my metalhead bassist and best friend is trying to convince me to get a guitar with a floyd rose cause he hates my strats (claims they don't have enough power i strongly disagree) i love the trem though i hate the fact it's double locking (i do lots of crasy tunings i can't do that with a locking nut... my heart stays with the strat though and i rarely use a trem... on the other hand it would help my versitality even as a punk rocker what should i do?

The answer you seek, is in the question you ask, Grasshopper.

I only have one guitar with a Floyd Rose, and that's only because it was my first guitar and I didn't know better.

If you do crazy dives with the whammy, then okay... otherwise, steer clear. Just start googling for "floyd rose sucks" and "floyd rose problems" and you'll start to see what you should be prepared for.

it's not that i don't like them... before i got into the punk rock scene i was really into jacksons (especially the dk2) and to me a guitar had to have a floyd... i just didn't know that the strings were locked into place and i rarely used the trem in songs so i thought to myself "whats the use?" but i gotta admit it looks cool it's just that my bass player has ben obcessed with the metal scene and i have to be everything shred for him (screw that though i am who i am) though i can't help but wonder...

To thineown self be true.Don't let your bassist or anyone else dictate what you should have,it's you that's playing it not him,so if he wants to get his panties in a knot over it let him do so but stick to your guns and with what you're comfortable with. Personally I find double locking trems to be more of a hinderance than an advantage because there's so much shagging around with the it if you break a string halfway through a set etc.Plus where I use above the nut bends and harmonics a locking trem would prevent this too. The only advantage of the Floyd and others of that ilk is their ability to stay in tune after agressive whammy use but a well set up vintage will perform about as well with a bit of time and patience.Stay with what you're comfortable with and enjoy.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

hell yeah the strats my main deal i don't think i could use anything else i hate when people underestimate the strat... claiming that it has no power it doesn't stop tom morello and ian d'sa from playing them... plus i can't explain it but i feel that i can put more feeling into a fender guitar than a les paul for example... they are instruments for expression... the rest feels so artificial to me... i'll most likely go for a fat strat just to give humbuckers a shot though i love using singles...

I can't imagine for the life of me what the trem has to do with the power of the sound. What it seems you're talking about is the pickups more than anything. You could just go with a hum/hum pickguard and drop 2-humbuckers in it. Or you could just go with some Duncan single sized humbuckers and get more output out of your pickups for distortion.

I've been playing this guitar live since our Hawaii tour:


It's a Squier Bullet body, Hamer neck, Dimarzio Super Distortion and Tone Zone pickups. This thing has a lot of power dude. You'd be just fine playing a Strat. Just maybe re-think the guts of it.

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Stick to your guns and tell your bass player if he loves metal so much, maybe HE needs to learn to play it on a six string...if my bass player started telling me what I need to do, he would not be my bass player very long friend or no.

It is one thing to suggest things for the sake of a band, but if it is a harping kind of thing tell him to STFU

I had a keyboard player one time like that and it came to blows a couple times and after that he went bye bye...with a good size black eye (not advocating violence, it was in my younger days). Too bad too he was a great keyboard player, but a total arse otherwise on a lot of different levels.

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

I honestly don't see it that way. It's ok for another band member to suggest something like that. Depends on the context I guess. And maybe how much knowledge the person has about the subject.

It doesn't appear to be that he knows a whole lot about it if he thinks that a different trem equals a more powerful guitar.

I would have to say though, that for metal, I would never use single coil pickups myself. As I've mentioned in another thread, I don't think they distort as well at all for heavy rhythms. I'd use humbuckers 100% of the time for that genre, and Punk as well, if it were me. I'm playing Reggae, but due to the fact that I do distorted Rock or Heavy Metal type leads, I opt for Humbuckers just for that aspect alone. If I happen to lose a little tone as a result in the cleans, it doesn't bother me as much as having to suffer a loss of thickness in the distortion for the solos.

I think you should take a different approach, and appreciate his honesty in being able to suggest something to you that may actually help you. I don't think he's all that wrong if you're using single coils. I'd personally be all Hums for that genre. Don't give a second thought to the trem idea though. If you like a Strat trem, stay with the Strat.

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http://www.haleamano.com

Sounds like my drummer. I used to own a Jackson RR1 USA made, snow white w/ black pinstripes (Can't get much more metal than that >_>). Traded it in for my current tele because I couldn't stand the floyd. If you play music that requires dive-bombs and excessive use of the whammy the floyd is good, but if you don't it is not worth it IMHO as string changes are a pain and as you said, alternate tunings are even more of a pain.

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

Two guys were sitting on an airplane and the first leans over to the other and says, hey, man, I've got a great joke about bass players.

The second guy says, hey, I'm a bass player...

The first guy says, okay then, I'll tell it real s-l-o-w.


I always told my bass players - hey, when you can do what I can do, THEN you can give me your opinions on how I should do it.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

he thinks anything shred is powerful... the strat i'm getting has a pretty awesome jb in the bridge and sounds awesome and he's screwing me over saying it's worthless and i love the jb... plus i love a versatile instrument i'm not gonna use a razorback dimebag guitar on a 70's cover band (for example) if i ever join something else... it's pure logic

by the way i was thinking on a super distortion on one of my guitars for that offspring tone what's your opinion on that? (i love the jb but if the super distortion works might just put it in one of mine)

And I think you would be right about that. The JB is a very nice pickup. I'm not much of an over the top Metal type output pickup fan either. Those pickups just scream treble out of them. I like how in the descriptions they'll say "tighter bottom" when in fact it's more like "lack thereof". I personally think humbuckers should have some sense of color and flavor. Good luck man. Sounds like you've made a good choice to me.

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http://www.reverbnation.com/haleamano
http://www.haleamano.com

What exactly does the tremolo have to do with the "Power" of any guitar?
Does he think the guitar will be more powerful with a different tremolo?.....Really?



The stock tremolo is not a double lock, the Floyed is.
If you rarely use the tremolo I would suggest you install all five springs in the back and ground the tremolo to the body for your best string transfer, this will keep it in tune better as well but still let you do a dive when you want to.

As to your friend, I am sure he means well, but in this case he is showing his ignorance, just say thanks but I will stay with what I like to play and feel best to me.

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.