Floyd Rose and alternatives + pricing etc.

[deeaa*]

Any ideas for which trem to install?

I have this age old Yamaha...



Naturally an EMG85 there, plus a PA-2 preamp...covered the pup holes with a Grateful Dead CD cover bit.

Anyways. I bought it just to have some fun with tremolo, and that it did just fine...but, for band playing/real use the trem doesn't stay in tune.
Currently I have it blocked and been playing it quite a while...and it's a really nice axe that way. The neck is still totally straight and frets very good despite years of years of hard use, and even the neck shape is quite fine.

Now I'm getting inclined to mod this guitar into Davette II; it is very similar to what it used to be. All that would mean is slightly shave the upper side of the neck into an asymmetric V, which would also nicely remove all the ugly dings the neck has amassed over the years...and I'd also remove that strange hanging 'waddle' from under the headstock, making it normal Jackson style shape. Have it re-lacquered properly by a pro and it'll be a very very good guitar neck which will likely never bend or have issues since it hasn't yet in 20+ years of very neglecting and hard use.

AND of course in the vein of Davette, fill in the trem cavity and put a Schaller bridge in.

But then again...I would end up with no tremolo guitar, then.

SO...I got this idea I could maybe get a working/good quality trem system. Like the Original Floyd Rose. That could work well! But which?

To my utter amazement an OFR costs here - hold yer breath - 563,2 dollars!
From Germany I could order it for $352 which is much better but still like three times the money I paid for the entire guitar...

My best bet is likely to try to have some friend in the U.S. to send me one...haven't really checked where they are the cheapest but at least Ed Roman sells a black one for $187 and THAT I could live with, even including postage to here.

However...are there any alternatives out there that would likely fit the guitar? I still have to check of course whether the guitar actually even fits even an OFR, but I would guess it's standard sized in all respects and it would.

So...any ideas for OFR alternatives?

[deeaa*]

BTW I see GFS makes a 'better' quality Floyd copy too, which they claim is steel etc. and it looks pretty nice - and is CHEAP.

I did manage to get the original trem working pretty well now with cleaning and adjustments, but I think I might try the GFS trem anyhow at some point.

[Eric***]

BTW I see GFS makes a 'better' quality Floyd copy too, which they claim is steel etc. and it looks pretty nice - and is CHEAP.

I did manage to get the original trem working pretty well now with cleaning and adjustments, but I think I might try the GFS trem anyhow at some point.

It probably wouldn't be horrible, but as many have noted on here, the bluster coming from GFS is legendary. They say everything is amazing, and it's usually about average for what it is (e.g. a FR knock-off).

[deeaa*]

It probably wouldn't be horrible, but as many have noted on here, the bluster coming from GFS is legendary. They say everything is amazing, and it's usually about average for what it is (e.g. a FR knock-off).

Ayuh, I suspect that is the case indeed. However, if the baseplate is hardened steel, it should at least work pretty well. A Floyd really isn't that complex a thing, it just has to be made of hard enough materials and with enough accuracy, I'd think. It's cheap enough I could try it out :-)

With Floyds, it's always the setup, and it changes as it wears...you find the correct angle and all, and it works, like mine does for now again after 40 minutes or so tweaking. But the metal wears and pretty soon you need to find a new angle and all for it to work for yet a while. I suppose I could also grind the baseplate slightly, but it'd have to be very exactly done. And new posts would not hurt either.

I use that guitar so little that I might simply just have it around only for those rare occasions I think I'll need some whammy effect on a recording, and it should be fine. The more I think of it, the less I'd like a Floyd axe for band use.