Skyway Talk
[the word on the street]

What Luthiers say.

I've built several guitars using the Skyway now and I feel I have a good understanding of its character and attributes. I can say that it is totally unique in the world of trems. It holds its tuning better than any trem that I've ever used. The tone is chimey but with the attack and sustain of a hardtail. One of the most unique and cool things is the consistency of that sustain and tonal character during a drop in pitch. with other trems I have always noticed that the sustain and the "boldness" of the note dies off a bit as you dive the bar. With the Skyway, it holds the note strong and the sustain seems uneffected by the greatly lowered pitch.It also has a great degree of control over the micro-movement in pitch. It feels much more "Solid" in its control of the note...like you're attached to the note itself. Whereas with a normal trem it feels like you're controlling something attached to the note..one step removed. It is also easy to get a controlled amp vibrato effect with your palm while picking out arpeggios. On top of all that,the build quality is beyond top notch.

Bill Chapin
Chapin Guitars

What the players think.

The Skyway is absolutely insane! I've seen how the Skyway equiped guitars all have such big tone, but what a great combination when mated with a Suhr guitar! This bridge absolutely conducts the vibration from the strings into the wood of the guitar, and it's so damn playable! You can get very subtile with this tremolo, or wank the hell out of it and it still comes back in tune. I also like that the bar presses in, I never like the screw in bars, and the tension on the bar is adjustable, I like it set so it's very easy to move but stays put. I want to make the point that the Skyway doesn't dominate the guitar's tone. Kolls, Bakers, Chapins, Suhrs, all still sound like the creations of their makers.

Rick invented this bridge many years ago. But he's done much refinement to it over the years before he felt it was ready for production. One of his obsessions has been to make it sound as Fendery as possible down to the spring reverbing effect, (though some luthiers prefer to muffle this effect). But it's not a Fender tremolo so it's not going to sound the same, with the Skyway you have much more contact of the milled housing to the tone wood of the body, where as the old stamped Strat trem doesn't couple to the body near as well, especially if the bridge is floating, plus the Strat tremolo requires a huge amount of wood routed away to make room for that spring assembly. But with a Skyway you still get that funky swanky twangy Strat tone, but with more tone coming through due to better coupling of the bridge to the body. In fact, to my ears, the Skyway makes a Strat style guitar sound even Stratier.

PlexiBreath
(thegearpage.net)

...it's the best machined and the best sounding bridge (trem or hardtail) I've ever owned. The low end is tight and focused, even on a hollow strat body at 24.75" scale.

analog orange
(thegearpage.net)

...no other trem comes close to the skyway in terms of tone transfer, precise bends, functionality ect...it truly is PART of the instrument rather than a accessory.

BrewBeck
(thegearpage.net)