Hardened Screw Inserts in Schaller Floyd-II

[PDC]

So, back when I was playing the 3-4 night a week thing (early 90s) I had a pair of killer Liberatore guitars that had Shaller Floyd Rose-II trems with the thicker Die-Cast base plate and hardened knife edge inserts. The problem was the saddle set screws threaded directly into the die cast base plate and were notorious for easily stripping. I went through 2 trems on each guitar over the 3 years or so that I was playing full time. I have since moved to non-locking trems with locking tuning machines and much prefer the feel, simplicity and tone over a Floyd.

Fast forward to today - I have finally decided to bring those 2 old Liberatores back to life with fresh trems, new pickups and a thorough cleaning. I ordered a pair of new Shaller Floyds since that is the only trem that will fit in the recessed route, and much to my (pleasant) surprise, there are now hardened steel anchors where all of the saddle set screws thread into the pot-metal base plate! No more stripped set screws! Does anyone know when they made this upgrade?

 

[Racerxrated]

Those separate thin ‘hardened’ knife edges failed on my 91 Hamer USA. Only Trem issue I ever had. I’ll only go with OFR since. Even the Korean 1000s have been fine.

Sorry I don’t know when they changed the inserts

 

[PDC]

I get it. I was young and dumb when Mauro built these guitars for me and ‘should’ have requested OFRs for them. But now, the recessed route will only fit the Shaller Floyd-II. I am relieved to report that I have never had the hardened knife-edge inserts wear out - at least not before the threaded saddle holes in the die-cast base plate stripped out. I am curious to see how long the new bridges with the threaded inserts last. I will say, the cheaper cast metal base plate does provide a softer, warmer sound than the hardened steel baseplate of the OFR. Not a big deal - and totally guitar / body wood / pickup dependent. I remember several ‘high end’ guitars of the era (early 90s) used the Shaller Floyd-II.

 

[Dave L]

They started doing that at least 15 years ago, because that´s when I did my first baseplate swap and noticed the inserts, and at this point you have to factor in that any Schaller from the 80s and 90s you´re looking at might need a new baseplate. Very easy to strip those threads, and they do wear down normally too no matter how careful you are.

And yeah, in the late 80s and early 90s these were standard issue even on high end guitars, alongside the Kahler Floyd variations. Until the mid 90s you seldom saw a OFR as standard issue unless you were shopping at Kramer.