Choosing the TremKing

I considered the locking tremolo options such as Floyd Rose, Kahler and even the Super-Vee, which is a Floyd style design, but a direct retrofit for a strat. But being a classical guitarist, and having had no experience with locking tremolos, I decided to play it safe and go for a non-locking design. Many Floyd users complain of difficulty tuning/changing strings, so for this guitar I thought I should avoid these potential problems (but of course, I still want to get a Floyd-equipped ax in the future – just not yet).

Of the non-locking designs I had the choice of the good ol’ Wilkinson or a standard strat bridge (by Callaham). Unfortunately, the strat bridge has only a little upward range (or non at all if I set it hard against the face of the guitar). The Wilkinson had the advantage of being able to be ‘recessed’ allowing for considerable up and down travel. The only drawback from the Wilkinson is that (IMHO) they’re ugly, and I don’t care for the satin finish either … yep, I know…VAIN.

Also, I wanted to do double stop bends, drop tuning, etc without affecting the tuning of the other strings. There are a bunch of devices available which use a ‘pre-stressed’ spring to accomplish this, including the Goeldo BackBox, WD Trem Stabilizer, and of course the Hipshot Tremsetter.

But then I came across the TremKing which appeared to be the best of all worlds.

For starters, it had already incorporated a pre-stressed stabilizing spring into the design. Also, it was capable of significant upward travel, and it didn’t require a locking nut or need fine tuners. I also felt that it had a nice appearance – modern, but retro at the same time.

I took the plunge and ordered one – sight unseen.

The Good

As advertised, the TremKing does a wonderful job of keeping in tune. It keeps its tune if I break a string, and bending the strings does not cause other strings to go flat. The stabilising system does exactly what it is supposed to.

Also, the travel of the unit is quite good. I can easily get a tone pulling up, and between two and three tones pushing down on the bar. Obviously it does not have the range of a Floyd, and you can’t completely slacken the strings. But really this is a good thing – without a locking nut fully slack strings would come out of the nut slots.

The Bad

Here goes….

String Breakage

Because of the way this tremolo is designed, the saddles remain stationary when using the bar. This means that the string is constantly slipping and sliding across the saddle. Normally, this extra friction would cause unnecessary wear, and premature string breakage.

To overcome this problem the TremKing people sensibly chose to use Graphtech saddles. Graphtech saddles are low friction and avoid the problem of unnecessary string breakage.

Unfortunately though, because of the way that the string passes over the top of the tone block, the string is still rubbing against metal. This means that although the saddles will not cause premature string breakage, they will still still break early because the strings rub against the top of the tone block.

Fortunately though, the break angle across the top of the tone block is quite slight, so the issue of string breakage is only really prominent on the lighter strings. For me, this means that I have broken two high ‘E’ strings in a week, though none of the other strings have broken yet. Also, I’ve found that you can overcome this problem by wrapping masking tape around the string about a centimeter or two from the ball end. This causes the tone block to rub against the masking tape, and since the masking tape is behind the saddle it does not affect the vibration of the string.

I’m not the only person who has had a problem with the high ‘E’ string breaking often: review on the seymour duncan forums

Tension Bar Comes Off

The TremKing design requires that there is a pre-stressed spring which acts as a trem stabiliser. This spring is attached to a metal bar, called the tension bar, which keeps the spring under tension. The problem is that the spring does not attach very securely to the tension bar, so over time (or with heavy trem use), the spring can work its way out of the tension bar.

This means that if in the middle of playing the spring pops out, you’ll hear a loud, disconcerting clank, and then your guitar will go completely out of tune.

If, like me, you tend to leave the back plate off your guitar you will have springs shooting across the room (or shooting into your stomach). Of course, you can leave the backplate on, but then everytime it comes off you’ll have to remove the backplate to reset it.

I emailed Rusty (Mr. TremKing) with a suggestion about having the end of the spring threaded so that it could actually screw onto the tension bar. He thanked me for the suggestion, so I hope that means that he will implement it at some stage.

Again, I’m not the only person who has had this problem: review on thegearpage board, and also Ricks review (half-way down the page).

On the plus side Rusty has sent me a replacement spring and tension bar, where the spring has a small crimp in the end. This crimp is enough to hold the spring to the tension bar.

Also, I had good results by gluing the spring to the tension bar. It works well, just make sure that you use a good two-pack metal glue.

Zero-Point

This is the last main issue that I had with the TremKing. The TremKing doesn’t always return exactly to zero. In my experience, it needs a slight push (or pull, depending on how I’ve set it up), after using the bar, to get it to return to the zero-point. It’s not a big problem because once you are familiar with the unit you automatically compensate with a small flick of the bar and then you are exactly back to pitch. It is a little bit annoying though, and is far from a perfect design.

I pulled the TremKing apart to see if there was anything that I could modify to get the unit to return on pitch more reliably. After unscrewing everything I found that the TremKing uses a ball-baring type pivot on the high ‘E’ side, but that on the low ‘E’ side it is just using a pin. After hosing the pin with copious amounts of WD-40 the TremKing returned to pitch appreciably more reliably. I personally feel that if the design used a ball-bearing joint on both ends, then the unit would return to zero far better than it does currently.

Again, others on the net have experienced this problem. All of the previous three links I’ve posted (thegearpage board, seymour duncan forum, and Ricks review) mention tuning instability and drift and/or having to tug the bar to get it to return to pitch.

No Pride in their Product

This isn’t really a functional issue but nonetheless, it reflects poorly on the TremKing company. The suede cushion on the TremKing is not properly glued to the tension bar or support arms. So the suede has begun to peel away from the metal. It doesn’t really effect the function of the trem, but it is wierd that the promotional pictures on the actual TremKing website also have the suede peeling off! Why would they display a dodgy unit on their promo shots? They don’t seem to have any pride in their product.

(The image can also be found by going to their installation page and then clicking on ‘Tone Block 2′)

Other Problems

In addition to the problems listed above, my particular TremKing also had a broken delrin sleeve which is what the trem arm is supposed to slip into. This meant that the trem arm would dangle, flop about and even fall out. Also, for some reason, this sleeve seems to serve to electrically isolate the arm from everything else. But since mine was broken, it meant that every time I touched the trem arm it would create a buzz/static noise. After e-mailing Rusty at TremKing he sent me a replacement sleeve. With the new sleeve I now have some control over the tension of the arm, and the static noise problem has gone away.

Why I’m Still Keeping the TremKing

By this stage I’ve replaced the delrin insert, replaced the trem arm, lubed the pivot joints, taped up the strings, and glued the tension bar to the spring. All in all I’ve done a lot of DIY work to make this thing perform well. But now that I have done all of this I feel that this trem is as good or better than any non-locking trem that is available and (finally) does what it is supposed to do.

Although I emailed Rusty about the tension-arm/spring issue, and suggested the screw-in solution, I have not told him about any of my other ideas – essentially because I feel as though I’ve been an unpaid, R&D, guinea pig.

The TremKing is one of the best ideas for an after market trem that I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately though, I feel that it has been made to a price-point without due regard to quality. As a result of poor quality control, and a few minor design flaws, this unit falls very far short of being the tremolo wonder that it easily could have been.

If/when TremKing release Version 2 with these issues addressed I may consider using it.

The Compound Radius

I had no idea what to expect with the compound radius since I’d never played one before, but now, having played this guitar for over a month, I can see no reason in having more guitars made with compound radii. Open chords are comfortable and the high notes aren’t as prone to choking when I bend – but very wide bends can still cause the strings to ‘fret-out’. It would be nice if Warmoth offered a few different compound radius options. I for one would welcome a 12″ to 18″ – particularly if I decided to order a 24 fret neck. Warmoth quote the typical Ibanez radius to be 12″ as a guide, but I know for a fact that many of the Ibanez Wizard necks are actually closer to a 17″ radius. Even these extreme radii are not immune to fretting-out and really, for a 24 fret neck, the neck needs to be as flat as possible at the high end of the neck. But remember, since I’m a classical player, I’m already very accustomed to a flat fingerboard. Also, I think that there would be a market for lower compound radii, maybe 7.25″-9.5″ for Fender fans who would like the best from both the vintage and modern strat necks.

Note that USACG (a competitor to Warmoth) do offer a range of compound radii and they will even let you ask for a custom compound radius, for a price. Because of this I thought I might order my next neck from them. Unfortunately my next guitar will be a 24 fretter, but USACG don’t do 24 fret necks!! I’m stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place.

Frets and Fretwork

Many reviews on the net report that Warmoth do dodgy fretwork. As far as I can tell, the fretwork is as good as can be expected without them knowing your string gauge, neck relief, nut preference and action. The frets are level and smooth, which is all one can ask for. Obviously, if you want the perfect fret job then you’ll need to get a luthier to do a full set up with a properly cut nut and the works (and maybe get it plek’d). Still, the fretwork was as good as I could hope for.

Neck Profile

When ordering the neck I wasn’t sure exactly what neck thickness I was after. People on the net talk about the difference of a few millimetres making a huge difference – with many people just wanting the slimmest neck possible. Whereas others want giant baseball bat necks that they could hold with their entire palm. I played safe with a standard thin.

In hindsight, I really don’t think that the neck thickness is as big a deal as some people think. Instead, Warmoth have taken the sensible approach by making the order by shape rather than by thickness (although the actual measurements are available on the site). I’d have to say that this is probably my favourite electric guitar neck, possibly sharing first place with one of the JEM necks (can’t recall which model/year). Overall, I’d say the shape and the compound radius had far more to do with the great feel of this neck than its thickness. This neck can easily fit into your palm for thumb-over-the-top stuff, but is perfectly suited to standard technique as well.

The Body

The body was fine – just as it was on the showcase. My only issue is that the neck pocket was too small for the neck. Of course, it’s better if it’s too tight than too large – you can always make a small pocket bigger, but you can’t make a large pocket smaller. I realise that if I had been ordering a replacement body, that it’d be impossible for them to ensure that the neck would fit, since different necks are made to different tolerances. However I would have thought that since I was ordering the neck and body together that they would have ensured a good fit.

In Warmoth’s defence, they do understand that neck pocket size can be hit and miss, and will re-rout the neck pocket free of charge if you send it back to them. The only problem with that is that I live in Australia and there was no way I was sending it all the way back to the U.S. just for that!

As it turned out, I needed my luthier to do some routing anyway for the TremKing bridge, so he was happy to enlarge the neck pocket (free of charge) while he had the guitar in his shop.

Conclusion

Since every little option carries an up charge (a simple battery rout is $15) they are a bit pricey, and their customer service can be terse and unhelpful (at least when emailing with ‘Tony’). But as for the quality of the work, I’m perfectly happy.

What I Wanted

Until recently I have only played classical guitar so I had no idea what pickups/amps could, or should, sound like. So before deciding, I went to many music shops to play their guitars and try to gain an understanding for what good gear should sound and feel like.

After trying various guitars and pickups at music stores, I noticed that cheap single coils tend to have a harsh top-end. Even though single coils need to have a bright, detailed sound, I felt it should be possible without extra harshness. Conversely, the stock noiseless pickups in the American strat which I tried seemed to lack brilliance and detail. Obviously, I was after a noiseless pickup with a top-end that was somewhere in between – not too harsh, but plenty of detail.

Another issue I noticed with some stacked humbuckers was that many did not respond well to picking dynamics, or had a squashed attack or both. Also, the low-noise Lace Sensor equipped guitar I played had a very slow attack which ‘thudded’ rather than ‘twanged’ (very technical terms ).

So I set about looking for stacked pickups known for having a wide dynamic range, a smoother top-end, and an articulate attack. According to reviews and popular opinion the pickups from Kinman were hard to beat. It was impossible for me to audition these pickups for myself, so I ordered them sight-unseen based on the reviews.

I had the choice of a Blues set, Woodstock set or a Traditional set. Being a classical-turned-electric I haven’t developed my own personal taste/preferences yet, so I played it safe and went with the Traditionals which seemed to be somewhere in between the Blues and Woodstock sets.

What They Delivered

These pickups are exactly what I was after. They are open and dynamic, so they respond well to changes in my picking strength, but not excessively open, so a crunchy setting on the amp would not result in overly distorted attack, with little overdrive on the tail. Rather, they maintained a consistent amount of crunchy break-up with regular playing, but would still ‘leap out’ if I played heavily.

Apparently the Woodstocks have an even wider dynamic range, but for me that would have been too much. My guess is that the increased openness of the Woodstocks would suit somebody with a heavier gauge string or a heavier picking technique, or both. For me though, with a fairly light touch and extra light strings, these pickups were adequately open without sacrificing much ‘meat’ or thickness of tone. The Blues set is supposed to be the exact opposite – thicker, meatier tone, and more output but reduced dynamic range.

I found that these pickups are quite sensitive to how high or low you set them. Setting the pickups closer to the strings created a clearer, ‘bitey’ tone, whilst lowering the pickup would create a ‘woody’ sound and smooth out the top end. Either way, the top-end was never ever harsh, and the mids were never muddy.

The K-9 NoSolder Harness

The wiring options in the K-9 harness make the strat extremely versatile – so much so that I will never likely have a strat without a blender pot in the future. Of course, you don’t need to have the K-9 harness to wire these pickups (or any other pickups for that matter) with a blender pot – you just need to have a few basic soldering skills and be able to follow a schematic.

Though I love the blender pot, I’m not so sure about the usefulness of the push-push pot to switch the middle and bridge pickups in series. The series option is supposed to create a thicker ‘humbucker-like’ tone. I won’t be using that setting very often but it is nice to have it just in case – though I’m not particularly fond of humbuckers
generally, so I didn’t really expect to like it.
One setting I’ve never heard of before, which I thoroughly love having, is the option of having the mid and bridge in series (using the push-push pot), AND blending the neck in parallel. This gives a gorgeous hollow haunting sound, which creates a nice (albeit, unconventional) jazz tone. It’s nice to be able to control the amount of neck pickup with a knob rather than a switch (ala tele wiring). It means that I can dial in just the right amount of hollowness, and I can get a wide range of usable sounds just by varying how much neck pickup I dial in.

Conclusion

Like I said, for the heavy strung, heavy handed blues player, you may like to go for the Woodstocks, but for me these pickups felt just right. As for the top end, the pickup can be smooth and woody without being dull; or bright and brilliant, without being harsh, simply by raising or lowering the pickup a few turns. And though the pickups are versatile in themselves, the K-9 harness adds another welcome dimension, which is well worth the extra few bucks.