Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Floyd Style Bridge Set Up

Can I just say, setting up a floating Floyd Rose style tremolo is a total pain?

I'm not talking changing strings on a Floyd--I'm not sure why people think that is difficult. I am talking intonation set up. Even with the cool Peterson Strobe tuning software I bought it was just absolutely no fun at all. No wonder luthiers charge a good penny to get it done.

I won't go into the specifics, since they are already posted. I just want to say that I would sure like to find or come up with some tool that will hold the saddle in position while you tighten the saddle screw. Instead, you try to hold the saddle in the position that you guess it should be in... while you try to keep the string out of the way... while you tighten the saddle screw again. Retune the string and test the intonation. Got it right? Great! Didn't, and you get to repeat the process again & again... with each string. Bleaaaah!
If it wasn't floating, I am betting it would be much easier. Setting up the Wilkinson tremolo on my hacked Strat was cake by comparison. Next time, I think I am letting my local luthier take care of my Schaller Floyd.

For what it's worth, the Wilkinson tremolo; Planet Wave locking tuners; Graph Tech string trees; and graphite nut on my "Super Strat" make for a superior tremolo set up. Even with aggressive usage, it stays in tune as well as the Floyd any day--ultra dive-bombs and all. It's not floating but it definitely gets the job done.

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