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So I installed one of these on my new purple sparkle SL1. Here's my experience so far.
Installation was pretty easy, but time consuming. However, if you're not reasonably experienced in this kind of guitar tech work - especially the vagaries of dealing with Floyd trems - you might want to defer to a local shop for installation.
- remove strings
- take a good pic of the saddle placements for reassembly / intonation purposes
- pull the saddles
- remove original Floyd sustain block
- install new FU sustain block
- reassemble Floyd, including re-eyeballing the saddle placements for intonation
- restring and redo set-up
Due to the increased mass of the FU trem block, and its impact on spring/string tension balance, you will need to readjust the trem claw screws to get your Floyd sitting properly level above the body again. Also, unless you're experienced with doing intonations on a Floyd (I'm not), you'll have to pay a local tech to have this redone. By taking a close-up pic of saddle placement ahead of time, and taking care to realign when reassembling, I was able to eyeball this pretty reasonably close "in the ballpark". However, the factory intonation already seemed a little off to my ears to begin with, so I was planning to have this redone anyway.
I've heard some folks say they needed to remove wood out of the trem cavity to get one of these FU big blocks to work properly. IMHO, taking wood out of the guitar for this purpose would be counter-intuitive (removing tone to increase tone?) and maybe just nuts. I was lucky enough that there was no rubbing or other issues with my non-recessed Floyd, so it was ust a "drop-in" installation. I will say, though, that the increased block size - both width and height (I went from 37 to 42mm) - did have a very marginal effect on trem travel. For divebombs, I can still go all the way and get the strings totally floppy. However, the trem bar now stops maybe a quarter inch short of the body as the wider FU block hits the back of the top route hole. For pull-ups, the impact is even less. This small reduction in travel is more due to the increased width of the block, not the height. However, folks with a recessed Floyd layout might be wise to stick with the same 37mm block size.
Tone-wise, I can definitely notice a difference. There's a more pronounced mid-range, and less biting high end. The sustain has clearly increased as well. Is the tone & sustain impact huge? Well, that's pretty subjective - some will say yes, others not so much. I'll say that - going into this - I was expecting to hear an "oh wow!" improvement. And it's definitely there. But I didn't hear an "oh wow" difference, so was somewhat underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good product. And, for the price, it's definitely worth it. So I'll be keeping it in there. But was the change so amazing that I'll be running out to install it on more of my guitars? ...Uh, not so much. Let's put it this way: if on a scale of 1 to 10, swapping out your pickups to a great set that's the "right" tone for your ears is a 10, I'd rate the FU big block about 5 or so. Again, just MHO. Your opinion may vary.
Installation was pretty easy, but time consuming. However, if you're not reasonably experienced in this kind of guitar tech work - especially the vagaries of dealing with Floyd trems - you might want to defer to a local shop for installation.
- remove strings
- take a good pic of the saddle placements for reassembly / intonation purposes
- pull the saddles
- remove original Floyd sustain block
- install new FU sustain block
- reassemble Floyd, including re-eyeballing the saddle placements for intonation
- restring and redo set-up
Due to the increased mass of the FU trem block, and its impact on spring/string tension balance, you will need to readjust the trem claw screws to get your Floyd sitting properly level above the body again. Also, unless you're experienced with doing intonations on a Floyd (I'm not), you'll have to pay a local tech to have this redone. By taking a close-up pic of saddle placement ahead of time, and taking care to realign when reassembling, I was able to eyeball this pretty reasonably close "in the ballpark". However, the factory intonation already seemed a little off to my ears to begin with, so I was planning to have this redone anyway.
I've heard some folks say they needed to remove wood out of the trem cavity to get one of these FU big blocks to work properly. IMHO, taking wood out of the guitar for this purpose would be counter-intuitive (removing tone to increase tone?) and maybe just nuts. I was lucky enough that there was no rubbing or other issues with my non-recessed Floyd, so it was ust a "drop-in" installation. I will say, though, that the increased block size - both width and height (I went from 37 to 42mm) - did have a very marginal effect on trem travel. For divebombs, I can still go all the way and get the strings totally floppy. However, the trem bar now stops maybe a quarter inch short of the body as the wider FU block hits the back of the top route hole. For pull-ups, the impact is even less. This small reduction in travel is more due to the increased width of the block, not the height. However, folks with a recessed Floyd layout might be wise to stick with the same 37mm block size.
Tone-wise, I can definitely notice a difference. There's a more pronounced mid-range, and less biting high end. The sustain has clearly increased as well. Is the tone & sustain impact huge? Well, that's pretty subjective - some will say yes, others not so much. I'll say that - going into this - I was expecting to hear an "oh wow!" improvement. And it's definitely there. But I didn't hear an "oh wow" difference, so was somewhat underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good product. And, for the price, it's definitely worth it. So I'll be keeping it in there. But was the change so amazing that I'll be running out to install it on more of my guitars? ...Uh, not so much. Let's put it this way: if on a scale of 1 to 10, swapping out your pickups to a great set that's the "right" tone for your ears is a 10, I'd rate the FU big block about 5 or so. Again, just MHO. Your opinion may vary.
The reduction in tone would be minimal if not imperceptible, IMO. But, regardless, another option is to file/shave down the corners of your block, as I did in one of my Hamer Cali's. Increased trem range/play and did not noticeably effect tone.
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