[QUESTION] Locking tremolo effect on sound quality
So I've been wondering this for a while and was hoping maybe someone here might have some insight. I've been looking into getting a guitar with a locking tremolo (Floyd Rose or Kahler) but have noticed that the ones I've picked up and played in stores just don't sound as good as similar guitars with hardtail or standard tremolo bridges.
The problem for me is that I have noticed the locking tremolo guitars tend to be badly out of tune and seemingly have very old strings (at least most of the time), so it has been difficult for me to get a good feel of how good most of them actually are.
With my own guitars, I have noticed that locking down the tremolo does have a positive effect for the sound, but I just haven't really played enough on locking tremolos to say how much they affect the tone. Would really appreciate anyone who could give any info on how much this affects the overall sound.
Posted Mar 23, 2021, 7:43 PM UTC
People on reddit like to pretend that nothing about an electric guitar affects its tonal properties while amplified, other than the pickups. Conventional wisdom among the majority of the guitar community is that pretty much any trem system affects the tone of the guitar. You can confirm this by blocking it in a way that brings it in more direct contact with the body. Decking a Strat trem vs floating it often comes with a pretty drastic change in tone.
Yeah I did this for my PRS and I was surprised how big a difference it made. I guess I was ultimately just trying to find out if you will get a similar effect from a Floyd rose to that of a standard unblocked tremolo, or whether there is a further difference.
A Floyd Rose is pretty much the same as any other tremolo that has been configured to float. Expect similar results
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I've converted completely recently. I brought a guitar with a Floyd Rose Special, and the tone is almost hollow, power chords played on the lowest strings sounds off, like the note are ringing out separately away from each other. I had a spare Floyd Rose 1000 stock brass block that was laying around when I swapped it out for a big brass block on another guitar, installing it made a very noticeable difference.
No, they’ll argue that pickups are the same too. Just had that debate with someone here. I can tell you that blocked, my RG does sustain better and sounds a bit more rounded.
People really do like to think nothing affects the sound. But so many aspects can. Hell even your pick can alter the sound enough to notice. I chalk it up to inexperience. They’ll learn more as their ears grow.