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It was a friend's Charvel model 6, an 86. Anyway he showed it to me and I nearly cried. The poor thing had been neglected at best, hurt at worse. We went to a guitar shop to get some things then off to mines for a setup... Here are the details...
First off, I took off the old strings (the unwound strings were BLACK and felt like 11s. They were 10s. I could have hit him :P).
I pulled all the way back on the trem to clean up the cam... Man was it full of crap in there. I did my best.
I disasembled the whole saddle assembly and cleaned everything up. His A string adjustement hex screw was worn out to death and is pretty useless... I had to use a friggin' plier to get it to the right height from under...
So anyway... put everything back together, cleaned up the neck (BADLY needed some lemon oil and attention...poor thing) and put it back together. I could have done a better job (drowned all the screws in WD40, take it all apart and clean it up) but I had nor the time nor the workspace. I didn't have a radius gauge either so I did the radius purely by eye. I got to a decently low action this way, the radius fits so it's ok. The frets were shot though. He's had her for half a year already and I can't believe he's been playing it like this...the saddles weren't even set to the right height at first! The radius was way too flat.
So anyway first things I thought...wow... the saddles contact the bridge only by one height adjustement screws. Looks like one from a Fender bridge, but wider... and there's only one. Coupling is bad. Also, way too many screws and parts to mess up.
Stringing has its advantage: the bridge doesn't sink down. You don't need to cut off the ball ends. Less wood is cut off (seems like)
But the ball ends don't stay in their grooves, the bridge has the SAME disadvantages as a Floyd and the fine tuners seem even more sensitive to change than on a Floyd's. Took me ages to get the tuning right. Usually it takes me 30 minutes for a cleaning + strining/tuning of a Floyd if I don't do it in a hurry. So yeah... Though I honestly can't tell whether all this impedes on the sound.
It's a good concept, especially with all these adjustements, but I don't see it as better really. I'd prefer one with stock saddle spacing and radii, it'd already have a lot more coupling.
The Floyd is a simple concept, less hassle with it and just as easy to work with. Probably needs less maintenence too. Kept in tune as well as a Floyd too.
Good concept, but just... too much to go wrong. A Floyd seems sturdier to me.
I can understand why some prefer a Kahler though.
First off, I took off the old strings (the unwound strings were BLACK and felt like 11s. They were 10s. I could have hit him :P).
I pulled all the way back on the trem to clean up the cam... Man was it full of crap in there. I did my best.
I disasembled the whole saddle assembly and cleaned everything up. His A string adjustement hex screw was worn out to death and is pretty useless... I had to use a friggin' plier to get it to the right height from under...
So anyway... put everything back together, cleaned up the neck (BADLY needed some lemon oil and attention...poor thing) and put it back together. I could have done a better job (drowned all the screws in WD40, take it all apart and clean it up) but I had nor the time nor the workspace. I didn't have a radius gauge either so I did the radius purely by eye. I got to a decently low action this way, the radius fits so it's ok. The frets were shot though. He's had her for half a year already and I can't believe he's been playing it like this...the saddles weren't even set to the right height at first! The radius was way too flat.
So anyway first things I thought...wow... the saddles contact the bridge only by one height adjustement screws. Looks like one from a Fender bridge, but wider... and there's only one. Coupling is bad. Also, way too many screws and parts to mess up.
Stringing has its advantage: the bridge doesn't sink down. You don't need to cut off the ball ends. Less wood is cut off (seems like)
But the ball ends don't stay in their grooves, the bridge has the SAME disadvantages as a Floyd and the fine tuners seem even more sensitive to change than on a Floyd's. Took me ages to get the tuning right. Usually it takes me 30 minutes for a cleaning + strining/tuning of a Floyd if I don't do it in a hurry. So yeah... Though I honestly can't tell whether all this impedes on the sound.
It's a good concept, especially with all these adjustements, but I don't see it as better really. I'd prefer one with stock saddle spacing and radii, it'd already have a lot more coupling.
The Floyd is a simple concept, less hassle with it and just as easy to work with. Probably needs less maintenence too. Kept in tune as well as a Floyd too.
Good concept, but just... too much to go wrong. A Floyd seems sturdier to me.
I can understand why some prefer a Kahler though.
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