When they arrived, I had all 3 installed in less than couple of hours, I think. First up was my Strat. Once I had floated the trem (for the first time ever since I bought it), I also realized it was unusable floating as it would not return to tune. If you pushed down and released, it stayed a bit flat. If you then pulled up and released, it would usually come back to tune. The Tremmory comes in 3 different sizes and I ordered the Small size for all 3 guitars as even the small size was too big for the way my guitars were currently setup but I knew I’d be changing all that for the Tremmory anyway. The small size is 71mm and the instructions say to make sure you have at least 3-5mm more than that available. For my Strat this meant taking it from 5 springs decked, all the way down to 2 springs so that I could get a little bit of float and still have enough room between the spring claw and the trem block. Once I had it all set up and in tune, installing the Tremmory was a breeze. Loosen the thumb screw, put some included small felt adhesive pads on the spring claw and the trem block to prevent any extraneous noise from the Tremmory butting against either part, then install it where the middle spring would go, check tuning once again just to be sure and tighten down that thumbscrew. Once I did that, the trem returned to perfect tune every time, double stops stayed in tune, and I go to drop D tuning as well! I couldn’t believe it! I knew this type of unit would stiffen up the trem but I was actually really pleasantly surprised at how much less stiff it was than I was expecting. Still totally usable and way less stiff than when I had it decked. I didn’t do an A/B comparison, but I am guessing that I probably lost the slight tone and sustain benefits I had from having it decked (even better if you have it completely blocked) but this seems like a great compromise of both worlds. I was very impressed with the results.
Next up was the St. Vincent HH. On this one I only had to go down to 3 springs to get a little float and enough room for the Tremmory. The rest of the experience was the same as the Strat.
My JTV-69 was the trickiest. Even down to only 2 springs, I could not keep any real amount of float and still have room for the Tremmory. Through trial and error and very fine tuning, I eventually got the trem just barely against the body but not too stiffly, with just barely enough room to get the Tremmory in there. If I had screwed the claw in any more (to make more room for the Tremmory) then the trem would have been quite solidly on the body again, and if I’m just totally decking the trem, then the Tremmory becomes fairly useless. It would at the very least allow you to deck it without as much spring force and therefore keep the trem a little more usable, but that’s probably not worth $105.
It should also be noted that with the default thumbscrew on the Tremmory, you will need to leave your back plate off. Not a big deal to me. You can loosen that screw if you want a fully floating normal feeling trem for any reason or for a certain songs. Contrarily, you can replace the thumbscrew with an included Allen screw which would allow you to put the back plate back on. I was tempted to do that as I don’t ever intend to loosen it, but I left the thumbscrew for now just so it’s easy enough to loosen in case I find the need to do any adjustments. They also recommend changing strings one by one which I don’t want to do as I like to give my fretboard a good cleaning when I take off all the strings, so I’ll need to block the trem by putting something under it when I take all the strings off as I don’t think the Tremmory could hold it’s place with all the strings off or I’m guessing I could loosen that screw then tighten it back up once I’m re-strung and back up to tune.
It also comes with an extra, stiffer internal spring you can use to replace the default one if you for some reason need or prefer more stiffness from the Tremmory, though the instructions are unclear as to why you would need that other than “preference.”
All in all, my first impressions are quite impressive. The packaging was very high quality and the whole thing from the design to the extra included options seem very well thought out. As far as options for having a slightly stiffer floating trem but with better tuning, and solid double stops and drop D tuning, this seems like the best, easiest, most convenient option out there to me.
