This may rub a few people the wrong way, but... (PWH content)

[Drew]

May as well post pictures of my heresy and get it over with.

The bridge on my PWH was 17 years old. In some states, we could have gotten married. And the LoPro is certaintly a quality peice of engineering, but the years had taken their toll. The cosmetic damage was one thing, but the metal in the body of the trem was beginning to flake out around the arm holder, meaning that no matter what I did or how fresh my bushings were, there'd always be a bit of play in the trem arm. It was still fine for dibe bombing and whatnot, but I'm more the George Lynch subtle inflection sort of bar user than the EVH bombs away! type, so this had been a problem.

So, without further ado:



My already-pretty-beat-to-hell UV7PWH sporting a nice shiny new Original Floyd Rose 7.

Why'd I go with the Floyd instead of a LoPro? A couple reasons. The first was curiosity, eyeballing the trem route it looked like it should fiit, but no one could tell me for sure so I figured I'd take a chance on it. It's tough to tell from the picture, but it does, just; the bridge would ever-so-slightly nick the edge of the body as I pulled back, and it'd have worn in over time but instead I just grabbed my handy Leatherman (I can hear the cringes as I type this, lol), and filed through the paint at that corner and took a fraction of a millimeter off the side of the body. Problem solved.

Also, I'd heard a lot of good things about OFR's, but growing up playing vintage-y strats and wishing I was Albert King before getting into Satriani and double-locking trems, and then going straight for an Edge, I'd never really played an OFR for more than a few minutes. I'd had a little bit of experience with the LoTRS from a RG470 I owned briefly and was underwhelmed, but the real thing I tried on a buddy's Jackson seemed solid enough that I wanted to spend some more time with one to see how it measured up.

Finally, if you can find 'em, a OFR7 retails for $209, whereas a LoPro Edge goes for $300. If I was 110% sure the Edge would be the better bridge I'd have just done it, but I know enough Ibanez players who like them both that I figured it was worth a try.

Anyway, the old bridge - it was pretty worn when it came to me (the fault of the prior, prior owner, and not Gresch, the Jemsiter I bought it from):



If that's what the top looked like, and I'm saying the problem was the underside, well, trust me, this thing is pretty totalled.

Initial thoughts: so far I'm kind of digging it. The PWH looks better with a chrome bridge than I expected (I almost went gold, since that's all you can really find these days, but at the last minute a buddy of mine pointed me to an online store that'd just gotten two OFR7's in chrome. The second one sold within 30 minutes, to another guy off sevenstgring.org), which of course is important. Tonally, it's actually noticeably a little brighter than the LoPro, which I like (I used to play Strats exclusively, after all), and it just could be because there's no oxidation or gunk or anything at the saddle where the string crosses, but it sounds a bit "clearer" too.

The LoPro has the edge in a couple areas - the fact there's no spring retainer bar to lock them down makes me a little uncomfortable, and while I'm getting used to it I think the Ibanez's pop-in bar is, assuming you're cool with maintaining it, an improvement over the OFR collar design (though Wilkinson's screw-in with tension-adjustable collar is still the best I've played). The LoPro is also, strangely, heavier than the OFR. However all the people who insist tuning stability of the OFR is better than the LoPro may be onto something, although it's still too early to say. Certainly, I'm having a hell of a time knocking it out of tune.

Anyway, one more artsy/dorky angled low aperture shot to close the thead...



Please don't crucify me.




(by the way, if it pains you guys to see a relatively rare Ibanez being mongreled out like this, the body damage on this guitar is a match for this one, so know that at the very least it's in way better shape than it used to be)

[jb4674]

I'm at a loss for words Drew.

Jimmy

[Ayrton]

I'm calling my attorney...

[Algiman]

I had to replace the bridge on mine too for pretty much the same reasons, but it is great to see these guitars being used rather than locked away somewhere. My PWH is always my first choice axe these days.

The OFR7 looks really odd though, and you probably should be abused for this vile act.

[nuno]

[trying to keep the crowd from lynching him]
ok guys, i know it's horrible but we must not be upset, he's got good reasons to do what he's done. but Drew, as much as i like the OFR, please... look around for a BLACK one at least!

(thanks for the correct-focus pics, something rarer and rarer, lately)

[jem20thlover]

For the record, there is no "wrong" way to rub me.

Beat Elcid to it!!

[Ranz 777]

Nice man!!!
I love the guitar as a whole. I wish I would have bought one of those when I had the chance. Now..................I keep popping onto Rich's Ibanez Rules waiting to find one. With or without that Floyd....................nice axe brotherNot to mention, it sounds like you did some pretty thorough research before ya "just bolted" something on or did a hack job. Personally speaking, I think that should give ya a "no lynching" pass.
Boy.............the white on those really fade to yellow dont they?
~Ranz~

p.s. What are ya gonna do with the old original one?

[jim777]

Fine by me How's the sustain now, the same, better, worse? Is there even that much of a difference? I'd much rather see an OFR on her and have her on a stand than damaged and in a case.

[marianozz]

The chrome floyd doesnt bother me half as much as the black single coil

Anyway, whatever you do to your guitar to keep using it and enjoying, go for it

[Drew]

Originally Posted by marianozz

The chrome floyd doesnt bother me half as much as the black single coil

Me too! I'm seriously considering having the stock Blaze sent out to Bareknuckle for a rewind simply for cosmetic reasons, but it's been like that for 2-3 years now and I've gotten used to it.

It's actually a custom-wound single courtesy of Frank Falbo, from a year or two before he joined Duncan. The Blaze may look better in the guitar simply because it's white, but it also had this weird compressed sort of response and an attenuated high end that may have worked well with 'buckers, but didn't sound particularly single-coil-esq at all. This one, well, it's about as Strat-y as you're likely to get out of a basswood guitar with a floating bridge.

LMAO @ Jemlover. Don't get any ideas, bro.

Nuno, honestly, it was chrome or gold, and gold on a beat up white gouitar would be WAY too Evo for me to be comfortable with it. It looks pretty cool in person, to be honest.

Either way, half the reason I bought this guitar was that it was already a bit beat up when I got it, so I didn't have to be afraid of babying it to "preserve" it or anything. I sold a CST I bought for pretty much that reason, it was a gorgeous guitar that I just couldn't play. This one, well, what's the worst that could happen, I put another nick in it? I'm a player, not a collector. I love the general vibe to this guitar, it's got a lot of the charm of an old Stratocaster. I could care less how many of them are out there, or what'd it be worth if it was pristine, you know?

Jim, it's tough to say... I want to say maybe a LITTLE better, but certaintly comparable. Tonally though it definitely brightened up the guitar.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Ranz 777

Boy.............the white on those really fade to yellow dont they?

Part of it is the lighting in my room, too. I use energy saver mini flourescents, but one's behind a transluecent clouded glass fixture and the other's in a lamp under a cream cloth rectangular lampshade, and even with them both on it's not super-bright, so these anre't really ideal photographic conditions. t's certainly a cream and not a while, but it's also slightly less yellow than the pictures make it out to be.

[Tubarão Guitars]

the chrome OFR looks okay to me.
i'm sure the OFR are top notch quality, so it's a player UV, and the functionality is more important than fashion!
play hellovit' and be kewl!
i'd love to see her in action, videos please!

[moebius]

Chrome looks good to me. The old trem looks god awful. Good swap.

[Gurj]

Wtf were you thinking Drew! Sorry mate, but I'm going to have to confiscate that UV from you

[jaxadam]

I actually prefer OFR's as my trem of choice, and don't really care too much for the lo-pro anyway.