Jackson soloist floyds or TOM string thru body

[hopkinsWFG]

Hi all jackson lovers... well i have been wondering if a TOM or a Floyd (OFR or schaller) has big impact on the tone of guitar? Ie more sustain and warm for a TOM vs Floyds?

Is it really noticable? And true that you get more tone out of a TOM than a Floyds because less wood is taken off from the lower body portion for a floyd?

[pianoguyy]

If you want a guitar without a tremolo, buy a Gibson and play some blues. Jackson rocks! \\nn//
For me, tone has less to do with wood on the electric guitars than it does the acoustic guitars because we run them through so many processors.

We change pickups to get a certain tone, we add a boost switch to give some extra oomph. Then we run that through compressors. Limiters. Noise Gates. Then we add distortion and equalizers.
Yeah, tone on electrics has nothing to do with wood.

[jamey]

My favorite tone wood is Kemper!Lol!

[Wizard of Ozz]

It's been argued for years about Floyds killing sustain due to the removal of more wood, especially since it's near the bridge. All else being identical, I'd say a TOM vs Floyd in identical twin guitars, the TOM will have more sustain... but not a huge and drastically noticeable difference.

I actually like the action/playability with a Floyd, and that I can set my action much lower with a Floyd. Loss of sustain is not a big deal.

[RR2772]

I dislike the locking tremolo so much that I will never invest in a guitar with one installed! It has been that way since 1994.

So thats why RR2772 ended up being a Rhoads without one!

[Mudlark]

I only own TOM Jacksons. I expect like most guitar related things, it's gonna' come down to a guitar by guitar basis. There's probably no definite answer.
The difference in tone/sustain is probably so small that it's a non-issue.

[peedenmark7]

It depends on what you are doing music wise or more importantly what you are used to...
Seems many guys that use Floyds today install some type of tremol-no if that is proper terminology , which at least to me is self defeating.

I was always a Floyd guy back in the 80s through about '97, then I became a vintage trem or string through guy... I am back to Floyds, so who knows what is next.
Surely won't be Kahlers

I am currently trying to put together a GR55 Synth guitar and have a GK3 pickup installed on an '85 Soloist student with floyd via a custom hum pickup ring I made so as not to have to mount it permanently or use sticky tape. This soloist is close neck wise & serial range to my main soloist purchased new in '85, and
It works okay ,some glitches as the bridge moves, but I really want to snap up some kind Jackson neck through old/new with strings through , be it a flat or arch top so I can either use the Roland supplied metal tune-a-matic bridge pickup mounting plate or simply do a permanent GKkit install.

It's personal taste, especially if you are using a high gain amp or any distortion for that matter, the human ear isn't going to detect any sustain or tone loss anyway.

[charvel750]

I always look at it like this: George Lynch played with a Floyd on all the early albums, not to mention he used bolt on guitars! I dare anyone to say he didn't have great sustain and tone. Don't forget Warren DiMartini, same thing! Don't forget Vivian Campbell, same thing! Don't forget EVH, same thing! Those guys could have used anything they wanted and it was always a Floyd in a bolt on guitar! As Newc said years ago, if there is a difference in sustain it's negligible because for the amount of time in a song any decent guitar can sustain for several seconds or more.

[xenophobe]

I gotta call bullshit on the sustain / tone thing. Each guitar is different, the style of bridge does not matter.

My newest CS resonates louder and longer than any other guitar I've owned up to this point... it's a neck thru with ebony/maple laminate neck and a Floyd.

I think wood density plays a far more important role than style of build or type of bridge. Just like I think wood density plays more of a role than wood species. And on that note, sustain and tone are more subject to which pickups you use and how you're actually processing the signal.

Sure, wood does color sound a bit and may affect sustain, but nothing a good eq, compressor or digital signal path can't correct.

[hopkinsWFG]

Hi guys thanks alot... i am doing a CS soon and am deciding what to do... as i normally dont run my guitar signal thru many effects... i only run it thru my trusty tube amp... and the most i could imagine is to hook up a delay and a tube screamer kinda pedal infront...

I seldom play tremolo as i gotta really cool jackson mahogany natural soloist and i know how hard it to setup from a .9s to a 0.10s.... i may wanna getta good simple guitar which i can spend most my time playing and not tuning the bridge or to getta guitar in tune... thanks anyway i guess a TOM string thru body will be a best bet for quality tone and playability...

Well is my first time planning to getta string thru TOM bridge... any good bridge to recommend the quality ones? I heard Tone pro makes one of the better TOM bridge.. but am still unsure which manufacturer to go with...

I was also an all out trem guy i gotta 8 string that has gotta hipshot on it... wonder if the TOMs will have an entire different playing adaptability ? Higher bridge settings thus feels odd when palm muting ?

[Vass]

I have TOM and floyds and can't see a difference....as most here suggest. From what you're saying the bigger issue is ease of operation. Floyds take a little more (or a lot more depending on what you're trying to do) care, and if you don't use the trem there's no reason to have one installed.

[Nightbat]

if you don't use the trem there's no reason to have one installed.

When I just started, my first guitar was equipped with a floyd (Luckily I wasn't technically inept)
The added 'elasticity' probably made learning to bend to the right pitch harder, but on the other hand, it probably saved me a lot of strings in those early days of learning how to pick and strum

[hopkinsWFG]

I have TOM and floyds and can't see a difference....as most here suggest. From what you're saying the bigger issue is ease of operation. Floyds take a little more (or a lot more depending on what you're trying to do) care, and if you don't use the trem there's no reason to have one installed.

Well... yes... now am debating to getta wrap around TOM or a TOM with tailpiece or a string thru body TOM...

I heard there be prone to string breakage for a string thru body TOM as angle from the body to the "saddle" of the TOM the string angle is pretty steep...where installing a tail piece at the back will reduce the string angle but i didnt like the look of having a tail piece....

No idea if the string thru TOM on the jackson are so far ok? Or its just as good as a normal floyd where you experience the same string breakage situation...?

[Mudlark]

It's kinda' hard to believe, but I haven't broken a string on my TOM guitars since I've had them...4+ years. I'm not a overly aggressive player, but my playing is at least of average aggressiveness.

I'm not a big fan of the sharp saddles on my TOM bridges, but I've notice in the past they make TOM bridges with more rounded saddles.

[Wizard of Ozz]

I have TOM and floyds and can't see a difference....as most here suggest. From what you're saying the bigger issue is ease of operation. Floyds take a little more (or a lot more depending on what you're trying to do) care, and if you don't use the trem there's no reason to have one installed.

Well I'm not Vai, Malmsteen, or EVH... but I have Floyds on almost all of my axes. I rarely use them, but I like the lower action, and better tuning stability I get with a Floyd vs. a TOM. I can set-up a Floyd axe, play the snot out of it and bend my brains out for 2 months, then recheck the tuning and it is near perfect. Try that with a TOM. A little off topic, but another valid plus of Floyds over TOMs.