Hypothetical trem positioning

[cephus]

Since I really don't have any physical way to lay out the position of the pivots for my floyd rose, I can put it pretty much put it where I want within a range. I was thinking that, as a middle child, the saddles should all try to be towards the middle of their range of motion to accomodate future intonation ajustment. Well, I generally get them where they are supposed to be and use the same brand of strings, so they don't change very much if at all. I marked where the high and low E's saddles line up for the standard strat bridge on there now. I can guesstimate that when intonated, the floyd saddles should be close to the same place.

It just occurred to me that the trem may have a mechanical advantage at one end of the travel versus the other. Like maybe if the saddle is all the way forward, it doesn't arc as far when you push down the bar. Maybe tuning stability would be better at that end, or tone worse.

I think I should drill the posts so that the saddles would be slightly rear of the mid-point to give greater range of motion and greater potential for spaghetti strings and sirens and motorcycles.

Any other theories?

 

[nukeitout]

I agree with setting it up in the middle of it's adjustment potential.

I disagree that adjusting the trem towards one of it's extremes would be useful (for standard guitar playing). When the trem loosens the strings the action is raised, and vice versa. If you have it too far forward you'll end up compensating for the raised action by lowering the bridge posts too far and the strings will hit when you crank back on the bar in a rock frenzy... Best to give it it's suggested ?-?% (maybe 5-15%) angle that some manuals reccomend (find a manual for a guitar that uses the same trem you're using). Also, the sustain wouldn't be as good because the string wouldn't be angled against the edge of the bridge peice (excuse my lame non-tech terminology) as originally intended.

Just ideas, hope the project goes well .

 

[nukeitout]

My ibanez manual says to set my edge 1 parallel to the body at rest under string/spring tension.

My peavey said some small angle out from the body (5-10%).

I keep mine at a barely noticable angle out and it works well.

 

[cephus]

I know exactly what I was thinking about, but what I typed completely confused me.

I am talking about the intonation travel of the saddles toward or away from the nut. I think that if the bridge posts are positioned such that when intonated, the saddles are further from the nut edge of the bridge plate, the arc will be larger and therefore the pitch will plummet further.

Actually what I was thinking was that if I wasn't careful and the saddles had to be too far forward to intonate, the range would be noticeable less that if it were in the middle.

As I look at it this thing today, I am a little anxious about changing out the neck and drilling new bridge mounts. The risk of strings, bridge and nut forming a rhombus are great.