FU-Tone's Hardware Guitar Upgrades

Guitar World

From brass blocks and claws to titanium posts, saddle inserts and screws, FU-Tone will make your six-string roar. To demonstrate just how easily and quickly FU-Tone can refresh your six-string, Guitar World Tech Editor Paul Riario sat down with FU-Tone founder Adam Reiver to add upgrades to a Jackson Pro Series Dinky.

Transcript

00:00Hey, what's up? It's Paul from Guitar World and today is an exciting day because I have

00:09Adam Reaver here from FU Tone and we are going to take this Jackson Pro Series Dinky in this

00:16awesome, almost glow-in-the-dark green, but that's not the point. The thing is we're going to take

00:22this guitar and turn it from ordinary to extraordinary by adding a whole bunch of

00:28upgrades on this guitar. You'll get to hear what it sounds like before and after, you know, Adam

00:34works on it. So let's take a listen to the guitar now pre-upgrade. I'll start here on the clean channel

00:41just to give you a couple sounds from the selector switch and then we'll move over to a more dirtier

00:47setting so you can hear that as well pre-upgrade. Here we go.

00:58guitar solo

01:05guitar solo

01:12guitar solo

01:19guitar solo

01:26guitar solo

01:27guitar solo

01:33guitar solo

02:03guitar solo

02:33guitar solo

02:35Okay

02:36The saddle inserts

02:37Yep

02:38We'll do all the hardware

02:39The string lock screws

02:40The saddle mounting screws

02:41The nut clamping screws

02:42We'll change the springs

02:44The heavy-duty noiseless springs

02:46And we'll do the claw in brass as well

02:49Yep

02:50And did you also mention

02:52That we might do the tremolo stopper as well?

02:54Trem stopper

02:55Trem stopper, okay

02:56Yeah

02:57So obviously an option for this

02:58This bridge floats

02:59Yep

03:00But we're gonna set it for dive only

03:02Yep

03:03Trem stopper makes it more stable for tuning

03:04You can rest your hand on the bridge when you play

03:06And it has a huge tonal benefit

03:08Yep

03:09By making direct contact to the block

03:11Right into the body

03:12Just even more resonance hitting the wood

03:14Yeah, I've always noticed that too as well

03:15I actually have the trem stopper on

03:18Some of my guitars

03:19Is it just for that point

03:20That it just adds so much to the overall tone?

03:23So Adam now that we have the guitar on the bench

03:25Take me through how you will start

03:27Or where you will start here and what you'll do

03:29Basically I'll remove the strings

03:31I'll remove the springs

03:33Take the bridge out

03:34Rebuild the bridge

03:36Upgrade the block

03:37The inserts

03:38All the screws

03:39The posts

03:40Springs and claw

03:41Got it

03:42Drop the bridge back in

03:43Re-intonate it

03:44And set it up

03:46Get it ready to go

03:47Yeah

03:48There's full step-by-step instructions

03:50On how to do this on FU

03:51And it doesn't take very long at all

03:53Yeah

03:54It's rather quick

03:55And probably under an hour

03:56Oh yeah

03:57In some cases under half an hour

03:58Yeah, yeah, yeah

03:59For sure

04:00And I think an important point

04:01That you want to

04:02Thing to point out

04:03Is the fact that

04:04The parts that you are putting on here

04:06Match the color of this guitar

04:08That's bonus

04:09That's the bonus

04:10That's a complete bonus

04:11Well that's always the thing

04:12Green titanium

04:13Green titanium, right

04:14But just so everyone else knows

04:16The fact that

04:17Depending on the color of your guitar

04:18Or, you know

04:19Or even your hardware

04:20You have, you know

04:22You have every color under the rainbow

04:23Options

04:24Yeah

04:25In titanium

04:26So all the basic screws

04:27String lock, saddle mount, nut clamp

04:28Yeah

04:29Instead of steel

04:30We do them in titanium

04:31I even do them in black titanium

04:33Yeah

04:34So if you want it to look the same

04:35Black titanium, silver

04:36Right

04:37Red, blue, green, purple, white

04:39I mean

04:40Yeah

04:41Tons of colors

04:42And they sound better

04:43They function better

04:44Yeah

04:45And that's the point of titanium

04:46Pretty much if you want to make the guitar pop just in looks alone

04:49You got them covered

04:50Bonus

04:51Total bonus for the Luxe

04:52All right

04:53Well let's get to it

04:54Let's go

04:55And we're back

04:56Here we are

04:57Adam has installed all these upgrades and has turned

05:00This Jackson into a beast

05:02So

05:03As you can see it's just

05:05As you can see it's just

05:08It looks incredible

05:22Adam has installed all these upgrades

05:23and has turned this Jackson into a beast.

05:27So as you can see, it's just, it looks incredible.

05:32And of course, the one thing that we noticed before,

05:37which we didn't do, but the great thing about it

05:39is that even acoustically,

05:41the guitar sounds louder and more present.

05:43Like it just has a different sort of ring to it, right?

05:48It's just, it's just open sounding right now.

05:53So with that, let's say we take a listen,

05:57see what it sounds like, right?

06:15That's loud.

06:16I love the look on your face when you do that.

06:18It's like, wow, but you can hear it.

06:20It's just louder and it's got a little more,

06:23a little more resonance to it, right?

06:48It's just powerful, just powerful, wow.

07:00And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:06So it can hear that mid-range, just cut it sli-

07:19That's like a slice.

07:20And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:22And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:23And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:24And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:25And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:26And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:27And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:28And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:29And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:30And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:31And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:32And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:33And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:34And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:35And now let's see when we get to some gain.

07:36Yeah.

08:03Happy?

08:03Oh, it's incredible.

08:05It's incredible.

08:06Listen to that.

08:12Yeah.

08:13It's a huge improvement.

08:15So Adam, I want to quickly run down each of the parts, and you can quickly explain that

08:21to me.

08:21How about we do that?

08:22Quick.

08:23Okay.

08:23No problem.

08:24Right here are the posts.

08:25We did green titanium.

08:27So all the green parts we added are titanium.

08:29So the posts, one, two, green titanium.

08:32The saddle inserts, the little blocks inside the saddles that pinch the string, green

08:37titanium, saddle mounting screws, string lock screws.

08:43Up at the top, we have the nut clamping screws.

08:46And then in the back, under the hood, we were able to go up to a 37 millimeter brass big

08:54block.

08:55We've got the heavy duty, noiseless green springs, brass tremolo stopper, brass claw, brass

09:02claw screws.

09:03And you find that between having all the brass here, it just totally adds to the overall

09:08tonal equation?

09:10Brass increases the vibration.

09:14It amplifies the vibration.

09:15So when the string rings, it goes through your saddle, hits the bridge.

09:19That piece of brass rings like a bell and just pushes it back out into the guitar.

09:24You're not hearing the brass.

09:26You're just hearing more of the guitar.

09:28Gotcha.

09:29So we're just pushing the vibration out.

09:31And with the noiseless springs, now, do the idea, of course, is that do you hear a lot

09:36of that?

09:36Yeah.

09:37So if you were to take any guitar with regular springs in it and muffle the strings and just

09:42do like a chunk, acoustically, chunk, you would hear the springs reverb, like a reverb

09:48tank.

09:48Really?

09:48Okay.

09:49Yeah.

09:49You put your ear on the guitar.

09:51That sounds going through your sound the whole time.

09:54It's dirt in your sound.

09:56Yeah, right, right.

09:56So this takes a lot of that dirt away.

09:58Interesting.

09:59Awesome.

10:00And there you have it.

10:02That's a good run-through and understanding how each thing works here.

10:06All there, really, just make this guitar play like a dream and sound like a dream.

10:28Well, there you go.

10:30Enough said, right?

10:31You have such guitar face.

10:33And I love that because that's what happens.

10:35That's the point.

10:36If you could do anything for your tremolo-equipped guitar, it's doing it like this.

10:40And it's just incredible.

10:42Thanks, man.

10:42Yeah.

10:43To accomplish all this, where do I go again?

10:45Simple.

10:46F-U-Tone.com.

10:49And I'll find all those parts here, and they're all affordable.

10:52Yes.

10:53So, F-U-Tone.

10:55Guitar World.

10:56Guitar World.

10:57Oh, thank you.

10:57You know what's up.

10:58That's right.

10:59Definitely check this out.

11:00It's like popping wheelies.

11:28I know, right?

11:29It's just like...

11:30I always get that.

11:38Yeah.

11:39So cool.

11:40Fun.

11:42Yeah, you get all that.

11:43They're all popping out.

11:44That's awesome.

11:44Awesome.

11:44That's awesome.

11:45That's awesome.

11:46That's awesome.

11:47That's awesome.

11:48That's awesome.

11:49That's awesome.

11:50That's awesome.

11:51That's awesome.

11:52That's awesome.

11:53That's awesome.

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