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Odd Tremolo Design, Replacement Arm or Saddles.

7K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  andrewgosline 
#1 ·
Hi Everybody,

Long story short, after years of contouring the heel of my strat and messing with my bridge to stay in tune, i gave up and got a used ibanez rg 220. What changed my mind was borrowing my good friends hideous pink early 90s RG. It has an edge tremolo with locking studs. Plays like a dream. Unfortunately, when my used rg arrived it had the bridge shown below, and it's missing the tremolo arm. Please note that this is not my actual guitar pictured, but it has the identical bridge without an arm:(

After searching quite a while on this forum and others, I haven't found much information on this bridge.

My questions:

1) Does anybody think that I can buy a replacement Floyd rose arm and put it on there??? Are licensed floyd rose arms generally interchangable (exception of ibanez plug in arms, of course).

2) The pictured trem doesn't lock the strings, rather the strings are slipped into each of the tubes. So it's only single locking, and hasn't been keeping in tune that well (yes i streched the strings). Is it possible that the graphtech string savers would fit on this bridge? I would consider that before buying a whole new bridge, because i was fond of string savers on my strats, and it's cheaper than replacing the whole bridge.

3) The trem pivots/studs are not perpendicular to the body. I'd say at least 10degrees off. Ibanezrules says use wood patch, which I assume is wood filler, but is drilling/plugging a more durable fix? Say, with hard maple???

This is a project guitar, so I'm not worried about having to route or drill, or even replace the trem. I like the idea of purchasing an OFR and using some ibanez locking studs from ibanezrules. If background is pertinent, I'm an electro-mechanical engineer, and I've played with many a guitar in the past.

Thanks for your comments. I've tried not to make this post just another typical tremolo post.
 

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#4 ·
Go and buy yourself a Gotoh licensed Floyd Rose. Shouldn't need any routing, trem comes with locking studs so take the time to pull the old anchors out and install the Gotoh ones. Best trem out there, and less than the OFR or Schaller.

Probably cheaper than buying the Graphtech saddles. Plus the knife edges of the ILT1 in the guitar will probably turn to crap soon enough and you will have to buy a new trem anyway.
 
#5 ·
ya there is lots of Gotoh love on here eh? That's cool... what should I do about the oval insert hole?? I will take a picture when the guitar arrives ( being shipped). Plug and re-drill? Wood filer, wood patch?

if this is an ILT1, the knife edges are quite rounded and look golden, like brass. they don't look like any steel alloy I've ever seen.

where do you all suggest buying the gotoh? only place I can find them is guitarpartsresource.com
 
#6 ·
Oh crap, I just found this:

"Avoid these non-Edge Tremolo variations on an Ibanez guitar, as they are typically installed on low end models. The cost difference between making a TRS and Edge equipped guitar is negligible, and fact is that these non-Edge double-locking tremolos are used by Ibanez as a marketing tactic to differentiate between guitar models, such as RG 3xx vs RG4xx vs RG5xx."

On here. Is it really likely that I'll have to drill out the old inserts??? Are they usually glued in??? Does heating the inserts up first help?
 
#7 ·
Yes the Gotoh is a great trem. with regards to pulling the old studs and anchors - yes plug them with dowel and then redrill to match the Gotoh studs.

The old anchors shouldn't be drilled in, check out projectguitar.com. They have a tutorial on pulling out old studs. I showed my Dad it when we did the same thing on a guitar of mine, but in the end he made a device to do it easily and safely!

If the knife edges on the ILT1 are looking like brass then the trem is already gone. Don't even bother with it.
 
#8 · (Edited)
I've finally received the parts from my parents, so now I'm more informed and can ask more detailed questions.

studs:
Now that I've taken the trem off, the stud inserts are not lose, nor angled, just that the studs are not locking studs, so they lean forward under tension. Also, they have a very weird thread. I'm going to guess it's M7x0.5mm thread cause the threaded area measures 6.85mm in diameter, and the thread pitch lines up perfectly (by eye) with a standard M3x0.5mm cap screw. This is a very strange thread size

Knife edges:
Well the black is worn away, and there is some brassy looking color, but when I use my swiss army magnifying glass, I can see that the brassy look is a coating too, and underneath is quite a fine point out of shiny steel. Feeling the edges, I'd say that they're quite sharp still.

Arm:
The outer thread of the arm retainer is about 8.9mm in diameter, and definitely has a 1.0mm pitch, because it matches my standard M6 cap screws almost perfectly. So, I'm hoping this is a standard arm thread so I can buy a replacement arm.

Questions:
I'm not a huge trem user, so I'm not sure I'll want to replace this trem. The posts are 73.9mm apart (similar to the floyd rose spec of 2.91"). What are the chances that I can slap in a replacement floyd rose arm in this bad boy??? It looks to me like it could work with a standard floyd arm???

The string spacing is 10.7mm, is there any chance that graph tech string savers will fit???

The stud inserts measure a little under 10mm. Is this a standard stud insert size?
 

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#9 · (Edited)
That trem appears very similar to the "Fastloader" string-through, Floyd-licensed trems sold by Guitar Fetish. Go to their site and compare:

http://store.guitarfetish.com/blflroflotrs.html

There are also other string-through systems around, all variations on the same basic design. The Guitar Fetish ones have actually gotten some decent reviews and claim to be solid, machine-hardened steel. I'd try various adjustments first: fix the rocking studs/anchors (if redrilling isn't necessary, you could try reseating them into wood epoxy), and checking that the knife edges are meeting the studs at a straight (90-degree) angle. Also lube all friction points: knife edges, saddles... You could also try replacing the anchors and studs with locking Edge studs (from Rich at Ibanez Rules).

Then when you're all done... give up and buy a Gotoh.

Bert

(EDIT: Just saw that you folks already ID'd the trem as an ILT1 -- not one I'm familiar with. Anyway, that means you can probably disregard my speculation about what trem it was.)
 
#10 ·
If you are seeing brassy looking stuff on the knife edges I doubt that it's going to be tough enough to retain a sharp knife edge. Trust me I've had a guitar with this sort of wear, and a few divebombs bend them up nicely.

Seriously your best move is to replace the trem with a new one. With the amount of work you are about to embark on it would be better served installing the new trem.

if you don't plan on using the trem go and buy a cheaper trem (rather than the Gotoh or OFR) and then block it. If you do want to play with the trem get the Gotoh.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for all your help thus far. Lubrication will definitely help:
Update:

Turns out that a little plastic mallet blow takes that tremolo arm holder out, and it's dimensions match almost exactly the one available from stewmac. So I'll be getting a new arm for sure. At least then I can play it and see if it stays in decent tune. I'll definitely be installing a block so that the tremolo can only drop the pitch. Although I see their advantages, I don't require a floating tremolo.

This is a total project guitar, and I plan to make some serious modifications (hollowing out the body, adding a maple or mahogany top, making a wooden pickguard, installing threaded inserts in the neck, adding locking tuners, etc etc). So, I won't hesitate to upgrade to the gotoh if I find that I'm not getting acceptable trem performance. Are they a direct replacement, post to post spacing, for an ibanez trem with 74mm spacing?

So I am still stuck on the string savers. I loved how they mellowed the tone on my old strat, and I hadn't broken a string no matter how much I bend with them on (and a graphite nut). Are they going to help a floyd? It's been years since I had a floyd, on my old warmoth wolfgang. I recall that the strings mostly broke at the bridge, right where they insert into the string holders. But I could have been over-tightening the bolt, as I was younger, stronger, and less gentle back then. Has anyone on this board tried the string saver floyd saddles?
 
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