Ibanez with Floyd Rose

dmac1

New member
I have an Ibanez RG 320DX with a floyd rose locking trem. You would think that this should stay in pretty good tune - right. Well it does when playing regulary - however if you get crazy with the cheez whiz (whammy bar) the tunning gets a little crappy. Any suggestions - BTW I se D'addario PL something or others can't quite remeber the .09's. Any observations or recommendations appreciated.

Denis
 
You should not have intonation issues with any Floyd Rose system if it is all locked down right AND you took a few steps ahead of time. When you reef on the trem you are stretching the hell out of the strings. Thats what it does. So before you lock the nut keys down be positive you have stretched the strings out a few good times. Be certain you have the trem springs (remove the back plate on the guitar) adjusted to match the guage of the stings. Barring any weird preferance the bridge shouls sit parallel to the guitar body when everything is tuned. This can be a total pain to do and will probably require you tighten and or loosen the blooming back springs as you tune. (one trick to avoid this hastle is to buy a trem plate that goes under the bridge BEFORE you take off the old strings). Ok, lets assume you are all tuned up and the bridge is level... rip on the bar a few times. Retune. Repeat this frustrating process. The guage of strings is your own taste.
 
Try stretching your stings a few times by pulling them away from the fret board, tune to pitch, THEN lock the Floyd.
Your string gauge is correct -
Floyd Rose systems are designed to be used with 9 - 42.
Check your 3 clamps above the nut to see if they are worn, and don't tighten them too much - use the small arm of the allen key for tightening, not the long arm.
 
Check the two posts that the Floyd rocks on. If they have become worn, there will be a 'detente' position in which the guitar is perfectly in tune - when you use the whammy, always try to return the bar to its original position. It's not as hard as it sounds - before you start tuning, push the bar down gently to get it to 'settle' in it's 'home' position. Once there, tune up, remembering to keep gently pushing the bar down to the 'home' position. When everything is in tune, lock it down and when done 'whammying' touch the bar downwards and it will return 'home' and be in tune.

If that doesn't work, the posts may be too worn, and need to be changed.

foo
 
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