taliababa":e3ymqh0l said:
I'm getting an ESP M-II that's equipped with a black nickel OFR. My plan is to replace it with a black Gotoh Floyd. I'm wondering will the Gotoh Floyd fit without any additional routing? Also, will the mounting stubs that come with the Gotoh fit in the current holes or will I have to drill them out?
The Gotoh is a very nice unit. With that said if you get a good OFR I would never change it for a Gotoh. I think around mid to late 2007 there were some quality issues with the OFR. This is why John Suhr stopped using them. I have an early 07 Suhr with the OFR and it's perfect.(Not sure if they did anything to it) Before I got this guitar I preferred the Gotoh which I have had on a few Suhrs. I do not know about now but prior to the Schaller's quality issues they were great trems.
Quote:
Question: This question is mainly for Mr Tyler and Mr Suhr but all opinions wanted ! In fitting and repairing locking tremolos since they came out, I've found the original Floyd to have deteriorated in quality to such a point that I want a better option …. And I think the Gotoh is it at the moment. The saddles and the locking nuts are a lot harder than the original Floyd’s are now, and I wondered why it is not on more guitars as OEM particularly as the price is also good.
Suhr: Gotoh is good and I will probably switch soon since the Floyds are really being made like ASS. We spend at least an extra hour on every Floyd bridge fixing things. Since both Schallers died it has been downhill from there I built some other companies guitar with the Gotoh and they seemed very consistent and well made.
Follow up Question: What are some of the issues you're seeing with the new Original Floyds ?
Suhr: You have a few days ?
• Sometimes the back of the saddle is too tall preventing the fine tuner from having a full range of motion.
• The way the string leaves the saddle it does not have a firm break off point, the string slides around in the saddle. This changes the intonation, buzzes and can just sound bad. We have to get a detail Dremel bit and re-contour the saddle with magnifiers on to see what we are doing. We have to do this on them all !
• Fine tuners pinched too course and are rough many times.
• Saddle heights can be uneven, requiring regrinding or shimming.
• Roll away at nut not correct making the string not leave the nut edge where it is supposed to leave. This also screws with intonation and the strings can buzz when played open.
• Casting bumps in the nut slots which have to be ground off, maybe one out of five.
• Saddle to rear section of the saddle is sloppy, this cause string buzz, saddle pin has to be removed and saddle pinched to tighten it up.
• Hold plates that hold the blocks up are not pushed up far enough so sometimes the screw pin doesn’t align up with the hole in the block and you wind up cracking the block.
• Sometimes the arms start to wiggle and there isn’t much you can do since the cap on top is snug.
I'm sure there are a few other things I'm leaving out ....
They are a pain, I wish Kahler would make Floyds again I have no idea what is stopping them since the patent has run out.
I think I will start with the Gotohs very soon since I do love the Floyd idea.
