I greatly dislike floyd rose floating bridges

[rokinrandy]

Somebody probably left a post like this one here for you already but I didn't read them all.. And you may know how to set up a bridge..but give this here a a shot..

This is the way I like to do my Floyd roses. Someone may disagree with me and want to talk shit and blah, blah ,blah .But Fuk'em......
I have zero trouble And it works....OK here it goes....



I Have 3 Floating floyds and I love them.. They are time consuming to properly set up, but worth the trouble...
I have the best results when I;

First after properly winding my strings at the machine heads I set my fine tuners in the middle for future play after lockdown!

One of the basic tricks is to Go back and forth with all the strings in repetition during tuning the instrument with the floating bridge...And you must do this while keeping the bridge level with the guitar body at the same time..
sometimes the springs need adjusting with a screw driver with even tension to level the bridge...



on my first tuning pass I atleast get it close to tune..on the first pass I just want the tension to hold the bridge level...But after that step is when i pass back and forth in repetition while tuning like this:
e,a,e,a,d,a,d,g,up to high e and back in the same manner to low e if needed and so on till it's right...



Now here is a trick that a lot of guitarist never do that helps greatly:
I always bend each string full or even more after getting it in tune before I move to the next one...And I do this until the string does not go out of tune anymore...Then i move to the next one...I go back and forth untill it's perfect.. And yes it takes patience..


I always double check to leave plenty of play in the fine tuner in both directions... And finally When all of this is accomplished the bridge is level and e.t.c.
I lock the locking nut....

If you are not doing it like this You will probably hate the Floyd rose floating Tremelo



My favorite is the old steinberger trems ... you just pop the string in and go with it..Drop down to all kinds of different tuning with a snap..and float like hell..



Heck what else is there for floating bridges,,,I thought floyd rose was it They don't make the trans trem anymore..They don't make kahler anymore



Hope this helps you or somebody,RR

 

[rokinrandy]

Now here is a trick that a lot of guitarist never do that helps greatly:
I always bend each string full or even more after getting it in tune before I move to the next one...And I do this until the string does not go out of tune anymore...Then i move to the next one...I go back and forth until it's perfect.. And yes it takes patience..

One more thing Wreckd,
What this does is stretch out the strings and helps calibrate it better..I do this for reassurance...
I hope you learn to have fun and enjoy the great sounds of a floating bridge..Floyd rose is a good tremelo...TTYL,RR

 

[ggunn]

One very basic thing about any floating bridge guitar: it's not in tune until you can check the tuning of all 6 strings and not have to change any of them.

 

[Zaphod B]

One very basic thing about any floating bridge guitar: it's not in tune until you can check the tuning of all 6 strings and not have to change any of them.

I think that could be said of any guitar.....

 

[ggunn]

I think that could be said of any guitar.....

Well, yes, OK, but (as I am very sure you know) floating bridge guitars are much worse about the changing of tension on any one string affecting the pitch of all the others than are hardtails. I can usually make a quarter tone correction on one string of my Les Paul and get away with not checking all the rest of the strings; not so on my Strat.

 

[rokinrandy]

I could just buy a guitar that doesn't have a floating bridge, but I really like my Talman. Do you think this is weird?

The Ibanez Talman is a fine and underated instrument..
If you like it who cares what others think..
But If you like it as much as you say you do then quit hating the floyd rose floating bridge and put it to good use intead

 

[castlerock]

That's what I've been trying to think of, off and on, for the last couple of years - and a surface mount to boot.

I'm not wealthy yet.

speaking of surface mount...what ever happened to the washburn wonderbar???
the idea of not losing wood for a trem always appealed to me.

one of the guitarist in a band i was in put one on his ibanez destroyer and loved it. i played it and thought it was pretty damn sweet too.

 

[Light]

If you do a little research you can find some you tube clips that go through a step by step on setting up a Floyd Rose. It isn't a big deal. Most people don't like Floyds out of ignorence. If you take the time to learn about your instrument it won't be a problem to change strings/tune.

You know what? I've set up at least dozens of the damn things, maybe even hundreds, and I just flat out hate them. They take forever, and are obnoxious as hell. A real PITA. Ick!


Light

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

 

[Micter]

You know what? I've set up at least dozens of the damn things, maybe even hundreds, and I just flat out hate them. They take forever, and are obnoxious as hell. A real PITA. Ick!


Light

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

Of everyone here I would think that you could rip through a Floyd set up in a half hour. They aren't that hard to set up. Do you block the bridge or do you just bite the bullet and retune 4 or 5 times til ya get it right?

 

[Zaphod B]

speaking of surface mount...what ever happened to the washburn wonderbar???
the idea of not losing wood for a trem always appealed to me.

one of the guitarist in a band i was in put one on his ibanez destroyer and loved it. i played it and thought it was pretty damn sweet too.

I've never heard of it. Do you have any pictures or a description?

 

[XLR]

bump.












.

 

[punkin]

The fastest way to get used to a Floyd, is to remove all strings and set-up from scratch. I showed a couple of students that, now they love the Floyds.

Same old story...you either like them or hate them. I find that the folks that like them have "figured them out".

I'm in the "like 'em" club. I figure that if a string breaks it's probably time to just replace them all. Break out the wire cutters and set Floyd free. It's a good time to take it out and clean the the pocket out, clean things up with an old tooth brush and put a full set of strings back on. Start to stop...about 10-15 minutes. Just want to be sure with a fresh set of strings that you leave enough adjustment in the tail end tuners to compensate for a little extra string stretch but once it settles in, it's good until the next string breakage.

If you're changing string gauge, well, that takes a bit more time and a bit more patience when trying to get Floyd to lay horizontal but it's still pretty much the same deal.

 

[Light]

Of everyone here I would think that you could rip through a Floyd set up in a half hour. They aren't that hard to set up. Do you block the bridge or do you just bite the bullet and retune 4 or 5 times til ya get it right?

I can't "rip through" any setup in 30 minuites. Our shop rate is $80 dollars an hour, and an average setup is about $75-85. Figure that out. To do a Floyd RIGHT (the only thing we are willing to do) is $125, at least. Again, figure it out. We don't do any job unless we are doing it right, and to do a Floyd right is at least $125.


Light

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

 

[amra]

You guys charge $125 to change the strings on a Floyd Rose?

 

[Light]

You guys charge $125 to change the strings on a Floyd Rose?

$80 an hour, multiplied by the amount of time to do it right.


Yes.



Light

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

 

[Polska_77]

Holy fucken shit, That's more than my guitar is worth

 

[Greg_L]

Floyds are cool like CC Deville.

 

[GONZO-X]

get yourself a kahler, and be done with it.

i did, in 1984, and never looked back!!
LOL

seriously, it's a no brainer.

i've always liked the sound of my kahler on my all koa axe, better than any of the other rose setups i've had/played....

the brass is key.

i have another one with stainless steel rollers, don't like it nearly as much...

any float, will get knocked out of tune when you loose a string...

but once i have my strings broken in, stretched out, and locked down, i can literally do anything i want with the trem, and it's always in tune.


the kahler, is just dirt simple.

 

[MCI2424]

If you do a little research you can find some you tube clips that go through a step by step on setting up a Floyd Rose. It isn't a big deal. Most people don't like Floyds out of ignorence. If you take the time to learn about your instrument it won't be a problem to change strings/tune.

True, but I really hate the sound that Floyd's have on a Fender Strat. I have had a few real Floyd's in the past and the sound is distinctive. The Fender whammy is much better sounding to my ears.

 

[ggunn]

$80 an hour, multiplied by the amount of time to do it right.


Yes.

Excuse my ignorance, but since I've never had or even played a guitar with a FRB on it I really don't know. Do you have to "set up" the thing every time you change the strings? It would seem to me that if you are staying with the same type and gauge strings, just putting the new ones on and bringing them up to pitch would bring it back in. One string at a time, maybe?