLOATING Floyd is a nightmare. You have to retune every string and it takes precious time in a gigging environment. If I ever end up with another Floyd, I want the back of it to rest against the guitar body like you see on EBMM guitars or Peavey Wolfgangs. Then you can have a D-Tuna if you want or just drop the low string using the fine tuners.

Chris

If you get a Floyd, make sure the body rout is NOT for free floating. I crank up my spring tension a little and set up my guitars so the bridge sits evenly on the body. The difference in tone between a dive-only, D-Tuna Wolfgang and a Tune-a-matic bridge Wolfgang is not that great, there is a greater difference in tone from pickup to pickup than what the bridge makes.

 

[Digital Jams]

I think the new USA production San Dimas Charvels really should make someone think twice about putting their own Charvel "inspired" parts guitar together. I have four Warmoths and a couple of half Charvel/half Musikraft guitars and by the time you are done financially you end up with at least $800 into the parts guitars and that's if you oil finish it. Then the depreciation 10 minutes after they're done is about 50% of what you paid.

I'd definitely check out the new production model Charvels for about what a painted parts guitar will cost you.


YMMV

Have not posted about the So-Cal I bought from you yet as I have not plugged in yet.....my amps are all still piled in a corner under sheets due to construction but I agree 100% so far about build vs new Charvel. My biggest concern was the neck and that it would feel like a cheaper mass production strat neck and man I was wrong. I cant say enough about how good the neck feels right out of the plush uber rare Charvel gig bag, only thing missing is da funk from years of playing.

Will say more after this weekend as I should have my area back together but any idea of building my own has fadded with these new guitars

V-trem vs Floyd.......I would go with the floyd and aftermarket block.

 

[Digital Jams]

Have not posted about the So-Cal I bought from you yet as I have not plugged in yet.....my amps are all still piled in a corner under sheets due to construction but I agree 100% so far about build vs new Charvel. My biggest concern was the neck and that it would feel like a cheaper mass production strat neck and man I was wrong. I cant say enough about how good the neck feels right out of the plush uber rare Charvel gig bag, only thing missing is da funk from years of playing.

Will say more after this weekend as I should have my area back together but any idea of building my own has fadded with these new guitars

V-trem vs Floyd.......I would go with the floyd and aftermarket block.

This is one of those new USA models for $999 or whatever? Yeah, please report back! That seems like a good fair price and I'm curious about them myself.

Psychodave has one, he posted a review maybe 1-2 weeks ago I think??

IMO they are very very close to Lee's profiles with great rolled edges and silky smooth, I hate to say it but they hit a homerun with these $999 Charvels. Call Squidmusic before you buy else where

 

[MrDan666]

Psychodave has one, he posted a review maybe 1-2 weeks ago I think??

IMO they are very very close to Lee's profiles with great rolled edges and silky smooth, I hate to say it but they hit a homerun with these $999 Charvels. Call Squidmusic before you buy else where

Hey Scott, what dya think of the Floyd on that new Charvel?

Does it feel as good as a real OFR?

 

[bunghole]

If you get a Floyd, make sure the body rout is NOT for free floating. .......dive-only

does not compute

Floyds that don't pull up = massive fail

 

[Digital Jams]

Psychodave has one, he posted a review maybe 1-2 weeks ago I think??

IMO they are very very close to Lee's profiles with great rolled edges and silky smooth, I hate to say it but they hit a homerun with these $999 Charvels. Call Squidmusic before you buy else where

Hey Scott, what dya think of the Floyd on that new Charvel?

Does it feel as good as a real OFR?

I really do not want to give a full review as I have not really played through anything bro, I did have to break the neck to tweak it and set it up due to the climate change and it feels great so far.

I will post next week with pics but so far the floyd feels just fine.

 

[ttosh]

I think the new USA production San Dimas Charvels really should make someone think twice about putting their own Charvel "inspired" parts guitar together. I have four Warmoths and a couple of half Charvel/half Musikraft guitars and by the time you are done financially you end up with at least $800 into the parts guitars and that's if you oil finish it. Then the depreciation 10 minutes after they're done is about 50% of what you paid.

I'd definitely check out the new production model Charvels for about what a painted parts guitar will cost you.

As for the difference between the brass V-Trem and the Floyd...... well in my opinion they are both very good sounding bridges. The V Trem will go out of tune if you even look at it no matter how well the nut is set up in my experience. Plus the brass saddles will wear down faster than any other type of electric guitar bridge. And this drop tuning with a Floyd thing? I don't understand the problem everyone has with this or even the need for a D-Tuna. I set the fine tuner on my Low E almost all the way tight. I have a couple of turns for if my low E goes flat I can tighten it, but I also have room to drop it down a full step. A slight touch up on some other strings may be necessary but normally isn't the way my guitars are set up.

YMMV

I have to totally agree here. The way mine is setup I can easily go to a drop D tuning with minimal adjustment. Also agree on getting the new USA Charvel over building one. These guitars are excellent and worth every penny! I would think that as time passes these guitars will be worth money especially the custom colors. The ones any of us build may not see the same increase in value.

 

[MrDan666]

I really do not want to give a full review as I have not really played through anything bro, I did have to break the neck to tweak it and set it up due to the climate change and it feels great so far.

I will post next week with pics but so far the floyd feels just fine.

Thats cool Scott! I guess i wasn't really lookin for detailed info, but just whether or not the floyd felt different to a real OFR. You use real deal OFR's and you'd know straight away if the Charvel one didnt feel right, so im sure its fine!!

 

[JackTripper]

SFW, building or “parting together” your own guitar is much more satisfying then ordering a mass-produced guitar online, even if your project is guaranteed to depreciate twice as fast (and it will…). The whole point of building your own guitar (it seems to me) is that you can spec it out exactly the way you want and not be stuck with the “standard options” of the day (not that these are bad).

A Floyd Rose is great to have on a guitar. If you float it, you run the risk of getting a very thin tone. This would be compounded if you were going with single coils. You can set it up so it sits flush on the body (to counter the thin tone somewhat) – but you can only dive bomb and no pull-ups. I have strats set up both ways. You need to decide what is more important to your playing style.

I also have Charvel SDs with brass v-trems and a project guitar with brass hardtail (Gotoh) bridge. The v-trems will go out of tune for sure (if you are going to dive bomb). I have Sperzel tuners on a GMW with a Mighty Might brass trem and it helps significantly, but still not as tight as a Floyd locking nut. The tone from a brass bridge (trem or otherwise) IMO is superior to that of a Floyd, especially when sitting tight on the body. Many disagree about the tonal qualities of brass bridges (cf to Floyd’s), but it’s no accident that brass and wood have been used together in the construction of musical instruments going back 500+ years.

Good luck……

 

[Chubtone]

I have a feeling the $999 USA Charvel's won't stay at that price for long.

Agreed. They have to bump up the price more....

Let's not cry yet. There has been no price bumping even mentioned.

As far as the brass big block upgrade for a Floyd. 1 week before my Fender rep brought in the new Charvels for me to demo I got my Musikraft neck/Charvel body guitar put together. I did a thread on it aweek or so ago. It was the ugly, relic'd transparent brown superstrat. The sum of all those parts led me to believe it was going to be a very bright guitar so I bought the brass block for it from floydupgrades.com That brass block sounds killer on another old Charvel I had. Well this new guitar was so dark, bassy and muddy that I just hated it. I tried a bunch of different things, pickup swaps, pickup magnet swaps and still the guitar sounded like a mud machine. A guy at the Seymour Duncan forum kept telling me the whole time "take that brass big block off that's for if your guitar sounds thin, or wimpy and has no sustain". I finally took the big block off and now I have a guitar! Not a short scale, six string bass with .09 gauge strings on it.

So the brass big block is NOT a slam dunk IMHO. It sounds good on one of my guitars and tonally ruined one of my other guitars.

My NEXT guitar is a Charvel San Dimas style 1 in either black or whatever their next custom color is

 

[Copperhead]

If you get a Floyd, make sure the body rout is NOT for free floating. .......dive-only

does not compute

Floyds that don't pull up = massive fail

It was a bit of an adjustment coming from JEMs, but the better tone and instant D-drop was a good trade. I go back and forth with the drop tuning in the same song now! I'm totally addicted to the D-tuna thing....

 

[Chubtone]

I hear ya about the blocks. Did you see that I ordered a Ti block. I figured what the heck...

Dave,
I did see that you ordered one. To tell you the truth, I really hope for my sake it sounds HORRIBLE. That's all I need, is to start wanting to put $250 trem blocks in 7 or 8 guitars.

 

[Chubtone]

There is a good chance that I am the ONLY ONE ON THE INTERNET who does not think resting a trem on the body makes for "better tone". All I find with trems rested on bodies or blocked is a little better sustain and a strong increase in the amount of highs. IT doesn't seem to transfer mids or lows in equal proportion. I did a recording test of this on 2 of my guitars. One a Callaham vintage strat trem guitar and the other a Floyd guitar. Let me say, ALL of my trems are floating now.

So there you go, 100,000,000 gear forum members vs. lil old Chubtone on this opinion.

 

[dstroud]

There is a good chance that I am the ONLY ONE ON THE INTERNET who does not think resting a trem on the body makes for "better tone". All I find with trems rested on bodies or blocked is a little better sustain and a strong increase in the amount of highs. IT doesn't seem to transfer mids or lows in equal proportion. I did a recording test of this on 2 of my guitars. One a Callaham vintage strat trem guitar and the other a Floyd guitar. Let me say, ALL of my trems are floating now.

So there you go, 100,000,000 gear forum members vs. lil old Chubtone on this opinion.

I've noticed that too, all my floyd guitars sound less high endy than my regular tailpiece guitars (same woods, same pickups). I didn't mention it because I thought everyone would say I was crazy!

 

[Chubtone]

Okay, I'll admit something too... Floyds are well known to increase highs and make the tone thinner. Well, the few guitars I've owned with Floyds all had this "dull" tone to me. Like the high end was rolled off and the tone was just "dull." That's the best word I can think of to describe it. That totally goes against what 99% of others say about Floyds increasing brightness.

Now that I think about it, I think the "dull" sound was most noticeable on the free floating types.

Chris,
I will agree with this in many, many cases. I came to the point where I only played chrome plated, real Floyd Roses. All of the copies were duller sounding to me. They had a thicker and softer plating on them and the metals themselves were softer. And so, so, so many licensed Floyd guitars were made out of basswood and had thick poly finishes on them. Anything would sound dull with that combo.

BUt your finding here is what I have come to be annoyed with about the internet and forums. Someone says something and everyone starts parroting it and pretty soon it is guitar gospel. When my buddy who is a great player and tone guru told me "to get that trem plate up off the body of my guitar" and I did it and immediately my guitar sounded much better. The guitar was too thin already and "conventional wisdom" was that putting the trem plate on the body would improve the tone. It just exaggerated the thinness and I was ready to give up on the guitar so I tried my buddies suggestion.

I guess that I will parrot someone else's finding about a real Floyd Rose, John Suhr's. Suhr says that the original Floyd Rose is a very neutral sounding bridge and I agree with this completely.

 

[Chubtone]

Adam lives about 10 munites from me and I ended up selling him my 5150 cabinets earlier this year. He told me about the Ti blocks and saddles and I remember his face when he was telling me...he was like a little kid that discovered something really good. Since I got my Charvel, I have waited to get a brass block and yesterday I went on line to order one....then I remembered about the Ti blocks he has. So I emailed him and after a few emails, I ended up buying one. I have a feeling that it will sound very good. He didnt talk about it being expensive, just that it about "tone" and Warren DiMartini wont use a Floyd without Ti block etc. Either way, I shall see... If I dont like it, big deal, it was only $259....and I am sure I could sell it if needed. I am still pissed off about the Suhr Doug Aldrich p-ups I got with covers....and it had cream bobbins.

Cream bobbins? Someone will probably pay extra for those on ebay.

Well, I look forward to your review of the Ti block.