Luxxtone vs chubtone

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CrystalSky said:
Looks like locking tuners and a proper bone/graphtech nut (no pun intended) could make you happy with hardtails.

Wish you could try my guitars and give your thoughts on stability.
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I totally get that hardtails will usually sound more resonant, thick with a bit darker tone than any Floyded SS. But I also feel that my Jacksons/Charvels are very resonant, and sound very fat for Floyd loaded guitars. It is nice to have a guitar that just drips with tone; admittedly the best sounding I've ever played was a well worn 1980 Greco LP that had this deep, dark growl that still haunts me. Stupidly sold it.
 
Racerxrated said:
Here's the deal though...and, no offense to the home player. But, it's a far different thing to play a 4 hr night, with humidity and/or hot/cold temp/sweat affecting your guitar; vs a home player that doesn't play for 4 hrs with 3 15 min breaks, with no humidity/sweat dripping/people bumping in to your guitar lol. It's just very different. So, for my needs a Floyd is a must have. Or, for my 'former' needs since I'm not playing out anymore lol.
I remember back in 2011, July 4th weekend street dance in Cornell Wi. Air temp was 99F, and humidity was 98%. Talk about a sticky neck lol.
But, my guitars all stayed in tune.
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One of my friends plays in a tech death metal band that literally has played all over the country and Europe (I think he may have even opened for Meshuggah once) and he doesn’t play Floyd or Kahler equipped guitars and of course tons of pros get away fine without using Floyd guitars

The guitars you mentioned before having trouble with are also known for often having less stable tuning vs the types of guitars CrystalSky and I mentioned. I mean realistically if I were to play out (I only do that with classical guitar since last 10 years or so) I probably wouldn’t bring a Marchione, vintage guitars or my best amps for obvious reasons, but I think any of my good modern guitars I’ve kept with locking tuners, good nuts, especially if it was properly set up recently should be up to the task. Also, as a classical guitarist, we always are checking our tuning in between pieces in our performances even on guitars with value in the 6 figures. In either case, Floyd Rose bridges are just one factor and I’ve had some great sounding guitars despite them, but since you’re not gigging anymore why not just get the very best sounding instrument you can without features that compromise tone and if it happens to be a more modern featured one I’d bet you can probably gig with it fine too if you get back to some of that. I also have my 2 aluminum EGC’s and carbon fiber Etherial fwiw that seem to be more stable than my wood guitars, but I don’t play them as often
 
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CrystalSky said:
Looks like locking tuners and a proper bone/graphtech nut (no pun intended) could make you happy with hardtails.

Wish you could try my guitars and give your thoughts on stability.
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Locking tuners don’t improve tuning if you string the guitar right. They might make string changes easier but it ain’t about tuning (even tho they’ll tell you it is). Even more of a joke is locking saddles. Not needed.

Sometimes you need tremolo. Using a hardtail is a non-solution.
 
SpiderWars said:
Locking tuners don’t improve tuning if you string the guitar right. They might make string changes easier but it ain’t about tuning (even tho they’ll tell you it is). Even more of a joke is locking saddles. Not needed.

Sometimes you need tremolo. Using a hardtail is a non-solution.
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I suggested that because Racerxrated said that he had a “hate floyd” mood from time to time.

And locking tuners seem to provide a more stable outcome, as the don’t allow string slippage at the peg. Maybe I am wrong, as my only non locking tuner guitar was with locking nut and an Ibanez Edge tremolo, but seems quite logical, if you ask me.

And I dislike the hassle with whammies too.
 
CrystalSky said:
I suggested that because Racerxrated said that he had a “hate floyd” mood from time to time.

And locking tuners seem to provide a more stable outcome, as the don’t allow string slippage at the peg. Maybe I am wrong, as my only non locking tuner guitar was with locking nut and an Ibanez Edge tremolo, but seems quite logical, if you ask me.

And I dislike the hassle with whammies too.
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I know the sales pitch will talk about string slippage at the peg but in reality it just doesn’t happen if it is strung properly. Same with the saddle but x10. It’s solving a problem that doesn’t really exist.

My “hate Floyds…today” moods were based on tone and occasional weird overtones on certain strings. Across multiple Floyd’s. I love the tuning stability. But now I’ve changed my picking hand and those tuners are in the way. I might try a Gotoh since the tuners are tilted back.
 
braintheory said:
One of my friends plays in a tech death metal band that literally has played all over the country and Europe (I think he may have even opened for Meshuggah once) and he doesn’t play Floyd or Kahler equipped guitars and of course tons of pros get away fine without using Floyd guitars

The guitars you mentioned before having trouble with are also known for often having less stable tuning vs the types of guitars CrystalSky and I mentioned. I mean realistically if I were to play out (I only do that with classical guitar since last 10 years or so) I probably wouldn’t bring a Marchione, vintage guitars or my best amps for obvious reasons, but I think any of my good modern guitars I’ve kept with locking tuners, good nuts, especially if it was properly set up recently should be up to the task. Also, as a classical guitarist, we always are checking our tuning in between pieces in our performances even on guitars with value in the 6 figures. In either case, Floyd Rose bridges are just one factor and I’ve had some great sounding guitars despite them, but since you’re not gigging anymore why not just get the very best sounding instrument you can without features that compromise tone and if it happens to be a more modern featured one I’d bet you can probably gig with it fine too if you get back to some of that. I also have my 2 aluminum EGC’s and carbon fiber Etherial fwiw that seem to be more stable than my wood guitars, but I don’t play them as often
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I'm so used to playing Floyded guitars, that when I play the Greco or History LP clone it's like a stranger haha. I've gotten so used to the bridge/hand placement, that it's kinda strange feeling without the Floyd. I don't find my guitar tone to suffer with a Floyd. I've only had one USA SS with a Floyd that sounded even remotely thin; and I solved that problem with a fat brass trem block, brass trem blocker, and going to a nicer pickup. It was an 88 Jackson Strat that had a J50 bridge pup but no boost circuit. Those pups are pretty low output.
The only HT guitar that had an edge in tone, was that damn 1980 Greco that I stupidly sold. My Destroyer, and 6 other LP clones sound good but aren't any better sounding than my Floyd guitars.

At a gig about 10 yrs ago, my singer broke a string (he only played rhythm for a few songs) so I gave him my backup Charvel to use. He was shocked at how much LOUDER it was than his guitar...which was a HT Washburn of some kind. Lol
 
SpiderWars said:
I know the sales pitch will talk about string slippage at the peg but in reality it just doesn’t happen if it is strung properly. Same with the saddle but x10. It’s solving a problem that doesn’t really exist.

My “hate Floyds…today” moods were based on tone and occasional weird overtones on certain strings. Across multiple Floyd’s. I love the tuning stability. But now I’ve changed my picking hand and those tuners are in the way. I might try a Gotoh since the tuners are tilted back.
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Changed your picking hand?

Tuners you mean microtuning pegs?
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
Post them up!
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https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/thre...inspired-by-blackmachine.278720/#post-3503408
 
I thought you changed from right to left hand 😂

I would suggest to look towards Schaller Hannes if you ever go fixed bridge which judging by the looks definitely should be close to FR feelwise.
 
Racerxrated said:
I'm so used to playing Floyded guitars, that when I play the Greco or History LP clone it's like a stranger haha. I've gotten so used to the bridge/hand placement, that it's kinda strange feeling without the Floyd. I don't find my guitar tone to suffer with a Floyd. I've only had one USA SS with a Floyd that sounded even remotely thin; and I solved that problem with a fat brass trem block, brass trem blocker, and going to a nicer pickup. It was an 88 Jackson Strat that had a J50 bridge pup but no boost circuit. Those pups are pretty low output.
The only HT guitar that had an edge in tone, was that damn 1980 Greco that I stupidly sold. My Destroyer, and 6 other LP clones sound good but aren't any better sounding than my Floyd guitars.

At a gig about 10 yrs ago, my singer broke a string (he only played rhythm for a few songs) so I gave him my backup Charvel to use. He was shocked at how much LOUDER it was than his guitar...which was a HT Washburn of some kind. Lol
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Yeah the right hand playability part is very personal. I’ve never actually been too picky with playability (even on classical guitars). I mostly just notice if it’s unusually bad or good (like on Marchione’s or a few aged nitro’s)

IME a Floyd is just one factor of all the sum of the parts. The Floyd equipped aged nitro’s I had would still smoke in sound for me most guitars I’ve had and I’m sure the few Floyd equipped Marchione’s out there also would sound great, but I still with all of them find they give an inherent sound (even if subtle) that can’t really be compensated because it’s not the brightness or relative thickness I’m hearing (which can be compensated). It’s more so the clank, which is a particular register I think (and sometimes can be desirable), but mostly for me is that with all other specs roughly equal I find as the note rings out and sustains it just doesn’t seem to develop in richness or overtones of sound as much as the string-thru bridge counterpart, seems like maybe those Floyd or Kahler setups hold back a little the note from developing the full potential of tone they could have. With all else equal I’d still take a Floyd bridge any day over say thick poly finish, oil finish, a poorly done nitro finish or bad woods, but really I look for every spec I’m aware of to be as good as it can be with how it relates to tone

I’m sure a good Floyd equipped Charvel would be better than that HT Washburn. For me, since my journey is keeping what I felt are the best sounding guitars I’ve heard that I can also afford lol (regardless of other things) it just makes it a super difficult task for any Floyd equipped guitar to be a keeper for me when the rubber meets the road in side by side comparisons. The only way I could see it happening is if I found a Floyd equipped Marchione that just was freakishly good sounding from its woods probably, but it’s just so unlikely. Realistically my non-Floyd Marchione’s are probably still gonna sound better and they also seem to be very solid with tuning and functionality or also if I found some ‘50’s/‘60’s Gibson, Fender or Guild replaced with a Floyd bridge, but that’s a million times less realistic haha. And if they were really that good (they’d have to be freaks at that point) I’d probably still bring it to a good tech to replace with a string thru bridge anyway lol, leaving me once again Floyd-less in my guitar arsenal

One of my friends also for fun modded a cheap guitar he had to have a string-thru bridge (wasn’t Floyd before but the strings didn’t go through the body) and the before and after difference was huge. We were both surprised. Not that it transformed suddenly into being an awesome guitar or anything, but was just a really big improvement
 
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braintheory said:
Yeah the right hand playability part is very personal. I’ve never actually been too picky with playability (even on classical guitars). I mostly just notice if it’s unusually bad or good (like on Marchione’s or a few aged nitro’s)

IME a Floyd is just one factor of all the sum of the parts. The Floyd equipped aged nitro’s I had would still smoke in sound for me most guitars I’ve had and I’m sure the few Floyd equipped Marchione’s out there also would sound great, but I still with all of them find they give an inherent sound (even if subtle) that can’t really be compensated because it’s not the brightness or relative thickness I’m hearing (which can be compensated). It’s more so the clank, which is a particular register I think (and sometimes can be desirable), but mostly for me is that with all other specs roughly equal I find as the note rings out and sustains it just doesn’t seem to develop in richness or overtones of sound as much as the string-thru bridge counterpart, seems like maybe those Floyd or Kahler setups hold back a little the note from developing the full potential of tone they could have. With all else equal I’d still take a Floyd bridge any day over say thick poly finish, oil finish, a poorly done nitro finish or bad woods, but really I look for every spec I’m aware of to be as good as it can be with how it relates to tone

I’m sure a good Floyd equipped Charvel would be better than that HT Washburn. For me, since my journey is keeping what I felt are the best sounding guitars I’ve heard that I can also afford lol (regardless of other things) it just makes it a super difficult task for any Floyd equipped guitar to be a keeper for me when the rubber meets the road in side by side comparisons. The only way I could see it happening is if I found a Floyd equipped Marchione that just was freakishly good sounding from its woods probably, but it’s just so unlikely. Realistically my non-Floyd Marchione’s are probably still gonna sound better and they also seem to be very solid with tuning and functionality or also if I found some ‘50’s/‘60’s Gibson, Fender or Guild replaced with a Floyd bridge, but that’s a million times less realistic haha. And if they were really that good (they’d have to be freaks at that point) I’d probably still bring it to a good tech to replace with a string thru bridge anyway lol, leaving me once again Floyd-less in my guitar arsenal

One of my friends also for fun modded a cheap guitar he had to have a string-thru bridge (wasn’t Floyd before but the strings didn’t go through the body) and the before and after difference was huge. We were both surprised. Not that it transformed suddenly into being an awesome guitar or anything, but was just a really big improvement
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Yep, anytime you 'lose' wood to a bridge, or take a Destroyer and cut it up ala EVH with what he did, typically you'll lose tone. Just the way it is.
 
Racerxrated said:
Yep, anytime you 'lose' wood to a bridge, or take a Destroyer and cut it up ala EVH with what he did, typically you'll lose tone. Just the way it is.
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I’m not so sure that losing wood is the main culprit here. If you look especially at this one Marchione I have, even though it’s a string-through non-Floyd bridge (not hard tail though), it looks to have its share of wood taken out (maybe more so than Floyd guitars typically), check my pic of it attached below vs an ‘86 Charvel SD Floyd equipped I had as reference, yet it still (like all Marchione’s I’ve played) is dripping in tone in a way that even my ‘57 LP Jr can’t quite rival (which is not a string through type bridge). I think it’s more likely the combo of the strings going through the body and maybe the nut not stopping the strings resulting overall in that little extra resonance and more full development of overtones and complexity as the note rings out/sustains, but I don’t of course really know for sure. It would be interesting to hear the difference compared with a Floyd equipped marchione (not as common)

EDIT: I also added pics of the unibody back (same like the other) and the spruce one (my favorite sounding one) actually doesn’t have wood taken out. That’s the actual hard tail one. Sloppy terminology on my end a little bit before lol
 

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braintheory said:
I’m not so sure that losing wood is the main culprit here. If you look especially at this one Marchione I have, even though it’s a string-through non-Floyd bridge (not hard tail though), it looks to have its share of wood taken out (maybe more so than Floyd guitars typically), check my pic of it attached below vs an ‘86 Charvel SD Floyd equipped I had as reference, yet it still (like all Marchione’s I’ve played) is dripping in tone in a way that even my ‘57 LP Jr can’t quite rival (which is not a string through type bridge). I think it’s more likely the combo of the strings going through the body and maybe the nut not stopping the strings resulting overall in that little extra resonance and more full development of overtones and complexity as the note rings out/sustains, but I don’t of course really know for sure. It would be interesting to hear the difference compared with a Floyd equipped marchione (not as common)

EDIT: I also added pics of the unibody back (same like the other) and the spruce one (my favorite sounding one) actually doesn’t have wood taken out. That’s the actual hard tail one. Sloppy terminology on my end a little bit before lol
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I’m generalizing but yes I do feel that the wood that is lost does contribute to the general differences in tone vs a HT or Kahler bridged guitar. It’s not the sole reason of course, and some Floyd/Kahler guitars are just as thick/resonant as any HT guitar. That blue Charvel I sold you was a particularly great sounding SS. But, I did put stainless rollers on that one to brighten it up.
The wood quality of course is huge. I’ve played some custom shop boutique Anderson, Suhr that were beautiful guitars but just dead sounding. 4K guitars new. Yet, a 1K Charvel USA pro mod from 2008 sounds and feels 100x better.
So many factors are involved.
 
Racerxrated said:
I’m generalizing but yes I do feel that the wood that is lost does contribute to the general differences in tone vs a HT or Kahler bridged guitar. It’s not the sole reason of course, and some Floyd/Kahler guitars are just as thick/resonant as any HT guitar. That blue Charvel I sold you was a particularly great sounding SS. But, I did put stainless rollers on that one to brighten it up.
The wood quality of course is huge. I’ve played some custom shop boutique Anderson, Suhr that were beautiful guitars but just dead sounding. 4K guitars new. Yet, a 1K Charvel USA pro mod from 2008 sounds and feels 100x better.
So many factors are involved.
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I agree 100% on Suhr and Anderson. I easily would take any Charvel as well over those. I usually refrain from talking about them since they’re popular on here, but I’ve tried so many and they’ve consistently been really sterile and/or choked sounding, but I only am referring to what I feel are good sounding guitars in these discussions (no offense to guys that like those guitars). There are tons of beautiful boutique guitars that are meticulous everywhere except for sound (on a musical instrument of all things lol) and those are some examples of 2. In general with guitars it’s mostly just been good ‘60’s/‘50’s ones and Marchione for me and for a good bit some aged nitro Charvel’s. These are my main benchmarks for comparison

Plenty of Floyd/Kahler guitars can be thick/resonant (especially the Yellow Aged Nitro Charvel I had), but I'm talking about scenarios where it's at least close to apples to apples comparisons besides the bridges. From so many comparisons of all the guitars I've had I've never found an exception IME to those inherent qualities of them vs a similar non-Floyd/Kahler counterpart I've had. If that hardtail celadon aged nitro was at that AF I could've demonstrated what I'm talking about vs just trying to explain. I get it, if you absolutely have to have a Floyd/Kahler bridge you can for sure have a guitar that sounds killer if all other specs are good, I've played plenty, and maybe the difference is too subtle for most, but from my experience having been through well over 100 different guitars (tried so many more than that total) it seems pretty clear to me that the tone can just be still improved with a bridge allowing the strings to go through the body as well other specs like what finish, wood types, etc. For most these details are probably too subtle, I understand, but I like nerding out and understanding the way they shape the sound. Honestly, I'd love to have my '57 LP Jr modded for a string-thru bridge if only it didn't heavily hurt its value in a perfect world. That and my '64 Epiphone Riviera are the only keeper guitars I have without string-thru bridge types
 
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I bought my first Chubtone based on suggestions here. I stepped out of my comfort zone and got an Explorer shape which is something I don't see them do a ton of.

End came out better than I could have ever hoped for. Scottosan's pickups in it was the icing on the cake. I bought my second one shortly after and it looks and plays perfect. Both times the finished product came out better than what I had in my head. As far as resale value, you don't see many come up for sale so that's a good endorsement. My super strat I got from them rarely leaves my hands even though I have a couple really nice guitars(and more expensive). The turn around time, communication, etc. has also been top notch.

I will likely end up buying 1 or 2 a year at this rate(getting ready to put a deposit on a star).
 
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