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A little help. Question about S and SA series bridges.

3463 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  sniperfrommars1
I'm going to copy and paste a thread I had at the Seymour Duncan forums:

I tried this model today at the local shop and it was pretty awesome and I think one of the comfiest guitars I've ever played. Killer flame top in person. It's part of the S series.
http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=SA220FM
I had my eye on a Satriani 1000 model or something like that with a Floyd. I was just curious if anyone knew about the bridges on the SA series. Since I had my eyes set on a Floyd, these guitars are basically identical.
Any of these could be used as an examlpe.
http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/series.asp?s=s&l=e
I need to know about the ZR bridge. What kind of Floyd is that and does anyone know much about them? I could assume that they're not as good as an edge pro because of the price gap. If they're good I might want to get one of them. Maybe I'll just try and haggle for the one in the store since it could be a real standout one. These are all Korean and as far as I'm concerned, it played better than anything there.

That was what I posted. Anyway now I see that there's the SAT pro bridge and SAT 30S bridge. Does anyone know the differences? I just want to make sure because I hate crap bridges. Check the bridges out here. http://www.ibanezrules.com/namm/2005/sa_gsa_sz_gsz.htm
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I've got SA260FM. It is gorgeous guitar, especialy for the money. I like the singlecoil very much (my first guitar with SC, I used to play LP).
If you wan't FR, get guitar with FR. You will not able to do things like Satch or Steve on Willkinson type bridge (SAT30 is such a bridge). But if you wind your string carefully, have a good nut and saddles on SAT30 and setup, it will be pretty stable. And if you change tuning machines for locking type (Shaller or Sperzel, it will be even better). Have a look on nut, cause some SA models haven't propperly cut nut, it may cause tuning problems.
ZERO bridge is at least as good as Edge Pro if not better. It is more like Kahler bridge (on ball bearings, not knife edges like other FR bridges). It is very stable, you can play doublestops with bending, and it will not drasticaly change in pitch when you break a string (unlike FR bridges). I've heard it will not change in tune if you break one of the 3 top strings (g, b, e). You can set the stiffness of the trem and some of them have D tuner. But it is a bigger and heavier bridge than EP, some say more stiff (not spongy feeling) and I don't know if quality of the bridge is same on Korean and Prestige (Japanese) models.
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Sorry, my mistake! I forgot that recent prestige S models are made in Korea! Only older (pre 2005/end of 2004) prestige S series were made in Japan (S1620, S1625, S1675).
So you think the ZR is basically as good quality as the edge pro? That's my concern because I do actually like playing some crazy whammy stuff like Vai etc.
I still might get one of the guitars with a SAT bridge. I need to know the quality differences between the SAT Pro and SAT 30
Of course SAT Pro is better quality than SAT30. It not only looks better, it is better! :) The major difference would be the arm holder (on SAT30 you just pop the arm into the hole and can set up the stiffness with little screw, not very practical, SAT Pro have same or similar to those on Edge bridges). The other difference are the saddles. On SAT30 if you want to change action, there is only one screw for doing this. This leads to angled saddles if strings are a bit high cause the screw is on right side, not in the middle. But on SAT Pro there are 2 screws, so it is ok.
If you want FR bridge, get S or RG series. But I prefer SA body - it's arched top with flat back, unlike S series, so there's more body wood. If only Ibanes make SA series with Edge or ZR bridge! :)
In many peoples opinion (including mine) the ZR is superior to any other tremolo in the world. My teacher owns a 77FP with an edge, and once he tried the ZR on my guitar he went out and bought a guitar with the ZR trem too :) Well not right away, but you get the point. My absolute dream would be an mahogany RG with a ZR trem. *drool*

But, as with everything else: Try before you buy.
the zero rocker trem uses a ball bearing design instead of a knife edge based system. This reduces friction and improves float, while not perfect, both systems when setup properly will generally function the same way. The zero rocker will have a feel quite similar to some of the kahler tremolos but without the inherint sustain problems created by such a device which used roller saddles. Plus the zr is a double locking system, which is far more stable than one that still uses ball end based strings
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