The topic of cryo tuning or cryo aging of guitar parts has long since arrived in the guitar industry. It is undisputed that it leads to a mechanical and sound improvement, but unfortunately very little is explained about it, which is why it appears to many as humbug. We want to change that here with a detailed description and are happy to give an insight into our cryo process.

In technical jargon, one speaks of cryogenic or low-temperature technology. This is a type of temperature treatment of components with extremely low temperatures, down to almost minus 190 degrees Celsius. This process has been used in mechanical engineering for quite some time. There it is used to make components generally more wear-resistant (e.g. gun barrels or engine parts) or to increase the service life of tools. The service life of tools (such as cutting tools or indexable inserts) can be increased by 200 to 400% through cryo treatment! Of course, this is also a desirable effect for our guitar parts.

With our cryo tuning, components are cooled very slowly and gradually to minus 180 degrees during a controlled process. This extreme temperature is achieved by liquid nitrogen, which, thanks to the machine provided for this purpose, never comes into direct contact with the components and cannot damage them as a result. In the machine, short cooling and warming-up phases alternate again and again within a specially tailored process. After more than 20 hours, the components are slowly brought back to room temperature and can be removed. So a very lengthy, complex and, above all, cost-intensive process.

But what exactly happens inside the material? For this we make a small excursion into physics, which can clearly explain the process to us at the atomic level. Physics tells us that it depends on the metal structure! More precisely, it is about the carbides in the metal. Carbides are metal-carbon compounds that are formed during the production of the metal, more precisely during its solidification. These are usually unevenly distributed in the metal and affect the material properties. The cryo treatment now leads to microstructural changes in the metal and the carbides are rearranged so that they are evenly distributed in the metal. This gives us more wear-resistant components and in terms of tone development we can clearly see an improvement in response, sustain and sound balance. After treatment, components have the same properties as decades-old and well-established parts. That's why we can deliver THE vintage-correct tone with parts from our Silverback Vintage series that have been cryo-treated, in addition to the vintage-correct dimensions and materials!

We are the only manufacturer in the world to successfully cryo tune tremolo springs. You can clearly feel and hear the effects. Convince yourself, it's not for nothing that we give a 60-day Mon(k)ey Back guarantee on all our products! More cryo-treated products will follow of course.

Here you will find our Pre-CBS Vintage Tremolo Springs.