Cold Day In Hell...

diablo175

diablo175

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Yeah, hell hath frozen over. I bought a Kahler. 😆

This is (one of) their fulcrum trem(s), a Steeler with the Auto Latch which allows me to lock the bridge down as a fixed bridge with the swing of the arm. Now I can do all the whammy shenanigans on a 24 fret Gibby scale SG, as well as fixed bridge passages/techniques.

Going on my SG Diablo which is already outfitted with a factory installed Floyd- minimal modification of the cavity needed. 

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Are the cam Kahler’s still made? In the 80s I played a bunch of Kahlered guitars but none were mine. I quite liked the feel but never owned a proper locking vibrato other than the Ibanez locker on my 1985 RG440.  Now my fave vibrato is my SuperVee Maverick on my Neville custom.

 
Jakeboy said:
Are the cam Kahler’s still made? In the 80s I played a bunch of Kahlered guitars but none were mine. I quite liked the feel but never owned a proper locking vibrato other than the Ibanez locker on my 1985 RG440.  Now my fave vibrato is my SuperVee Maverick on my Neville custom.
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Yes, the cam models are still made.

I've noticed an uptick in marketing and promo for Kahler, particularly on social media & YouTube. Though, it has had mixed results. The guy (Rexylab) heading it up and making a presence on various guitar and Floyd-centric FB pages & YT,  subscribes to the marketing tactic of controversy & drama = heightened exposure & product sales.  Kinda like the corporate version of "even bad publicity is still publicity." 

I've borne witness to and even participated in pushback to his confrontational style. He was chased out of at least 2 FB groups because of his approach. 

 
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I can't speak for Rexylab guy, but Gary Kahler is a good guy.  My understanding was that the social media thing was to heighten awareness of Kahler with the end goal of Gary being able to sell the company since he's 87.   He must be good to work for, as a number of people have been there for decades.  Dude even sources screws made in the US.   

 
I used to own a gold Kahler Steeler tremolo bridge installed on a Chandler parts Strat body. The body was a second and wasn't properly routed for a Floyd Rose. I had someone install the Chandler birds eye maple neck/ebony fingerboard & body with the misaligned Floyd Rose routing and it was a disaster! It never stayed in tune, no matter what I did to it. Years later, I met & made friends with a local luthier named Steve Powell at a local guitar shop. I eventually got an another parts Strat body, had my luthier friend Steve (RIP, bro!) rout the Strat body for a Floyd Rose, fixed all of the issues of the guitar, and installed the Chandler neck. It was a whole new super Strat parts guitar that stayed in tune properly, had great playability, and had the pickups on it that I wanted. In a fit of G.A.S., I ended up trading it away to Music Go Round in San Jose, CA (no longer in business). I should have kept the Chandler neck & Kahler Steeler tremolo bridge. 

The Kahler Steeler tremolo bridge was a far better version of the Floyd Rose bridge which caused a lawsuit with Floyd Rose for cease & desist. I'm happy to see that Kahler USA brought it back into production. I sure wouldn't mind having an Auto Latch for my '87 Fender Japan Contemporary Strat with the Kahler Spyder bridge. 

 
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Hamer95USA said:
I used to own a gold Kahler Steeler tremolo bridge installed on a Chandler parts Strat body. The body was a second and wasn't properly routed for a Floyd Rose. I had someone install the Chandler birds eye maple neck/ebony fingerboard & body with the misaligned Floyd Rose routing and it was a disaster! It never stayed in tune, no matter what I did to it. Years later, I met & made friends with a local luthier named Steve Powell at a local guitar shop. I eventually got an another parts Strat body, had my luthier friend Steve (RIP, bro!) rout the Strat body for a Floyd Rose, fixed all of the issues of the guitar, and installed the Chandler neck. It was a whole new super Strat parts guitar that stayed in tune properly, had great playability, and had the pickups on it that I wanted. In a fit of G.A.S., I ended up trading it away to Music Go Round in San Jose, CA (no longer in business). I should have kept the Chandler neck & Kahler Steeler tremolo bridge.

The Kahler Steeler tremolo bridge was a far better version of the Floyd Rose bridge which caused a lawsuit with Floyd Rose for cease & desist. I'm happy to see that Kahler USA brought it back into production. I sure wouldn't mind having an Auto Latch for my '87 Fender Japan Contemporary Strat with the Kahler Spyder bridge.
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I've had a handful of people in the guitar repair/building/retail business say outright that the Kahler locking fulcrums are superior to the point of being over-engineered.

I had a Peavey Vandenberg sig with the Steeler (or maybe a Spyder- they had both, depending on the version) but did NOT like it. Prolly wasn't set up correctly and at that time, I didn't know shit about how to set them up.

Frankly, I think it's more a matter of what you're used to. Gotoh's and Edges are also (arguably) superior trems but don't really add anything significant in so much as function and performance are concerned. Moreover, if what you're used to is the OFR, then you're likely to respond most favorably to the nuance characteristics of that bridge.

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Any of these setup properly is going to play really well IMO. I am a fan of the OFR, I love the Gotoh’s and Edge’s. Never had a Kahler for any great length of time but what I did play was stable. I’d personally choose a Gotoh given a choice… 

 
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