All you ever wanted to know about the Floyd Rose.

Floating Floyds are NOT as difficult to set up as some will have you believe..... even when you change gauges and tuning.

The Secret Weapon is an angled wooden wedge.


When changing strings, I flip the guitar over, dive the bar, and put the fat end of the wedge between the tone block and the guitar body. This keeps the tail end of the guitar propped up in the air.

Change all the strings, locking them in place with a little slack.

Then remove the block and flip it around to the narrow end. Tighten the springs in back a bit.

The narrow end of the block should be pushed in until the bridge is sitting level, and the spring tension will hold the block in place.


Now... begin tuning up your guitar (with the lock nuts open or off). Once all the strings are in tune, you can start checking intonation. If any single string is out of whack, loosen that string, unlock the intonation screw (front edge of saddle) move the saddle, and then lock back down and tune up. Stewmac has a tool that fits at the end of the saddle lock and makes this 1000x easier because you don't even need to loosen the string much.

Once all the strings are tuned, intonated, everything in hunky-dory, then remove the block.

The extra tension of the springs will pull back on the trem, and everything will go sharp.

Just loosen the springs a bit until the trem returns to the level position and VOILA. Your new gauge of strings is all intonated, in tune, and set up.!!!
 
baimun said:
Floating Floyds are NOT as difficult to set up as some will have you believe..... even when you change gauges and tuning.

The Secret Weapon is an angled wooden wedge.


When changing strings, I flip the guitar over, dive the bar, and put the fat end of the wedge between the tone block and the guitar body. This keeps the tail end of the guitar propped up in the air.

Change all the strings, locking them in place with a little slack.

Then remove the block and flip it around to the narrow end. Tighten the springs in back a bit.

The narrow end of the block should be pushed in until the bridge is sitting level, and the spring tension will hold the block in place.


Now... begin tuning up your guitar (with the lock nuts open or off). Once all the strings are in tune, you can start checking intonation. If any single string is out of whack, loosen that string, unlock the intonation screw (front edge of saddle) move the saddle, and then lock back down and tune up. Stewmac has a tool that fits at the end of the saddle lock and makes this 1000x easier because you don't even need to loosen the string much.

Once all the strings are tuned, intonated, everything in hunky-dory, then remove the block.

The extra tension of the springs will pull back on the trem, and everything will go sharp.

Just loosen the springs a bit until the trem returns to the level position and VOILA. Your new gauge of strings is all intonated, in tune, and set up.!!!
Click to expand...

i jam the cardboard pack that comes with the D'Addario strings into the route. works really well. and no loosening or tightening of springs.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
i jam the cardboard pack that comes with the D'Addario strings into the route. works really well. and no loosening or tightening of springs.
Click to expand...

I should clarify... I only tighten the strings against the wedge when I'm trying to change to a different string gauge or re-intonate, simply to keep the bridge from lifting up or dropping.

Like Howie pointed out, if you're just switching to another set of the same strings, you can stick just about any piece of wood/plastic/cardboard/dismemmbered fingers... into the back of the trem cavity to hold the bridge in place. :grin:
 
hi thanks for this post this might be the help i am looking for .. i have the same guitar fernandes revolver pro it's a older one i think a 95 model i cant remember now even though i have seen it stamped on the neck so many times trying to set it up ... my problem was a unplayable high action so i adjusted the truss rod OK i got the neck straight but this was maxing out clockwise on the Allen key with the truss rod so i couldn't turn anymore .. then still the problem high action .... then i realised the pivot posts could be the problem but they were turned all the way down so in to the pivot ( em bushing ? dont know the name for the holes the pivot post go in ) but thats whats causing me the problem the pivot posts are being slowly pulled up by the tension
as i have set the guitar up perfectly with your instructions i still have tuning problems ... i guess this is the pivots bushings i knocked them in with the flat end of a screw driver and hammer
but they must be working loose as tuning isn't bad but string bending knocks it out slightly .. have you had any trouble with or any other Fernande's owners
anyone advice should i remove the pivot posts and re-glue them back in
 
gypsypunk said:
hi thanks for this post this might be the help i am looking for .. i have the same guitar fernandes revolver pro it's a older one i think a 95 model i cant remember now even though i have seen it stamped on the neck so many times trying to set it up ... my problem was a unplayable high action so i adjusted the truss rod OK i got the neck straight but this was maxing out clockwise on the Allen key with the truss rod so i couldn't turn anymore .. then still the problem high action .... then i realised the pivot posts could be the problem but they were turned all the way down so in to the pivot ( em bushing ? dont know the name for the holes the pivot post go in ) but thats whats causing me the problem the pivot posts are being slowly pulled up by the tension
as i have set the guitar up perfectly with your instructions i still have tuning problems ... i guess this is the pivots bushings i knocked them in with the flat end of a screw driver and hammer
but they must be working loose as tuning isn't bad but string bending knocks it out slightly .. have you had any trouble with or any other Fernande's owners
anyone advice should i remove the pivot posts and re-glue them back in
Click to expand...

Are the holes the bushings go in loose? If the bushings are pulling out, you may try pullng the bushings out completely, putting a dab of epoxy in the hole, then reinserting the bushing.

If they are really loose, you may have to fill the holes with a plug and redrill to get them to stay put. Most times, Floyds with bushings don't have that problem, but on an older guitar, anything is possible.
 
A great writeup on how these beasts work!

Last summer I had one of my main axes worked on by a guy who is well known to a lot of pro players (the guy who built the white cloud guitars for Prince and has been luthier to everyone from Allan Holdsworth to Thin Lizzy etc, Dave Rusan). He did a fret levelling and a bunch of other things but he did something that made the guitar one of my favorites:

He retrofitted the guitar with bigger, fatter barrel shaped recesses for the Floyd trem and fatter posts with finer threads and check the result:
http://pod.ath.cx/guitars/soloist/asb-SL2.mp3

That was recorded about ten minutes after I got the guitar home - just amazing, I didn't even need to try to sustain - it just did. It was NOT at all like that before with the stock barrels and posts. The tone was more resonant but the sustain was most noticeable! The tuning stability improved as well.

Made me want to play long, slow phrases instead of crazy fast short bursts.

I never thought such a small change would make such a large improvement in the instrument.

sl2c.jpg
 
^^^That actually makes a lot of sense. The finer the threads, the less slop there'd be. The less slop, the better the coupling between the bridge and the body. Better coupling has to translate to better stability and more sustain. :thu:

Not something I'd have really thought to do though.
 
I can't tell you how many import charvels and jackson's I've done this one very simple upgrade on.... pull out the old coarse-thread grommets and put in the real ones with the fine threads and matching fine-threaded posts. It's amazing how much it not only adds to sustain and tone, but far less tuning problems as the pegs don't slop around.
 
Great thread. Thanks for posting this.

This thread should appeal to Flamencology :lol:
 
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