New Floyd Rose Trem for my Hot Rod Strat.

[DrNomis_44]

Woohoo!!


I just scored myself a new Gotoh GE1996T Floyd Rose Trem for my Hot Rod Strat, I ordered it a fortnight ago and just picked it up from Sounds Of Music today, I also ordered a couple of Eagle Locking Nuts with it, I did a preliminary test fit of the bridge in the body routing and it seems to fit fine, even the new pivot posts fitted in the existing threaded bushings so I didn't have to take the existing ones out, I can use the new ones as spares if I need to at a later stage, the Locking Nut I've chosen to use needs some work to get it to fit though, but hopefully i will be able to get the Hot Rod Strat up and running again, here's a pic of the new Gotoh Floyd hardware, apparently these are supposed to be pretty good, even better than an original Floyd Rose, anyway:




These Gotoh Irem Units look like they would be a good fit for Pit Bull Guitars that feature a Floyd Rose style trem, like the SV-1.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Things didn't exactly go according to plan, I encountered an issue with the length of the Brass sustain-block on the Gotoh Floyd, the issue is that the sustain block is 40mm long and the body of my Hot Rod Strat is not thick enough to accommodate it easily with enough clearance between the sustain block and the cover plate for the trem-spring cavity, now I do happen to have a 34mm Brass sustain-block, But, it doesn't fit the Gotoh Floyd, so what I'm going to try doing is try fitting the chrome string-saddles from the Gotoh Floyd on the Schaller Lockmeister because the Schaller Lockmeister works with the new pivot pins.


Update 2:

The good news is that the string-saddles from the Gotoh Floyd do indeed fit the Schaller Lockmeister bridge, so that's gotten me out of that little bit of trouble, all I need to do now is get the new locking nut installed on the neck and then I can put new strings on the Hot Rod strat and give it a good setup and tune-up.


Update 3:

The HotRod strat is up and running and she's rockin, just needs a proper setup so she plays optimally, I've managed to set the action at the 17th fret as per Fender's specs for American Standard Strats, so far so good, just needs the string-intonation adjusted cause it's a bit sharp at the 12th fret, all in all, I'm pretty happy with the results so far, I won't put the three string clamps for the locking nut on till I'm happy with the setup, I'll also need to adjust pickup heights too.

[DrNomis_44]

Update 4:


I've just discovered a major issue with the body of my Hot Rod Strat, basically the body-routing for the Floyd Rose bridge has been positioned too close to the bridge pickup, this means I have to move each string-saddle back in order to get each string's intonation at the 12th fret accurately set, but even if I move the low E-String saddle as far back as it can go, the 12th fret intonation is still sharp, so, I may need to order a new body for the Hot Rod strat or scrap the body and neck altogether and start again from scratch.

In addition to that, I just found out that one of the string-saddle locking blocks of one of the original string-saddles on the Schaller Lockmeister bridge cracked and broke in half, so it's no good anymore.


Update 5:

Sorry, I'm going to have to scrap the whole Hot rod Strat project.

[FrankenWashie]

Oh Snot. Can you plug and re position the anchors to move it back or would you need to rout the block cavity bigger as well?

[DrNomis_44]

Oh Snot. Can you plug and re position the anchors to move it back or would you need to rout the block cavity bigger as well?

I thought about that, but there's not enough wood left and there's a crack in the wood where the pivot post for the high e-string side of the bridge is, so it's not going to be strong enough, I'll have to start completely from scratch again.


And I agree, oh snot indeed.


Here's a pic of the crack in the wood next to the pivot post, I tried to get the camera to focus on it but this is the best I could do, hopefully you can see it clearly enough:




Maybe if I buy a complete Pitbull STF-1 kit I could use it to start again from scratch.

[DrNomis_44]

I'm also going to need to order some new Locking-Nut mounting screws since the only two good ones I had, have ended up with stripped threads and are no-good anymore.

[FrankenWashie]

I can see what you mean, that’s a deal breaker right there. A cheap Strat kit may be your only option

[DrNomis_44]

I can see what you mean, that’s a deal breaker right there. A cheap Strat kit may be your only option

I agree, as far as I can see, I reckon my only option is to order a new Pitbull Guitars STF-1 kit next year and go through the whole process again from scratch.

[Guvna19]

I agree, as far as I can see, I reckon my only option is to order a new Pitbull Guitars STF-1 kit next year and go through the whole process again from scratch.

might need more than one kit / type to ensure the new bridge is happy ?
keep up the good work and merry xmas Doc

[DrNomis_44]

might need more than one kit / type to ensure the new bridge is happy ?
keep up the good work and merry xmas Doc

Cheers mate, merry xmas to you too, the Brass sustain-block on the Gotoh Floyd bridge is 40mm, the one on the Schaller Floyd bridge is 34mm, unfortunately the mounting-screw holes in it don't line up with the ones on the Gotoh Floyd, that's what you get when manufacturers don't standardize things, parts that are supposedly interchangeable, seldom are.