FWIW:
The first real V I had was fitted with a Gibson Factory Kahler. I guess that ruined me. When I got a faded and upgraded what all needed to be upgraded I just kept wanting to get that surfy warble and couldn't. So I researched the LPF and the WWW and Usenet to try to find out about the Les Trem. StewMac is the only place to get them now for $105 with the other places to get them at $140 (and that's for the older style without the adjustable arm).
So I jumped in and bought two units in chrome looking toward my V and Es335.
I got them two days ago and last night put one on the V. It works just fine as a bigsby replacement. I've done nothing yet to fine tune the system. The tuning issues I've read about don't really exist in my case. In fact my old strat had more tuning instability than this, even with the V's headstock angle and string spread. My verdict: I'm hooked. I just wish it came in nickel.
Their actual tailpiece is thinner than a regular one. You get replacement bolts that don't have a lip on them so they can screw down closer to the body and hold the bar in place. I didn't try it that low because I topwrap my guitars and wanted the strings higher. You can see in the last photo that I put some washers under the tailpiece to keep it higher than designed. Maybe this height has something to do with the staying in tune better? I need to add another washer and screw the posts in tighter to level out the tailpiece.
I think that it's a great piece of hardware for bigsby-ish flutter. There is no noticible tuning problem when used for subtle wah-wah-whas. While it can drop 2 steps, tuning suffers when you come back up (like a strat). It's not a Satriani whammy bar. But I'm not Satriani so it all works out.
And now, more photos of the Les Trem than you can find on the web:
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The first real V I had was fitted with a Gibson Factory Kahler. I guess that ruined me. When I got a faded and upgraded what all needed to be upgraded I just kept wanting to get that surfy warble and couldn't. So I researched the LPF and the WWW and Usenet to try to find out about the Les Trem. StewMac is the only place to get them now for $105 with the other places to get them at $140 (and that's for the older style without the adjustable arm).
So I jumped in and bought two units in chrome looking toward my V and Es335.
I got them two days ago and last night put one on the V. It works just fine as a bigsby replacement. I've done nothing yet to fine tune the system. The tuning issues I've read about don't really exist in my case. In fact my old strat had more tuning instability than this, even with the V's headstock angle and string spread. My verdict: I'm hooked. I just wish it came in nickel.
Their actual tailpiece is thinner than a regular one. You get replacement bolts that don't have a lip on them so they can screw down closer to the body and hold the bar in place. I didn't try it that low because I topwrap my guitars and wanted the strings higher. You can see in the last photo that I put some washers under the tailpiece to keep it higher than designed. Maybe this height has something to do with the staying in tune better? I need to add another washer and screw the posts in tighter to level out the tailpiece.
I think that it's a great piece of hardware for bigsby-ish flutter. There is no noticible tuning problem when used for subtle wah-wah-whas. While it can drop 2 steps, tuning suffers when you come back up (like a strat). It's not a Satriani whammy bar. But I'm not Satriani so it all works out.
And now, more photos of the Les Trem than you can find on the web:
