...and more tone worthy vs snake oil stuff...

[Bolt-on]

Maybe you fine folks have direct experience on these, my search didn't find anything definitive.

PRS stock tremolo springs vs Raw vintage springs vs Fender vs Gotoh vs generic made in China. I can see QA consistency maybe being a factor but there's claims of more than mildly subtle tone difference with springs...any experiences that say real deal or snake oil?

KGC tremolo claws...they claim to make a sizeable difference in the tone chain...I think of it more like having a shiny chrome air cleaner cover under the hood of a classic car more than a game changer in tone...could be wrong since I never tried one.

 

[dogrocketp]

I have several versions of the PRS trem. SE, Original milcom, Mannmade milcom, 2000 Mannmade, 2nd stock USA version, Gen lll, and DC3 with the steel saddles. Yes, there is a small tonal difference. To my ears, the biggest difference is in the woods of the instruments. The DC3 trem does have more bite that the others, and the Gen lll trem is the smoothest, but I'm not going to use the term better to describe any of them. They are different. All the other makers are blowing smoke when they say "HUGE TONAL DIFFERENCE THAT YOU NOTICE IMMEDIATELY." Not really, other than the fact that PRS trems are deadly in tune. With a proper setup and decent strings, I haven't played anything that touches them. Of course, if I had a lesser guitar, and changed from a craptrem to a PRS trem, I'd expect to notice the difference immediately.

 

[Mozzi]

Maybe you fine folks have direct experience on these, my search didn't find anything definitive.

PRS stock tremolo springs vs Raw vintage springs vs Fender vs Gotoh vs generic made in China. I can see QA consistency maybe being a factor but there's claims of more than mildly subtle tone difference with springs...any experiences that say real deal or snake oil?

KGC tremolo claws...they claim to make a sizeable difference in the tone chain...I think of it more like having a shiny chrome air cleaner cover under the hood of a classic car more than a game changer in tone...could be wrong since I never tried one.

Everything can impact on the tone and/or sustain. Whether its 'enough' of a difference to be worth doing, to justify the costs and/or feel better will come down to you and you alone. Some people are also more sensitive to even the smallest difference too. I think it may also depend on whether you are using distortion too for example as distorting the sound may obscure all but a sizeable change. Tone isn't always the most obvious change - it maybe that the note sustains a bit longer, maybe some frequencies don't die as quickly or maybe you don't get spring noise.

The issue is that to some people, a 'negligible' change is too small so its just 'snake oil' and may not hear any difference when playing through their rig with heavy distortion and EQ - scooping the Mids may reduce some of the frequencies that are 'better' for example. Another person may play clean with a 'neutral' EQ and hear a perceptible difference and that difference is quite significant to them. What I mean by this is that people differ and the only one who can really decide is you - whether the change is positive, negative or too small to make any difference within your style and set-up.

There are people that also will tell you something based on what they see or read too - swear a Gibson Les Paul is infinitely better than a PRS 594 in a tone comparison but take away the sight and ask them which they prefer in a blind test and they may swear the 594 is the best and must be the Gibson. Same with Digital vs Valve amps - and there are some people that can hear the difference every time, tell you the difference is so clear and obvious to them so why can't others hear it?

In other words, you may have to experiment yourself - its not just the sound, it could be sustain, feel or even just better quality materials, better design, better quality of life etc - maybe very small improvements in multiple areas that add up - but whether its worth it, will really come down to your own experience.