Killer Guitar Components Aluminium Mega-Stop – review

aluminum-mega-stopFloating bridges are a lot of fun to play. They’re not for everyone though. Less contact with the guitar typically means a thinner tone and less sustain. Floating setups also make it hard to be able to switch tunings on the fly. If you’ve got a guitar with a floating bridge that you love for it’s playability, but hate it for it for the set backs that the floating bridge has you can block the bridge. There are several ways that you can do this, give both a completely hard tail feel and dive only feels. One way is with a tremolo stop. Killer Guitar Components offer a great solution with their Aluminium Mega-Stop.

Looking at the Mega-Stop for the first time, it’s clear how much effort Killer Guitar Components have gone to make the product. It’s a beautifully milled piece of light-weight aluminium, that looks and feels rock-solid. Everything is provided to install the Mega-Stop too, which is a nice touch.

The Mega-Stop is a pretty simple item to install if you’ve got a drill and not afraid to use it. Killer Guitar Components have been nice enough to provide right size drill bit to make pilot holes for the screws that come with the kit. Following the instructions that come with the Mega-Stop, it’s a simple installation that most players will have no issues with completing. Line up the stopper approximately 5/8″ away from the sustain block, drill the first pilot hole, screw the first screw into the guitar, make sure you keep the stopper lined up and drill the second, and third (if you find it necessary) holes and screw in the remaining provided screws. Install the adjustment screw and use the supplied allen key to screw it in until the sustain block is just resting against the screw. There’s a other instructions, but it’s pretty much as simple as that.

So what difference does it make? The most obvious, and probably important part for many, is that the bridge is only capable of diving. You cannot raise the pitch of a note by pulling back on the whammy bar. This makes it a lot easier to switch to tunings like Drop-D, for example. People with Floyd Rose-type bridges that want to install a EVH D-Tuna will appreciate what the Mega-Stop can do for them. This is the reason I wanted one to install in my guitar.

The other benefit is much smaller, but will probably be appreciated by players too. Installing the Mega-Stop and getting it set up nicely against the sustain block gives the bridge more contact with the guitar body. This increases the resonance of the guitar, which is noticeable both acoustically and plugged in.

Having an adjustment screw also makes it easy to tweak your setup after installing the Mega-Stop. If your bridge needs to shift a little you just use the allen key to move it until everything lines up again.

If you are looking for a solution to turn your floating bridge into a dive-only one, and give you the adjust-ability that many DIY solutions don’t have then definitely check out the Killer Guitar Components Mega-Stop. There are two flavours, the aluminium one reviewed here, and a brass one. They will both offer you rock solid stability and added resonance and tone.

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