Hacks and Mods
There are numerous ways to configure a piece of wood, with a nut, a bridge and strings. But as Eddie Van Halen once said. "I'm building a formula one racer in a guitar"
Slanted bridge pickup on Stratocaster
Reverse Angle Bridge Pickup
I know of a awesome guitarist named John Morris He was tight with Ronnie Montrose in the day at Tanglewood studios in Granite Bay California. They built that studio together. I traded a Fender twin reverb for lessons with John, inevitably we became friends soon after. Recently I was going to make him a custom strat style guitar. Life got busy as it always does, and so it is still in the pipeline.
But one thing I found interesting, is that John wanted the bridge single coil to be opposite the usual slant. At first, I could not figure out why he would want that slant to go the opposite direction since it was a standard of the Fender Stratocaster. But like the Dick Dale signature strat and the mod some have also done, it was clear that since Jimi Hendrix played a right hand strat upside down, this opposite slant would make the high strings a bit warmer and the low strings a bit brighter and viola! It was a signature sound of the master Jimi Hendrix of course, but what a great idea John had to make that mod on the correct hand (right hand) of his choice of Stratocaster. He’d get that tone without putting the guitar upside down!
At rockguitars.com we make our own pick guards or body routing and it is a simple part of the early decision process. However, if you have a strat, and want to try the hack, it’s not that hard to reverse that slant, and if you do some online research you will find nearly everyone that has done the mod, really likes it! Great to know!
Slanted bridge pickup on Stratocaster AxLabs is by the Floyd Rose web site.
They offer The Tone Claw. This looks like a bad A$ unit to me.
CNC machined from solid brass, and bosts 4 times the mass of most standard and traditional claws. Designed to enhance tone and increase sustain.
We at RockGuitars do not make them, so the claim is entirely made by AxLabs
They also say that as the last distribution point of vibrational energy on a synchronized tremolo, the Tone Claw will replace the traditional stamped tin claw in most guitars.
Installation is a direct swap for most existing spring claws such as those from Fender® Floyd, Rose®, PRS®, Ibanez® and many others. The kit includes all hardware needed and a ground soldering tab is integrated which can be switched between 2 mounting holes depending on orientation.
So, you can go to the Floyd Rose® web site and get one, or if you are purchasing a guitar from RockGuitars.com, you can request it be installed on your purchase.