Kahler tremolo spacer > Wood or not to wood ?

[peedenmark7]

I recently acquired a really cool '84 Jackson neck through Tele from overseas. It's no big secret that I do not love Kahlers, but this was a must have guitar and I am ecstatic with it thus far.

The guitar is a maple neck through, with poplar wings , and an ebony fret board.

My question is regarding the dreadful plastic spacer between the bridge and guitar body, which I would have to believe at least in theory, would rob sustain and suck tone.

I am considering making a spacer out of wood,  be it made of ebony or rosewood, which to me would make more sense as it's wood between metal and wood, well finish too.

 

Has anybody done this and did they really notice a change in the way the guitar sounded overall .

I hate to make a template and go through the hassles of making a spacer if I am essentially wasting my time.

 

Please chime in.

 

thanks,

[Andrew]

I didn't use wood - I used mild steel and carefully machined it to match the base of the Kahler. I chose steel over brass because it is more like the unit's metal, and it's cheaper. Mainly because it's cheaper. The extra mass is not that great and I didn't notice the guitar become body-heavy and unbalanced.

No change in tone whatsoever.

Wood is probably no better for this job than a hard plastic.

[peedenmark7]

I have a buddy that makes thick floyd trem blocks out of some crazy bell brass alloy.. RAVE reviews locally. I thought about having him do  a spacer and then plate it black.

I messed around this afternoon and made a template and cut one from indian rosewood..

My preliminary thoughts were that the instrument unplugged was a bit more lively not so dark or muted , as for sustain I am gonna go back and forth with this tomorrow and try to run some tests.

Way more effort than it's probably worth , but what the heck.

[Jeff R]

If you read the epilogue to my Stone Tone trem block review on another thread in this section, you will deduce your rosewood shim is exactly what I would have done. Good call IMHO.

[peedenmark7]

Jeff,

 Thanks , I'm pleased so far and am planning to run it through various amps dating from '64 to '05 over the next few days and will then attempt to write something up.

Obviously wont be as well written or as eloquent as your Stone Tone review, [awesome review btw] but will convey my findings and potentially help other non Kahler fans out to

potentially improve their Kahler experience