VHII & Mothers Milk anyone? With Floyd Rose or Vintage Tremolo?

[Triptychon]

Hey,

after listening to all the different demos available and all the information on this forum, I finally decided that the VHII Bridge Pickup and the MM Middle/Neck Single Coils would be a perfect combination for my taste. I am building a HSS Strat right now, with an heavy Alder body and a thin rosewood neck (both Warmoth).

Does anyone else play this combination of Pickups? Has anyone tried it with a Floyd Rose Tremolo? I have a very good Original Floyd Rose 1984 Reissue  Tremolo and I think it will work perfectly for the VHII, but I am a bit afraid to loose the wooden sound of the MM by installing the FR. Any experience?

Cheers, Tobi

[Telerocker]

I have the VHII/MM's-combo in ash Fender American Series-strat with rosewood fretboard. In general a little leaner sounding then the Crawler/IT's in my custommade swampash HSS-strat. The VHII performs very well in a strat. Quite some highs, but they are not shrill. Sufficient mids and bass. Feels quite hot. Very touchsensitive, noncompressed pickup. Screams when you dig in.
Mother's Milk have the woody early sixties-tone. The neckpickup is superb, the second position great for funk. The VHII splitted with the middle-MM is happening, but not on par with the Crawler/IT-split. Different guitars though.

[Triptychon]

Thank you for your answer :-) Do you think the Irish Tours might fight better with the VHII?

[Telerocker]

Thank you for your answer :-) Do you think the Irish Tours might fight better with the VHII?

The IT's are more or less overwound Mother's Milks. so more bass and less bright topend, but still cutting, don't worry.  IT's sound less woody then MM's, although when you clean them up they can get close to MM's.

Choice is merely a matter of taste and what kind of music you're playing. Both will do, as will the Pat Pend 63 which has, as I remember well, a tad less bright topend then the MM.

For the bridge I find that a little hotter humbucker splits better. I can get beefy strattones from my splitted Crawler. An Abraxas would do nice too. That one sits in output and character between the Mule and the Crawler.

[darkbluemurder]

I have a very good Original Floyd Rose 1984 Reissue  Tremolo and I think it will work perfectly for the VHII, but I am a bit afraid to loose the wooden sound of the MM by installing the FR. Any experience?

Dear Tobi,

I have played guitars with the FR system but they all had it factory installed so I do not have a before/after comparison. My personal feeling is that guitars with a FR need lots of maple in it - somehow the FR appears to absorb high mids from the tonal spectrum. Maple counteracts this to some extent. Maybe one of the luthiers on this board can share his experience.

Since I use the vibrato only moderately I completely went away from the FR systems, and would always prefer a standard non-locking system. But for radical vibrato action a FR is hard to beat.

Cheers Stephan

[Telerocker]

I have a very good Original Floyd Rose 1984 Reissue  Tremolo and I think it will work perfectly for the VHII, but I am a bit afraid to loose the wooden sound of the MM by installing the FR. Any experience?

Dear Tobi,

I have played guitars with the FR system but they all had it factory installed so I do not have a before/after comparison. My personal feeling is that guitars with a FR need lots of maple in it - somehow the FR appears to absorb high mids from the tonal spectrum. Maple counteracts this to some extent. Maybe one of the luthiers on this board can share his experience.

Since I use the vibrato only moderately I completely went away from the FR systems, and would always prefer a standard non-locking system. But for radical vibrato action a FR is hard to beat.

Cheers Stephan

The standard vintagetrem on my Fender American Series HSS stays in tune very well.

[Triptychon]

Dear Tobi,

I have played guitars with the FR system but they all had it factory installed so I do not have a before/after comparison. My personal feeling is that guitars with a FR need lots of maple in it - somehow the FR appears to absorb high mids from the tonal spectrum. Maple counteracts this to some extent. Maybe one of the luthiers on this board can share his experience.

Since I use the vibrato only moderately I completely went away from the FR systems, and would always prefer a standard non-locking system. But for radical vibrato action a FR is hard to beat.

Cheers Stephan

Thanks Stephan, that's what Eddie says, you need a Maple neck :-) I think I will try the Vintage Tremolo first, and see if I am happy... Unfortunately, there is no one out there who as tried both Tremolos on the SAME guitar... most people compare different guitars....

[JCN1218]

I have a made in Mexico strat that had the regular Fender trem on it that I replaced with a Floyd Rose. I didn't think to record a before and after, and I don't know how reliable my ears are, but after the switch I couldn't tell the difference. It was kind of a long process to change the bridge, so it's very possible I didn't remember the original sound perfectly. However, if you use a tremolo a lot, I think you'd be very happy with a Floyd; if not, stick with the fender trem.

[Telerocker]

I just see I forgot to answer your question whether IT's work better with the VHII then MM's. I think both work well with the VHII.