Upgrading an Edge Zero 2

[Rollin Hand]

I have had an Ibanez RG350MZ with an Edge Zero 2 for several years, and always found it a little less than lively, in terms of sustain and tone. I read somewhere thay the fasteners they use for this bridge are slightly less than "high grade." As many of you know, I advocate spending small amounts of money to buy hardened fasteners for guitars to give them a bit more zing,so I figured whay not try it on this one?

The slow boat from China arrived with a bunch of fasteners the other day, and last night I was able to sit down and get a running start.

Here's the bridge as it was. I am not a huge fan of these bridges because they are largely zinc (so was the original Edge, but still...), but they don't readily swap out with anything, so I am kinda stuck with it.

I decided to go hard core and replace all that I could with titanium bits. This meant the block to bridge screws, the string lock screws and the intonation lock screws would get the treatment. I ordered everything from AliExpress, and it toook about 2 weeks to get here.

The ZPS rod and springs come off easy-peasy, but then I had a heck of a time with the other springs.

Then came the saddles. As always, if you take them off, place them together, in the order they came off. I made this mistake once. Do not be like me. The intonation screws came off as part of this process.

Then the crappy wire-grade screws got removed. I takes them off one by one...

Sweet titanium goodness. These were M4 x 10mm.

Then, on went the intonation screws. The originals looked rough. I used M3 x 8mm for this, but I could have gone with 10mm.

Lastly, the string lock screws. I could have gone longer on these as well, but the ones I bought work just fine.

Then came the always fun job of reattaching a trem. I lubed the knife edges with chap stick because I couldn't find my damn Teflon dry lube. I then procedded to fight with the trem. With the strings unattached, the bridge pulls back into the body. This means the trem springs won't stay in well until you put the screws back in. So, you have to fight with the spring while trying to get a teeny little screw into a hole and get it started. Numerous attempts matched with numerous profanities, but I got her done.

Then, I strung it up and tried to set the bridge angle. Not fun. To get the trem springs off, I had to dial the spring tension down a lot. So when I tried to set it again, I naturally got it wrong. Then the spring tension vs. string tension fight was on. This took a bit.

Finally, I tested it. The result is that the trem is WAY more sensitive. Before it would barely flutter. Now, it's almost too sensitive.

As for sustain, it has improved a smidge, but the real difference is that the guitar is much brighter. It is a new strings vs. really old strings kind of difference. The guitar seems less muted.

One could easily do this with hardened steel bits and save a few bucks, but I wanted to try the titanium. Quite frankly, I am not sure it made enough of a difference to warrant using it over hardened steel. Titanium contacting the strings is a different story. If someone makes the string lock blocks (for lack of a better word) in titanium for cheap, I might try it.

The icing on the cake would probably be a brass, steel, or titanium block for the trem. No one makes one cheap enough (incl. shipping) for my liking, and thock zinc number isn't getting it done.

Now I need to get the chance to test it though something. I have a Tone Zone ready to go into this thing, as the stockers suck.

Sorry I didn't get more pics. I tend to focus on the task at hand and forget to document it thoroughly.