Removing a locking whammy - Paul Gilbert tyle

[Pablo]

Does anyone know the best way to remove a trem that's been recessed and fit a fixed bridge.


I've got a HM strat that the kahler is gone, the allen bolts have worn so it's difficult to change strings. Ideally I'd replace teh trem but since kahler does'nt exist plus that would be expensive.

I've got a lo-pro which I'll try (I'm hoping I don't need to rout) but I was wondering the best way to 'paul gilbertise' the trem. Would it be get a metal plate to fit the recess then drill holes in this metal plate for a fixed bridge and fill the trem cavity with a piece of wood? *

Any ideas?

[ShredHead42]

I know khaler makes a fixed bridge that looks just like their Pro trem. *It came on the Megadeth Jackson signatures... *you might want to try finding one of those on Ebay, because they look the same size (not sure though).

[darren wilson]

The Kahler trem on the HM strats is a Floyd-style fulcrum tremolo, not the flat, surface-mount style Kahler trem.

You're probably better off just blocking the trem rather than trying to fill all those cavities with wood.

[cowcowcow]

Example:

PG's pgm300

[Pablo]

Yeah it's blocked just now but the bridge Allen screws that lock the string are chewed so hence why I want rid of the unit.

The unit that's on the PG guitar does that have a block that goes through the guitar like a fender vintage or is it ferrules that stop the ball end? If it's ferrules then you would need to put some wood there to drill out the chanels

Help

[darren wilson]

The bridge on Paul Gilbert's guitar just looks like your standard run-of-the-mill fixed Fender-style hardtail bridge, and probably uses ferrules.

Every cavity on the front and back of the guitar would have to be filled with wood. Not a fun job, and it usually looks like crap unless it's done extremely well and followed by a complete strip and re-finish of the body guitar in a solid colour.

[Pablo]

You can get away with hiding the back with the trem plate. The front is a different matter.

First I'll try another whammy unit

[Christopher Chen]

The hardest part is probably filling up the area with wood, wood filler, putty or whatever. And making sure it's stable in the end...you wouldn't want a popping bridge instead of a fixed one.

I've always wanted to do a mod like this, I'm getting pretty sick of floating bridges.

Chris

[ChrisReedSmith]

Wow that looks like an incredibly crappy job for someone like Paul Gilbert, I mean whoever did it for him you know? I mean if I was going to do something like that I would make the trem cavity a little less visable or probably even re-finish the entire guitar so it cant be seen at all. looks like their trying to make it obvious...or someone outlined the cavity with a pencil and left it there or somethin...

[Pablo]

I don't think PG get's that good a deal from Ibanez as we would like to think.

To make it look good would mean a laminate on the top and the graphics would need redone. Ibanez could just build him another body.

Then again maybe he doesn't care since he's got loads of guitars.

if you get a metal plate and screw this into the trem recess making it flush with the body that would be pretty stable you then need to drill the holes for the new fixed bridge. It just depends if the fixed bridges go into the body from the top.

I think I've got some metal sheet lying around I'll maybe have ago on my project guitar first before I touch anything I value.

[ChrisReedSmith]

Funny I didn't mention this before...I use to own an Ibanez EX series which had a floyd rose on it. I put it in the shop and had them remove the trem and take a standard fender bridge and they just screwed it right into the wood where the base plate would sit. it worked pretty good I guess...but they didnt fill in any of the wood or anything so you could still see a big gaping hole behind the bridge. it worked pretty good and didnt cost to much