OK, a word about the ‘Overlord Of Music’ brand locking nut for the Headless Guitar Kit (GK-SHS-40) that’s available for many in the UK and beyond:
The bridge is a ‘knock-off’ version of the Steinberger ‘R-Trem’, and it’s perfectly able and usable. I’ve been most impressed with it. However, the locking nut seems to be a different kettle of fish, and it took me a while to figure it out.
To make the guitar compatible with normal single-ball-end strings, ‘Overlord of Music’ have incorporated an ingenious system to keep the strings secure and in tune. Now, as there’s a normal type of locking nut used, it’s not quite strong enough to keep the ‘high e’ string in tune on it’s own – it slips and detunes far too easily. So, in the nut unit, there’s a series of small holes that you run each string through, before then tightening each with the grub screws on the end of the unit. It effectively clamps each string down – at right angles – through the end of the unit. The locking nut then does the rest of the load-bearing work.
Here you can see the string holes arrowed, with the grub screws clearly evident.
So, string goes over top nut, through hole, clamped with the grub screw, then string tuned. Then, and only then, are the locking nut clamps fastened and final tune-up performed.
Et voila! A very very cheap, yet perfectly usable floating, locking (DOUBLE locking!) tremolo system!
mine slips out, only the high “e” string. how is it that yours works.
Don’t know! Are you sure you’ve got the string going through the little hole and then held with the grub screw? Is the grub screw tight enough? (Be careful not to over-tighten as the thread can strip really easily.)
My high e-string regularly breaks at the ball end, so I have to solder the windings around the end to make it stronger. Or use a .010 gauge and not a .009.
Thanks for commenting, sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
Kevin, is that Overlords bridge/tuner holding up for you? I’ve just received a kit guitar from Solo in Toronto, and wonder if I should use the supplied Overlords bridge, or go to headlessusa.com for a pricier (and presumably better quality) bridge.p
Regards
Rob
Rob,
If you can afford it I’d recommend the JCustom R-Trem from headlessusa.com. The Overlords version is cheap quality metal, the grub screws especially are very prone to getting chewed up and the tension spring can be very very soft in some cases – unusable if it is. I bought a back-up Overlords bridge from eBay and the quality was much worse than the supplied kit version.
However, if you have a good one, it might well be fine – mine is after what, 4 years of it being my main practice guitar, in daily use.
It wouldn’t be too difficult a job to replace anyway, the bridge is just screwed into the routed body with wood screws.
I will recommend getting the fold-down leg rest though. I got mine through Hohner in Germany for about £25 and it’s 100% necessary if you ever want to sit down and practice.
Good luck with it Rob.
K
The grub screws supplied with the OoM locking nut cannot reach the bottom of their holes. The threads don’t go all the way to the bottom, so the end of the grub screw cannot clamp the string against the bottom of the hole (apart from maybe the thicker E and A). There are two solutions – either drop a 3mm ball bearing down the hole and then fit the grub screw on top, or replace the grub screws with ‘Dog’ point grub screws. These have a a projecting stub on the end which will clamp against the strings.
Terry,
They actually use the ball-bearing method to tighten up the trem arm. There’s a plastic wedge at the bottom which is pushed tight on the arm by a tiny ball-bearing under the grub screw. it works a treat.
Hi great article. Could you please help me with something? What’s the best type of guitar tuner to get for a beginner player? I’m deciding whether I want to get a clip on tuner or on the of plugin kind. This would be for my acoustic/electric guitar. Thanks for you help 🙂
Hey Emmitt, thanks for the comment. I use both kinds but for acoustic/electric I always use a clip-on tuner. It’s portable and easy to use. I keep it clipped to the headstock all the time!
K
Hello,
I found this from a Google search of tuning and setup of the wonderful Overlord of Music bridge. I purchased a headless kit for by bass. Due to a design flaw, the headstock snapped and was unrepairable.
My question is, while tightening the locking nut clamp, my E string snapped. Is this normal with this nut?
Hi Chuck,
I’m struggling to imagine a simple grub screw snapping a bass E string! Those things are like helicopter winch cables! It’s far from normal for it to snap a puny guitar string, never mind a bass. I’d maybe check the nut for sharp edges or something. Strings don’t break for no reason.
Thanks for the tip. I will check the edges. Luckily, I have a friend with a machine shop who is making a replacement bridge and nut out of brass and steel than the pot metal these are made out of.