Re-stringing a floyd rose

brendansmith

Lads this is doing my head in,

The floating bridge keeps rising up too far.

Could anyone run me through how to restring it?

Don1

Have you changed the strings? A new set of strings sometimes cause it to rise up a bit. If they are a thicker guage it definitely will rise. Fixable by tightening the screws in the back of the guitar that the springs grip. Only a tiny amount of movement is required!

Voodu Child

The tension on the strings needs to be balanced by the tension of the springs (in the rear, remove the plate if needed).

The springs are anchored to a 'claw' in the rear cavity, and by tightening the claw in or out, you increase/decrease the spring tension.

It is a balancing act, and it takes a little time to find it, especially until you get the hang of it.

Make small adjustments and re-tune at each step, you'll get there in the end. Its important to stretch the strings before 'finalising' your setup, or else you'll come back in a few days and it'll be at the wrong angle again.

brendansmith

Thanks lads, one more thing
How do you stretch out your string?

How far is far enough without risking breakage?

fguihen

I always found it easier to restring a floyd rose one string at a time, so you never have less than 5 strings on the guitar at a time, thus balancing the tension against the springs.

if you must remove all the strings, such as when cleaning the fretboard or something like that, what i done was to attach all the new strings, but with no tension.

dont tune up one string fully while all the rest have not tension. it takes the 6 strings to balance against the springs, not 1. tune them all up gradually, but tune up the high E a little more each time until the High E is in tune, and although all the rest are not tuned, they have significant tension on them.

Next tune the B string. When the B String is tuned, the High E will be flat, so tune that again, along with the B string until both are in tune.

next tune the G string. this will make the B and high E strings flat again. tune them, and the G until all 3 are in tune.

Do the same for the rest of the strings up to the Low e.

Your guitar should be tuned properly now, and the string tension balanced against the spring tension.

Fun Fun Fun!!! If its your first time, set aside 3 or so hours to get this done!

Voodu Child

brendansmith wrote: »

How far is far enough without risking breakage?

The wound strings (EAD) stretch a lot, and should be pretty difficult to break, so don't worry too much about them. You would be surprised how much stretch is in them.The unwound, not so much, and easier to break.

You will develop a feel for it, and you will undoubtably break a few along the way. I used to buy a brand of strings that came with spare high-Es for that very reason.

How do you stretch out your string?

Just grab it in the middle and pull it up, maybe stretch it side to side a little. Check the tuning and it will have gone flat, so re-tune it. Keep doing it until it doesnt go flat anymore.

Everytime you re-tune it, the bridge will angle up a little more, so you see the important of stretching. If you don't stretch now, your whole setup will just go out of whack over the life of the string.

darrenw5094

Sounds like you have replaced them with a heavier string gauge.
That's why the bridge is rising up too high. If you do that, you must tighten the counter springs on the back. It's a balance job alright and can take quite a while to get used to. The chances are, the Floyd was set up for 9's.

The easiest way in future, is to take of one string and replace that string with the new string and tune up. Then do the same with the next string. And on and on untill all 6 are then done.

brendansmith

Yeah ye are right about the gauge, i have 10s on it now so it must have been 9s on it before.

Ill tighten up the screw and see how she goes.

darrenw5094

Better off putting 9's back on. Unless you want 10's. The 9's will go on with out any bridge changes. Just tuning up is a nightmare with all 6 strings together when you are inexperienced.

rgjmce

If you did put on heavy strings, you will need to put an extra spring in the back to even out the balance. Also have a look on youtube their are plenty of good videos to show you how to re-string it.

Demeyes

rgjmce wrote: »

If you did put on heavy strings, you will need to put an extra spring in the back to even out the balance. Also have a look on youtube their are plenty of good videos to show you how to re-string it.

You won't need another spring going to 10's. (presuming there is 3 on the guitar already)

Paolo_M

I've found that, if you like to remove all the strings together when changing, the best way to do it is to place a AA battery under the bridge before you remove them.
Then put on each of the 6/7 new strings and tighten each just to the point before they start pulling on the bridge.
Then tighten each one slightly together, bit by bit, until you reach pitch. The battery should now slide out, if your bridge was balanced properly in the first place, and you're good to go.
I've also found that if you've already made a balls of it by tightening one at a time, then taking them all off and start again with the battery is much quicker.
As the lads mentioned, if you've gone for heavier tension then your bridge will pull slightly forward anyway. This can be corrected by tightening the springs.

rgjmce

Demeyes wrote: »

You won't need another spring going to 10's. (presuming there is 3 on the guitar already)

You will depending on how heavy the strings are (of course for 10's it will be fine)

Voodu Child

No point in arguing whether you will/wont need another spring.

Its a maybe. Depends entirely on the strength of the springs, length of the cavity etc.

No point in arguing over a maybe :pac:

brendansmith

Right lads, problem fixed.

Thanks everyone for your input, some seriously sound advice.

Now for my next problem, but ill make a new thread.

darrenw5094

How did we fix it Mr. Smith?? Just curious!!!

brendansmith

darrenw5094 wrote: »

How did we fix it Mr. Smith?? Just curious!!!

Tightened up the screws at the back.
Still not perfect but im happy enough to leave it as is now.