Floyd Rose SUCKS!!!

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Good points from Aaron, Even, 64Firebird, dragonworks, and jcmm.

In particular, good Floyd or Floyd-licensed systems stay in tune and work well.

Floating systems are a pain in the ass when a string breaks or to restring. jcmm gave some good tips for restringing.

A flush Floyd avoids many of the pains with restringing and avoids the tuning problem with string breaking. However, it only allows dive bombs and not whammy pulls.

I have also attached a picture of a block that can be used to stop a floating bridge from floating. The attached block only allows dive bombs and also prevents the bridge from going out of tune when a string breaks or when restringing. A local tech installs them into guitars.


Finally, a way to assist in keeping your floating bridge in tune is to always return it to its resting position in the same manner. I.e., push it down, return it to resting, and tune it. Once in tune, if it goes out of tune, just push down on the bar and return it to it's resting position. I know of some guitarists that prefer pulling it up before returning it to it's resting position. This technique may help for the cheaper floating bridge systems.
 
Re: strats

lesterpaul said:
sorta off topic but strats always have a bad rap with tremolos but i installed an LSR roller nut, man u have to work to get that thing outta tune now ...i am well pleased, if u could get something like that (its got ball bearings instead of locks)it would be worth it ....later
Click to expand...

That wouldn't work with a Floyd, and here's why: with a Floyd you have a FAR wider throw than a traditional Strat whammy. You can send the strings so low that they literally flop around and go completely slack, and they would jump out of a traditional nut faster than a frog on Texas asphalt. You could rig up some kind of contraption to hold them in place, but by then you're almost right back where you started.

I'll tell you, the best traditional trem rig I've played is a Don Grosh. They stay in tune very well. The PRS rig is good to. It's probably been a good 10 years since I've even owned an axe with a trem, and I do miss it. I'm fixin' the buy one of the above some time in 2003. Wish me luck.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
hey.... some interesting tips i see here.... yeah... on my floating bridge guitars I took out the licenses floyd roses and put in REAL ones (cept on the 7 string) they do work a lot better than the licensed ones.... I do this everytime a get i new floating bridge guitar... but anway... they high e is still slipping..... and the nut is locked tight.... and the string tension seeeems to be set correcttly but i dont know...

~dn
 
Dark-nail. If you are having a chronic problem with mainly the high E... dont be afraid to step just that one string up in guage. I can't speak for anyone else, but even with a trem I tend to push, pull and slide the b'jesus out of my high e string more than any of the others. A flimsy .09 doesn't really hold it's weight when thrashed.
 
I don't know how it works for you guys but I noticed that in order to keep the thing in tune for a whole set you need to "equal" out your pulls. What I mean is for every dive bomb, you need to pull up to even the stretch. If all you do is dive, the tension seems to never come back to the perfect tune.
There are ways to compensate for this in a live situation. If I wanted to do a harmonic pull to get a nice squeal, I would first push down on the bar before hitting the harmonic. when I am done with the squeal the guitar would stay in tune. To compensate for a dive bomb it would sometimes be impossible to "pull up" first because of the sound, but you usually have a short oppurtunity to deaden the strings and "pull up" before hitting the next note or chord when the bomb is done.

I know thats alot of ramblin' but I am sure alot of you guys have similiar techniques to stay in tune live, and still get your favorite chops in.

Just wanted to share
 
interesting advise from even and jcmm.... i never even thought about using a thicker high e string.... and balancing my whammy tricks is another interesting idea....

~dn
 
Whammy bars tend to settle in two different places, so you should tne to the high or low rest, or presumably, whichever one your guitar was setup against.

I had a Floyd (real) in an old piece mealed strat. Worked great always. Changing strings was a piece of cake, but stretching the strings out was a must. The trim pots at the bridge made it pretty easy to tune. Do floyds still have those? It also had the added bonus of being able to re-use broken strings as long as they didn't break in the middle. Handy at jams when you don't have any spares.

I'm trying to remember if I ever had any issues with strings slipping, maybe when I first got it and didn't have the bolts tight enough. Or I might have thought a string was slipping but it was just stretching out, dunno. Mostly I remember years of trouble free use.
 
Exactly Doug.

It's not as much evening the stretch as it is returning the bridge to the resting position at which it was tuned at.

I.e., if it is pulled before tuning, it should always be pulled after a dive to return it to tune.

Alternately, if it is pushed before tuning, it should always be pushed after pulling shart to return it to tune. Nothing should be necessary after a push/dive/bomb.
 
King Elvis said:
I had an old Kramer, which was a piece of shit to begin with. I am still pissed at Eddie VH for promoting those shit guitars...anyway, it had a Floyd on it and the damn thing NEVER stayed in tune. I was soooooooo pissed because I read so much stuff about them not going out of tune. I was tightening the nut one day after changing strings and the piece of shit nut broke. I hated that junk.
Click to expand...

Those are my favorite guitars...
And Floyd Rose's are only for the advanced guitarist,
 
Monaco said:
Those are my favorite guitars...
And Floyd Rose's are only for the advanced guitarist,
Click to expand...

Not true at all. Fifty million YouTube shredders beg to differ. ;)

I happen to like my Floyd-equipped guitar, but I won't look down on anyone who'd rather something else... Especially if it means bumping a 4-year-old thread to do so. ;)
 
I have a Charvel RR Flying V from the 80's and with a licensed floyd rose. I can abuse that thing with insane dive bombs and all kinds of abusive whammy tricks, and it stays in tune for months.

I have an early 90's Jackson Dinky, same thing. Then I have an LTD F-200 made in like 2002 with a licensed floyd rose, and every time I pick it up it up, it needs fine tuning. Every week or two, I have to loosen the locks because it goes far enough out of tune that the fine tuners can't reach it.

What's my point?
It depends on the quality of the floyd rose licensed bridge. They are not all created equal, that's for damn sure. If you really like the guitar, and it came with a crap one, spring for a real one or a top notch licensed one that will swap right in. You will never look back...
 
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