im building a parts o caster and i need help with a decision for the bridge. the neck on my guitar is routed for a stadard nut. now i am a heavy trem user dive bombs and all you name it. i want a floyd but i talked to a luthier about it and he said it will be to weak up there if he coverts it to locking nut. so no floyd , what about kahler . there expensive and have tunnig problems. dunno you tell me. i like the blade runner exept im afaraid the spring will break will it. or mybe a heavly modified american srtandard two point bridge with a lsr roller nut. ive also read that all tunning problems occur at the nut. and one last thing do you guys know were i can get a non fine tunning floyd id really like one of those well too da loo and thanks for ansering my question.

I'd try a two point tremolo with locking tuners and a graphite nut.

I have one of the original non-fine tuning Floyds in chrome. E-mail me if you're interested. Note that I only trade within the US.

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how much and were those hand made beacause the first floyds were hand made and how do they performe i heard you cant use a locking nut

You can make me a realistic offer for it PRIVATELY via my e-mail as to the best of my knowledge, buying, selling and trading is not allowed on this site.

I have no idea if this unit was hand made or not nor will I presume one way or the other.

It worked quite well when it was in service.

It would be ludicrous to use a locking nut if a bridge has no fine tuners!

Here's a stock picture of it as it was used on the early Kramers (which is what mine came off):

http://www.vintagekramer.com/parts/floydnotun.jpg

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You dig?

I'm very agressive with the trem and have found the vintage 6 screw trem with the old style slotted Klusons to hold their tuning very well with no string slippage as long as new strings are put on properly.I can wrench the trem on songs like The Star Spangled Banner and Machine Gun and stay perfectly in tune.

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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.

Hi minigreekboy,

When I use the trem heavily, the only thing that has stayed in tune for me is a double locking system. The Floyd Rose trem and locking nut on my 83 Kramer works very well. Just curious, why would the neck be too weak if a locking nut was installed?

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

...Well, you'd still need a locking nut with a Khaler. Two-point Wilkinson's are basically what a non-fine tuning Floyd that Martian mentions is (Although the non-tuning Floyd Martian has is prolly worth a bit more for its rarity and history!) As long as you have a qualified luthier or tech do the locking nut shelf for you, you should be fine. If it was ME, I just buy a new neck with the locking nut prep already done.



Because a luthier would have to mill or rout a shelf for a locking nut. That means removing a fair amount of wood from the weakest part of the neck for the shelf, and drilling holes through that for the nut anchoring screws.

ORCRiST

Thanks for the reply ORCRiST. Does that mean that necks that come with a locking nut are made differently in order to be strong enough when milled and drilled for the locking nut? Are you saying that the ones that do have the locking nut are just generally weaker in that area? Seems like adding a locking, or roller nut isn't unusual, many people do it. Just curious, thanks.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Yes to being made differently, no to being generally weaker (although one could argue for 'yes'). "Weakness" issues are really only a problem worth mentioning at all when you encounter and/or combine a few factors. The first being a neck that wasn't designed with a locking nut shelf at creation, but even that doesn't matter unless you combine that with the following: A neck with a shallow truss rod channel (seen in vintage instruments and necks with a truss rod 'plug' near the nut) or a neck that has the truss rod adjustment screw at the peghead. These are potential danger areas because the wood is thinner, and seeing as how a locking nut then needs more wood removed in the area in addition to the anchoring screw holes - these all serve to weaken the already weakest part of a neck to begin with = baaaaad.

Most modern construction necks don't really need to worry about it as the truss rod and its channel end well before reaching the nut 'area', thus eliminating the weakest link, so to speak.

ORCRiST

Khalers also have a loking nut but if I remember, it is mounted after the nut. Bigsby might be an option, but the lack of trem arm travel downward will force you to hold back on the divebombs.