??? is this true?

[Snork]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...3732654673&rd=1

in what way is that a speedloader............ honestly i dont know just by looking at the bridge. and the fact that it accepts normal strings is a little fishy. isnt it a normal floyd then?

[westhemann]

it's not a speedloader

[Snork]

whaqt exactly is a speedloader besides having a special nut.

[westhemann]

whaqt exactly is a speedloader besides having a special nut.

speedloader requires special strings with ends that fit in a specialy designed slot on both the bridge and the nut

all that thing is is an attempt to eliminate snipping the ball ends

here is a speedloader

http://www.dreamlandguitars.com/floydrose.html

(2nd picture down)

[BLM20]

Maybe this is false and a bit unrelated...but here it goes. A little tip I heard is that instead of buying those craptacular double ball end strings that have a tendency of breaking at one end or another. You can use regular Fender Bullets.

Just my 2 cents.

[westhemann]

i don't believe they ARE double ball ends....i think they are similar to the fender bullets you speak of

[westhemann]

speedloader strings

[Snork]

wow. that is interesting the saddles lift up! that guys a liar. i'm going to write him a bad messege. what kind of floyd would you recommend?

[BLM20]

Hmm, I've seen them in music stores before but I actually thought the little bronzish looking things on the nut were small ferrules of a sort to hold the end of the string. Looks pretty cool, I'll have to try one out sometime.

[westhemann]

wow. that is interesting the saddles lift up! that guys a liar. i'm going to write him a bad messege. what kind of floyd would you recommend?

i am going to try a speedloader just as soon as i can.

but why not go with the original floyds?derek sells em cheap

[guitman32]

That bridge is a speedloader in that you can buy any type of standard string and stick it in through the tube at the end of each saddle (where, on a normal floyd, you would have the hole to stick your allen wrench to tighten the string into the saddle), and then string up the guitar as normal. This eliminates the need to cut the balls ends off your strings.

If you look closely at the picture you can see that there are little holes at the end of the tube connected to each saddle...that is what makes that bridge a "speedloader" (or whatever he wants to call it), and where you would stick the string through.

[westhemann]

Even better- it's similar to the new "Speedloader" style-

except that this implies it is something it is similar to the floyd rose speedloader that just recently came out....which it is not

[krazyderek]

indeed wes.... i'm sure floyd rose would be interested in this individuals auctions if he plans on selling more then one or two of those... i'm pretty sure he's not allowed to say "new style speedloader" in his title..

For starters the saddles are completely different, speedloader saddles let you pop the string in and out easily, his model requires you do feed the string thru a tiny little pole... good luck if that's a set of strings that's already been installed once, even for a couple of minutes, the ends will be way to hard to feel thru those little holes. Also you'll have to unwind the string all the way off the tuner before you can remove the string from the bridge.... speedloader saddles just pop up letting you slide the string off and just unhooop it from the tuner, hence SPEEDloader...

and yes, fender bullets are the exact same strings as the speedloaders minus one of the balls ends... so hypothecially you could get a speedloader, and use a regular floyd nut (which i can easily swap for a speed loader nut), and just use a set of bullet strings..

lastly...

This is the whole kit as assembled here- Bridge, Arm, Lock nut, Adjusting wrenches, Solid machined Steel studs in zinc threaded inserts, srpings, claw and screws. Heck- I'll even throw in a pair of the correct wrenches!

so.... he wasn't actually going to include them when he said it the first time?? or do you get a misc set that don't fit aswell as the correct set of hex wrenchs?

[darren wilson]

That eBay bridge is what's commonly referred to as a 'single-locking' tremolo. It only locks at the nut, which means there's all kinds of places between the bridge saddles and the ball ends for the strings to stretch and slip.

This is the bottom-drawer of licensed Floyd bridges. It's not a Speedloader. It's pretty much junk, and i wouldn't waste my time with it, personally.

[jefm]

Another odd thought....if you got the speedloader nut and put the tuners at the other end you could make an easy headless guitar with bullets...

[LGM Guitars]

I wouldn't buy a speed loader either. I don't think they'll last. It's like the old Hohner basses without headstocks. You were FORCED to buy a certain string that not many stores carried, they were also expensive and should you break one at a gig, good luck in finding one to replace it with. It's a good idea, but until all the string manufacturers are making useable strings for them I just think the problems with finding strings are too problematic, just my 2 cents anyway.

[GregP]

It's hard to say. They may have learned from past marketing mistakes and have a plan to open up shop to other manufacturers once D'Addario's initial "grab for cash" is over and they all realize that not much cash is being grabbed.

I think if they push it hard enough, it'll sell. I'm hoping to build a headless at some point in time, and this system will be a good alternative to 'traditional' (heheh, a bit of a mis-labelling) headless design.

[Black Mariah]

Alright, let me explain how this works and what the point is. The Speedloader is designed to make changing srings on a Floyd faster than changing strings on a ToM, and in tis it succeeds and then some.

You can NOT use single ball-ended strings, even if you use a regular Floyd nut. It does not work that way. All of the tuning is done on the bridge, and it's a pain in the ass to set it up (we had a prototype at Jackson and it took our lead repairman over an hour to tune the damn thing). The deal is that once it's tuned, as long as you use the same tuning and string gauge, it STAYS tuned.

The strings are double ball ended, stretched at the factory, and precision ground to exact diameters and lengths. If you break a string, you simply replace it with the same gauge string and you don't have to retune the guitar or reset the trem since you're replacing the string with one that is virtually identical. Some fine-tuning might be needed, but even that may not need to be done. That's the beauty of this system. You can pop one string off, throw another one on, and do what little fine tuning might have to be done in about 15 seconds.

String availability is the main problem at this point, as others have pointed out. Last I head D'Addario was the only manufacturer making the strings. Hopefully this has changed by now, but I don't know.

This is a very good idea, but I can't see it being any more than a niche product, like Steinbergers.

[litchfield]

I wouldn't buy a speed loader either. I don't think they'll last.

Well, I agree in the way that the conteporary (Strat & Tele) guys that are into the revolutionary stuff like the speedloader, its the metal guys. Just like the OFR, it was EVH, George Lynch, ect. Floyd is targeting the wrong market. But, if the BC Rich deal goes thru he's set

[litchfield]

The speed loader fixed is pretty interesting........

[westhemann]

i think they will last because bc rich is putting them on all their new platinum models

as soon as others follow suit,there you go

but i bet it takes alot less time to set it up once you are familiar with it.

and there are no ball ends...they are bullets...like the picture i already posted

[litchfield]

I do agree that they are a good idea, and am interested in getting one, but they seem to revolutionary for a contemporary designed guitar to me

[Snork]

ummmmm how coudl it take an hour to tune........... it locks at both ends. you only use the fine tuners. this is not a typical floyd

[daveq]

The OFR design has never bothered me at all. I take whatever time is required to string it up and rarely need to touch the locking nut until the next set of strings. It just isn't an issue with me at all. Maybe it's great stuff for professional musicians playing live?

I really don't care for those guitars with the empty headstock either. Those things look awful to me.

[spirit]

About the strings, I remember reading something about there being only one manufacturer for now, but soon all the major manufacturers will be tooled up to make Speedloader strings.