Sound Samples

Thanks to everyone who has been voting on the sound samples for the different bridges! I will keep the poll open, but since I happen to agree with the results at the time of writing, and since I have new findings, I will reveal the results. Bridge 1 = Ball bearing Bridge 2 = Original Floyd Rose Bridge 3 = Stainless steel knife First of all, I am not disappointed. Why, you might ask? Read on… Secondly, this is for one guitar, and a pretty unique one at that. The material, for instance, is jeluton, which is not commonly regarded a tone-wood. Other guitars will render different results. Furthermore, I selected two tones more or less at random, but other tones will give different results. The distorted tone is the one that decided for me, and for most other voters that have commented on or off-line. It was just more complex and “tight” with the F-R. Anyway, I got my hardened steel knives back and discovered that they made quite a (positive, I think) difference to the sound as well. So, I went on and made three new tremolo spring blocks to examine all avenues and see what might have tipped things in the F-R’s favor. So, here are...

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...