Does anyone play mediums?

[357mag]

If you want to abuse the hell out of your whammy bar and do dive bombs and all that then a locking system may be the way to go. I had one and once I got it in tune it stayed in tune quite well.

But they are not without their disadvantages as I discovered. Like everything else bridges have pros and cons whether you are talking vintage style or locking systems.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

If you want to abuse the hell out of your whammy bar and do dive bombs and all that then a locking system may be the way to go. I had one and once I got it in tune it stayed in tune quite well.

But they are not without their disadvantages as I discovered. Like everything else bridges have pros and cons whether you are talking vintage style or locking systems.

Nothing that can't be adapted to with playing technique, or fixed with one of these, though.

Ibviously I'm not advocating routing up a 60's strat for a Floyd, but if you have a more contemporary strat and a six-point screw-in bridge is giving you tuning instability issues such that you're retuning every 25 minutes, all I'm saying is there are a TON of different styles of bridges on the market, and youmay want to explore your options. For me, the Wilkinson I linked is the best compromise between trem performance andnon-invasive installation (it was a drop-in fit for my American Standard), but it's certainly not the only option.

 

[ggunn]

One example does not prove a point. How heavy a trem user is ggunn? The occasional light vibrato, or is he all about subtle bar dips and scoops, and dive bimbing? Has he had much experience with double-locking trems, or has his trem experience only been limited to 6-point trems? How has the guitar been maintained in the past? How in-tune does "works just fine for me" entail, absolutely perfect or maybe +/-10 cents over the course of a set?

Of course, since you're quick to point out this is all "opinion" and not "fact," I should probably stop talking to you like you're trying to state it as a "fact" that a 6-point trem will hold up against a double-locking system, and go back to playing my OFR-equipped seven string that, thanks to Elixers sounding fresh forever, I only have to slightly retune every couple months. That's just me though.

Let him speak for himself, OK? ;^)

I've been playing my early 60's Partscaster for over 30 years, and I've been through many stages of whammyness. My trem assembly is completely stock except for the arm and a couple of the springs.

No, I haven't had any experience with exotic locking mechanisms or fancy trem mechanisms, but I've never felt the need for such things; IME by far the single largest source of tuning problems with a Strat tremelo system is friction in the headstock, so I use a little dab of Teflon grease mixed with graphite in the nut slots and a graphite string tree. I have no idea how many cents the tuning varies, but it stays in tune to my ears. I do retune for every set/session, and having to do that is not enough of an inconvenience to warrant hacking up my instrument to only have to tune on a monthly basis.

The point is not whether the newer tech stuff stays in tune better than the old tech (I don't doubt that it does), it's whether the difference is great enough to a particular player for him/her to spend a bunch of cash and/or hacking up (in may case) a vintage instrument to change it. For me, it's not. For someone else... well, that's what YMMV means, isn't it?

 

[357mag]

Let him speak for himself, OK? ;^)

I've been playing my early 60's Partscaster for over 30 years, and I've been through many stages of whammyness. My trem assembly is completely stock except for the arm and a couple of the springs.

No, I haven't had any experience with exotic locking mechanisms or fancy trem mechanisms, but I've never felt the need for such things; IME by far the single largest source of tuning problems with a Strat tremelo system is friction in the headstock, so I use a little dab of Teflon grease mixed with graphite in the nut slots and a graphite string tree. I have no idea how many cents the tuning varies, but it stays in tune to my ears. I do retune for every set/session, and having to do that is not enough of an inconvenience to warrant hacking up my instrument to only have to tune on a monthly basis.

The point is not whether the newer tech stuff stays in tune better than the old tech (I don't doubt that it does), it's whether the difference is great enough to a particular player for him/her to spend a bunch of cash and/or hacking up (in may case) a vintage instrument to change it. For me, it's not. For someone else... well, that's what YMMV means, isn't it?

Good point. I also feel that many tuning problems are caused by issues with the nut. Powdered graphite can help.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Good point. I also feel that many tuning problems are caused by issues with the nut. Powdered graphite can help.

Pencil lead also works well on the cheap, but the smoothest nut in the world won't save your tuning if your bridge isn't returning to zero.

 

[ggunn]

Pencil lead also works well on the cheap, but the smoothest nut in the world won't save your tuning if your bridge isn't returning to zero.

But a pivoting bridge assembly always returns to zero. What's to stop it? It's basically a lever on a knife edge with the strings pulling on one arm and the tensioning springs on the other.