News And Updates

I ordered some swamp ash and had it shipped to a colleague in the US. When I asked him if had “got wood”, he had a good laugh and enlightened me as to the dual meaning of this in English…. For those of you who don’t know what it is, suffice it to say that it involves a certain part of the reproductive system.

Anyway - I have started on a new mould made out of MDF. Here are a few pictures:

I have since refined them a bit and made a neck as well, but more about that another day.

If you haven’t done so already, check out Building the Ergonomic Guitar. I’m thrilled to have been the subject of a couple of posts over there. Robert Irizarry has gathered a wealth of resources and provides an excellent community for all of us that are interested in ergonomic guitar building. As I mention in my first ever posts, it’s what got me started again.In a couple of weeks, I am taking a few weeks vacation, so expect a little more progress soon.

I am thrilled to have some comparative sound samples of the Floyd-Rose(tm) drop-in replacement tremolo. First off: I put it on a guitar that is not the greatest instrument the world has seen, but the objective of the exercise was to note the differences in sound after replacing the tremolo unit. Secondly: the recordings were made through a Line6 TonePort(tm) using Cubase 4 software that was graciously provided by 4Sound Uppsala. The guitarist’s name is Peter Hansson - thanks Peter!

So, what were the results? Actually, the difference was more noticeable than what I would have guessed. It is not more than the difference from listening through your speakers and mine, the difference between an EMG and a Seymor Duncan pickup, or even a difference that could be compensated for by equalization. But the tone of the Floyd-Rose had more lows and highs and the “Strandberger” (had to name it that…) had a more pronounced mid range. But, I’m digressing. Here are the sound samples:

.neckSingle Coil Clean, Floyd-Rose*

.neckSingle Coil Clean, Strandberger*

.bridgeHumbucker Crunch, Floyd-Rose*

.bridgeHumbucker Crunch, Strandberger*

.neckSingle Coil Chorus, Floyd-Rose*

.neckSingle Coil Chorus, Strandberger*

Acoustically, Peter found that the sound was more pleasing with the Strandberger tremolo compared to the Floyd-Rose! Being that many think that Floyds sound “bad”, the difference in sound might be a good thing, but I will leave that up to you. It should be noted that the Floyd-Rose in question is the original, circa 1980, all weapon-grade metal version.

Other learnings:

• The edges of the base plate had been slightly deformed, i.e. the hard anodization, which is harder than hardened steel, had broken. This means that I will look into using hardened steel inserts like the ones on the Floyds themselves nowadays. It also means that I don’t have to use this surface treatment, which opens up for many more color choices.
• The height of the unit, the measurement between the tremolo edge and the string support, is higher on the Strandberger. This means that one will have to lower the posts to allow for the same neck setting. I will look into reducing this height. The difference was drastic enough that I had to insert an extra spring to resist the pull from the extra leverage.
• The string supports that I hand ground with my Dremel would sometimes twist and affect the sustain negatively. Will look into making the geometry a little bit different to counteract this possibility.

But all in all, a huge success. I am very pleased that it worked out as well as it did. My advice is: Watch this space for more sound samples when I have addressed the above issues.

It’s done! The first bridge is completed! I will have more input by the weekend, but until then: here are a few pictures.

I put it on an old guitar of mine in place of a Floyd Rose trem. The weight reduction was massive! It seems to sound very well. I will prepare some sound samples eventually.

Weight before: about 600 grams for bridge and tuners.

Weight after: about 140 grams…

I have received my finished pieces finally! Supposedly, although they are made from aluminum (hardened), the finishing technique renders them more durable than steel. In addition, the surface is impregnated with teflon, making them even more resistant to scratches, etc. and feeling “plastic like”. The result feels and looks very high tech!

Unfortunately, I have run out of the glide bearings I use, so I can’t assemble a complete bridge. As soon as I get a new shipment, I will assemble one and create some sound samples of “before” and “after” on a Floyd Rose replacement. 

“Stall” is the Swedish word for bridge. It is also the state in which my guitar endeavors have been in for the past couple of weeks, due to a very heavy workload and a skiing-trip. Nonetheless, my Floyd Rose drop-in replacement is taking shape.

I just have to drill the holes for the small screws that will stop the plunger from rotating and make the threads and then I am ready to send the whole thing off to finishing. I’m just hoping that they will let me tag along with someone else’s order since they have a quite hefty minimum charge.

I had a couple of questions over at Project Guitar about the amount of twist of the neck and how the body/bridge relates. I did take a couple of pictures before but didn’t post them, but here they are:

It is a little hard to tell, but you’ll note that the ruler sits about 15 mm above the top in both pictures. To achieve this, the whole body slopes away, downwards, and the neck/fretboard joins the body at about a 7 degree angle. The nut sits at about 20 degree angle in comparison with the body. I have studied what others have done and I guess Lace arrived at the 10.8 degree angle through some kind of trial and error, but I decided to be a little more agressive. The wrist does get a very comfortable position when “fretting” a barré cord. If I decreased the twist, it wouldn’t give quite the same effect. My main concern is the fretting out when bending downwards. Only a test will tell, I guess.

With only about a half hour per day during lunch, progress is painfully slow. I am very happy with what there is though:

I actually got a little bit farther today than what is apparent from these pictures, but will post later. Here are a couple of pictures of my second styrofoam prototype.

Again, the intent is to create a positive mould out of this that I can then create a negative mould out of fibreglass. In this, I will then vacuum bag the carbon fibre back. Finally, a wooden top and fingerboard will be glued onto it.

What’s the verb for making knurled knobs? I finally managed to borrow the tool needed from an old friend and colleague and got some work done on the knobs today. During the week, I have also completed the slotted plungers that the strings will run through.

Here are some pictures:

This last picture shows the tool itself. To make a “cross” shaped knurling, a tool with two wheels is used. I personally purchased that tool along with this one at the company I borrowed it from this week, but it was almost 20 years ago, so not surprisingly, we couldn’t locate it.

It’s slowly getting there. I have a lot of finishing to do, and I still don’t have the knurled knobs, but today I completed the first tuner with the correct threads and it is looking good.

If you compare these threads with the ones from the prototype post, you’ll notice that these are much finer. This means that more turns are required to tune the string, giving a better fine-tuning action. You will also note the radius on the base plate. The plan is to use identical base plates whether it is a trem unit or not, so I have made two to test both concepts.