prs trem or floyd rose

The PRS trem is new to me I've been playing Floy Rose trems since 1983.

I just recently purchased a CE 22 with trem. I find the tuning stability very good, tone is not an issue... great tone, very smooth feel along the path of travel, pull up a half step tone by factory setup... thats cool I like my FR trems that way too. Does not dive bomb like a FR but how many dive bombs is a guy gonna do anyways and if so thats the least of my worries when it comes to criteria for scrutinizing trem performance.

One thing I must say is a pain is adjusting the height of the trem base. You need to take tension off the bridge and then turn all the screws exaclty the same amount. This is especially annoying if you like ultra low action because due to the factory settings of the trem you will likely not get enough adjustment from the saddles alone and you will have to do the trem base height adjustment. Aparently if it is done wrong you can permanently damage and possibly destruy the screw posts.
Fortunatly for me I was able to adjust my action to the way I like it from the saddles alone.

Read on... http://www.prsguitars.com/csc/bridges.html

Has anyone had to do this? Did you do it yourself or have a tek do it?

One final thing. Traditional strat trems can be set up to operate fine and I like the tone from that style of trem. However the Music Man traditional trem is my fav in that category. It has more mass and so much better transfer of energy... IMHO

Khing

Milkman said...

How many people intonate during EVERY string change?


Sorry man, but that's NUTS!!


There will be extreme cases where a set of strings is noticeably different than others of the same brand and gauge, but I have many things to consider in terms of the overall sound of both the guitars and the band. If you applied this level of attention to every important element of your music, you'd never emerge from the basement.


For the record, I do check my intonation every time I change strings. It takes a couple of seconds per string and if it needed adjustment I would simply do it. Also in case I haven't mentioned this, I change my strings every two weeks or two gigs, whichever comes first.

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I'm not sure if I'm underdstanding your post Milkman... what"s nuts?

I'm talking about intonating on every string change...

As for the amount of time it takes to do work on a FR yeah it's longer but if like Milkman you do it once a year then who cares but if you are like myself and intonate on every string change then FR's are a pain in the ass. Why do I intonate on every string change... becasue no two sets of strings are alike. Even if you use good quality strings the intonation can be out a little and I hear it. It drives me crazy when I'm out of intonation because it takes a bench top fix ( with the FR ) unliike being out of tune which can be fixed on the fly.

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I said intonation can be out a little. Thats why I intonate at every string change... maybe it's out and requires adjustment... maybe it's not and requires no adjustment. Surely you will agree that if it is out and out enough to make things sound bad then a FR system is not a simple system to intonate while standing up, guitar strapped on, in between songs or even sets. With a Fender sync trem like on a Strat or a Stop tail piece like on a Les paul for example a guy can do a quick intonation adjustment on the fly in between songs with a tuner and a small phillips screwdriver.

Then there is this...

If you applied this level of attention to every important element of your music, you'd never emerge from the basement.

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And this...

For the record, I do check my intonation every time I change strings

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And this...

(Ooooo, once a year I have to spend an extra few minutes to tweak my intonation)?

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So as you can see I'm not sure what's nuts. Are we slinging mud here Bro or what? If so thats a shame... no need for that. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions but honestly I find some of your comments contradictory... so please clarify.

FR systems are great I've been using them for quite some time but they do have their common shrotfalls and like any system they are not perfect. Ask any Tekky who does it for a living... intonating a FR is a pain in the ASS... plain and simple. A restring takes more time than most other systems. As for the palm muting thing... I have never had a problem with the FR system, for tuning, pitch going sharp or anything. I really like the FR system... some guys complain that they reck tone... I tend to like the tones I get from my guitars that have FR systems... but yeah there is a noticable difference in tone. I also find that the overseas licenced FR systems do not sound as good as the origional spec models by Schaller. The cheaper overseas FR systems tend to have a thinner base plate that is not made of the same grade of alloy as say the origional FR or the Schaller which has a thicker Bell Brass base plate.

Khing

Intonating during a gig may not be an everyday thing... usually things are done prior and ready to go... what I'm saying is it happens and man it's nasty with the FR system and easy with others... fact.

As for your comments being contradictory... you left these out in your last post... it's self explanitory or as I asked... clarify.

(Ooooo, once a year I have to spend an extra few minutes to tweak my intonation)?

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For the record, I do check my intonation every time I change strings

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So what I'm getting at here is I understand freedom of speech but actions will cause reactions and if someone tells me what I do is nuts then yeah I take offence to that. I really do not care how someone else does it ( not meant in a negative way ) and I'm surely mature enough to not make negative comments on a public forum when it concerns someones personal beliefs on do's and don'ts... thats just poor behaviour IMHO. If you intonate once a year than thats acceptable and yeah who cares about the little extra time it takes with a FR but if you intonate more often or say do it for a living... as I said...

As for the amount of time it takes to do work on a FR yeah it's longer but if like Milkman you do it once a year then who cares but if you are like myself and intonate on every string change then FR's are a pain in the ass.

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Bottom line is this FR systems are great and have certain drawbacks and whether you love or hate them is a matter of personal opinion... other systems are great aswell and the same applies... I want you to know however that slammin people for their personal opinions is simply bad etiquette and I do not accept that and will have my say.

Its obvious to me and others as I see from reading the posts in this thread that I'm not alone in my thoughts here. I could not care less how many years you have played or whether you gig, or play in your basemant, how old you are, etc... I do not judge people on that nor do I judge them on what they deem necassary in getting their artistic expressions across.

As far as I'm concerned you owe me an apology and you should use better etiquette in the future... however if you decide not to thats your choice and the consequences of that choice are yours and yours alone.

Khing