whammy bar question

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Brian_MAy

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Has anyone ever put a whammy bar on a gibson les paul? If so what does one have to do to do so?
 
I once played with a guitarist who had a Floyd Rose tremolo (with locking nut) installed on his Les Paul. Worked great.
 
Zaphod B said:
I once played with a guitarist who had a Floyd Rose tremolo (with locking nut) installed on his Les Paul. Worked great.


'cept that it isn't an LP anymore

:D :D :D
 
I have an old Kahler and a locking nut on a 1980s LP special (reissue of a 1950s model) - bought it that way. It hooks over the tailpiece studs and requires a big hole routed into the top of the guitar. It is very sensitive and since I'm not a heavy wammy player it is mostly a pain. I will probably convert it back at some point.
 
MadAudio said:
Interesting but it doesn't have a wide range.

"The arm pivots the hinged rear string-mounting bar to sharpen or flatten the strings approximately one-half step."
Well...it DOES call itself a tremelo, and tremelo you can do with a range of +- 1/2 step. Sure, you're not gonna do any divebombs on it, but it will do tremelo.
 
Short scale and mahogany neck is not a good recipie for a Floyd. I can't tell you how many guitars I have seen with a mahogany neck and a Floyd that came to the shop with broken headstocks and buggered necks....mahogany neck with a Floyd is a *bad* idea. There is a reason why you don't see many of these made, the *vast* majority of these are after market jobs done by people who aren't aware of the problems inherent with that design. Maple neck is fine...but mahogany is a different story.
 
Brian_MAy said:
Has anyone ever put a whammy bar on a gibson les paul? If so what does one have to do to do so?



A few times. It makes a big change in the sound (loss of sustain, a change in the attack, and brightens it up a bit) of the instrument, and it will kill your resale value, so if your not sure, don't do it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Brian_MAy said:
Has anyone ever put a whammy bar on a gibson les paul? If so what does one have to do to do so?


Niel Young plays Les Pauls with Bixby tremelos on them.
 
Light said:
A few times. It makes a big change in the sound (loss of sustain, a change in the attack, and brightens it up a bit) of the instrument, and it will kill your resale value, so if your not sure, don't do it.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

do these theorys apply when using a whammy bar/tremolo on any given electric guitar? like a strat for instance?
 
olfunk said:
do these theorys apply when using a whammy bar/tremolo on any given electric guitar? like a strat for instance?



Sure. Any change in energy transference will make a difference in the sound of a guitar, and all the more so on an electric. Trems make a big difference in how the energy gets transfered.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Yup, part of the vintage trem strats distinctive sound is due to the resonace of the trem block vibrating inside the through body trem route. The mass and material of a given strats trem block along with the springs used and the way they are set up all effect tone to some extent - there is much written about this if you search around. I think it works well on a strat because the neck and body woods and general construction are more resonant in the higher freqs (add that to the bright pickups ;) than an LP.

Here is what a kahlerized and otherwise hacked LP looks like:
 

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