Question Any reason why? Morse thoughts...

[Fun111]

Ok, a some may be aware, I'm hovering around the Market for a Morse (standard) with a trem, and I don't want a blue one. This apparently is a pretty rare thing!

Is there any reason why I shouldn't just buy a tunomatic Morse and route it for a non recessed Floyd?
Tbh my ideal guitar would basically be a Morse with a non recessed trem that sits flat on the body, with no locking nut (jp style).

Neck angle and that kind of thing can be sorted fine, but will the Floyd cover the two holes where the tailpiece would have been and the holes where the tunomatic studs are?

I can always fill them in, but I wanna make sure tree isn't some major reason why u shouldn't do this, e.g chambering in the guitar that a Floyd route will destroy...

Thoughts?

 

[Roubster]

I would not recommend doing that at all. It's up to you, but I think you will be more successful maybe refinishing a blueburst Morse that was installed with a floyd as it is supposed to rather than completely redoing the guitar with an after market floyd. You would also seriously decrease the resale value, as well as compromising the playability of the guitar.

 

[shredhed]

It may not be cosher here but you could build one like you want.

I'm just sayin, don't hack up a Morse. It would be sacrelige - lol

 

[Jack FFR1846]

How about an alternative. Buy a Sub 1 and then buy a loaded Morse pick guard. Both the Morse and Sub are poplar. You'll have to refinish the Sub, route for the floyd and route for the added pickups but if something goes wrong in the routing for the floyd, you've only killed a couple hundred dollar guitar rather than a thousand + dollar guitar.

 

[beej]

Or keep your eyes open? I've seen lots for sale in non-blue colours with a trem over the years. Just have to be patient.

You can always buy a new one in a colour you want and partially block the trem so it's down only. (i.e. tape a block of wood on one side of the trem block. I've done that many times, works like a charm and costs just about nothing.)

 

[LegGodt]

Use can also use a tremol-no to block the trem so it only goes down in pitch. The advantage of the tremol-no over blocking it with wood is that you can set it for floating, down only, or fixed.

 

[Fun111]

Thanks for suggestions. My real question was whether there was anything structurally different about the hardtails than the trem models, but it would appear they start out identical, one has a floyd route and the other doesn't. I

I've been effectively 'in the market' for a Morse now for over a year, nothing has come up yet. I think either way I'm gunna buy a hardtail and if I decide I miss having a trem I'll put one on. There's a couple on ebay and stuff for silly money, but knowing that a black standard Morse hardtail can be had for $900, I can't see myself paying much over 1k.

I have a Tremol-no and as great as it is, what I like about non recessed floyds is the wood being there and all the things that come with that. It's not an enormous deal, but in a similar way to direct mount pickups, it just does it for me, lol.

I can't even find a non blue hardtail! I don't want a Y2D, lol. I dunno, life goes on eh.

Thanks guys.

If anybody knows any stores around them that have hardtail Morses (I'll happily buy a new one for the right price, Music Man UK only really get blue ones, so there's not a lot of point in me going through the trade route - I work in a music shop) their info would be cool.