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The Trem King, would you rock this thing?


voneville

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I saw this cat's website and it was slightly interesting. He faux pauxed and posted a spam thread and it got deleted. I think it might be worth a look.

 

My thoughts. I haven't played one, so this isn't a review.

 

It's ugly. Not exactly a revolutionary concept, Bigsby's don't raise the action of the strings or change intonation, nor do Fender's non Strat trem's.

 

It may be superior to a strat's trem, but it's hard to tell what effect it has on tone when the video demo sounds like someone's guitar teacher playing some 1980's hair metal. And most people that like strat's these days wouldn't change their trem anyway. Somepeople actually like it. If it is good enough for Hank Marvin it's good enough for me.

 

I do dig the tele concept though, that is something I'd be interested in. Homeboy should talk to Jay at Guitar Fetish and find out how he is able to offer great products at super prices. I would consider buying one for less money, it's not really a value for something that I would only install it on a moderate priced guitar. Installing a trem that requires routing on a tele is a quick way to destroy it's resale value.

 

Here's a link to the site.

 

http://www.tremking.com/prod.html

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No but for real though, I hate floating tremolo's. But if one didn't have to drill out their guitar like they do with a bigsby, then it would be worth it alone. Alot of Teles that have tremolo's are those junky bigbsy's, and they might be better.

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  • 1 month later...
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I got to try one of the trem-kings out at the guitar show, it was installed in a tradition strat copy and here's what I noticed about the claims the salesman made:

 

He claimed that when you bend one string it won't affect the others at all. I experienced this first hand and it's true. I did a double-stop bend with none of the issues I have with the floyd. With the floyd (as with many trems) when I bend a note I have to bend it a little further because the bridge is bending up with my bend, and thus all the other strings are going out of tune. This one did not have that problem even remotely.

 

 

He claimed you can tune differently or even break a string and the other strings will not go out of tune. This I also experienced first hand and it is true also. We tuned to drop-d and the other strings were perfectly in tune then we tuned back and they were still in tune.

 

 

He claimed the whammy action was smooth and (can't think of the word) equal? consistent? basically that it felt good to whammy. After trying it out I'd say that this too was true. There was very little pressure required to whammy all the way up and all the way down (floyd style and even a little further) and the pressure required was relatively consistent over the whole travel of the bar.

 

 

He claimed that if you removed the bar, your guitar would be, for all practical purposes, like a fixed-bridge, that I also saw and experienced first hand with double stop test.

 

 

So I walked away impressed. Salesman was a super nice guy too - the business partner of the inventor.

 

 

 

I had a thought after I left though. What would it do to sustain? I can only speculate, but it is actually secured to the body of the guitar a bit more than most trems ... hmm ...

 

 

Anyway, wanted to share what I experienced. Hope this helps someone someday.

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thanks for the first hand review! Though I gotta say that a trem on a tele is WRONG
:D

 

As you're only tele yes, but if you have more then 3 tele's it's totally exceptable! :)

 

And yea, the hands on review kicked ass! I think it's a really cool design, just pricey.

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Why is it pricey?


I see a trem that costs no more than a floyd with some obvious advantages. (besides tuning stability, of course, NOTHING beats a floyd for that.)

 

 

I wouldn't pay Floyd prices either. I'd take a Bigsby over any other trem for modifying a hardtail guitar for the simple fact that they're cheaper, easier to install and require a lot less modification. You can even go back to a stock bridge and repair the holes and no one would be the wiser if you did a good repair.

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  • 9 months later...
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So who here has installed one of these?

 

 

I did. I bought a squire strat with the specific intention of getting one of these and trying it.

 

I have a floyd rose equipped jackson for comparison btw.

 

Now, I haven't had a chance to do the full conversion (with the routing) because I don't have woodworking equipment. A friend does and when our schedules work out I will start the drilling!.

 

 

So, first of all, everything they say in the ads is true. Very stable, works great. HUGE range.

 

The issue with the bigsby is that it's range is small and tunings far less than stable. The issue with the floyd is that it is a floating bridge and you can't change tunings easily. (I hate this about my jackson's floyd, so I got a tremel-no for it). Even with the Tremel-no I wish I didn't need a locking nut. But, that is a seperate issue.

 

So, the range on this is comparable to a floyd. You can actually pull UP in pitch enough to cause a 9 high e string to snap (I did a few days ago). To get full down range you have to route your guitar a bit, but looking at the device you have a ton of room there too. So, once again comparable to a floyd.

 

It seems to be very well made as well.

 

For guys who don't like the bar, it fits most standard strat bars so you can just yank it out and put in your favorite. Also, the black bobin big part at the end screws off so you can remove that as well. I honestly don't know which I prefer. But it is fine. I think a smaller blog on the end would be the optimum. Meh.

 

The bends it does ARE very smooth. With a strat or floyd, you change the scale length as well as the pitch when you use the bar. With this, only pitch changes, so it has a subtly different effect. Smoother and kinda liquidy. Very much like a bigsby, but with the floyd range. Like if the two got drunk and had wild sex or something and had a kid 9 months later. That kid is the tremking.

 

By virtue of the nice roller stuff, and the way the trem works, I find it VERY stable tuning wise. With a roller nut I would expect this to be as good as a floyd as long as the tuners didn't slip.

 

The only issue is the routing. If they could find a way to make that not an issue, it would be the best trem ever.

 

Let me put it this way: I want them to make a floyd replacement so I can put the thing on my jackson instead of the floyd. SERIOUSLY.

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Great! I was looking for some experiences about the Tremking, and so it really is great! Just wonder how the difference is in the sound compared to a more tradional Strat-trem. There's some more wood taken from the body (which shouldn't be so good for the sustain, although I think it's negligible), but the bridge is fixed (which is a good thing). And the graphite saddles should change the sound too...

 

Nevertheless I really want to have this one!

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