Super Vee Bladerunner review

Last night was my first gig using my new Super-Vee Bladerunner bridge. For those of you unfamiliar, this new design uses a two-part bridge plate. There is no knife edge involved. The front part of the plate screws down firmly to the guitar and is connected to the other plate by a thin piece of high-quality spring steel. The toneblock is a proprietary allow that is very light. I also purchased their "Superglide" lubricant and the Mag-lock device, which allows for oblique bends without bridge movement. I've set the bridge to float, which is different from the unit I replaced. I couldn't keep that one in tune well enough when floating, and the guitar sounded better with the bridge decked, so that's how I've used it for that last several years.

After my installation, I immediately took a dislike to the Mag-lock, so I removed it. I didn't like the way the trem felt with it on. It took all the smooth out of the motion.

So, last night I played most of the night on that Strat. I abused that bar on purpose, and had a blast. And I never had to tune during the set. Just one touch up before each set was all it took, and the drift was next to nothing. I have to say, the lubricant was just as important as the bridge itself. I've since applied it to the nuts on all of my guitars. I love being able to bend strings on a Strat without HAVING to quickly dip the bar to put it back in tune. Even with locking tuners, I always had some hangup at the headstock that would leave a bent string flat until I engaged the trem again. No more.

On the con side, I'm not sure I have the same body of tone that I had with the prior bridge decked to the body. There's a certain warmth that I feel has slightly diminished. It's very subtle, but it's there. However, the improvement of performance feels worth it, at this point. The guitar still sounds great, the trem is extremely smooth and responsive, and I have much more confidence in the tuning stability than ever before. A great product that I highly recommend.

I put one on my strat build and I like it, too. Never heard of the lube, though. I think it improves the overall tone and sustain due to the fact it doesn't float, but is attached firmly to the body. It is that "full/hard" contact that makes the difference. i use 3 springs that are pretty tight to pull mine back to zero and it, too, never goes out of tune when I bend it. Overall, I am very impressed with the design. At first it was a toss up between the Super-V and the Babicz (sp?) full contact. I couldn't find a full contact so I went with Super-V.

The lubricant they sell is called Super Glide, and it comes in a small plastic container, and you apply it with a toothpick or similar tool. Like Bryll Cream, a little dab'le do ya.

When I say "float", I mean that the back end of the bridge plate doesn't come in contact with the body when at rest, as opposed to what you describe, which is to tighten the springs until the bridge rests flush with the body. That's what I was doing with my prior bridge, just to get better tuning stability and the ability to bend like a Tele without pulling other fretted notes out of tune. It also results in the best overall tone. However, when you do that, you can lose that sweet, smooth, easy motion of a floating bridge because everything is much tighter.

On the other hand, you are right about the the Bladerunner's improvement in tone due to the firm attachment of the leading edge of the bridge as opposed to standard fulcrum bridges when they are set to float. However, all of these differences are very subtle. The best attribute of the Bladerunner from my point of view is the tuning stability.

I agree.

I'd like to try the mag lock, but yeah, I'm afraid it will ruin the feel.