Tremolo lock for electric guitar
X-lok clamps the tremolo block from inside the guitar, and you work it from the front: a switch behind the bridge, always within reach. One flick and the bridge stands still, wherever it sits, with no locking position to preset or readjust. Flick it back and the tremolo floats as if X-lok weren't there.
It locks the tremolo wherever it sits. Nothing to preset, nothing to readjust.
The switch
The switch comes up through the top, just behind the bridge, and works like a pickup selector. To the left, the tremolo is locked. To the right, it's free. Between songs, or in the middle of one.
Locked: the bridge is held still.
Why lock a tremolo
Most tremolo stops hold the bridge at a position set beforehand with screws, and strings, springs, temperature and humidity soon move the tremolo away from it. X-lok has no preset position: its jaws close on the block exactly where it is, every time.
Drop the low E to D, with a D-Tuna or the tuner, and the other five strings stay where they were.
A locked tremolo doesn't vibrate with the strings, so they keep their energy and sustain longer.
Bend one string of a double-stop and the bridge no longer tips forward and flattens the other.
Pick hard on a floating bridge and it rocks under your hand, and the notes waver with it. Locked, every note holds steady. Flick the switch, and you're free to dive.
Unlocked, the jaws stand clear of the block. The tremolo feels and sounds exactly as it did before.
Inside
This is X-lok itself, drawn from the model its parts are cut from. Drag to turn it, flick the switch, or take it apart to see how it works.
Each jaw turns on its own pivot, and nothing fixes where it closes. Both close until both touch, so the clamp finds the block wherever it is. That is why there is nothing to preset.
The switch straightens a toggle between the two jaw bodies, and the jaws close. Taken just past straight, it stays there by the clamp's own force. Flick it back and a spring opens the jaws, clear of the block.
The jaws are screwed on and interchangeable, so the same frame fits different tremolo blocks: Wilkinson VS-VG and Floyd Rose today, each with its own set of jaws.
Gallery
Built by Ruokangas Guitars in Finland, with X-lok fitted from the start.
Photos: Ruokangas Guitars
For builders
X-lok is fitted by the builder, in the guitar's spring cavity. We supply it to luthiers and guitar companies.
The story
X-lok began in 2011 as a prototype by Finnish designer Seppo Silaste. Its first versions, turned with a thumb wheel, have been on stage for years in Ruokangas guitars. The switch came next. The latest X-lok refines it in laser-cut stainless steel: lighter, simpler to fit, and made to be built in numbers.
Seppo Silaste, designer
Contact
Talk to us about fitting X-lok. For luthiers and guitar companies.
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