Why Do Guitar Players Like Fixed Bridges?! 

Thanks for warning why guitar players like fixed bridges! Get all the goods by supporting my channel for as little as $1 a month over yonder on my Patreon page: www.patreon.com/posts/99866983? Why do YOU like hardtail guitars?

Easier to tune and change tunings

Ben has finally reached step 12 of the Floydaholics Anonymous program. Congrats, you did it!

Its one of the reasons why I loooove telecaster, they are simple guitars, no gadgets, switches, buttons, just two pickups, one selector, volume/tone knob and that. Plus its a really versatile guitar.

I saw a video of Kiko Loureiro talking about his floyd rose and his way of keeping double stop bends in tune. It's to place his picking hand on the bridge saddles to limit the movement on bends and virbrato and it works. I do it every time now since i watched that video.

I love to use both. Do yourself a favor and take the time to learn to set up a floyd, not rocket surgery and makes you a better person. Mr. Ben Eller you are the man.

Jake E Lee comes to mind as Anti Tremolo.. I remember watching him bend the neck live for the first time and just blew my mind..

When I saw the title of this video, what instantly popped into my head was " Because I want the damn thing to stay in tune" . And, nearly 19 minutes later, it turns out that tuning issues of one sort or another seem to be the deciding factor.

I've only ever used fixed style bridges. It's necessary for hand placement to anchor the palm for devastating chunk. Just ask Scott Ian.

"Who's my dirty girl" Usually gets my guitars to behave when they're giving me flack.

Perfect video! For years and years I was a snobby "I have to have a floating whammy bridge and 24 frets" type of guy. When I finally got a hardtail, it made guitar life and tuning so much easier. I still love me my whammy's but for pure hand-finger practice and focus, I'll mostly go for the hardtail. 20-seconds of tuning and I'm ready to go.

"Don't look at my feet! That costs extra!" 😆Not gonna lie, came here for that sexy KM6 but this was a great video. Trems have their place and I do love me an Evertune, but totally agreed that there's something about the simplicity of a fixed bridge. It just WORKS.

I prefer a fixed bridge bc it feels way more solid. There is also the fact that I am not a lead player and never write anything that requires a tremelo of me. ... And, restringing a Floyd is the bane of my existence.

I got a Schecter Sun Valley, and it's a beast. They're really on top of things lately.

They way you delivered "...it doesn't suit the narrative" had me rolling! I know the "limitations inspire creativity" premise well, as I've played drums in acoustic and blues/rock contexts for years, but dabbling into guitar and bass for the last ten years or so, tunings like drop D/DAEAc#e/A-standard/Open G Terz are super inspiring for riff/song ideas and just couch-noodling. And like you've pointed out, hardtails make them far less of a PITA than they need to be.

I added the two extra springs in each of my Strats. It really does improve the tone you get.

Take it a step further = EVERTUNE bridge Love it

Been waiting for this since your IG post. That guitar looks exquisite

Thanks for the new video I look forward to them you are the best uncle Ben pleas never quit💯🤘🏻

God, I hate to admit it, but the montage on "why isn't my Floyd staying in tune?" is exactly why I sold my Schecter LOL Fixed or decked for me.

Trems are great! Just block them like normal people haha. Serious tho, having a Floyd blocked is IMHO the most stable tuning guitar. Removes the binding at the nut and some of mine stay in tune for weeks. I dont play anything like you Ben

Love the sustain demo😂 truly impressive

Love this video love you playing all those things you said totally make sense and the way you explained it is understandable for people that haven’t ever touched a guitar too

Man what a tone you have dailed in there !! Nice looking guitar & some great playing !!🎸👍🏻

All the reasons you mentioned. My top reasons are: - no warbling when chugging due to hand bouncing on the trem - tuning / stability / etc - no bar to take off, just put it in the case and close it - less stuff in the way of your picking hand - perceived sustain especially on string thrus They also just have a classy clean look. Love it. And that Keith Merrow sig looks like a rocket ship with that neck cutout on the back!

Love hardtails, and love the video. Fun thing re: bending one string changing the pitch of another: you can use that to dive bomb an open low E (B, F# etc. whatever your lowest string is) without touching the bar. E.g. if you pick the low E and bend the A string right in the middle it'll depress the bridge and give you an instant dive bomb. Kind of jarring picking one string while bending another, but sounds hella cool. You can hear this in the breakdown to Periphery's Graveless, that's where i learned that anyway

A) Easier to Tune carefully B) EasierAdjust tension (gauge and tunings) C) Arguably, In some cases, the higher mass of being directly mounted to the body can effect the tone / if nothing else ‘feel’. At least in my experience. First Floyd I ever played I said ‘whoa where is the bass.’ That was acoustically. Plugging it in I felt the same result. Since then I have played many great sounding floating treks (Floyd’s included) but again… arguably there can be a bit of a tonal difference in some cases between a hardtail and a floating. There is a reason people put pipe cleaners inside springs and or block trems to make them basically a hardtail. Best regards to ya Ben. Awesome content as always. 🤘

Nice, you introduced me to some tremolo problems that I never knew existed since I´ve never used a tremolo. I like the structure, some time of talking and then straight into shreddy solos. It´s nice to find new interesting stuff!

I'm a former hardtail (or down only) guy converted to Evertune. It's just so much easier to reach for a guitar that is always in tune.

I have an array of both types and love them all. But I'm also so lazy when I'm just playing by myself that my digitech drop pedal is a great tool in my tool kit. Not great for every scenario, but it's useful enough for what it's meant for.

Amazing as always!

Hey man. Great Video!! Very informative. I've been watching your videos for a good while now because i love guitar and seeing someone play extremely well is he best kind of pick me up. I watched your videos so much that in November I started trying to teach myself guitar via RU-vid, then by December I felt like quitting because it's really hard lmfao, and then I saw your section of the 2023 shred collab and thought to myself "Yep. I wanna do that. I want this. I'm gonna stick with it no matter what". I'm actually a very big Halloween fan and that'd how I found your channel a couple years back was seeing you cover the movie theme and it was so badass that I kept watching and I'm so glad that I did because I probably wouldn't be playing right now if it wasn't for you. And you inspired me to keep going, so thank you Ben. It's getting easier and I'm really starting to get the hang of it yet, I've got a long way to go but your videos really help me. Plus I don't wanna play like a step dad so I feel like your the man to learn from. 🙏

Not necessarily a floating bridge thing per se, but the lack of a locking nut also allows you bend above the nut to alter the pitch of individual strings in a chord or harmonics in ways that are unpossible with a floater

Glad to see my old Purple Ibanez is still getting some love!

Damn bro that's one badass looking and sounding ax I love the matte finish on it I've never seen anything like that

Man, you nailed it. My newest electric and previous are both hard-tail for many of the reasons you stated. Tremolo is fun, but there's a real cost.

I heard that the heat of your farts can affect tuning with floating trems. I make sure to never eat spicy food before playing anything on my strat for this reason. In all seriousness I like to experiment with tunings, and when doing that theres NO WAY I'm going to go through the woes of blocking my trem and adjusting the tuning and tension just to mess around. Hardtails are the best for that.

that sustain was insane. I do wonder how much of it is due to the bridge and higher quality of wood im assuming

Been drooling at this guitar for a while. Looks smooth.

Brandon Ellis is my favorite guitar player and it made my day to hear Ben bring up Brandon's distinct bends. Ben knows what's up!

I like both hard tail and trem bridges. With recording tho I prefer using a stop tail for all rhythm parts, and lead sections that don’t have tremolo use. Just feels more solid. I’ll record sections with a tremolo bridge guitar when I need to. Another cool video Uncle Ben!

"Did you have a banana today?" LOL...all of those reasons had me rolling 😆

I recently found a beat up KM-6 MK-III Standard from 2019 at my local store that just needed a little bit of love and elbow grease and its fantastic. Just an absolute house of a guitar.

Uncle Ben I really haven’t heard many people mention the way bends work with a non-fixed bridge guitar. Thank you for the wisdom

Marty Friedman too.

Totally agree with the decked trem. I have a Fender American Ultra Luxe Strat, and I have no need for the trem. Decked, it stays in perfect tune all the time. No muss no fuss.

Awesome video! Thanks!

Great vid as always! I'm a big fan of hardtails for all those reasons. I want to get Tremol-noes for my two main axes, then I have a whammy it if I need it and switch it in a hot second but basically I get to treat my guitar as a hardtail without having to block it. It would be great if you had a lesson on unison bends. 🤘

I bought a Charvel San Dimas MIM Hardtail as a workhorse guitar and ended up loving it more than I thought 🙂

It's good logic if you are going to have just one guitar 🎸 My solution is several hard tails and several trem guitars with different tunings to cover all bases😊 Some things can only be done with a trem and vice-versa 😮

Love that tuning heads on that KM signature series guitar.... It's so unique and different from the rest.....❤

Great video! I just ordered mine from SW. Hoping to see your meet the machine vid on this one!🤖

That guitar is super sick! I didn't know Schecter made $4000 guitars, crazy!

I've played so many Scheters and been like "damn this punches way above its weight class but it looks like it was designed by Monster energy" Glad to see this US one is a step in the right direction, definitely easier to get than the Japanese ones too.

Really dug this video. Subscribed. Oh and i ordered that book. Hopefully it helps me.

I still love tremolos, and VegaTrem is the best of them all. But the bending resistance it true. And your videos are always interesting and fun!

Being completely honest, I prefer a Floyd Rose. If you know what you're doing, it's not as hard as everyone says they are to setup and deal with.

I like fixed bridges because it sucks when they’re broken. 🤪

Perfect Sunday afternoon video. Was I entertained? Yes. Was I informed? Also yes. Thanks, Uncle Ben!

I love being able to change tunings and easy string changes Yes to a Meet the Machines on this beast of a Schechter

Ben, this might have been your best video yet.

great video uncle ben! let's go - let us meet that machine!

Would love to see more about the guitar, Ben! I picked up a Schecter Banchee Mach 6 a while back and was astonished at how great it was for the price!

I thought I needed to have a trem back in 1985 when I started since all of my heroes played them. But I never really utilized them in my playing so they were more trouble than they were worth. My 3 main guitars today are an Ibanez JS2000 with a LoPro fixed bridge, a PRS Mark Holcomb SE with Evertune and an Ibanez Q52.

You made very valid points in the video👍Tremolo guitars feel slinkier and sound like there is less midrange frequencies. I converted my vintage 6 screw Strat into a hardtail by wedging a block of wood in the rear cavity. I put some tape on the springs to mute the reverb effect. Hardtails sound punchier and thicker because of the solid connection to the body.

Just bought my son his first descent guitar, & sought out a fixed bridge guitar. Ended up getting him the squire stratosonic, I was pleasantly surprised, looks & played great & stays in tune.

I had the blue Keith guitar a few years back, soooo nice, congrats!

Very true. Good video!

Got 3 7 string fixed bridge, I think Ben just explained to me why. Cheers👍

I just bought the Schecter Tempest about 2 weeks ago,, good ol' tax return guitar! I haven't gotten it in the mail yet, but the main reason I went with this sexy beast was the simplicity/badass'ness of the guitar. Can't wait to get this thing in my hands. I need to sign up for your patreon,, and push myself more to improve.

Beautiful guitar! That’s interesting. All modern Jeff Beck live performances are with tremolo with such subtle but great tones.

Yes please do a full on video about the guitar Ben

Ben, I moved on - one P90, tone and a volume - all you really need. Love my Hamer XT LPJ - it kicks ass!!!

The schecter axe is gorgeous!!

Just had my Fender Strat hardtailed to get rid of all these problems. Great vid BTW 👍👍👍🎸🎸🎸🎶🎶🎶

Hell yeah that guitar is killer looking.love hard tails.

I'd luv to see a video on the gear you use (besides the guitar) to get that tone

All the reasons you mentioned, plus setting/adjusting intonation.

Nice axe Uncle Ben

All my guitars have floyds but i specifically bought the hellraiser and dean z for the tone pros set up because i still like the response of the string when its anchored

Still looking for a nice Ibanez Sabre without a tremolo. Love my S 520 and would love to have a fixed bridge version.

Can we take a sec to appreciate how amazing that country lick sounded on that beastly guitar

Paul Gilbert taught me to love fixed bridges! At one point he said that he “liked getting vibrato with his hands”, so I said to myself that I too want to get good vibrato with my hands, and it went from there. I still enjoy using a trem but thanks to Paul Gilbert, I now lead an active fixed-bridge lifestyle!

I love the sound of a Les Paul, and that happens to have a fixed bridge. So fixed bridge for me, it is

My hardtail 7 string super strat is my favourite guitar I've ever owned. I really really want a KM7 😅 I need to add the tones in this vid are some of the best I've heard from you.

I know this video came out 2 months ago, but i like hardtails (specifically my top 3 are #3 tele bridge with the tree type saddles, #2 tune o matic which is classic and reliable, #1 is wraparound bridge, absolute goat bridge) is because i don't like how soft the strings feel towards the bridge on a trem bridge. Whereas, with a hardtail, especially a tune o matic, you can feel the strings get increasingly more stiff and twangy as you pick near the bridge, at least more of a difference than a trem bridge, which requires the strings break angle deeper, whereas the traditional hardtails have the break angle right there where your hand is. It's part of why a tele is the closest electric to an acoustic is from that proper closer breaking angle on the bridge giving more of an actual acoustic right hand feel

You should do a tour of your studio.

I’m a lefty whose first guitar was a flipped-righty that had a tremolo: it was a double whammy (pun intended) keeping it in tune! I didn’t know about blocking the tremolo at that time!

I like hardtails for all the reasons Ben stated. I also just tried the same test Ben did on my guitar with a Kahler tremolo. It doesn't move when you bend the strings like a Floyd or other 2 point trems.

So true. I've blocked the trem on most I own that have them, left one floating for the rare occasion i need it.

That's a sick looking guitar man.

Wow, that swirl glass is awesome. Nice vid BTW

That guitar is bright in the best way. Really want to see that demo of the guitar

I set my FR guitar to Eb tuning and use a polyphonic pitch shifter to quickly tune up and down and it works like a charm 🤘🏻

I used to like Floyd’s. Then I got a fixed bridge. It made me instantly love floating bridges 13.2x more. Then I ran into tuning issues and such, so I needed a lot more guitars. I now have an even dozen electric guitars…and most of em are certified cool. A five sack of EBMM JPs, a couple 7 strings, a 1992 ESP KH-2 that was the 32nd one made, a couple of toothpaste Jackson’s and a Charvel, an American Pro II Strat 75th Anniversary that has every mod you could do…and looks like a Gilmour Black with a Vega Trem, a Solar S1.2 Baritone in Poplar Lime with an Evertune weirdo, a couple Schecters, a Harmony Strat that has all the Pro II parts on it, and a nice piece of hickory for whittling when I feel so inclined. Ernie Ball makes my favorite guitars no questions, and the floaty bridge on the JPs is nuts. I need a sick Suhr to keep ‘em honest though, I’ve never even had a chance to hold one in three decades of fiddlin. If y’all got some old school Floyd’s that are a bit sloppy in the shaft…like your stepdad…get yourself a Red Bishop Magik Arm and bring your old Floyd/Shaller or Ibby to the best feeling a Floaty oldie can get. Make a donation to your local homeless dude to get a brew or a bag of his favorite treats in my name 😜 And grab a vintage Boogie before they are extinct. No Gibson models allowed….maybe. Probably. Yeah.

Ben I recently bought an entry level Jackson warrior with a Floyd Rose, and it is exciting. I needed back another floating bridge to my slim collection

That's an amazing guitar, I want a video on it! Schecter guitars that are $1,000+ are just generally great guitars that hold their own against any brand. Super underrated, though I think that's slowly changing.

this is why the Digitech Drop kicks ass!

I totally love my h50 LTD fixed bridge. She hasn’t let me down in sound while mashing her rope

Love that Firewind solo at 10:37 !!!