What a COOL guitar!!

Why has no one thought of that before??!!

It looks so much less gimpy than it would headstockless!

i think the speedloader bridge will suck. you have to have special speed loader strings like steinberger, and i use a weird gauge, mixed and matched so . the new edge looks okay, but i hope it is just better, so then ibanez purists won't raid ebay searching for pre-2003 ibanezes. leave those for me!

Odd:
There's no mention of the new trems from Ibanez being a "speedloader" of any type, yet on the front page of Jemsite.com, there are two mentions that the new trems include a "speedloader" model.

The only speedloader I've seen, and talked about, is the one from Floyd Rose.

"Speedloader" is clearly the wrong term to be using, as it's causing confusion with the new Floyd Rose systems that use the pre-stretched strings and no headstock tuners.

Yes, the new Edge trems allow you do load strings without clipping off the ball ends, and does seem to have a cam-lock system that doesn't require a wrench to lock and ulock at the bridge, but we really do need to start calling the system something else.

Easyloader?

Amazingly enough, "speedloader" on the front page of Jemsite.com has been changed to "zero rocker".

"F*** YOU! IT'S MAGIC!"
LOL

So are the trems all low profile, there won't be any "whale-tail" type like the original Edge?

I don't know, I really see very little benefit with these new trems. The only benefit is a small amount of saved time. Floyds are not difficult to work with once you understand how they work.

I was reading the old Ibanez Catalogue and found this
http://www.ibanezrules.com/catalogs/us/1989/vm.jpg

HARDWARE
Edge II, Chrome

was that the same as the "new" Edge II?

btw, the guitar VM was holding in the photo had a different bridge!

No

I honestly can't see how this saves time. Because Ibanez wants you to string their new trems like a Strat, this requires you to flip your guitar over 6 times to change strings. Those of us who string Floyd type guitars the "right" way (backward - ball end at the tuner), this just makes our lives more *difficult* with regard to changing strings. Thanks for nothing Ibanez. LOL

Vive le LoPro!

~d~

It will not make anyone's life more dificult.
On the contrary, it'll make the life of the people who hate cutting the ball ends easy, and it'll make our life easy (I string with the ball ends at the tunning peg) with the easy lock mechanism because you won't need an alen key to lock the string down at the bridge.

I don't mind fidling with my alen keys every time I need to change a string, but this way you will only need to pull a lever and the whole sadle vice thing will open wide enough for you to feed through the ball end or the other end of the string and then to clip it down again in 2sec without uisng any alen keys whatsoever. Rather like a vicegrip as oposite to a vice.
I think it's a great idea.
Let's hope that the nut lock has been improved in the same way. This way the only need for alen wrenches will be when intonating.

I'm pretty sure that when we see it and play with it and see how user friendly it is, most of the "nay" sayers will become "yay" sayers and the new EDGE I will rule all.

all reports i've heard of the new Edge(s) is that you STILL need to use the allen wrenches as before at bridge and nut. Without the set screws, i don't believe the saddle or nut would widthstand the force to hold the string. Carvin tried a "no wrench needed" locking nut and they broke with regularity.

the "not having to cutoff the ball end" is pretty silly either way, as you can do that now by stringing it thru the machine head first anyways ...glen

Yeah, but even if you load the strings with the ball ends at the headstock, you still have to cut them to length and trim off the unwound part of the wound strings. (I can still string up my string-through-body tuno-o-matic-style faster (and with no tools) than i ever could with any Floyd. Fixed bridges rock! )

Kahler's Floyd-licensed bridges had some interesting features like being able to fix the bridge by swinging the arm out of the way, and for a while they had wrenchless locking nuts. One feature they did do right was integrated string retainer bars on the back edge of the locking nut. That's a feature Ibanez should have adopted for the new trems, along with Yamaha's height-adjustment capability on their Floyd-style locking nuts.

The hardened saddle inserts sound like a possible improvement. Someone here mentioned that that could be an way to install piezo or midi electronics. That would be a huge plus I think we'd all like.

But the extended cavity for ball ends just seems pointless to me. More parts can result in worse tone or playability. Oh well, I'll wait until the bridge is released and then I'll put it to the test.