My Floyd Rose rose....

[Danster]

... that is, when I bend a string, even as little as a half-step, I can see the bridge rising up. This is a problem, as the pitch of other droning strings is lowered when this happens. Is this the norm with a Floyd Rose type bridge? If not, how do ya fix it? I'm new to FR bridges. I'm using 9-42's, and have 3 springs on the bridge. TIA!

Cheers,
Dan

[szulc]

This is typical of wang bars in general. You think this is bad ? Wait till you break a string mid song!

[Danster]

Originally posted by szulc
This is typical of wang bars in general. You think this is bad ? Wait till you break a string mid song! Well, my other geetar has a strat-type whammy and I've never had a problem with it. There may be a problem, but if so, its not noticeable to my ears or eyes.

It's a nightmare trying to tune that dang FR guitar. I'm probably doing something wrong. And as far as springs on the tremolo, you don't really have any choice, right? You just have to use the correct number that will allow you to tune it, or am I off base?

[metaljustice83]

when you tune it after the nut is locked are you using the fine tuners on the F.R? tune it up then lock the nut and make sure all the fine tuners at the F.R are about half way out/in thats the way i do it. so you can go either way. if none of this made sense i'm sorry. you also have to make sure you stretch your strings alot when you put them on (one at a time by the way)

[szulc]

When you are in tune at the pitch you are going to tune to (Forever) the plate of the floyd should be parallel with the body of the guitar. Your strat is doing this also. You might have springs with a different spring constant (stronger or weaker) than you have on your strat.

[Bizarro]

Tuning a Floyd quickly and accurately takes a lot of experience, trial and error! Here's a few things that helped me.

1. Rough tune with the locking nut open. Make sure the fine tuners are all set in the middle so you can tune up or down when you lock in.

2. Locking usually makes the strings go sharp just a hair. Check each string after locking and make a mental note if they're sharp or flat.

3. If a string is flat and you raise the pitch, the other 5 strings will go slightly flat. (the strings are counterbalanced by the springs in back) Likewise, if your string is sharp and you lower the pitch, the other 5 strings will go sharp. It's the yin and yang! Use your mental notes from step 2 and try compensate using the principles of step 3.

If this sounds like a hassle, it is!:p But I guarantee that if you experiment a bit it will get much easier, and in a year or so you won't even think about it.

By all means, follow James' advice on keeping the bridge level (parallel) with the guitar body! This cannot be over-emphasized! It might take some adjusting of the springs and tuning to get this right.

For strat bridges, I always crank them down so I can't raise the pitch with the whammy. This really stabilizes the whole system, and if you break a string your guitar will stay in tune (mostly).

I've heard the Hipshot Tremsetter devices are really great and they stabilize the Floyd. Check out Harmony Central for more info. I don't own one...

Van Halen's guitars with the Floyd Rose are set against the body. They can't be pulled back to raise the pitch. I imagine he ran into the same problems we have all encountered.

[Danster]

Originally posted by Bizarro
Tuning a Floyd quickly and accurately takes a lot of experience, trial and error! Here's a few things that helped me.Bizarro, thanks so much for helping the needy! :) This type info is just what I was after.

1. Rough tune with the locking nut open. Make sure the fine tuners are all set in the middle so you can tune up or down when you lock in.

2. Locking usually makes the strings go sharp just a hair. Check each string after locking and make a mental note if they're sharp or flat.OK, so there's my first mistake. I had been rough tuning with the nut open, but realizing that locking the nut would sharpen the strings, I was rough tuning all the strings a little flat and leaving the fine tuners way out in order to adjust as much as necessary. As you can imagine, by the time I got the to the top string, and got it tuned with the fine tuners, the bottom strings were now flat again, so I'd loosen the nut, and start the process over, do it all again, and again, ad nauseum. So it makes sense to forget rough tuning all the strings flat like I had been doing. Seems so obvious now, duh! :)

3. If a string is flat and you raise the pitch, the other 5 strings will go slightly flat. (the strings are counterbalanced by the springs in back) Likewise, if your string is sharp and you lower the pitch, the other 5 strings will go sharp. Yeah, that's the big problemo. :(

If this sounds like a hassle, it is!:p But I guarantee that if you experiment a bit it will get much easier, and in a year or so you won't even think about it.A year! :eek: I guess I'll have to work tuning practice into my regular practice routine. ;)

By all means, follow James' advice on keeping the bridge level (parallel) with the guitar body! This cannot be over-emphasized! It might take some adjusting of the springs and tuning to get this right.I'm not sure how to do this. I was about to come to the conclusion that one is at the mercy of the FR for action settings. I mean, when I get the thing tuned, the bridge is "where it is". If I add another spring, the action is too low even with all the strings sharp. I've got three springs on it now, the middle one straight, and the other two angled for more tension. There's nothing "between" this configuration and four strings, right? OK, this just hit me. I could adjust the claw by screwing it in a bit more. Is that the thing to do to make fine adjustments to the level of the bridge?

For strat bridges, I always crank them down so I can't raise the pitch with the whammy. This really stabilizes the whole system, and if you break a string your guitar will stay in tune (mostly).This is how my other guitar is set up, although I can't take credit for it. It was that way when I got it, and I never messed with the springs.

I've heard the Hipshot Tremsetter devices are really great and they stabilize the Floyd. Check out Harmony Central for more info. I don't own one... Never heard of 'em. From my poking around over there a bit, these devices will keep the pitch from dropping on droning strings when other strings are bent? A guitar store guy was raving about the design of my bridge (its not a true FR, its a Yamaha version). He was talking about a foot built into the bridge that you can put down to hold the bridge in place (limits raising the pitch). I had never had the bridge on the guitar at that point (this is a project guitar I had mentioned in other posts), and so I had even less of a clue at that time about how FR type bridges worked, so it was a little hard for me to follow what he was saying. So yes, the foot is there, I can pull it out and set it so that my bridge won't pull back. But IIRC, he was saying that this was useful during tuning. But I don't see how it would be useful for tuning. As soon as you release the foot, the strings go sharp. Any clues about the purpose of this feature?

[szulc]

In the 80/s when the floyd was new, I use to have a steel bar in the trem cavity to keep the floyd from pulling everything sharp when I broke a string. It pushed up against the sustain block and the other end was up against the other end of the trem cavity, and I had it screwed down with two screws.

[B A Stone]

Floating Floyds are a pain in the butt. I've had mine blocked so I can't pull it up for a few years now. I just recently found out about the tremsetter. I think I'll try it.

Here's a link to a pic. Just click the mini Evo gallery, then hardware, and it's a couple pics after the first.


Vai's site (http://www.vai.com/Machines/guitars1.html)

[EricV]

Very interesting stuff... I recommended to read the whole EVO-special, there´s some good advice in there.
I can perfectly understand Vai´s attachement to this guitar. I feel the same about the stripped Vandenberg-guitar. It really does become a part of your body...

That really is a cool feature
Eric