You Floyd tards

[DaDoc]

A Bigsby and a Vintage Strat Trem can stay in tune, that's true...
But you have to be really careful how to use them. You ain't doing a Divebomb with a Bigsby .

True. One does need a Floyd if that's what they're into..Personally I'm not. I'm more into Ventures-style Trem action.

 

[saxon68]

Yep, I have one FR guitar that makes me nuts trying to tune. When I tune 1 string, the other 5 go out of tune. Fucking madness. I'm gonna have to try them hollow point thingys.

Hollow points won’t help tuning, they’re for intonation.

block your floyd so it can’t move, then tune up, lock it down, adjust the screws in back to get it back in tune. It just adjusts spring tension

 

[PowerTube44]

I've owned Floyd's since 1986, and have them on almost all of my guitars, minus the Strats. The main reason some people hate them is because they never learned to properly set them up.

Among the things I've seen:

The ball ends of the strings being inserted into the bridge saddles, instead of cutting them off. Clueless.
The bridge tilted downward at almost a 45-degree angle, because some genius thought that was the way to set the action. Clueless.
The locking nut blocks being turned sideways. Clueless.

I've seen others I can't think of at the moment. Here are some tips for the Floyd haters:

When you change strings, insert something soft but firm under the rear of the bridge, something that holds the bridge level, or close.
Remove the locking nuts.
Change your strings like you would on any other guitar.
Leave the locking nuts off or loose for now.
Stretch your strings, like on any other guitar.
Level your fine tuners. That is, turn each one until it's roughly at the center point vertically.
Now tune with the tuning pegs, like on any other guitar.
Once it's tuned, remove whatever you used to prop the bridge.
This will slightly mess up your tuning. No big deal. Retune.
Once it's tuned again, lock down the locking nuts.
Now fine tune with the fine tuners.

You're all set. Once the strings stretch slightly over a day or so, this is the best tuning stability you'll ever have.

 

[Eric'45]

Another thing to add- a Floyd that is set up floating should be parallel to the strings. It's a bad Idea to change string gauges and tunings on a Floyd Guitar without adjusting the spring tension. If the spring tension isn't perfectly balanced to the tension of you preferred string gauge and tuning, your tuning won't be stable.

 

[Jethro Rocker]

Yep, I have one FR guitar that makes me nuts trying to tune. When I tune 1 string, the other 5 go out of tune. Fucking madness. I'm gonna have to try them hollow point thingys.

Yes they do. I use a aPolytune and over sharpen the low E etc so as I tune the others amd it flattens, E gets in tune. With the Poly I can see the effect on all strings and tuning is faster.
Once in tune, stays for months literally.

 

[dro]

I've had a couple Floyd's. Never again. Not that I can't do the deed. Just a pIn in the ass.
And divebombing not where I like to go.
Bigsby.....Naw
I like the vintage G&L trem. Or the Calaham on a Fender.

 

[Deftone]

I'd like to add:

Make small, incremental adjustments when adjusting your OFR, otherwise you'll just be fighting it. I enjoy the process and find it easy.

Parts wear out. Don't expect 30 y.o. springs and other parts that have been abused to work as well as they did when they were new. I've seen springs wear out, lock nuts wear, screws loosen, etc...If there's an issue with an OFR, I look for a problem. I don't blame the design because I know it works.

The OFR system is very good. Very high quality hardened steel parts. Floyd Rose is a Machinist, Engineer, Inventor and a guitarist. He knows what he is doing.

Some of the cheaper, imported FR systems and copies are not as robust and made from lesser quality materials and cheaper manufacturing methods. Don't lump them in with an OFR.

Lastly, if you don't like FR's don't use them. There are countless professionals who use OFR's with great success, there's no argument as to whether or not the system works.

 

[DesolationBlvd]

It looks like more of my guitars have whammies than not, and the plurality if not majority are Floyd Rose. Restringing the Floyd is either easy when it's all set up, done one at a time, and loaded in reverse with the ball end at the tuner, or a pain if I have to fully unstring.

I'm probably going to take my Jackson to get the D-Tuna installed because that does entail fully unstringing to get the bridge blocked off.

That said, I prefer the softer feel of the Kahler.

 

[Jethro Rocker]

I've had a couple Floyd's. Never again. Not that I can't do the deed. Just a pIn in the ass.
And divebombing not where I like to go.
Bigsby.....Naw
I like the vintage G&L trem. Or the Calaham on a Fender.

Whereas I like to pick the guitar up by the bar pointing out the back and shake it up and down etc. Torment and torture it. And it stays in tune. Such fun.