19 July 2012

SSB Audio Noiseless Tremolo Springs

Spring noise! I HATE it with a passion. Here is a solution!

These little things are absolutely fantastic! I have tried another "fix" in the past and had feedback from guitarist friends who have tried others so I will go over those first and the pros and cons as I found them.

Kitchen Roll/Toilet Roll
In the past I've resorted to shoving kitchen roll beneath the springs which isn't really too desirable as when you use the tremolo it gets shredded and goes everywhere. However it does completely deaden the ringing but at the expensive of high end which leaves you with a slightly muffled sound which I cannot stand.

Floyd Upgrades Noiseless Springs
These looked ideal as they claim not to affect the tone but completely remove the spring ring.
I haven't tried these personally but I have a few friends who have who I trust a lot when it comes to tone and general tech knowledge.
 They all had the exact same issue with these. The noise was gone but and this is a BIG but. It caused a grounding issue due to the coating which is potentially worse than the ringing IMHO.

Now onto the SSB Audio Noiseless Springs.
I got these on the off chance just because my new parts guitar had the worst spring ring that I have ever encountered in my life. I installed these today and recorded some before and after clips and it completely eradicated the noise and didn't alter the tone.

I must say that I am very happy and will be replacing the springs in my other trem loaded guitars ASAP with these.

Here is a link to purchase them if you feel like they could work out for you as they worked amazingly from me as you can see from the following clips.

SSB Audio Noiseless Tremolo Springs


15 July 2012

Guitar Fetish Solid Steel Trem Block

I got this purely out of curiosity to see what all the hype was about. I installed a Solid Steel block because the properties and descriptions of the Brass ones weren't to my liking.


Here is the stock block

And here is a comparison shot of the two. Its quite a significant size difference and the stock block weighs less than 1/4 of the weight of the SS one

And finally here are a couple of pictures of the block installed on the trem.


And finally a picture of it installed in the guitar.


This was marketed by Guitar Fetish as:

The result is a total transformation of your guitar for UNDER TWENTY BUCKS!! Come on!! Sustain is increased noticeably, tone is like NIGHT AND DAY, even tuning stability is just a hair better. You can't NOT buy this!!

After installing it and playing for just a few minutes I agree entirely. They missed out a few points though. The low end is punchier and the midrange is a lot snappier with a crisp high end. In general the tone is a lot more full and percussive.

The marketing gumph is slightly incorrect though as the block itself is actually $21.95! But still for the tonal increase you really cant argue and you would be a mentalist to not at least try it at the above price.