New Kickstarter Strat Trem

Just in case anyone's interested...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ating-bridge-f

Just something someone pointed in my direction. I'm not a great trem user and I'm happy with a Wilkinson trem for 1/10 of the price they are proposing to sell this one for (around Aus$445). But just in case you might be interested in what purports to be a much better Strat trem, then have a look. No comparative demos, no unbiased reviewing on the web site so no real guarantees that it would be any better than anything else available out there. I guess the USP is that it can be retro-fitted to a guitar with no extra modifications required and gives increased down and upward bending capacity.

It's very similar in concept and construction to the Trem that's currently on my Gold Strat, pretty cool design.

What make of trem's that, Doc?

It's called a Full Contact System, I can't seem to remember what the brand was, but it follows the same general design idea.


Here's a link to the page in my Gold Strat build diary where you can see a pic of the cardboard box that the bridge came in:

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...=4979&page=145

A Babicz one? Though those don't have a separate fulcrum plate as the Kickstarter one does. I didn't see a two-point plate in the Kickstarter details, but I'd imagine it still uses a similar front plate, just held down by a bolt at each end.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

A Babicz one? Though those don't have a separate fulcrum plate as the Kickstarter one does. I didn't see a two-point plate in the Kickstarter details, but I'd imagine it still uses a similar front plate, just held down by a bolt at each end.

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Definitely not a Babicz one, the funny thing is, there's no mention of what brand it is on the cardboard box that the bridge came in.

On the base of the bridge, next to the low E-String saddle it just says Full Contact System TM, I'll see if I can post a pic of it for you.


Here we go:

Attachment 22720


Notice how there's a short piece of metal with four screws in it on the edge of the bridge that's closest to the bridge pickup?, well that is what the front edge of the bridge pivots against, that small piece of metal is fixed to the body of the guitar via the four screws, and it has a V-grove cut into it on the side facing the bridge.

Apart from that, it appears to function just like a standard Strat bridge.

Interesting!

I found this Super-Vee trem which looks similar but has a piece of spring steel attacking the trem to the mounting block. https://super-vee.com/products/tremo...s/bladerunner/, but that's not it. I'll continue looking as I can find mention of something similar fitted to guitars but not the actual product

The difference between yours and the Kickstarter one is the size of the main trem plate means the trem can be pulled up a lot further without the back of the plate hitting the body and preventing further upwards movement.

Looks good Doc. How much was it compared to the VT1?

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

Looks good Doc. How much was it compared to the VT1?

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If my memory serves me right, I think it was about Au$25.00 or so, I bought it from my local Top End Pro Music Shop earlier this year.


Before I traded my old Mexican Strat for the Chibson SG, I replaced the original bridge with a Chrome Super Vee Bladerunner bridge and it seemed like quite a nice piece of hardware, it definitely had a much smoother feel to it than the original bridge.


On the Full Contact Bridge installed on my Gold Strat, there's a set of six threaded screws on each string saddle with a small V-notch that the strings sit in, to adjust the individual string height, you simply rotate the small threaded screws one way or the other, each string saddle also has a small grub screw used to lock the string-height adjustments in place, not only that, there are another set of 6 grub screws to lock the string saddles in place after the individual string-intonation has been set as well as six screws for adjusting the intonation, pretty involved, but actually not that hard to set up, about the same as a traditional Strat bridge.

I'm struggling to find it, even on Australian eBay. It could be they are no longer made. There were some similar full-length knife edge contact bridges that were fitted to some Aslin Dane guitars (who went out of business a few years ago), but the front plate had screws in different positions to yours and the saddles were standard cast Strat bridge saddles.

AUD $25 is a lot cheaper than the Euros mentioned in that video.

It is - if you can still find one. Though if you want a fully floating trem that's not a Floyd Rose or Kahler, and you want it to fit a standard Strat arrangement, then the Kickstarter one's the only one I've seen to date that can do it. All the rest have a larger bridge plate that really limits the amount of upward bend you can make - unless you rout out the rear of the trem hole in the Strat.