What's the best sounding whammy bar unit?

[ericopp]

I've started building yet another new guitar, and this one will have a vibrato bar.

Which one to buy?
Please don't say Floyd Rose - I've got a spare one of those and it ain't going in this guitar.

Wilkinson?
Kahler?
Vintage Fender style?
PRS?
Bigsby? (no chance)

???

[yngwie308]

Vintage Fender from that list, for example the PRS trem depends on the headstock, string angle ect.
What type of guitar is it. I can definitely say lose the Kahler .
You can't go wrong with the old Fender, with some minor upgrades.
yngwie308

[fillmore nyc]

I agree with Yng... old Fender is the way to go IF you've gotta have a trem. The Wilkinson is another alternative, probably a little smoother and better able to stay in tune, but it only mounts to the guitar with 2 pivot points. Might limit the amount of tone you'll get compared to the Fender.
IMO, the Fender is probably as close to a hardtail as you can get while still having a trem on the guitar.

[toner]

Best? None!

I never use them so I'm biased, but the Fender will probably have the best tone if you can get the tuning stability worked out. If you're not doing "dive bombs" with it, you should be fine. Some people say they can get a non-locking trem to stay in tune but that's never worked for me. YMMV

[ohmygodtheykilledkenny]

Depends on what you call "in tune". In a live setting, if I rip a dive (rarely, and only with excessive feedback), I'm usually close enough to in tune that no one knows I'm out cept me, in which case I give the strings a tug between songs, and I'm back in.

Tonally, my vote is for the Vintage Fender, since I hate floyds and or double locking setups as a rule.

Of course, sometimes, it ends up far out on the low E and or G string... Gross. If you do a few dives and then retune, and repeat before a set, this helps to, IMO, since the strings seem to move more freely through the nut.

Travis

[ericopp]

Make no mistake - every guitar I've built over the past few years has been a hardtail or stop tailpiece. The few guiatrs I own that DO have a wammy are all Floyds. These work great, of course, but I think they sound thin. So, I guess I'm leaning towards a Fender style. Allparts sells a solid steel one for $60-70, unless you guys have any better ideas...

Thanks, as always, for the feedback!

[ohmygodtheykilledkenny]

Callaham!!!!!!! If I was doing my guitar over again I'd go for theirs! Very high quality.


Travis

[gutpile]

Best? None!

I blocked mine off on the second day I got my Strat... The wierd thing is if I let my strat sit for a while it goes a c-hair sharp... my paul goes flat if anything....

[fillmore nyc]

Best? None!
I never use them so I'm biased

Well, I didnt wanna say it, but when its all sifted out, I gotta agree. I havent built a trem guitar in at least 15 years. I can make 'em play in tune, but in the end, the tone always suffers as compared to a hardtail. I understand WANTING one, but however you wanna cut it, they're a "gitnip". (Good in theory, not in practice). /

[toner]

...I understand WANTING one, but however you wanna cut it, they're a "gitnip". (Good in theory, not in practice). /

Maybe your screen name should be "acronym nyc"!

For the record, I've never built a guitar so I'm just basing my opinion on the typical stock models available. All of my strats have the trem blocked. In a past life I had several guitars with Floyd Rose trems but I recently got "old" and lazy and just don't use whammy bars anymore.

Good luck with your quest, ericopp! I'm sure you'll get some good advice here.

[gnugear]

Callaham!!!!!!! If I was doing my guitar over again I'd go for theirs! Very high quality.


Travis

Ditto! I've got one in my super strat and it stays in tune better than any other standard unit I've used.

[WabashCannonball]

If you don't mind being a bit unconventional, you may wish to check out the new offering by Glendale. I have his bridgeplates and saddles for my Tele partscasters and am very, very pleased. His new Strat model whammy combines vintage Fender Strat trem/vibroto with his Tele compensated saddles.

http://www.glendaleguitars.com/

Oh, this is my first post. Great to be here and looking forward to getting to know all of you.

[ericopp]

Thanks, all, for the feedback.
The Callaham stuff looks terrific - but just a bit pricey for me.
Make no mistake, building a trem guitar is only because I've built so many hard tails! I'd like at least ONE that has a good sounding trem that doesn't make me sound like DiveBomb, Inc.

Question - is solid steel the best option?

[ohmygodtheykilledkenny]

Solid Steel is the way to go, I have the left handed version of the allparts one you mentioned above, and I really like it. Sustains longer than any other guitar I have played. Tuning is allright, like I said above.

Its just that if I was re-doing this Strat, or building another, I think I would save up for a Callaham, because of their design. Its a big improvement on everyone elses.

So if its all about the tone, I would say Allparts rates well on my scale.

Travis

[fillmore nyc]

If you don't mind being a bit unconventional, you may wish to check out the new offering by Glendale. I have his bridgeplates and saddles for my Tele partscasters and am very, very pleased. His new Strat model whammy combines vintage Fender Strat trem/vibroto with his Tele compensated saddles.

http://www.glendaleguitars.com/

Oh, this is my first post. Great to be here and looking forward to getting to know all of you.

Thanks for the link, WC, and welcome to the forum. You'll like it here, Im sure!!