Big Blocks for Floyd?

[Agileguy_101]

I've never owned a guitar with a Floyd prior to acquiring my Y2D last week. I've always heard that the big brass blocks are better, but I've never played a guitar that was this good stock. Is there that much to be had from upgrading the block?

 

[TNT]

This is pretty much my only concern with the "big" brass block: I don't mind the extra weight, and I love sustain, but here is what I don't want - any underlying "bell/echo/ringing" type sounds, no matter how subtle.

There is a lot of info on line about this topic, but I'm still not convinced that it is the things that "you just gotta do".

 

[Agileguy_101]

I guess the only reason I ask is because the experience I get from playing my Y2D and the Floyd it is equipped with seems to be contrary to that of many other double locking trem equipped guitar users. Music Man makes such good guitars that it seems odd that there's something they may have overlooked. I figured if Steve or Music Man figured that this guitar could be better in some respect, it already would be.

 

[DrKev]

Music Man makes such good guitars that it seems odd that there's something they may have overlooked.

Does it not also seems odd that all the people in the world who make Floyds, or make guitars with Floyds, ignore what's better and flood the market with supposedly bad sounding blocks?

Besides, what is better tone? The idea that something subjective (tone) has to have "betters" or "worses" is ridiculous. What one person might hate, somebody else might love. We don't play guitar with anybody else's ears but our own. Maybe Morse and EBMM tried different trem blocks and decided this was the best one. Maybe they tried a bunch of blocks and decided the difference was too small to care about. Or maybe they simply tried a Floyd that the factory had in stock and thought it sounded great. No matter what happened, the production guitars that EBMM make are what the artists themselves want. Don't assume that something you read on the internet means EBMM and Steve Morse missed something.

Try a bigger block if you like. I might not make Steve Morse happy, but of course he doesn't listen with your ears either.

 

[joe web]

i have mounted big blocks to my EVH and Purple Sunset Y2D, it gives more sustain and a bit more of hardtail sound, but makes the guitar noticeable heavier.
there are days where i love it and on the other day i prefer a Y2D with regular block....try it, and decided on your own.

 

[ZeroFivefour]

Agileguy,

I researched the big blocks a few times myself. After sifting through countless threads on the upside and downside of the blocks I ended up leaving my guitars with the stock blocks as quite honestly they are phenomenal as is. As always YMMV.

One of the threads that I found very helpful I have linked below...In the thread there are proponents and detractors.
The thread addresses adverse tonal impact, string tension issues, unwanted frequency imbalance, resonance and sustain issues etc...

Thread is at HRI,
It's titled...Anyone NOT like the Big Blok for the Floyd??
Click link below:

HRI

My 2 cents, is don't fix it if it isn't broken. For me the floyd is absolutely essential to any guitar I play. It is the one and only reason I own only 2 lukes from EBMM. If Big poppa and EBMM put a floyd on the regular production luke I would own several more and have much less money. I hope big poppa is listening.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Justin Read]

I too was intrigued about big brass blocks around 1.5 years ago, so I went out on a limb and bought a big block and claw from KGC (killer guitar components) for my Peavey Wolfgang Special. Not only do they look exquisite but they achieved my goal which was to warm things up. I felt the guitar prior to this upgrade lacked bass and oomph. Now... I'm happy.

PS, a total Floyd adjustment/set up will be required