Kahler 2300 Pro Tremolo

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Written by Frank J. Pasquale

I recently had the opportunity to build my first guitar for an artist that was endorsed by Kahler tremolos. His guitars were going to be outfitted with the Kahler 2300 Pro series of tremolos. Up to this point  I had never built a guitar with a Kahler tremolo. I have always used Floyd Rose or Shaller tremolos on my guitars. Recently I had switched to the Floyd Upgrades brand of tremolos because they really dialed in the specifics on the Floyd Rose style bridge and their improvements are top notch. 

My history with both tremolos goes back to the early 80’s when I started playing guitar. Eddie Van Halen had made the dive bomb a necessity for rock and metal players and a locking style tremolo bridge was the only way for players to really beat on their whammy bars and still stay in tune.

Kramer guitars had just bought the license rights to the Floyd Rose tremolo and were the only company manufacturing guitars with a tremolo that actually locked at the nut. In fact Kramer owned the patent on the locking style nut and nobody else could legally copy it. The best that anybody else could do was to lock the strings behind the nut which was an improvement but definitely not the best way to stay in tune. Kahler was the largest competitor to the Floyd Rose system but it was subject to the flaw of locking behind the nut. Kramer guitars quickly became the leading guitar manufacturer in 80’s due to the success of the Floyd. At the same time  Kahler trems showed up on Jackson and BC Rich guitars through out the 80’s and my experience with them was not impressive so I dismissed them and swore allegiance to the Floyd. 

In the early 90’s however Kramer guitars managed to do the unthinkable and go bankrupt. They had made some major missteps in product endorsements and had begun to back artists like Elliot Easton from the Cars and Ritchie Sambora from Bon Jovi, players who were not known for their virtuosity. Meanwhile Ibanez and ESP guitars had begun to revamp their image. ESP began their long relationship with George Lynch  while  Ibanez began  by endorsing players like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and  Paul Gilbert. These players brought their ideas to master builders like Mike Lipe and they changed the design of their electric guitars making them a major contenders for the shred market.

When Kramer went bankrupt it had to forfeit all its legal claim to the Floyd Rose Patent License and it was quickly picked up by Fender and soon Floyd Rose licensed tremolos was available on any and every style of guitar complete with a locking style nut. However, along with that came some incredibly cheap and worthless copies of the Floyd that did a great disservice to the brand. 

I tell you all of that history so that you can understand why I have sworn allegiance to the Floyd Rose tremolo for so long. It is because for nearly a decade The Floyd was the top of the line in locking tremolo systems an it was always reliable and always performed in tune.

Now fast forward to today…I had to install the Kahler 2300 Pro on a set of guitars and I really have had  no experience with them other than the cheap Kahlers that came on the import Charvel series guitar that were out in the 80’s.

Nonetheless, two brand new handmade  2300 bridges show up at my shop direct from Kahler. I open them up and discover that the Kahler Pro line is a huge improvement over the import line that I remembered from the 80’s.

First off the production and quality is top notch. The metals are high grade and the unit looks bulletproof. These two showed up with the upgraded brass rollers that just looked killer on the flat black finish.

 
The next thing I noticed is how small the entire unit is. It is all self contained with the springs  pre-attached in a unit that takes up a footprint of only a few inches. This is a huge blessing for tone connesuers because it requires very little removal of wood and gives the guitar a greater mass for more tone. 

The installation of the Kahler was a breeze. In fact it is so easy that when I was done I was sure there had to be more to it. The bridge came with a cardboard template that I used to make a ¼ hardboard template. Installation only requires a small hole less than 2” square and only an inch deep, unlike the Floyd that requires routing all the way through the body and removing a tremolo cavity on the back of the guitar.  Once I had the mounting hole routed and set on center, I referenced my handy Dan Erlewine Guitar Player Repair Guide for the distance from center for the mounting screws and we were done.  I set the guitar up with a locking nut and we were off to do the final set up.

Now this is where the Kahler really shines. It is a dream to set up. Every single component on the bridge is adjustable. Unlike the Floyd that has the string spacing pre-set and  unadjustable , the Kahler allows the builder/player full control over the spacing. It also offers a full range of height , radius and intonation adjustments. The bridge also offers a locking set screw so you can completely lock the bridge to a fixed position should you chose to. It is a guitar builders dream because it allows me to get the best possible feel and action out of a setup.

The final thing I noticed about the Kahler is its ease of setting up the string tension. There is an allen set screw in the center of the bridge  that attaches to the springs that are preinstalled. Tightening this screw increases the tension and levels the bridge in a matter of seconds. Since you can lock the bridge so that it doesn’t move up or down, you can do a full set up with intonation and spacing while the bridge is locked. Then you  do a full tune up and then unlock it. This will cause the bridge to dive bomb flat but you just crank down on the set screw to level it out and retune it. This process literally took less than one minute when I have spent hours doing this with Floyds in the past.  

As far as player advantages go, the Kahler is far easier to manipulate as a tremolo unit than the Floyd. In fact it is almost effortless. If you are used to the tension from a Floyd style locking bridge the Kahler will seem very wobbly at first because it takes almost no effort to dive it completely flat or raise it completely sharp. This takes some getting used to but you will soon find it delightful because you can easily bend notes all over the place.

The other noticeable difference is the way the Kahler sits in the body. It mounts very low and is almost unnoticeable. If you are used to resting your palm across the bridge to mute the strings of a Floyd you may have to adjust your style a bit. Nonetheless this too is easy to get used to and easily overcome. As a dyed in the wool Floyd advocate for decades I got used to it rather easily.

All that being said, I have to admit that the Kahler 2300 Pro exceeded my expectations. Keep in mind this is coming from a die hard Floyd Rose advocate. In fact it has a lot of pro features that the Floyd Rose style tremolo doesn’t and offers a lot to the player.

Kahler’s Pro Line tremolos are all hand made and can be upgraded with heavy duty springs and brass rollers which really make it a top of the line product .