carvced-top suited floating bridges

Sebastian · Apr 13, 2010

hi guys just wondering if anyone knows of any good floating bridges designed for use on guitars such as les pauls or anything with the gibson tilted neck?

I won't go anywhere near floyd rose, and i believe that the Wilkinson floating bridge is one of the best in the business, apart from the fact i don't know if it'll work on the tilted/carved body and neck. Bigsby's don't provide enough variance in pitch for my needs

thanks

Gearhead · Apr 13, 2010

Sebastian wrote: apart from the fact i don't know if it'll work on the tilted/carved body and neck.

Your problem is going to be bridge height. The TOM is designed higher than the Strat bridge, to cope with the neck angle. The carving between fretboard and bridge is rather flat. If you are okay with having a tremolo 'ring' made just like the humbucker rings on your Les Paul, you could get away with it.
The one tremolo that might suit your needs I'd say is the Hipshot Tremolo. It is full floating, good quality and rests on the ubiquitous two stud screws. It does need routing in the guitar and you would need a ring as mentioned, but it's not going to look out of place and sustain a lot better than a Floyd.

AlanRatcliffe · Apr 13, 2010

+1 to everything Gearhead said. On the Wilkinson trems you can also raise the saddles up quite a bit, which offsets the need to raise the bridge too high.

However, also look at the Kahler Trems. They have a double-locking model designed for mounting on the tailpiece studs of a LP: http://www.kahlerusa.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=24 fit a locking nut with one of those and you're golden. Close second place would be locking tuners and a Graph Tech nut if you don't want to rout the neck.