KAHLER TREMOLO SYSTEMS: What do you think?

[Matt White]

I just found an ad for KAHLER TREMOLO SYSTEMS in the brand new GUITAR WORLD magazine....

Can't remember when the last time I saw them advertise their stuff...

Anybody have a guitar with a KAHLER?

What do you like about it?

Better than a Floyd?

Discuss:

[BrownSound1]

I hated those things...but they did look cool. :D

Floyd all the way!!

[GAR]

I built a custom guitar originally with a stock Fender trem, which i liked the sound.

Then I installed a Kahler right when they came out. I went down to Kahler's factory in Anaheim that summer and said to the inventor Dave Storey, "hey, I want all the sustain and resonance I lost"

He said fine, just inlay the bridge ring a little bit into the top of the body and reinstall.

So I took it apart, all the hardware off the body and when I looked at it I noticed the string height was already at it's maximum travel because I glued the set neck into the body a bit shallow so the strings would be higher off the body.

Week later talked to Dave Storey again, and about that inlay comment he says gee I'll have to either live with it or inlay a piece of wood the profile of the tremolo cam ring and then mount the trem into that!

I ended up putting the Fender trem back in because I built another guitar specifically for the Kaler Pro (made of solid stainless steel, black chrome) which I liked.d

[jhale667]

I HATE Kahlers. Ugh. It's all about the Floyd, baby.

[Seshmeister]

I've got one on my main guitar. With Sperzel locking machine heads it hardly ever goes out of tune although it's set floating.

More importantly you don't have all that fucking around looking for allen keys.

I like it.

[Brett]

Nothing is better than an OFR.

[ELVIS]

Bullshit!

Kahlers kick ass for many reasons including what Sesh said...

Very well built, great sounding ans simple to restring...

I have 3...

:elvis:

[ELVIS]

I meant 6...

[Brett]

OFR's.

[Seshmeister]

Overated Fiddly Rubbish...:)

[Seshmeister]

I forgot to say that doing it that way without the locking nut means no more fucking around with fine tuners which are a pain in the ass too.

[jhale667]

...Not only do I hate Kahlers for functional reasons, I always thought they felt wishy-washy....much like a Bigsby. For me, it's gotta be a Floyd.

[Brett]

Sesh dude I can barely read your fucking posts, that damn avatar is making me sick.

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Brett
Sesh dude I can barely read your fucking posts, that damn avatar is making me sick.

After I go through all that pain to film it?

Brett just for you man I'll change it...:)

[GAR]

I asked Neal Moser last year about the new Kahlers on his 2005 guitars and he says Gary Kahler is producing them in small numbers again.

http://www.nealmoser.com/4bridges.htm

http://www.nealmoser.com/images/4%20Kahler%20bridges.jpg

To date I have yet to see a retail offering of any Kahler thing from the old days and their shit was built better and more sophisticated than the floyds Shaller made especially that Kahler 2700 model, the socalled "Spyder" block-style that required no routing and would replace a Floyd.

[Seshmeister]

I may be talking utter shit but I thought it was maybe the little wheels on the bridge that stops the Kahler going out of tune even without a locking nut???

[Seshmeister]

GAR you're the expert I notice the trems you posted had locking nuts.

Have you ever tried a Kahler just using locking machine heads?

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
After I go through all that pain to film it?

Brett just for you man I'll change it...:)

Soon...just as soon as I find something.:)

[ELVIS]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
GAR you're the expert I notice the trems you posted had locking nuts.

Have you ever tried a Kahler just using locking machine heads?

I have, without a locking nut...

No way did it stay in tune...

That was on a Gibson with a tilted headstock, maybe different on a Strat...

[jhale667]

...Doesn't matter, the strings will hang up in the nut slots, even if it's a graphite nut.

[ELVIS]

Not neccissarily...


:elvis:

[Seshmeister]

A graphite nut and grind a little pencil into them.

As I said I don't have tuning problems. I don't use my whammy bar a huge amount though...

[jhale667]

Originally posted by ELVIS
Not neccissarily...


:elvis:

More often than not, though! :D I tend to get fairly aggressive with mine...and even if I lube the nut slots on my non-Floyded Strats, I still get slippage on the 'G' string....(I don't get nearly as nutty with the bar on my traditional Strats, either)

[BrownSound1]

It is good to see that Kahler is back is business...even though I was never a big fan of those bridges, like I said earlier. I do think there were some great ideas utilized on them, but I think they were a bit off with the locking nut behind the regular nut setup. The cam idea seemed cool, as well as the rollers on the saddles. I'll say this...I'll take one over a Washburn Wonderbar any day. :D From what I remember about Kahlers is that they Flyer model was an utter piece of shit, so stick with a Pro model if you have your heart set on one.

Floyds get a bad rap from people because of the setup. However, I'll be honest here and say that I don't find it difficult to set up at all. It isn't hard to do...just different than what most people are used to. The one thing I dislike about Floyds is that you can't raise and lower individual saddles. Well you can raise them with some shim stock, but no lowering. Of course, you have the same problem with a Tune-O-Matic bridge so I guess it isn't THAT big of a deal. LOL

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by jhale667
More often than not I tend to get fairly aggressive if I lube the nut slots, I still get slippage on the 'G' string....

:o

[Cato]

Sesh, why can't I log out from DDLR? today I went there to change my avatar and did. and after looking around some forums I hit the logout button but it was rejected. so, I'm still there. can you please release me?

[Seshmeister]

I thought you might pop over now there are a ton of new bootlegs.

It's working fine for me I'll go check your account...

[Seshmeister]

Try it now.

LOL at your email address BTW...:)

[ELVIS]

How 'bout being a nice dickhead and enable my David Lee Roth account ??

I'd like to check out the boots...

[Cato]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
Try it now.

LOL at your email address BTW...:)
it's still not working.
when I hit the "log our Cato" button, my PC says that some problem happened and then my IE explorer gets closed forcibly. wtf? I had no problem with it when I went there a few weeks ago......weired.

......ummmm, ok, ban me. it's the only way I can leave there.

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by ELVIS
How 'bout being a nice dickhead and enable my David Lee Roth account ??

I'd like to check out the boots...

David Lee Roth is a restricted username for obvious reasons so it automatically gets banned.

I've changed your username to Harecuttt, same password.

[ELVIS]

That's cool...

I'm still pissed that you assholes let ELVIS be taken by someone who never posts...

See ya...:cool:

[Hardrock69]

In 1985 I bought a JB Player neck-thru-body Strat with a cheap Kahler knockoff on it.

5 years later in L.A. the frame of it broke. It was made of cheap potting steel.

So I went to American Music on Lankersheim Blvd. in North Hollywood and bought a Kahler Pro. I still have it.

I had a graphite nut installed on my strat, because even with the locking nut (which sits behind the regular nut on the headstock), I found it was still catching in the regular nut.

I also had to move my bridge 1/4 inch further from the neck than the original bridge to get the intonation set right.

That said, it is a fucking killer bridge, and I like it.

The only problem with Kahlers is that they are not a true locked system. The ball end of the string sits loose in the slot at the bridge.

I oil my rollers on the bridge every couple of years (I do not use the whammy bar a lot), and with the graphite nut, all is fine.

In the late 90s I found another JB Player Neck-thru-body Strat that was made around the same time as my first one.

My first one is black, and is my #2 son. The other is red, and the pickups are so crappy I never play it.

When I saw it in the pawnshop, the guy in charge of the guitar department had it on his repair bench. The exact same thing had happened to the original bridge on it as had happened on my #2 son in L.A. years earlier.

I offered them 75 bucks for it as it was. They accepted the deal.

Brought the guitar home, and began an internet search. I immediately discovered that Kahlers were no longer being made.

:(

After a few months of looking around (this was pre-Google), I found a music store in New Jersey that had some Kahler Pros that were brand new in their original boxes that had never been sold. Lo & behold they had a Kahler Pro in a black finish, which is what the original crap bridge had.

They wanted the original retail price of about $150, but I gladly paid up.

Got that bridge in, and had to do as I had done on my black one, mount it 1/4" further back than the original had been.

As I have yet to replace the pickups in the red one, I also have not yet put a graphite bridge in.

However, it stays in tune fairly well when I go nuts on dive-bombing and general mayhem.

I like them in general, as I don't have to use the Allen wrench on the bridge when changing strings. Just loosen the nut, change strings, and Presto!

:cool:

[Hardrock69]

Oh, and it is really great that they are being manufactured again. I began to hear rumours of this a couple of years ago, but never had any real confirmation until now.
:cool:

[jhale667]

Their Bass tremolos are cool, just never dug the guitar unit.

[Matt White]

I've never played one.....

Cool to get so much feed back

[roryrobson666]

hey, i wanna get one for my les paul, but i dont know if i can deal with the routing, what if i didnt like it?! Ill have to think deeper, (and there impossible to find)

[Matt White]

They are back in production.....

But I'd NEVER put a bar on a LES PAUL.....

Borderline sacrilage...........

[ashstralia]

a nice bit of gear..

[Hardrock69]

Yup!

Isn't there some kinda Floyd Rose or Kahler or some locking system that works with Stop Tailpieces (for Gibsons) that require no routing?

[ELVIS]

Yeah, I forgot the name, but they didn't have much range...

My 1985 Les Paul Custom that was stolen had a factory gold Kahler on it...

You could get a Kahler on any solid body Gibson in the mid 80's...

[jhale667]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
Yup!

Isn't there some kinda Floyd Rose or Kahler or some locking system that works with Stop Tailpieces (for Gibsons) that require no routing?


Was it the "Wonderbar"? Not to be confused with the wonderbra.....:rolleyes:

[Terry]

Used to have an Aria Pro with a Kahler way back in the day. Kahler cost a little less back then, but never liked it quite as much as a Rose.

Have played without a bar for so long now...suppose I'd like to get a Rose tailpiece only (can't be bothered with the locking nut) and go with 5 springs in the back...I tend to mess around with open tunings so much (not just drop D, either) that having the tuning locked in is just a hassle.

Plus, if you really know how to use a bar well, you can keep a guitar reasonably in tune without all that other muss and fuss.

[ELVIS]

Originally posted by jhale667
Was it the "Wonderbar"? Not to be confused with the wonderbra.....:rolleyes:

No, that's the Washburn Wonderbar...

I have one of those, also...

They are flat surface mount...

Not much range...

Not bad, though...

[roryrobson666]

kahlers are great, but what about on a les paul do you think they look out of place? im not sure if do or not!

[ELVIS]

I just told you I had a factory gold kahler on my 1985 Les Paul Custom...

I think it looks nice...

[ELVIS]

http://members.cox.net/jazzbo/83%20Paul%20w%20fact%20Kahler.jpg


:elvis:

[roryrobson666]

Originally posted by ELVIS
I just told you I had a factory gold kahler on my 1985 Les Paul Custom...

I think it looks nice...

that picture is cool! your right, they do look good on les pauls!!!
old steve clark used them all the time on his les pauls didnt he?!

thats a good reason to get one fitted!!!