Incoming Callaham Vintage Strat Tremolo

builttospill

My K-line Springfield is in for a restring and a set-up and after a few sleepless nights I've caved in for a full Callaham tremolo bridge assembly to be installed at the same time. The Callaham will be replacing a Wilkinson (not the Gotoh-Wilkinson) vintage classic six screw trem which has been decent apart from a small crack developing in the not so good quality zinc block. Looking forward to getting it back but what can I expect? is the Callaham a worthy upgrade?  

dbphoto

I installed a full Callaham unit in my last decent Strat and was very impressed with it, and I thought the £160 or thereabouts that it cost was quite good.

The only thing I had to do, as I always have my Strat bridges flush with the body, was to order some shorter saddle height screws.

stickyfiddle

Yep. Absolutely brilliant bit of kit. 

mudslide73

They're great. They sound great and the action is smooth. You sometimes have to explain why you've got "CG" stamped on your saddles though.

builttospill

Fueling the excitement! 

Henrytwang

Callaham make very high quality components, I’m sure you’ll not be disappointed.

rossi

My Wilkingson block was  iron.A magnet stuck to it .

p90fool

mudslide73 said:

They're great. They sound great and the action is smooth. You sometimes have to explain why you've got "CG" stamped on your saddles though.

Who to?!! The audience?

Lebarque

Fantastic tremolo and all Callaham stuff is top notch. I reckon you'll notice a difference having the steel block. I do find the saddles on mine a bit bright though, so might swap them out for Raw Vintage at some point. 

mudslide73

p90fool said:

mudslide73 said:

They're great. They sound great and the action is smooth. You sometimes have to explain why you've got "CG" stamped on your saddles though.

Who to?!! The audience?

A couple of very well respected Midlands luthiers. I'm sure they've got better things to do than trawl through forums all day...

I've also got one of their ABR-1s which is lovely.

builttospill

First impressions of the Callaham are bloody wow! Well impressed.
I used it at rehearsal last night and my guitar sounds fatter, beefy and zingy - in a nice way! the tremolo is very musical in use. Tuning stability seems good too. An expensive upgrade but worthwhile, probably the best upgrade you can do on a Strat.

stickyfiddle

builttospill said:

First impressions of the Callaham are bloody wow! Well impressed.
I used it at rehearsal last night and my guitar sounds fatter, beefy and zingy - in a nice way! the tremolo is very musical in use. Tuning stability seems good too. An expensive upgrade but worthwhile, probably the best upgrade you can do on a Strat.

Wis

I buggered about with other cheaper bridges for years. When I finally got my Callaham I was annoyed it'd taken me so long, it was that much better than everything else.

lovestrat74

Better get mine out of the drawer and on my strat then  

builttospill

stickyfiddle said:

builttospill said:

First impressions of the Callaham are bloody wow! Well impressed.
I used it at rehearsal last night and my guitar sounds fatter, beefy and zingy - in a nice way! the tremolo is very musical in use. Tuning stability seems good too. An expensive upgrade but worthwhile, probably the best upgrade you can do on a Strat.

Wis

I buggered about with other cheaper bridges for years. When I finally got my Callaham I was annoyed it'd taken me so long, it was that much better than everything else.

Likewise, I had a Wilkinson vintage six screw on before the upgrade on my K-line. I thought it sounded decent, maybe a little thin sounding. I too bought a replacement vanson trem block and a very good Kev Hurley cold rolled steel replacement block for the Wilko bridge, but then thought feck it! replace it all mo fo!

builttospill

It also gave my P90 equipped K-line jazzer and good run for the money