Floyd Rose height & backward restringing

BossArky

Hi folks,

Yesterday I restrung my Jackon King flying V and cleaned the mud from the cakeboard. Needless to say it is looking sexah once again and sounds like the sirens of satan.

Now, whilst restringing I decided to mess with my floating bridge Floyd Rose. I totally unscrewed the two screws at either side of it, so that it could wobble all over the gaff.

Once I had the strings back on, I retightend these two screws, so much so that I was getting fret buzz as the bridge was too low. I have loosed it a bit, and it plays 90% ok. I reckon I just have to put it a bit higher and I'll be fine.

Is there any particular height recommendation or is it just a case of suck it and see? I'm kinda wishing I hadn't unscrewed those bits and just left it as it was setup initially.

Another thing, I restrung it "backwards". i.e. have the ball ends up top and then cut the string to fit into the bridge clamps. I found this about 10 times quicker than putting the ball ends down at the bridge, and having to wind the machine heads until the cows come home. Anyone else do this?

Voodu Child

The height of you're floyd is the same as with any bridge - not so low that there's excessive buzz, and not so high that it's really hard to play.

In between is a whole range of personal preference - some guys like really high SRV style action, other guys can tolerate a bit of buzz in return for a super-low action. So yeah, just go by feel, you'll get an idea of what you like yourself. Don't forget to balance the trem so it sits at right angles to the posts.

As for backwards stringing, that's the handiest and best way to string a floyd. Everybody does it, except guys who havent copped it yet.

BossArky

Tonight I messed around with the screws to get rid of the fret buzz and made the bloody thing worst. To top it off I broke the high E.

It seems that my new strings are pulling the sh!te out of the bridge and you can now put your hand under the bridge where it is being pulled up. This renders the tremolo useless, as you cannot push it down more than a mm before it hits the body.

Do you think I'm using strings to too heavy a guage? They are 10's. I wish I had left the bridge the way it was.

feylya

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/action.htm
http://www.jemsite.com/tech/

Voodu Child

BossArky wrote: »

Tonight I messed around with the screws to get rid of the fret buzz and made the bloody thing worst. To top it off I broke the high E.

It seems that my new strings are pulling the sh!te out of the bridge and you can now put your hand under the bridge where it is being pulled up. This renders the tremolo useless, as you cannot push it down more than a mm before it hits the body.

Do you think I'm using strings to too heavy a guage? They are 10's. I wish I had left the bridge the way it was.

As I said in my post above, you've got to balance the trem so it sits level.

The strings pull it one way, and the springs underneath pull it back the other. You've just got to adjust the spring tension to match that of the strings.

Follow the detailed guides linked above and you should be grand. It's tricky to get the hang of initially, pain-in-the-ass even, but it's really not that difficult once you get your head round it.

10's should be alright, I don't like floyds with heavy-guage personally, but it'll work fine. Note that you may need an extra spring in there depending on your current setup.

BossArky

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll play around and report back.