Maestro Vibrola with or without ! help me pick

[Von Trapp]

Troglys a bit of a doofus. I watch his vids because.... guitars. His narration and knowledge doesnt really garner any wisdom imo.

Also, that SG he's showing off has an issue that we've discussed here. The comb angle on that Maestro is wonky. That's usually found in the import knock offs but has found it's way on to Gibsons. I had an import that sits like that. I also had another import comb that I swapped it for. Problem solved.

As everyone mentioned, a knowledgable tech or luthier will set one up and it'll work great for what it's intended. They can take some abuse too. Plenty of vids of players going to town on 'em.

"there's a reason why people ripped those things off the vintage SG's and converted them so stop bars" - yeah, that reason was that they were either ignorant clowns or just didn't like the look. And you're right, that angle doesn't look correct at all.

 

[Mats Sandnes]

The Vibrola looks great on SGs. Go for the one with Vibrola even though you don’t believe you would wiggle with it. Just for the looks.

To me it’s kinda obvious that the ABR-1 will rock back and forth. The wound strings will not have any chance gliding over those saddles.

If the bridge is rocking/moving when Vibrola is engaged, and it’s bothering you, just swap it out for a Tonepros roller brigde or something. The Tonepros Nashville Roller Bridge drops right in because the new ABR-1s on the Gibson USA line are using posts with exactly the same dimensions as Nashville. At least that’s the case on my Les Paul Std 2020 with Bigsby B7, Vibrola and roller bridge mod.

 

[Goldtone]

With! It's not a Floyd Rose, but if you treat it gently for warble it's the best trem out there.

+1000

Bang on! It’s for shimmer, vibrato at the end of a phrase or supporting a nice chord...dive bombs are for Floyd’s, no disrespect, Floyd built a genius vibrato. The Gibson lyre/maestro and Bigsby are exceptionally good at what they do

To the OP...WITH TREM!! Even if you never use it once...no neck dive!! And it looks freaking cool!

PS...get domed thumbwheels. They’ll let the bridge rock back and forth with the trem and come back to zero position. The flat wheels aren’t vintage correct, the bridge doesn’t rock back and forth it slides on the flat thumbwheels...with the wound strings pulling the bridge as you bend the trem while the plain strings slide through the saddles and the bridge never quite returns to zero position, tuning goes south

 

[kongssund]

I would add a vibrola just for the look of it :) Can`t say that it does anything to balance a neck heavy sg, but never had issues with neck heavy guitars. Always use wide leather strap :)

 

[PauloQS]

Just my opinion, but if you’re asking this question, you should probably go with the maestro vibrola. Personally I prefer the fixed TOM bridge, but I still recognize that every concern that’s been raised can be easily addressed.

As for the internet sensation dude, just remember, he’s a scalper. A scalper/collector who’s contributing to artificially raise the price in the used market and who got upset because the new permanent Slash lineup would dilute the ridiculously high price of previous limited Slash models in the used market. He just doesn’t play enough guitar nor he is a guitar tech, he just knows enough to flip them for a profit.

 

[Lynurd Fireburd]

Just my opinion, but if you’re asking this question, you should probably go with the maestro vibrola. Personally I prefer the fixed TOM bridge, but I still recognize that every concern that’s been raised can be easily addressed.

As for the internet sensation dude, just remember, he’s a scalper. A scalper/collector who’s contributing to artificially raise the price in the used market and who got upset because the new permanent Slash lineup would dilute the ridiculously high price of previous limited Slash models in the used market. He just doesn’t play enough guitar nor he is a guitar tech, he just knows enough to flip them for a profit.

And he seems to have weaseled into catching Gibson's ear, seeming to effortlessly getting huge chunks of desirable models to sell off. Gibson is prob stoked for the free advertising.

 

[Stella]

As for the internet sensation dude, just remember, he’s a scalper. A scalper/collector who’s contributing to artificially raise the price in the used market and who got upset because the new permanent Slash lineup would dilute the ridiculously high price of previous limited Slash models in the used market. He just doesn’t play enough guitar nor he is a guitar tech, he just knows enough to flip them for a profit.

The problem that I have with him is how he’s helped to inflate the value of late 70s Norlin LPs. Most of these are not very well made instruments, and they often weigh over 11 lbs. When he started out about 5 years ago, he couldn’t afford 50s-60s Gibsons, so he started praising these much crappier guitars. It’s ridiculous what 79 silver busts are going for now. I get that Adam Jones’ popularity has gone a long way to inflate the prices, but this Internet guy has also played a large part.

So someone drops many thousands on an inferior instrument, and might get a sour taste after playing it, thinking that vintage instruments aren’t that good. There is a world of difference between a 63 and 79 SG...

EDIT: I do give him credit for his deep dive reviews. While his playing examples leave a lot to be desired, he does a very thorough job of examining each guitar, and giving detailed information.

 

[PauloQS]

The problem that I have with him is how he’s helped to inflate the value of late 70s Norlin LPs. Most of these are not very well made instruments, and they often weigh over 11 lbs. When he started out about 5 years ago, he couldn’t afford 50s-60s Gibsons, so he started praising these much crappier guitars. It’s ridiculous what 79 silver busts are going for now. I get that Adam Jones’ popularity has gone a long way to inflate the prices, but this Internet guy has also played a large part.

So someone drops many thousands on an inferior instrument, and might get a sour taste after playing it, thinking that vintage instruments aren’t that good. There is a world of difference between a 63 and 79 SG...

EDIT: I do give him credit for his deep dive reviews. While his playing examples leave a lot to be desired, he does a very thorough job of examining each guitar, and giving detailed information.

Every now and then he gets stuff wrong too. Either wrong or just stuff that he has no idea what he’s talking about. Like, for instance his video on the maestro vibrola.

Another thing that gets to me is how he is helping this trend of macro lenses to scrutinize tool markings on the fretboard edge. If you actually play the guitar, those tool markings that need macro lens or a magnifying glass in order to see them well go away over time as you use steel wool or scotch brite to clean the fretboard and polish the frets.

That means that now people get scared to list anything anymore, because of this absurd level of scrutiny. I’m all for transparency, but this is too much. I dislike the car comparison that people seem to make these day, for I think it’s apples and oranges. However, even if I were to entertain the comparison, I’ve honestly never seen someone walk to a dealership with a magnifying glass to check every nook and cranny of a car. I’ve seen people scrutinize it ad nauseam, I’ve personally done that, but never with a flipping magnifying glass.

It also gets tiresome on forums having almost daily posts asking if the tiniest things are okay or if they should return the guitar. It completely out of control. Although, I haven’t see it as much here.

 

[Everdying]

i just find the way he talks kinda irritating, like his audience is made up of a bunch of 12yr olds.

 

[Stella]

Every now and then he gets stuff wrong too. Either wrong or just stuff that he has no idea what he’s talking about. Like, for instance his video on the maestro vibrola.

Another thing that gets to me is how he is helping this trend of macro lenses to scrutinize tool markings on the fretboard edge. If you actually play the guitar, those tool markings that need macro lens or a magnifying glass in order to see them well go away over time as you use steel wool or scotch brite to clean the fretboard and polish the frets.

That means that now people get scared to list anything anymore, because of this absurd level of scrutiny. I’m all for transparency, but this is too much. I dislike the car comparison that people seem to make these day, for I think it’s apples and oranges. However, even if I were to entertain the comparison, I’ve honestly never seen someone walk to a dealership with a magnifying glass to check every nook and cranny of a car. I’ve seen people scrutinize it ad nauseam, I’ve personally done that, but never with a flipping magnifying glass.

It also gets tiresome on forums having almost daily posts asking if the tiniest things are okay or if they should return the guitar. It completely out of control. Although, I haven’t see it as much here.

You’re absolutely correct with the level of scrutiny. Maybe, since he’s reselling the examples that he’s inspecting, he’s just covering himself, but to expect hand made pieces of wood and paint to be that prefect is somewhat nonsensical.

Yes, I also think that a lot of really nice new instruments are being returned because of basically insignificant character flaws. I suppose that the larger online merchants account for the returns in their pricing, and it also makes more almost new instruments appear on the used market, but I think people should play an instrument with a tiny scratch before retuning it solely upon visual inspection. The next perfect example that they get might be a worse playing or sounding, but prettier example.

One last gripe (and I apologize) is that this YouTuber often speculates about future pricing of new, mass-produced instruments, when he really is only basing his projections on his very limited time in the market. I would not buy an oddball Gibson USA model as an investment...I mean guitars in general aren’t the smartest investment ideas...but he’s basing these guesses on his 5-10 years of experience, which is far too little to be doling out advice to younger people that think they’re going to double their money in 10 years.

Okay...I’m done...

 

[SGBreadfan]

Trogly is purely a hype machine, it’s all about profit for him and perceived scarcity blah blah...he cares very little about quality and you know, the important stuff. He largely blows off the custom shop stuff, but those Gibsons are the best ones (generally) being made today...he can’t make a profit on that stuff, so it’s of no use to him. He tries to portray a nice guy/Mr. Rogers kind of image, but he’s just a big sleaze...he hoarded up a bunch of the Gibson prototypes on Reverb and then tried to sell them for triple the price after hyping them on his show. I definitely wouldn’t ever want to buy one of his guitars that he mangles...or should I say, “documents” on his workbench.