# 8 string floating tremolos...???



## JoshuaLogan (Sep 13, 2008)

Is the Kahler one the only one that exists? 

I'm kinda interested in trying out 8 strings, but having a floating trem is more important to me than an 8th string, so a fixed bridge 8 is not an option. 

I really wish there was an 8 string OFR, but there isn't.... so, what else is out there?

EDIT: Also, are there any reviews for the Kahler 7228 hybrid tremolo around? How is it?


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## eegor (Sep 13, 2008)

I've only heard about Kahler.

Btw, do you happen to know the difference between the 7228 and the 2228? They look the same to me, but apparently they're different.


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## jrf8 (Sep 14, 2008)

do they even make the kahler floating trem for the 8 string? i thought they only made the flat mount trem 8 and the fanned 8 bridge



eegor said:


> I've only heard about Kahler.
> 
> Btw, do you happen to know the difference between the 7228 and the 2228? They look the same to me, but apparently they're different.


the difference is probablly the metal they use on the two, like brass on brass or brass on steel


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## eegor (Sep 14, 2008)

Ah, that could be it.

And no, they don't make the floating trem, just the two you mentioned.


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## JimboTheHobo (Sep 14, 2008)

i saw that ETS makes some Fender style trem(2 studs),
but, yeah, this is not what you(and i) are looking for...


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## Durero (Sep 14, 2008)

I think there's a terminology issue here.

All Kahler trems are floating, meaning they can pull up as well as push down and they don't have a zero position but float freely.

If you're thinking of floating as meaning the trem unit is balanced by two knife-edges against two stud posts then no, current model Kahlers don't use that design.


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## Sponge (Sep 14, 2008)

The Kahler bridge for the 8 string is also optional for trem. It was designed so that with a simple allan key turn, the player can have fixed or floating mode.


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## jrf8 (Sep 14, 2008)

Durero said:


> I think there's a terminology issue here.
> 
> All Kahler trems are floating, meaning they can pull up as well as push down and they don't have a zero position but float freely.
> 
> If you're thinking of floating as meaning the trem unit is balanced by two knife-edges against two stud posts then no, current model Kahlers don't use that design.




a floating trem would be a "fulcrum" like floyds, kahlers are considered "FLAT MOUNT" trems. no terminology needed, kahlers do not float, they mount to the body


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## noodleplugerine (Sep 14, 2008)

Regarding model numbers.

2--- = Custom shop built.
7--- = USA Factory built.

I've also seen a custom 8 string Ibanez with what looked like an 8 string ZR trem, but I assume that's a prototype.


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## eegor (Sep 14, 2008)

Thanks for that info. That makes a whole lotta sense.


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## dpm (Sep 14, 2008)

An 8 string Floyd isn't a big deal to have made, it's just a matter of having the money for it


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## Wolfv11 (Sep 14, 2008)

Rusty and Munky have an 8 with knife edge trems
Rusty






Munky





Although getting your hands on something like this would not be an easy task.


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## JoshuaLogan (Sep 15, 2008)

Wolfv11 said:


> Rusty and Munky have an 8 with knife edge trems
> Rusty
> 
> 
> ...



Yeah, I saw rusty cooley had one on an 8 string... custom made for them, I guess. 

I guess a trem wouldn't be as useful on an 8 anyways though with all the extra string tension... fixed bridge guitars just seem incomplete to me...


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## damigu (Sep 15, 2008)

kahlers are amazing bridges. i've got 2 of them (on 6 stringers) and the custom 7 i'm still planning in my head will most certainly have a kahler.
i know some people prefer floyds, but after a few years of owning both i've definitely come to prefer kahler.

redbeard has a kahler 8 on that beautiful rico jr jekyll 8 string and is loving it.

as someone else said above, the kahler isn't a "floating" bridge, but that's just a matter of semantics. the point is that it is a full tremolo that you can pull up and dive down with and with just as much range as a floyd--but it a different response than a floyd (smoother and more linear than a floyd).


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## Durero (Sep 15, 2008)

jrf8 said:


> a floating trem would be a "fulcrum" like floyds, kahlers are considered "FLAT MOUNT" trems. no terminology needed, kahlers do not float, they mount to the body



I can certainly understand how the popularity of fulcrum designs has come to be understood as the entire meaning of the "floating" term, but that's not how "floating" was originally intended nor how it is currently used in the industry.

The original Floating Tremolo by Leo Fender was one of these: 




which is a flat mount design with the string moving mechanism located separately from the bridge saddles which don't move. The "floating" aspect refers to the lack of stopping point or zero point for the bar which floats freely and can be pulled up and pushed down. This design has more in common with a Kahler than with a Floyd.

Kahler also refers to their bridges as floating:


Kahler site said:


> The Kahler® USA Hybrid 7300 flat mount series locking/floating tremolo system is designed to drop onto any flat top guitar...



Most fulcrum trems are floating in their function, but not all - a good example is the Floyd on EVH's Ernie Ball Music Man signature models which are dive-only.

And of course with a Tremol-No any fulcrum trem can be switched between floating, dive-only, and fixed modes.


Tremol-No site said:


> Q- What the heck is the "Deep-C"?
> A- The Deep-C is an accessory that comes with every Tremol-No unit. When locked in place, the Deep-C allows full floating tremolos to function as 'dive-only' tremolos. Just like the Tremol-No, it installs with no modifications to the guitar, and can be slipped on in under a minute. For example, your fully floating trem can now be full floating, or 'dive-only', or hardtail.


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## SplinteredSoul (Mar 20, 2010)

Wolfv11 said:


> Rusty and Munky have an 8 with knife edge trems
> Rusty
> 
> 
> ...



You know, I've been looking at this with envy for months now, wondering why Floyd Rose won't release this on the market, until it just occured to me today that this is in fact unbranded. It's not Floyd Rose or Kahler, or Ibanez, which leads me to believe it's probably Chinese made. I've bought replicas from China before, for a couple of pre-teenaged students that wished they could afford Vai's Jem, and I'm wondering if someone over there could actually knock an 8 string floyd clone up for me. Although if they're anything like the bridges on those kids Guitars, I'd rather not! lol


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## MaxOfMetal (Mar 20, 2010)

SplinteredSoul said:


> You know, I've been looking at this with envy for months now, wondering why Floyd Rose won't release this on the market, until it just occured to me today that this is in fact unbranded. It's not Floyd Rose or Kahler, or Ibanez, which leads me to believe it's probably Chinese made. I've bought replicas from China before, for a couple of pre-teenaged students that wished they could afford Vai's Jem, and I'm wondering if someone over there could actually knock an 8 string floyd clone up for me. Although if they're anything like the bridges on those kids Guitars, I'd rather not! lol



Please don't bump two year old threads like this. 

As for that trem, it's a Japanese made TRS/Takeuchi unit, not a Chinese piece of shit. This guitar and trem have been discussed to death over the last three or four years it has existed.


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## SplinteredSoul (Mar 21, 2010)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Please don't bump two year old threads like this.
> 
> As for that trem, it's a Japanese made TRS/Takeuchi unit, not a Chinese piece of shit. This guitar and trem have been discussed to death over the last three or four years it has existed.



I didn't bump anything, I simply replied to a thread on the forum, which is what it's there for?


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## Malacoda (Mar 21, 2010)

SplinteredSoul said:


> I didn't bump anything, I simply replied to a thread on the forum, which is what it's there for?



Well, you ended up bumping it because your post was the first one made in two years.


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## myconfidenceinu (Mar 21, 2010)

you could probably find a cheap 8 string floyd clone somewhere. I think Floyd Rose will soon release their own 8 string floyd anyway.


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## possumkiller (Mar 21, 2010)

Just hack a couple 6 strings apart and weld them together as an 8. Or dont even weld them if you dont have the resources. Just make a big trem block and bolt the 2 plates to it.


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## caughtinamosh (Mar 21, 2010)

I believe that Hipshot made a vintage style trem at one point. It's no longer on their website.


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## Elysian (Mar 21, 2010)

caughtinamosh said:


> I believe that Hipshot made a vintage style trem at one point. It's no longer on their website.



I've never seen a Hipshot 8 string trem... I've had a price list for the last couple of years, and it was never offered on there either, including the updated price list... That's not to say they couldn't make one, they're open to doing machine work for people, but it's quite pricey.


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## Ironberry (Mar 21, 2010)

caughtinamosh said:


> I believe that Hipshot made a vintage style trem at one point. It's no longer on their website.



I don't know that Hipshot ever made one, but I know Agile made their own vintage 8 string trem.


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## troyguitar (Mar 21, 2010)

(old thread, but somehow this is still new info)

Just about any decent machinist could make you an 8-string OFR baseplate for a relatively small amount of money. Then just outfit it with regular replacement parts.


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## Hollowway (Mar 21, 2010)

troyguitar said:


> (old thread, but somehow this is still new info)
> 
> Just about any decent machinist could make you an 8-string OFR baseplate for a relatively small amount of money. Then just outfit it with regular replacement parts.



Well, I guess the thread is officially alive again, so I'll chime in: One of my coworker's boyfriend is a machinist and said he could do just that. But I haven't had him do it yet, since that seems like the easy part. I also gotta figure out how I'm going to arrange the pieces to intonate correctly for the lowest string, and the route, etc. Seems like a lot of work, so I haven't bothered. But if someone were to start making a couple of those, and work out the details, I'm sure there would be a few takers.


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## ra1der2 (Mar 21, 2010)

After playing with the kahler 8's pretty much exclusively and then going back to a floyd equipped 7 to mess around a bit, I'd have compare this as going from a modern day kitchen back to a pot and kettle over an open fire pit.

Seriously man, the kahler is so much more than a floyd could ever hope be, there really is no comparison.


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## damigu (Mar 23, 2010)

ra1der2 said:


> After playing with the kahler 8's pretty much exclusively and then going back to a floyd equipped 7 to mess around a bit, I'd have compare this as going from a modern day kitchen back to a pot and kettle over an open fire pit.
> 
> Seriously man, the kahler is so much more than a floyd could ever hope be, there really is no comparison.



quoted for truth...and emphasis.


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## MaxOfMetal (Mar 23, 2010)

ra1der2 said:


> After playing with the kahler 8's pretty much exclusively and then going back to a floyd equipped 7 to mess around a bit, I'd have compare this as going from a modern day kitchen back to a pot and kettle over an open fire pit.
> 
> Seriously man, the kahler is so much more than a floyd could ever hope be, there really is no comparison.



I've just never liked the feel of Kahlers.  

I realize they're very well thought out systems, but after a decade or so of beating the crap out of FR style systems, I'm just so used to them.


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## guitarplayerone (Mar 23, 2010)

Ironberry said:


> I don't know that Hipshot ever made one, but I know Agile made their own vintage 8 string trem.



DO WANT. that trem with passives, neckthrough, and 30 inch scale is perfect


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## capo_fez (Apr 6, 2010)

Well, I just got my 8-stirng back with Kahler now installed, and I can say the the feel is definitely different from a Floyd. It is a matter of preference though. I love the feel of a Floyd and the feel of a Kahler but when it comes down to it, Floyd doesn't make an 8-string trem. As for the differences in the pro and hybrid kahlers for an 8-string, there isn't enough of a difference anymore to justify the price. The Hybrids actually lock for hardtail options, plus giving you a good midpoint to set the action on the float. My Kahler is actually easier to set up and deal with than any Floyd style I have played in the past, and smoother, but if you want more resistance to your action on the trem (as many do) I suggest getting your friend to make a baseplate for you.

I hope that one day Ibanez makes the Edge Pro 8, but until then, it looks like Kahler is the option for most. I would like to have the options but as a Kahler guy, I am happy with what I have.


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## technomancer (Apr 6, 2010)

IIRC Strandberg is planning on doing their modular trems for eights, though I'm not sure if he's manufactured the baseplates for them yet. Headless trem'ed eight string anyone? Though you could also use it with a conventional locking nut and locking tuners I suppose.

Strandberg Guitarworks


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## troyguitar (Apr 6, 2010)

technomancer said:


> IIRC Strandberg is planning on doing their modular trems for eights, though I'm not sure if he's manufactured the baseplates for them yet. Headless trem'ed eight string anyone? Though you could also use it with a conventional locking nut and locking tuners I suppose.
> 
> Strandberg Guitarworks



His stuff is cool, but it's like $60 per string (without VAT) for the regular fixed bridges. I looked into using his stuff for my 9-string, but I'm not ready for $530 shipped plus still having to make my own baseplate.


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## technomancer (Apr 6, 2010)

troyguitar said:


> His stuff is cool, but it's like $60 per string (without VAT) for the regular fixed bridges. I looked into using his stuff for my 9-string, but I'm not ready for $530 shipped plus still having to make my own baseplate.



Given the alternatives his pricing isn't bad actually. Have you looked at the pricing on the ABM headless single string bridges?


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## Eric Christian (Oct 15, 2010)

Does the 8 string Kahler stay in tune like a Floyd Rose? I had a Kahler before on a 6 string BC Rich and I could never get it to stay in tune if I used the bar so I got rid of it. I've got a 7 string BC Rich now with a Floyd and it stays in pretty much in perfect tune no matter how much you abuse the bar. I'm in the market now for an 8 string and I'd like a tremolo model but I'm real leary of the Kahler. I'm looking at the Guerilla M8 but at $2800 I'll probably keep looking elsewhere.


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## MaxOfMetal (Oct 15, 2010)

Eric Christian said:


> Does the 8 string Kahler stay in tune like a Floyd Rose? I had a Kahler before on a 6 string BC Rich and I could never get it to stay in tune if I used the bar so I got rid of it. I've got a 7 string BC Rich now with a Floyd and it stays in pretty much in perfect tune no matter how much you abuse the bar. I'm in the market now for an 8 string and I'd like a tremolo model but I'm real leary of the Kahler. I'm looking at the Guerilla M8 but at $2800 I'll probably keep looking elsewhere.



The Kahlers aren't too bad, but they just don't keep tune as well as the locking designs. If it's setup right though, it will stay in pretty good tune.

The downfall of the Kahler is it's non-locking nature, and those fucking retarded (sorry, I don't say that much, but in this case, it does seem to denote a HUGE often critical design flaw) string "claws". If they at least used a different, more stable, non-locking system it'd be good enough.


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## Malkav (Oct 15, 2010)

So it's now been 3 - going on 4 years since Ibanez released the first official production 8-string and we have yet to see an edge style trem...seriously WTF???

This is why I hate Ibanez guitars so much, they give a whole bunch of endorsees 8-strings with trems and then they never release one to the public. They don't have a custom shop that is available to the public so it's not even like we could fork out a ton of money for one either, which is quite an insult really cause their endorsees aren't the people who keep their business going, we are - the public, their customers.

I find it quite strange that all their competition have custom shop facilities but Ibanez just don't give a fuck, and on top of that it becomes even more evident whenever you try to contact them for any spares or info at all. What I wanna know is how a brand that is this apathetical can keep going?

What really sucks is that if they did do an 8-string trem it would probably be an SZ instead of a Lo-Pro which they should just hurry up and bring back on all their guitars cause the new ones aren't really that great and that whole silly multi spring system is just annoying. Simple formula for awesome = Lo-Pro + Tremol-No = PERFECTION 

I've been considering changing over to another brand but at the end of the day Ibanez just look so good, the RG body shape is just perfect and their headstock design is just so sleek and unassuming. They're just too sexy  The prestige models play really nicely and are built like tanks so there's no real complaint there, but in some places (bridge + pickups mainly) they can be improved.

Still though if they did release a new form of the 8-string it'll probably not have any of these appointments but something new and annoying. Maybe they'll realise that we're all kinda sick of only ever getting offered guitars in black or other incredibly shitty colours like Royal Blue (*cough*RG1527*cough*). It's annoying that all of these other brands are offering higher quality spec at lower prices with more interesting finishes and Ibanez just couldn't be damned, how about an RG8 in the natural dark wood finish of the RGT2020? Oh wait they're too cheap and full of shit to bother. 

The worst part is that I only play Ibanez cause I'm in love with their necks and shape, the sound quality is generally terrible till you change the pickups and then they just annihilate everything  Has anyone heard these LZ things, I puke in my mouth a little everytime I go through the agony of trying them and they're offered on the highest line of RGAs...yet again WTF?. You'd figure they'd at least have enough pride to put out something better.

Sorry about that but I always take every opportunity I can to bash my favourite brand as I think they honestly deserve it, their name used to be synonymous with quality but now they just make so many obvious price cuts that it's infuriating...

I vote this should now officially just be changed into an Ibanez bashing thread  and while we're doing so we should bash Dimarzio too, not for their product or customer service which has always been excellent but for the fact that they haven't released an 8-string pickup yet.


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## Guamskyy (Oct 15, 2010)

Malkav said:


> So it's now been 3 - going on 4 years since Ibanez released the first official production 8-string and we have yet to see an edge style trem...seriously WTF???
> 
> This is why I hate Ibanez guitars so much, they give a whole bunch of endorsees 8-strings with trems and then they never release one to the public. They don't have a custom shop that is available to the public so it's not even like we could fork out a ton of money for one either, which is quite an insult really cause their endorsees aren't the people who keep their business going, we are - the public, their customers.
> 
> ...



Maybe the reason why they have not made a 8 string trem is because they got pretty good feedback on the fixed edge III? I'm left handed and want an 8 string from Ibanez, but that will never happen unless I join a band that gets really popular and get a call from an Ibanez endorsee. 

So for me Ibanez is completely out of the question, but I'm not doing proposing to start an "Ibanez Hate Campaign." If I'm willing to buy a lefty RGA8 but Ibanez refuses to make it, oh well! I'll take my money elsewhere, it's their loss.


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## Malkav (Oct 15, 2010)

I don't think they've necessarily gotten that great a response about the Fixed Edge III - especially seeing as the first thing you find when searching for info regarding the quality are horror stories about the anchoring screws ripping out.

I love their guitars, as stated above. I think at this point in time they might need a hate campaign, their quality (in their cheaper models - prestiges still rule) and options have become incredibly sub-standard and I think they could do with having their name dragged through the mud a little just to remind them of humility - a thing they now lack.

Their competition has stepped up to the plate, it's time they did too.


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## Eric Christian (Oct 15, 2010)

I was never that impressed with Ibanez to tell you the truth. I've always prefered either Jacksons or BC Rich guitars. Truthfully, the demographic for potential customers of an 8 String guitar is pretty much 99% people into some form of metal so it makes no sense to make a guitar like this without a tremolo of some sort. Thats ok though, I think I'm gonna get a Agile Interceptor Pro 828 EB Black Flame anyway. Makes the most sense at roughly a third of the price of the Guerilla. 

Agile Interceptor Pro 828 EB Black Flame at RondoMusic.com


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## xwmucradiox (Oct 15, 2010)

Once you add two extra strings the tension disparity becomes so dramatic that the action of the trem becomes hindered. You have to drop the trem too the body to get a serious dive on a high string but drop it 15 degrees and all of a sudden your low strings are flopping and clanging around and making a tangled mess. A trem in many ways just isn't going to work well with so many strings.


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## bostjan (Oct 15, 2010)

I've seen trems for acoustic guitars, which hold a hell of a lot more tension than your average electric solidbodies on a much thinner surface.

As an owner of two Kahler-equipped guitars (not eights, though), I can say that Kahlers are nifty, but not as athletic or sleek as the Floyd-style trems. 

I think that there is a lot of room for design improvement with trems in general. When I look at the Parker Trem System and think about how it's been around roughly twenty years (and only been "updated" once, AFAIK), it makes me think that there is just not a general mindset in the industry to try anything new with trems, whether it be adding strings or adding functionality.

I think that this thread could go on legitimately for many more years as players continue to desire a trem that has the functionality they want for a price that fits in the average college student's or musician's budget.


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## xwmucradiox (Oct 15, 2010)

bostjan said:


> I've seen trems for acoustic guitars, which hold a hell of a lot more tension than your average electric solidbodies on a much thinner surface.
> 
> As an owner of two Kahler-equipped guitars (not eights, though), I can say that Kahlers are nifty, but not as athletic or sleek as the Floyd-style trems.
> 
> ...



Not talking about the amount of tension. Im talking about the difference in tension changes and physical trem movement required to drop relative amounts of pitch. That is going to change dramatically from a low F# to a high E. I think there was a thread somewhere around here where a guy mentioned that he couldn't get a real dive bomb on his kahler 8 because the other 7 strings became a floppy noisy mess before his high E dropped an octave.


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## MaxOfMetal (Oct 15, 2010)

Isn't Dan over at Oni working on a fanned/ERG trem system?


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## bostjan (Oct 15, 2010)

xwmucradiox said:


> Not talking about the amount of tension. Im talking about the difference in tension changes and physical trem movement required to drop relative amounts of pitch. That is going to change dramatically from a low F# to a high E. I think there was a thread somewhere around here where a guy mentioned that he couldn't get a real dive bomb on his kahler 8 because the other 7 strings became a floppy noisy mess before his high E dropped an octave.



Wait, his high e was the problem?  That should have nothing to do with the extra string.


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## Eric Christian (Oct 15, 2010)

xwmucradiox said:


> Once you add two extra strings the tension disparity becomes so dramatic that the action of the trem becomes hindered. You have to drop the trem too the body to get a serious dive on a high string but drop it 15 degrees and all of a sudden your low strings are flopping and clanging around and making a tangled mess. A trem in many ways just isn't going to work well with so many strings.


 
I'm not doing any serious dives so yeah, my 7 string with a Floyd does fine, I can't imagine adding one more string making a dramatic difference for the way I play. I've always enjoyed having a tremolo to add accents to my playing so thats what I buy.


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## Hollowway (Oct 16, 2010)

xwmucradiox said:


> Not talking about the amount of tension. Im talking about the difference in tension changes and physical trem movement required to drop relative amounts of pitch. That is going to change dramatically from a low F# to a high E. I think there was a thread somewhere around here where a guy mentioned that he couldn't get a real dive bomb on his kahler 8 because the other 7 strings became a floppy noisy mess before his high E dropped an octave.


 
Yeah, that was me. It's not necessarily a string tension differential, though. It's true that my F# (8th) string has less tension than my high E, but even when I equalize the tension the problem persists. The issue is pretty much a design flaw with the Kahlers (if you want to call it that) which really only shows up as the string gauges get thick. i.e. it's not a particular issue on a 6 string guitar. The issue is that the way the string comes out of the ball claw and over the cam means that the core of a thinner string is going to have a much straighter shot toward the nut than the thicker string. So the thinner string pretty much only drops in pitch due to a shortening of the string length (which isn't much due to the nature of the trem) in the horizontal vector. But the thicker string is going to drop in pitch due to the same shortening AND a vertical change, as the core (center) of the string no longer has to go up and over the cam, and that extra vertical vector gets turned into more string slack. 

So yeah, the more low strings, and thicker they are, the less effective a Kahler is. After all I could do on the Kahler I can only get the high E to drop 1.5 steps, even with the bar all the way to the body. The F# goes slack way before that, though. 

Fundamentally, having a tapered cam, or and increased cam effect on the high strings, could solve that. 

And knife edge trems do not have that problem, as the thickness of the string has much less to do with the drop. Or at least so I suspect, since I have no real way of trying an 8 string Floyd. It is possible, though, that because of the intonation point on the 8th string is substantially farther back on the Floyd, which introduces it's own vertical component, the 8th string would go slack much more quickly on that as well. 

There is definitely a design for a trem that would work ideally on 8 string guitars. But, like everything else with 8 strings, there are 6.5 billion people in the world, and 60 of them play 8 strings, and no one is going to do R&D for that number!


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## vansinn (Oct 16, 2010)

Hollowway said:


> Yeah, that was me. It's not necessarily a string tension differential, though. It's true that my F# (8th) string has less tension than my high E, but even when I equalize the tension the problem persists. The issue is pretty much a design flaw with the Kahlers (if you want to call it that) which really only shows up as the string gauges get thick. i.e. it's not a particular issue on a 6 string guitar. The issue is that the way the string comes out of the ball claw and over the cam means that the core of a thinner string is going to have a much straighter shot toward the nut than the thicker string. So the thinner string pretty much only drops in pitch due to a shortening of the string length (which isn't much due to the nature of the trem) in the horizontal vector. But the thicker string is going to drop in pitch due to the same shortening AND a vertical change, as the core (center) of the string no longer has to go up and over the cam, and that extra vertical vector gets turned into more string slack.
> 
> So yeah, the more low strings, and thicker they are, the less effective a Kahler is. After all I could do on the Kahler I can only get the high E to drop 1.5 steps, even with the bar all the way to the body. The F# goes slack way before that, though.
> 
> Fundamentally, having a tapered cam, or and increased cam effect on the high strings, could solve that.



Yup, we had this discussion in http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/extended-range-guitars/82136-kahler-pro-2228k-stability.html (from about post #9)
Not sure we ever reached a definite conclusion..
Due to a mix of financials and then too much workload at a new job, I put eight-stringers on hold, though conceptually kept working on my own bridge desighn - which of course still haven't seen the dawn of day, hehe 



Hollowway said:


> There is definitely a design for a trem that would work ideally on 8 string guitars. But, like everything else with 8 strings, there are 6.5 billion people in the world, and 60 of them play 8 strings, and no one is going to do R&D for that number!



Or rather: Out of the 6.5 billion, 100 play 8 strings, five got started on the R&D, but one bailed out due to financials, one due to technical difficulties, one actually made it, but way too early for any viable market, and the remaining two are keeping their cards close because the know they will be the only competition in this small emerging market of 25 worldwide eight-string whammy players


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## SplinteredSoul (Oct 17, 2010)

Probably doesn't shed any further light on the matter, but this is what Floyd Rose said to me, when I enquired as to whether or not they had any plans to make a mass manufactured 8-string floyd:


Sorry Man, but we do not.. We have talked about it.. but currently there are several other projects in front of it.. this will be looked at again in the beginning of 2011
Sorry
Andy

Andrew Papiccio
Floyd Rose Marketing


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## Hollowway (Oct 17, 2010)

SplinteredSoul said:


> Probably doesn't shed any further light on the matter, but this is what Floyd Rose said to me, when I enquired as to whether or not they had any plans to make a mass manufactured 8-string floyd:
> 
> 
> Sorry Man, but we do not.. We have talked about it.. but currently there are several other projects in front of it.. this will be looked at again in the beginning of 2011
> ...



Interesting. Although the cynical part of me says that a marketing person saying that they will be looking at possibly doing it after 2011 is akin to a normal person saying they'll do it a week from never, so....


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## vansinn (Oct 18, 2010)

^ hehe, that is indeed cynical 
Maybe it's simply that FL does acknowledge this 8-string whammy market but see it as it it, a very early barely emerging market, and really do have plans for slowly getting involved early next year..

Looking at various designs, it seems to me most aren't instantaneously upgradeable to 8(+) strings, but will require trials and likely some workarounds/reingeneering, the exception being the Kahler design, which turned out to be hardly much more than making it wider (omitting the few reported issues with the fanned 9 version).


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## Hollowway (Oct 18, 2010)

vansinn said:


> ^ hehe, that is indeed cynical
> Maybe it's simply that FL does acknowledge this 8-string whammy market but see it as it it, a very early barely emerging market, and really do have plans for slowly getting involved early next year..
> 
> Looking at various designs, it seems to me most aren't instantaneously upgradeable to 8(+) strings, but will require trials and likely some workarounds/reingeneering, the exception being the Kahler design, which turned out to be hardly much more than making it wider (omitting the few reported issues with the fanned 9 version).


 
Yeah, I think you're right about that. Still, I have the feeling that if the Kahler were reengineered it could deal better with the pitch drop differential between the highest and lowest strings. And if the Mr. Rose does his homework, the Floyd could be the runaway winner by keeping the tension drops close.


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