New parcel just arrived in the post.

Woohoo!! A new parcel just arrived in the post for me, here's a couple of pics of the parcel and what's inside it:

Attachment 15756

Attachment 15754


Okay, so what is this and what is it for?, this is a Kahler String Lock which mounts on a guitar headstock just behind a conventional nut, it does exactly the same job as the Floyd Rose Locking Nut, it is just an alternative design, I bought this on eBay a few weeks ago so I can use it on another 80's Superstrat build project I'm going to be working on.


And here's a pic of the actual guitar that's going to be used as a platform for the 80's Superstrat build project:

Attachment 15755

good stuff Doc always nice to get goodies in the mail. You might want to black out your address/and or name on the package on the first photo although its out of focus

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wokkaboy

good stuff Doc always nice to get goodies in the mail. You might want to black out your address/and or name on the package on the first photo although its out of focus

---

Good call mate, I'll sort that out shortly........all sorted now.


Since I spent some time growing-up in the 80's (my teen years), I tend to gravitate to guitars from that era, also, I used to own an 80's Charvel Guitar, it was shaped same like the one in the pic I posted, but, it had one Humbucking pickup in the bridge position, a single volume-control knob, and the body was finished in a Metallic Blue paint colour, been missing that guitar for a long time.


And this is what my old Charvel guitar actually looked like (Charvel Model 2):

Attachment 15757


But the Trem-Arm was black rather than Chrome.

good stuff Doc, I owned a similar Charvel in the 90's, it was cream in colour, wish I still had photo's I can't even remember if the bridge was a floyd and if it had one or 2 pups. Also I own an Eston bass that I scored off a mate who didn't want to take it travelling, it's even got the same shape headstock

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wokkaboy

good stuff Doc, I owned a similar Charvel in the 90's, it was cream in colour, wish I still had photo's I can't even remember if the bridge was a floyd and if it had one or 2 pups. Also I own an Eston bass that I scored off a mate who didn't want to take it travelling, it's even got the same shape headstock

---

I'm seriously considering going with just a single bridge humbucker pickup when I start working on the new Superstrat build project, maybe a Black Entwistle HDN pickup, or maybe a Darkstar, something is telling me to make it a real simple setup, those Charvel Model 2 guitars were really good sounding for playing Heavy Rock and Metal, which is one of the reasons why I'm missing my old Charvel, I seem to remember giving it away to someone who tried to convert it to a Bass Guitar, I gave it away because it needed a replacement neck and bridge and I had no idea where I could buy replacements from, this was back in the early 90's before the internet became what it is now.

getting packages in the mail is always good....even addictive LOL

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dedman

getting packages in the mail is always good....even addictive LOL

---

I will have to totally agree with you about parcels being addictive mate, there's nothing quite like receiving a box of new bits and pieces in the post, especially when you forgot all about it, always a pleasant surprise.

Hey Doc put a Tonerider Octane in it and coil split it. I'm waiting for a project to put one in. Mick did a demo on one in a one humbucker bridge strat and it sounded super hot !

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Hey Doc put a Tonerider Octane in it and coil split it. I'm waiting for a project to put one in. Mick did a demo on one in a one humbucker bridge strat and it sounded super hot !

---

No worries, I'll give one of those Tonerider Octanes a go then, heard a lot about them so was curious to see what they were like, now I've got a good excuse to order one...haha, cheers for the suggestion mate.


And if it goes well, I might consider putting two of them in my new Joey Jordison BC Rich Warlock II guitar after I get it home from the shops, cause the stock pickups in them are a bit low-end even though they do sound reasonably decent enough, I'm just going to check to see if Pitbull Guitars offer the Tonerider Octane in both Bridge and Neck models.

Hi Doc the Octane is a bridge only pup but plenty of other good options. I've used the Tonerider Rocksongs on about 2 builds and they sound great

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Hi Doc the Octane is a bridge only pup but plenty of other good options. I've used the Tonerider Rocksongs on about 2 builds and they sound great

---

Ah rightio, well I'm still interested in giving a Tonerider Octane a go in the Superstrat build, so as soon as I can, I'll order one in.

I was having a bit of a think to myself, and though "Why not do something radical with the Superstrat build?", here's my radical idea, why not try installing a Kahler Trem System on the body of the Superstrat, rather than going with another Floyd Rose setup?, I'm assuming that I'll need to fill-in the Trem routing next to the Bridge Pickup route, but it should be relatively easy to do.


Here's what a typical Kahler Trem bridge looks like:

Attachment 15766


I have never tried a Kahler Trem before, so this is probably going to be a new one on me, apparently they have a softer feel to them than a Floyd Rose.


I may be able to buy a Kahler Trem on eBay for a reasonable price, I'll have a good look and see what my options are.

I managed to get the Kahler String Lock mounted on the Headstock of the neck, all that needs to be done is to re-shape the Truss-Rod cover so that it can be fitted back into place.

any photo's please Doc ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wokkaboy

any photo's please Doc ?

---

Hang on a sec, I'll just take one now and post it shortly mate, I just got lucky and found a black plastic Humbucking Pickup mounting-ring that I can use on the Superstrat body.


Here you go mate, I know that it looks a bit slightly out of whack, but I really don't think it's going to have an adverse effect on the guitar's performance:

Attachment 15771


When it comes to re-finishing the body of the guitar, I've got two choices of Metallic Blue spray-paint to use, I could go with the same Metallic Blue I used on the HotRod Strat, or, I could go with the more Grey-ish Metallic Blue, what I'm thinking of doing is getting some paint-stripper from the Big Green Shed, and use it to strip-off all the black paint finish on the body, and then strip it down to bare wood, the body I want to use is solid-wood, so it should work fine.


So, here's what I've worked out for the Super Strat build:

* Make it look like an 80's Charvel Model 2 Superstrat, finished in Metallic Blue.

* Keep it simple and go for a single Bridge-Humbucker Pickup Configuration with a 500k Log Volume Pot.

* Go with a Tonerider Octane Humbucking Pickup (The original Charvel Model 2 used a very high-output Humbucker that measures something like 15k Ohms), I could quite easily use a 500k Push-Pull Pot to implement the coil tapping.

* Use either a Chrome Schaller Lockmeister Floyd Bridge, or a Chrome Kahler Bridge.

* Use a set of 6 In Line Chrome Gotoh Tuners same like the ones used on the HotRod Strat.

* Of course, I'll also add a set of Chrome Ernie Ball Strap-Locks too.

so Doc why doesn't the string lock look flat ? It will look out of place if it's not parallel with the nut.

You might as well start a new build diary mate in Non Pitbull gear so people can search for super strat and find it easier.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wokkaboy

so Doc why doesn't the string lock look flat ? It will look out of place if it's not parallel with the nut.

You might as well start a new build diary mate in Non Pitbull gear so people can search for super strat and find it easier.

---

Good point, I'll start the build-diary this afternoon, I think the String Lock doesn't look flat for a couple of reasons, firstly because I was a bit off when I drilled the holes-i.e. my own incompetence....lol..., I can easily fix that though, secondly, the back of the nut is slightly concave rather than straight, but I will fix it so that it looks better.

The Headstock is angled-back from the neck, like those on Ibanez guitars.


I think I've got my "mistake" all sorted out now and the String Lock is sitting a lot more parallel to the nut, thank goodness that it was a relatively easy fix, just some small splinters of wood and some PVA glue is all it took, oh and some elbow-grease too.

Kahler trems are a lot smother to use than FR types. The one I had used steel rollers - a lot are brass, but steel is supposed to give better sustain. Also, a lot of Kahlers were fitted so that they had insufficient break angle over the rollers, resulting in reduced sustain. This will partly depend on your neck angle, but the whole of the trem can be recessed into the body by a few mm if necessary. Sometimes you can't shim the neck to increase the angle by much before your pups are way out of the body in order to be near the strings.

The one in your picture doesn't look like a trem to me, but rather a fixed-tail version of their trem set-up. But you can see on that picture that the strings come up from the ball end holder, over a rounded bar, and then on to the adjustable position saddles. On a trem, the rounded bar has a a large and a small screw hole in it, one (large) for the trem arm and one (small) for spring tension adjustment.

You can also see on that pic that there is almost no break-angle over the saddles. Guaranteed to give a poor tone. The reason that most people preferred a FR over the Kahler, even though the Kahler was really a better trem.

Here's a proper trem, and again you can see the poor break angle over the rollers. Those rollers need to be up higher.

Attachment 15799

On my Chandler Custom Strat, I had the Kahler recessed into the body after a year or so, and it greatly improved the tone and sustain. So please keep this info in mind.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Kahler trems are a lot smother to use than FR types. The one I had used steel rollers - a lot are brass, but steel is supposed to give better sustain. Also, a lot of Kahlers were fitted so that they had insufficient break angle over the rollers, resulting in reduced sustain. This will partly depend on your neck angle, but the whole of the trem can be recessed into the body by a few mm if necessary. Sometimes you can't shim the neck to increase the angle by much before your pups are way out of the body in order to be near the strings.

The one in your picture doesn't look like a trem to me, but rather a fixed-tail version of their trem set-up. But you can see on that picture that the strings come up from the ball end holder, over a rounded bar, and then on to the adjustable position saddles. On a trem, the rounded bar has a a large and a small screw hole in it, one (large) for the trem arm and one (small) for spring tension adjustment.

You can also see on that pic that there is almost no break-angle over the saddles. Guaranteed to give a poor tone. The reason that most people preferred a FR over the Kahler, even though the Kahler was really a better trem.

Here's a proper trem, and again you can see the poor break angle over the rollers. Those rollers need to be up higher.

Attachment 15799

On my Chandler Custom Strat, I had the Kahler recessed into the body after a year or so, and it greatly improved the tone and sustain. So please keep this info in mind.

---

I may need to go with a Floyd Rose Trem instead of the Kahler, cause the neck is tilted-back from the body due to the way the neck pocket was routed out, there are two Pivot Post holes already in place, but I might have to Dowel them and re-drill them because they are a bit too far apart for a Floyd Rose bridge, I may also need to add some pieces of wood to the Sustain Block routing too cause it's a bit oversized for a Schaller Lockmeister Bridge, I checked that by placing my Chrome Lockmeister Bridge on the body before I used it for the HotRod Strat build, and it barely covered all the routing.

Having developed my whammy bar technique on a Kahler flat mount I can't use a knife edge trem now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fretworn

Having developed my whammy bar technique on a Kahler flat mount I can't use a knife edge trem now.

---

They do need different techniques to master, since they work differently, and have a different feel to them, I think both systems have their advantages and dis-advantages, you really have to go with what works for you.