Floyd tuning?

[chamelious]

Hi, can anyone give me any quick or advice or more likely point me to a good post about changing tunings with a floyd rose?

I had it set up in a shop in Drop C, and changed the string gauge to 11's, all i wanna do is tune the C back up to D, i figured a small change like this should be easy enough to handle.

Thanks.

[apl]

Originally Posted by chamelious

Hi, can anyone give me any quick or advice or more likely point me to a good post about changing tunings with a floyd rose?

I had it set up in a shop in Drop C, and changed the string gauge to 11's, all i wanna do is tune the C back up to D, i figured a small change like this should be easy enough to handle.

Thanks.

If you're gonna change tunings like that, you should have a shop block the Floyd. You'll lose the ability to go sharp. Plus if you break a string, it won't go out of tune.

[chamelious]

Sounds good, expensive? Does that mean its easier to change tunings as well?

[apl]

Originally Posted by chamelious

Sounds good, expensive? Does that mean its easier to change tunings as well?

No, shouldn't be. Yes.

[DrewPeterson7]

If you want to be able to retune frequently, maybe check out a Tremol-no? It's a good way to temporarily block the trem to get into altered tunings.

If you're looking for a long-term change though, well, grab a bottle of bourbon and expect to make a night of it. It gets a lot easier/faster with time (I once went from 9-56 to 11-68 in less than a half hour when I just lucked out on my guestimate claw screw adjustments), but until you get the hang of it retuning a Floyd and getting the float right is a royal PITA.

[Light]

Sucks ass!


Oh, wait, you mean this isn't a free association test?



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[P-J]

Originally Posted by DrewPeterson7

If you want to be able to retune frequently, maybe check out a Tremol-no? It's a good way to temporarily block the trem to get into altered tunings.

Have you or anyone have any experience of this? I've looked up the website and they look pretty decent. Any user reviews?

[Light]

Originally Posted by P-J

Have you or anyone have any experience of this? I've looked up the website and they look pretty decent. Any user reviews?

I've seen one of these things, but I didn't work on it, someone else in the shop did. His view was that it was not much better than the old Trem-Setters, which didn't work very well.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

[P-J]

Originally Posted by Light

I've seen one of these things, but I didn't work on it, someone else in the shop did. His view was that it was not much better than the old Trem-Setters, which didn't work very well.

Thanks for the info. So if I took my guitar to a shop to block the trem, do you know what method (or methods) they might use?

[DrewPeterson7]

Originally Posted by P-J

Have you or anyone have any experience of this? I've looked up the website and they look pretty decent. Any user reviews?

Actually, yeah - I know Kevan, and did beta testing on the prototypes for him. I think I still hold the record for heaviest set of strings ever run on one of the things, 11-48's with a .68 low B, in standard, lol. I also used a Tremsetter for about maybe 6 months before I tried a Tremol-no.

It's a very different peice of gear from a Tremsetter, and whether or not you'll prefer it depends on your needs. The Tremsetter is a negative tension stabilizer, that sort of gives your trem a "zero return point." There's a certain amount of tension that needs to be overcome on the bar before the trem will start moving. The advantage here is you get in-tune compound bends, but still can do dives. The disadvantage is bar vibrato requires a fairly light tension setting, which makes it more likely to not hold tuning on compound bends, and that if you're into flutter, you won't be able to do so on a Tremsetter.

The Tremol-no, meanwhile, is more like an "on/off" switch for your trem. Set up right, your trem feels about 99% like it's fully floating. My experience has been bar flutter feels a little "tighter," it's not as wide and has a slightly faster "vibrational period," if you will, but it's still there. You also have a perfectly smooth bar feel - vibrato is a no brainer, and you don't get that slight "catch" you feel with the Tremsetter if you go from a bar down "dive" position backwards to a bar up "pull back" which was eventually why I ended up pulling the thing. Meanwhile, with it locked down, your Floyd performs exactly as if it was a fixed bridge guitar - the bridge is immobilized so you can do compound bends to your heart's content. You also get a slight sustain boost, since you're no longer losing any energy from slight trem fluctuations on your attack. Also, if you want to retune, simply unlock the locking nut and go nuts. The one caveat is you have to return to standardf before you unlock the Tremol-no, though if you're downtuning you can put it in dive-only mode and still use the bar to dive.

The disadvantage of course is that with the Tremol-no in and in "float" mode, you don't get in-tune compound bends, so you're left to compensate like you would on a regular Floyd - a little bit of pressure from your palm as you bend, etc.

So, if your only concern is "normal" bar performance in standard tuning, but the ability to quickly explore open tunings, the Tremol-no is certainly worth a look. I've had one in my main guitar ever since I started beta testing, back in like '05, I think, and have actually bought a couple since then for my other guitars that float. I usually leave them unlocked for the full range of bar use, but at the very least, restringing a floating bridge is a hell of a lot easier if you can simply lock down the bridge while you're changing and breaking in your strings.

[P-J]

That's exactly the response I was hoping for. You've convinced me to try one out! Thanks for the detailed info!

Now to find a dealer in the UK