I hate Kahlers. They eat your tone.
I've been using original Floyds (old ones, from the early 80's), but I've also modified them quite a bit. Here's some fun stuff you can do:
- The Big Block mod. You know the block that bolts under the Floyd that the strings attach to? You take it out and replace it with solid brass that's twice as thick, double the mass. Makes a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE difference in tone and sustain. I just did this a few months ago, and I can't even begin to tell you the difference it made. It just rocks. Go to ebay and search on "Big block floyd rose." It's worth every penny. Heavy is good!
- Fine tuners suck. Having the bridge being all floppy like that hurts the sustain and the tone. I think Ibanez fixed this with their tremolos--those things are built like tanks. But, I already have Floyds. Do this--tune your guitar with the tuners all the way out, play it, and then tune them with the tuners tightened down as far as they'll go. You'll get better sustain with them down. I just got rid of the tuning knobs and put in slightly longer allen wrenches so I could tighten it down until they were fixed and now the whole thing is one piece.
- I don't have fine tuners--how do I tune? I flattened the little "monopoly house" nut locks with a Dremel tool, and got some longer allen bolts at Home Depot. Take four or five washers and smooth them out with really fine sandpaper so there are no burrs. Put these on the bolt before the fine tuner, and lubricate with teflon or something. Now rotating the bolt won't rotate the lock. I can lock my strings down, now, and the tuning doesn't change.
- Make sure the bolts in the nut are good and tight. Otherwise it can move a little when you tighten the locks and your tuning will change.
- Shims are your friend! A lot of players don't know there are precut steel shims out there, both for the nut and for the tremolo. You can get them in different thicknesses and adjust bot the nut and individual string height. These are especially handy if you have a custom radius. I'm using Warmoth's compound radius, so I need a much flatter tremolo. I used all six saddles of the same height, and shimmed them to get the radius I needed.
- Most production guitars ship with the nut cut way too high, because it's a lot of trouble to get it just right. But, this will make a HUGE difference in playability. You have to remove the wood under the tremolo to lower it--ideally it would be exactly at the same height as the frets. I usually cut too much (doh!), and go back to the previous post--Shims are your friend!
