Floyd Rose VS Kahler

Anyone in the heavy whammy whacking world is, for a fact, divided between two big name whammo's
Floyd Rose Kahler

Floyd Rose-$179.99 Kahler-$385.99(pro), $179.99(hybrid

Floyd Rose-Comes in Black, Kahler-Comes in black, chrome, black nickel
chrome and gold and gold

Floyd Rose-More popular Kahler-Better quality

Floyd Rose-Easier to find Kahler-easier to use

now for negitives

Floyd Rose-Heavy routing Kahler-nessisary to solder strings

Floyd Rose-requierement of Kahler-can't overlube
speicial tools
Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7EuRAJDvQ

Ibanez Original Edge or Lo-pro Edge imo!

Floyd comes in Black, Chrome, and Gold...

Also, I would say the quality is arguable. I've found all the Kahlers I've ever tried to be total crap. Floyds also aren't hard to use. You just need a brain to be able to use it.

I'm not trying to bash Kahler but some of your points seem off.

Personally, I have two Ibanez's with an Edge and a LoPro that I'm more than happy with. I play a few friends' guitars with Floyds on them every once in a while, and I gotta say they don't have issues.

I couldn't play with any of this one guys three guitars that all had Kahlers on them. They went out of tune as soon as I did anything to them.

I was talking about EASE OF USE WHEN USEING THE WHAMMY BAR. If you ever played one, then you would know how SMOOTH a Kahler is.

i dig my kahler.

bought my carvin in '84, with the Kahler, after trying several stock trems, and floyds..


but, i just recently changed out my original Kahler 2300 PRO, for a HYBRID...
which is every bit as solid as the original pro..

and,


it has the ability to lock the tailpiece as a hardtail.


it isn't do-able, in MID performance.... the way i set my action, and the fact i tune down a half step, wont let me simply lock it into place...

but it turns my carvin into a hardtail in about 1 minute, and that's way cool.


early adopters were adrian belew...
phil collen...
steve vai...
billy sheehan...
kk downing, kerry king, glen tipton, neal schon, jeff beck...
more recently, jeff hanneman, victor wooten, jerry cantrell, Fripp, john bujak...

plus, they have different springs you can put into the body of the bridge, to make the bar be looser or stiffer....

i like the heavy springs myself.

personally, i like the sound of the 'behind the nut' string locks, over the floyd nut....
and i like that the strings come over the rolling bridge pieces, so for palm mutes, you've got a real solid area for reference to lay your palm against...
plus, you can get stainless steel, or brass rollers, with varying materials available on the bridge itself, to dial in the tone you're looking for....

i've beat the CARP out of my kahler.....

LOL

i've had it since '84, so that's 26 years now.....
and it's still going strong, not a piece has been replaced, that's better than i can say for any of my guitar bud's that own floyd roses.....

oh yea, one more thing....

i can yank the bar up, and do almost a full octave with the G string....

i can take it all down til the low E is flapping loose...

and boom.

dead in tune.

I don't like locking trems but the Original Kahler is recognised by a lot of people including top luthiers like John Suhr to be better than the Floyd rose.
I believe the reissue isn't as good as the original, but also the new Mark 2 Floyd's have had a massive drop in quality from the Original Floyd Rose mark 1.

Kahler-nessisary to solder strings

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i watched adrian belew beat the f&ck out of his Kahler equipped strat for two hours on more than one occasion and he ALWAYS came back up in tune. no solder. i can't imagine needing solder. hell, i don't even use a locking nut. i think the key is stretching your strings REALLY good when you put a new set on. then stretch them again and again until they stop going flat. works for me.

now on another issue as long as i'm putting in my two cents. i feel that kahlers get a bad wrap in the tone department sometimes. the reason is that on most guitars, especially strats, they need to be RECESSED into the body about 3-4 mm. doing this allows you to raise the saddles more, which creates more downward angle on the saddles thereby improving the tone through the added downward tension over the saddle. if you mount a kahler flush onto the body, you wind up with a very weak pitch over the saddles. as little as 5 to 7 degrees from what i've seen. i believe that one manufacturer, G&L, finally got it right w/their Jerry Cantrell model. somebody told me they're recessing the kahler on this model. if this is true, it's about time! i put one on my clapton strat (recessed, of course) in place of the vintage trem system and the kahler rings out just as much. i hit a chord and can feel it right through the wood, and into my ribs. just gotta set 'em up the right way folks! btw- i don't believe that you've got to spend the $$ on the $300 model. i got the hybrid and it sounds great. no pot metal is used on this model. sounds just as good as the originals from the 80's & 90's.

I believe the reissue isn't as good as the original

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really? why not? i've got guitars w/both the old, and the new reissue/hybrid. sound they same. feel the same. made by the same guy/company. i think guitar players instinctively think, old= best -- new= crap. sometimes true, but not here.

for anyone using synth pickups such as a roland gk series, the advantage goes to kahler. reason? unlike a fulcrum style trem, when you push the bar down you're not raising the strings up further from the synth pickup which will cause glitches. with the kahler, the strings stay (roughly) at the same level on their rollers, keeping glitching to a minimum.

You don't have to make a big recess in the body if the Floyd is NOT to be funtional.

Mark Knopfler's famous 1988 Pensa-Suhr is like this, the Floyd "Mark 1" is not functional and is only used for tuning stability.

The second photo shows you more clearly, notice the difference with the original Floyd!

You don't have to make a big recess in the body if the Floyd is NOT to be funtional

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wasn't talking about recessing floyds. was talking about KAHLER.

Ok but you do need a big route in the body for a functional Floyd aswell.

the Kahler Spyder and Killer tremolos are by far the best tremolos ever made. the conventional kahler kinda stinks. the floyd is what i think of as the "standard"

i've never had an issue with a non-recessed, top mount kahler.

it all depends on the way the neck joins the body, and at what angle.

there is no rule of thumb that covers all guitars, you gotta look at each one individually.

the build quality of my newer HYBRID is ever bit as good as my original 2300 pro.

I used both in the 80's. Original Floyd, Micro tuner Floyd, and both top and recessed Kahler trems. Every trem has its pro's and cons. Recessing a Floyd really didn't become popular until Steve Vai routed out the "Green Thing" to make it feel like he was playing a Strat. I've had problems with both systems just as much as no problems, both sound the same to me, and you can set both up to feel the same. It really comes down to what you like and what your needs are. One thing wouldn't do is put a recessed Kahler on a vintage guitar, because (Get the lynch mob) I have done this to a '66 Strat once, and it is holy hell to go back to to original.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtn-Kbkknic
He Finaly wised up. For the last 2-3 years, he's been talking smack over the Kahlers, saying that they cant hold their tuning very well with bends. Now, after TWENTY YEARS of improperly setting up his Kahlers, He finaly wised up. This mans older video's is what happens when somebody weened on Fulcrum tremolos gets the upgrade to the kahler. He's interested in the trem but is unable to comprehand how to set it up, and for the longest time, could never bring the full potential of his Kahlers. For Floyd Rose Players whom are interested in getting a kahler watch this vid, please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7EuRAJDvQ

i always thought the kahler was dirt simple.
that's one of the reasons i liked it.