Staying in tune without a floyd rose/EMG pickups

Nowhere Man

New member
Greetings,
I have had my eye(s) on an ESP Eclipse for some time now, but, having played a floyd rose equipped Ibanez for many years, wonder how well it will stay in tune without a locking nut and bridge. What do all you tune-o-matic bridge players think? However, I am looking forward to having a guitar that I can restring and retune in a reasonable amount of time. Furthermore, this thing comes with EMG 81 humbuckers. Does anyone have any complaints about these? My only concern is that they might (undesirably) distort a clean sound due to their high output. Thanks.
 
If it has a tune-a-matic and good tuners, you will have no problem keeping it in tune if you do the following when you change strings and tune up:

1) Carefully wind the new string around the tuning post so that it is wrapped tightly and symetrically (sp?)

2) Put at least three turns around the post, four for the non-wound strings.

3) When in tune, pull the strings away from the fretboard about 1-2 inches - be gentle with the skinny ones. Re-tune.

4) Always tune up to the note, not down. (So if you want to tune down, go too far down and tune up)

If it has an old-style (non-locking) whammy bar, as long as you make sure the nut and bridge don't hang up the strings, you should be ok. Dive-bombing is not going to work!
If you find the strings sticking a little, some graphite in the nut string grooves will probably help. Pencil lead works really well.

Intonation is another possible problem that is easy to address. If you like, I can email directions on how to intonate your own guitar (or post it here, if that's easier)

As for EMG's, I have never owned a guitar with them on it, but I have heard that they are very clean sounding.

foo
 
Fixed style bridges stay in tune way better than any floating bridge (especially a Floyd Rose) The main reason being that a Rose is near impossible to tune anyway. intonating it is even more impossible. Sure it works better if you are a real whammy bar wanker.

I have a Washburn N2 with a floyd Rose which I hadn't played in two years cause had (many) problems. So I've retro fitted it with a G&L Wilkinson and so now I have all kinds of intonation problems which The repair guy is going try and work out. (the A string just isn't right) Hopefully things can be fixed- The Rose makes it near impossible to replace it with anything else- especially a fixed bridge which I'd perfer.
What a bitch!
 
Thanks for the information. I feel much better about ordering the new guitar! I have always hated the floyd rose and never used it for whammy-ing anyway. Foo, do you have any special technique for winding the strings around the post? I have always just strung them through the little hole and started twisting. Then again, I always used the ball ends up at the pegs and I think I forgot how to do it any other way!
 
I recently had my strat converted to a hard tail because of tuning problems.anytime the whammy bar was used alot the strat would go out of tune. If the guitar wasnt played for a few days the same thing.
Ive been playing strats for 25 years or better. Only owned one that stayed in tune faithfuly a 73 maple neck mother of pearl.

Even after the rodies tossed it around ,it came out of the case tuned, and ready to rock.

After converting to a fixed bridge ,the strat I play today sounds great and stays in tune.

Life without a whammy bar? not really.
I use an effects pedal that has an expression padal.I programed a user preset to sound just like the whammmmmmy bar...


jimimac
 
Hey Nowhere man,

The thing you should know about ANY floating bridge ESPECIALY a Floyd rose is that it is precisly balanced between string and spring tensions.

With a light gadge string even pressing the string down to the fret has its tuning problems on a Floyd. The biggest thing is when you bend. When you bend Sayyyy the G string, its putting tension on the string hence tension on the bridge causing it to come up alittle making the other strings a little slack.

This hurts you when doing unison bends or bgending a string while letting another ring.
The unbent string is going to detune slightly so you will have to relearn to bend in a way so you meet the 2 sounds in the right place.

Im sure youve also found yourself detuning the strings if you rest your hand on the bridge too hard to mute out or partially mute the strings.

You wont have any of these problems at all really with a fixed bridge like on my SG.

One of my axes is an Ibanez Jem with an EMG 81 and 85 with a Floyde Rose of coarse.

The EMG have a greater output mostly becouse they have to be real close to the string due to there magnetic feilds and becouse they are active (requires a 9v battery). The 81s arent that bad but the 85s are Impossible to have a good clean sound. On the other hand its incredibly warm and silky smooth.

To be honest with you the EMG pickups dont sound that great at reasonable amp levels. There very thin and cracky sounding. The place they really shine is when there hooked to a stack cranked all the way up in combination with a shit load of effects. Thats when they sound cool especially with alot of effects.

Wow that was really long winded but I thought I better explain everything since I have lotsa experience ith both subjects. Hope that helped. :)
 
Anchor the ball end of the string as normal. Take the string at hand tension and lay it along the fretboard and lay it across the nut. Hold it down there with the thumb of your left hand (assuming you are right-handed)The rest of your left hand is holding the guitar by the neck, with the strap pin on the floor between your legs, and the headstock facing you.

The bass strings would be wound counter-clockwise around the tuner, laying the first wrap as close to the headstock as possible, and make two or three (or four?) turns around the tuner until you have just enough room to slip the string through the hole in the tuner. Use your thumb to keep the tension on the wrapped string as you feed the string through the hole.

Pull the string through the hole until it is tight (keeping the tension on the wrapping) and then tune up.

On a Fender style guitar all the strings get done the same way - on a three-on-a-side guitar the treble strings get wound clockwise.

Hope this helps,

foo
 
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