...so I got this crappy MIK Spectrum DLX okay?...

Take it easy Brain... et. al., just a little humor to balance out my frustration.

Anywho... my wife pulled out the WE1400 for it's turn in the rotation and sumpthin' wuz a'rattlin' 'round in the trem cavity. A gentle shake or two later and out drops a very brittle chunk of metal (uh oh) and the trem itself is resting tight against the front face of the body. Sound familiar to any of you yet?

Nervously removed the trem cover and whadd'ya know... YATZEE!! Cheep component material strikes another blow...




So as it now stands the quicker route as I see it is to just hunt down a replacement block. Perhaps an opportunity however to just ditch this witch and go with an entirely new trem. The current one is that FR clone that I never cared for anyway...


http://www.westoneguitars.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/we1400cs-trem.jpg

Your ideas, suggestions and comments are solicited.

ditch it, cover the hole with a nice hardtail......you know it makes sense and you know you want to.

+1

-2 you naysayers...

The love of my life cannot channel EVH without her wang bar so that ain't in the cards. Next?....





...I can see where it makes sense though...

Psssst... hey meester... you wanna buy Bendmaster Deluxe?! I sell you one, cheap!

Would a BD fit the bridge posts? If so, I do happen to have a couple spare here...

Jeez, that's awful; I've not a seen a sustain block do that ever!! Ignore the nay-sayers up above; we have the technology, we can rebuild!!

I purchased this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/280869339074?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Here it is in chrome:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chrome-Floyd-Rose-Lic-Tremolo-Bridge-Double-Locking-System-BL-03-/280873444872?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item41655ca608

It has the kahler trick of putting a removable chunk of metal for the knife edge. The trem body itself is thick and heavy.

I'm hoping that using high-quality, extra-hard steel only for the knife edge makes it cost effective enough for that insert to actually *be* high-quality, extra-hard steel.

If you want to wait until I get it fully installed and wham around with it (another week to two weeks), you can.

But for just around $27, this is cheaper than the Floyd Rose Specials (which are guaranteed to have softer metal for the knife edge), and might be a good replacement.

Other than the horrible trem block, how is the guitar overall? Tone, action, ergonomics, etc?

Brainfertilizer wrote:Other than the horrible trem block, how is the guitar overall? Tone, action, ergonomics, etc?

Smooth, supple and fast, fast, fast. This one apparently will be my money pit as I already invested in a fret dress on it as the Cowboy Chords area was fairly severely worn. Enough life left I am happy to report that a refret was not yet called for.

The frets now are nearly as invisible to the touch as her '69 LPC and you can figuratively fly right off the fingerboard if you don't keep you wits about you.

In short... she really, REALLY loves this one. Her fav for a shredder by a generous length & a half.

P.S. @ John: Thanks for the kind offer but I already have a spare BMD and I am looking to stay close as possible to the original trem if I do go in on a full replacement.

corsair wrote:...Jeez, that's awful; I've not a seen a sustain block do that ever!! ...

Me neither! Scary stuff.

And to make your heebies jeeb just abit more this (for all I can figure) just happened on it's own while the guit was stored leaning upright in it's gigbag. If you had the block in hand you would be able to see lots (LOTS) of stress fissures and micro cracks in whatever sort of composite metal it is cast from.

I've been working just about any (nearer to every) alloy you can think of for many years now and IMHO whatever sort of $#!+€ material this is rates in the bottom 3 for what my eyes have seen. If it is a representative example of the production run look for this to crop up more often in the future.

Any ideas about replacing just the block itself?

You mean getting a replacement block? there's plenty of after market stuff about so you should be able to get a better quality one, perhaps brass? You could have one made....

That is a little 3rd. grade. Pretty disastrous.

Would have thought with all the machine shop equipment at your disposal you could knock up a nice new one in no time.

While the equipment is there Damian the desire to spend my own hours in the evening or on a weekend is not at the moment. 55+ hours M-F on company work tends to do that to me.

I already had fiddled with the idea of tooling one out in brass, but in all honesty my free time is worth more than what I suspect just buying one would be... if I can find a suitable replacement.

This plan of attack also minimizes the amount of intrusion I would be required to inflict in my beer drinking schedule as well so...

Yep, get your priorities right.

Well, the good folk at Armadillo would knock one out for you I'm sure, but I'm sure there's gotta be aftermarket blocks for that?! Its a FR, yes??

if you ditch that trem altogether i sure could use those fine tuner knobs off it, or at least one

Aw man Steve, that's terrible. Those trems are so sub par. Replace it with something else, like a FR copy as Brain suggested. You may have to fiddle around for perfect intonation, but will she notice or even care if the intonation isn't perfect? Not a lot of people have perfectly intonated guitars anyway.

You could do a brass block I suppose, but why bother if you could have something better? You could always keep the original so you'd have it to convert later, if you sell it one day.

If it was a snake it woulda bit me. Right under my nose???

http://www.westoneguitars.net/fixme/hardware-repairs/bendmaster-ft-bridge-replacement/

Post spacing is dead on. Thoughts??

Iceman wrote:If it was a snake it woulda bit me. Right under my nose???

http://www.westoneguitars.net/fixme/hardware-repairs/bendmaster-ft-bridge-replacement/

Post spacing is dead on. Thoughts??

That's why God put it there Steve.
As for whether you heed His advice, it depends on whether Jezsica really, really, really loves the guitar or not. The trem ain't 'zactly cheap!
Otherwise, see above recommendation re: hard tailing.

Barry wrote:.... it depends on whether Jezsica really, really, really loves the guitar or not. The trem ain't 'zactly cheap! Otherwise, see above recommendation re: hard tailing.

What can I say, man... I'm in love.

Plus having to plug that existing space seems to me too permanent a change to the design in the end.

For 60 bucks?! Sweet, tap dancing cheese and rice... just do it!! You could prat around for days or weeks like I tend to do, making cpoies of the original bits, which are expensive one-off things, or go get something that works straight out of the box!

And if your good lady likes it too, then win/win situation!! Go hard...

Sniff sniff, I loves a happy ending. That trem should've been stock on those guitars anyway!

corsair wrote:For 60 bucks?! ...

Must be nice to be independently wealthy. I pay not much more than that for a whole geetar!

Barry wrote:

corsair wrote:For 60 bucks?! ...

Must be nice to be independently wealthy. I pay not much more than that for a whole geetar!

Careful now, Barry... your Scottish roots are peeking out.

Ice, don't want to ruin the party but I would be careful with the GFS floyds. I bought the top of the line double locking one from them and though it will fit in your MIK for sure, you might have problems with the scale.

I'm hoping it works though and looking forward to your comments on the efficiency of this GFS fastloader.