Guitars Upgrade Tremmory S

When they arrived, I had all 3 installed in less than couple of hours, I think. First up was my Strat. Once I had floated the trem (for the first time ever since I bought it), I also realized it was unusable floating as it would not return to tune. If you pushed down and released, it stayed a bit flat. If you then pulled up and released, it would usually come back to tune. The Tremmory comes in 3 different sizes and I ordered the Small size for all 3 guitars as even the small size was too big for the way my guitars were currently setup but I knew I’d be changing all that for the Tremmory anyway. The small size is 71mm and the instructions say to make sure you have at least 3-5mm more than that available. For my Strat this meant taking it from 5 springs decked, all the way down to 2 springs so that I could get a little bit of float and still have enough room between the spring claw and the trem block. Once I had it all set up and in tune, installing the Tremmory was a breeze. Loosen the thumb screw, put some included small felt adhesive pads on the spring claw and the trem block to prevent any extraneous noise from the Tremmory butting against either part, then install it where the middle spring would go, check tuning once again just to be sure and tighten down that thumbscrew. Once I did that, the trem returned to perfect tune every time, double stops stayed in tune, and I go to drop D tuning as well! I couldn’t believe it! I knew this type of unit would stiffen up the trem but I was actually really pleasantly surprised at how much less stiff it was than I was expecting. Still totally usable and way less stiff than when I had it decked. I didn’t do an A/B comparison, but I am guessing that I probably lost the slight tone and sustain benefits I had from having it decked (even better if you have it completely blocked) but this seems like a great compromise of both worlds. I was very impressed with the results.

Next up was the St. Vincent HH. On this one I only had to go down to 3 springs to get a little float and enough room for the Tremmory. The rest of the experience was the same as the Strat.

My JTV-69 was the trickiest. Even down to only 2 springs, I could not keep any real amount of float and still have room for the Tremmory. Through trial and error and very fine tuning, I eventually got the trem just barely against the body but not too stiffly, with just barely enough room to get the Tremmory in there. If I had screwed the claw in any more (to make more room for the Tremmory) then the trem would have been quite solidly on the body again, and if I’m just totally decking the trem, then the Tremmory becomes fairly useless. It would at the very least allow you to deck it without as much spring force and therefore keep the trem a little more usable, but that’s probably not worth $105.

It should also be noted that with the default thumbscrew on the Tremmory, you will need to leave your back plate off. Not a big deal to me. You can loosen that screw if you want a fully floating normal feeling trem for any reason or for a certain songs. Contrarily, you can replace the thumbscrew with an included Allen screw which would allow you to put the back plate back on. I was tempted to do that as I don’t ever intend to loosen it, but I left the thumbscrew for now just so it’s easy enough to loosen in case I find the need to do any adjustments. They also recommend changing strings one by one which I don’t want to do as I like to give my fretboard a good cleaning when I take off all the strings, so I’ll need to block the trem by putting something under it when I take all the strings off as I don’t think the Tremmory could hold it’s place with all the strings off or I’m guessing I could loosen that screw then tighten it back up once I’m re-strung and back up to tune.

It also comes with an extra, stiffer internal spring you can use to replace the default one if you for some reason need or prefer more stiffness from the Tremmory, though the instructions are unclear as to why you would need that other than “preference.”

All in all, my first impressions are quite impressive. The packaging was very high quality and the whole thing from the design to the extra included options seem very well thought out. As far as options for having a slightly stiffer floating trem but with better tuning, and solid double stops and drop D tuning, this seems like the best, easiest, most convenient option out there to me.

This thing is a true wonder and I honestly have no idea why it isn't better recognised. I bought one as my guitar effectively had twio separate zero points on its Floyd Rose, meaning doing a divebomb would result in all strings going ~40 cents flat and raising the bridge the other resulted in them all going sharp by a similar amount. I was also intrigued by the other claims the manufacturer promised with this device. VERY IMPORTANT - you need to measure the distance between the edge of the trem claw nearest the sustain block and the edge of the sustain block nearest the trem claw (see tremmory website diagram) to find out what size you need - it will very likely be the small one, as medium and large are absolutely huge. NOTE: The added 3-5mm stated on the website is to ensure the Tremmory has room to move when you pull back on the bridge and increase the string tension, so if you either have a decked Floyd or have no intention of ever pulling the bridge that way, you don't technically need that extra room but I would advise you have it anyway to ensure correct operation and minimise risk of damage. I had to mess around with the spring type and combination a little to get the perfect amount of room for the Tremmory before I ordered it, I think I had about 73mm of room in the end but my tremolo doesn't pull back very far so this ended up being enough. One more note, the 'installation size' of the device is the unextended length (71mm for small), so you could technically install it with this much room but you'd have absolutely no upwards movement with the tremolo and limited functionality of the Tremmory, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Installation was pretty easy, but the backplate of my guitar didn't comfortably fit back on with the stainless steel adjustment wheel attached; luckily an alternative grub screw is supplied to rectify this.

Once installed, the bridge stiffens quite a bit (but not so much it becomes unusable) and there is quite a lot of mechanical noise from the Tremmory itself, but thankfully none of that can be heard in the guitar signal. With that said, I was delighted to find that the Tremmory works VERY well - tuning stability is rock solid, rivalling that of a hardtail guitar / evertune system, and the effect where the bridge moves when bending a string causing the other five to go flat is gone, meaning you can do double-stop bends as if you were playing a static bridge. Amazingly, this ability holds true when going down to drop D (tuning isn't absolutely perfect but for live use it'd be fine) also, making your guitar much more versatile. The only other downside is that, like with all tremolo stabilisers, it becomes impossible to do very fine vibrato effects with the Tremmory enabled. However, UNLIKE other stabilisers, with a simple twist of the adjustment wheel / grubscrew, you can disable the whole thing and regain the feel and characteristics of the original tremolo.

The price of this thing is high, but so is the quality and in terms of functionality it really delivers, so all in all I think it's worth the investment. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has similar tuning issues to what I had or needs to be able to change their tuning between standard and drop tuning very quickly on a FR-equipped guitar.

Tremmory is best product on the market for a floating Floyd Rose Bridge!!! The Tremmory was very easy to install in my Schecter guitars. It works absolutely perfect, especially for when I do drop D tunings. The guitar stays in perfect tune. Dive bombs are a breeze and pull-ups work just as intended for a floating bridge system. Everything comes back into tune easily. I can't live without having this installed in my electric guitars. I especially like the fact that I didn't have to drill or screw anything into the body for this system, it just works right out of the box!! I just wish this product was more available in the U.S. market and a little less expensive. Thank You Thomann for selling this in the U.S. market!!