Often when we buy a low to mid-range licensed Floyd Rose equipped guitar, we might be in for tuning stability hell. More then often, after doing a full pull up, the bridge either doesn't return to true zero position or is just simply out of tune. We might accredit it to string being un-stretched most of the time, but what if the strings has already been stretched?
We can usually fault it on the inferior licensed Floyd Rose bridge that is being constructed with Pot mystery metal with weak knife edges that are prone to blunting. If you are one of those who are looking to replace your bridge with an Original Floyd Rose (OFR), look no further. I have something, in my opinion is superior even to the OFR. The Gotoh Licensed Floyd Rose Tremolo Bridge.
The Good news for this bridge is that it doesn't require a guitar that is pre-fitted with a Floyd Rose routed cavity with an existing Licensed Floyd Rose bridge extra routing. Namely, lower to mid range ESP and Ibanez. What this means is that as long as the user knows how to take out the bridge, it is not actually hard to replace it and is in fact just a matter of swapping the bridge.
The best part about the Gotoh Floyd Rose Bridge is that it comes with a set of lock studs. What this means is more tuning stability compared to even the OFR, which doesn't have the locking stud installed. This is however only for the adventurous who are willing to dabble into some DIY. All the user need to do is actually to pull out the existing bushings in the body of the guitar, re-drill (usually a bigger) hole and hammer in the new bushings.
The Gotoh Floyd Rose Bridge also comes with an existing Brass Block instead of Pot Mystery Metal that usually comes with the low end licensed bridge. This actually improves the tone of the instrument, give it a fuller yet richer sound.
In terms of usage, the Gotoh Floyd Rose Bridge functions smoothly both on pulling up and whamming down and usually return to near absolute Zero without much audible pitch difference. (No Floyd Rose designed Bridge goes back to absolute Zero).
The Arm of the Tremolo has a unique design in which it is internally threaded while there is a screw at the bottom of the tremolo arm holder. The user just needs to turn the tremolo arm in to keep it in the arm holder while there is a separate arm grub screw to adjust the looseness or tightness of the tremolo arm. This greatly allows flexibility on giving the player the option of how they want the Arm to hang in the arm holder.
All and all, the Gotoh Floyd Rose Tremolo Bridge is a huge upgrade from Pot Mystery Metal Licensed Floyd Rose Tremolo Bridge while being priced at almost less than an OFR. This doesn't only improves the guitar tone wise but also in terms of tuning stability, often making a guitar so much nicer to pick up that you probably wouldn't want to put it down.
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