Appreciating my Pro Mod San Dimas a little more with German Parts!

[Grandturk]

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Don't shoot me yet! I've been a huge proponant on this board about the quality of the Pro Mod series and the negligible difference between a German Floyd and a Korean Floyd. I still am supporting both statements!

BUT.................

That damn chrome on the Polar White SD1's made me crazy for chrome, so I'm working on converting over my black on black on black SD1 into chrome on cream (and maybe gold) on black. The first thing to go was the black Floyd for a new German chrome model. I figured while I was at it, I would snap some reference pics of the two trems to show them off to everyone (and maybe dispell some myths).

I'll state this - the only reason I changed the Floyd to a German unit was for looks.

Now, I know someone else did this way back, so if its repetative to you, feel free to ignore this whole thing and go back to bitching about the Korean Floyd (lol)....

Some quick observations which you'll see in the pics:
- The back edges of the Korean Floyd are beveled (I think everyone knows this)
- The block is roughly finished - you can see the German one is smooth
- The fine tuners on the Korean one are about .5mm thicker on the knob part (tried to show this in a pic)
- The underside of the baseplate is smooth on the Korean Floyd

I weighed both trems - just the trem and block, no bar:
- Korean 14.45 oz
- German 13.7 oz

Now, the most shocking difference to me:
- The German Floyd sits a few mm higher than the Korean version. I have a lot more pull back on the German version than the Korean version. I typically set my action by feel. basically, I go as low as possible without fretting out on a 1 step bend anywhere on the neck. So adjusted for that height, the German version is higher off the body than the Korean version.

The baseplate thickness looks the same to the eyeball. The only thing I can think of is that the cut of the knife edges are different - i.e. the knife edge on the German version is lower than the Korean version, thus the added height. If you look at the knife edges, the German ones look a little bit more "knifier." By my eye, I'm kind of able to see this, but without calipers, who knows...

To my ears... they sound the same. To my hands, they pretty much feel the same. The only things I didn't replace are the bushings and the spring claw (I'm sure that's what accounts for the lack of "improvement" in sound).

The only improvement I noticed was that my high E doesn't buzz at the nut. Now, my SD1 came with a German R3 nut - this is also one of the things that Suhr apparently stated is a common problem with the German Floyd nuts.

Pics:

The rough finish on the Korean block:


The "smooth" finish on the German block:


The underside of the Korean Floyd:


The underside of the German Floyd:


Top view Korean:


Top view German:


Tried to get the tuners side by side...


Clearance on the bass side:


Clearance on the treble side:


And finally... installed on the axe:

[XSSIVE]

the more pull up is (at least partly) due to the thickness of the spacer plate between the block and the fine tuner plate. if you look at your pics you can even see it there. the spacer is thicker on the cheap floyds thus making them have less pull up or sit higher off the body if you route the pockets for dive only like i do. yes, that tiny difference in thickness is noticeable. i've gone very in depth with german floyds vs the cheap ones and that's one of the many differences.

also if you left the large spacer under the a through b string saddles on the new german floyd odds are your radius is off. measure your action with a ruler that reads 32nds from the bottom of the string to the top of the fret at the 12th for each string and you'll see. i've replaced the floyds on all my pro mod charvels with german ones and had to ditch that spacer and add some single saddle spacers to get the radius perfect since a floyd has a 10" radius out of the box with that spacer and the pro mods a 12-16".

-Mike

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Thanks for the write-up and pics! I was thinking of doing a German floyd on my black SD1 and was NOT planning on black... For the same reason, looks. I think black on black on black is just... Too much black. Now I don't have to imagine what chrome would look like. I like it!

What are you planning to do for tuners? I'm not sure what fits.

[Grandturk]

also if you left the large spacer under the a through b string saddles on the new german floyd odds are your radius is off. measure your action with a ruler that reads 32nds from the bottom of the string to the top of the fret at the 12th for each string and you'll see.

Whoa - rulers? No way!!! lol - never touch the stuff. Yeah - I had left the spacer in there, but then took it out. No big deal - honestly, my fingers didn't really know the difference.

I did bust one of the string lock blocks though - thats tough German engineering right there - never had that happen to me before. A corner on the bottom where its drilled out for the bolt cracked off. Its still in there - I'll replace it next time.

What are you planning to do for tuners? I'm not sure what fits.

Well, the chrome Gotoh's I have don't match up with the Grover holes, so I'll probably just buy a set of Grover Mini Rotomatics in chrome. I was thinking Gold to go with the old school Charvel vibe. I'll have to mock it up in the generator to see.

[skintaster]

Thanks for the side by side photos. The chrome trem looks pretty sweet on your SD1 too.

[85 San Dimas]

If you could find some "relic'd" gold gears it would kick ass.

Ze Germans are pretty good no?