floating trem/non floating trem what's the difference?

Recon

as the title reads whats the difference between them?

jcoote

non floating only allows the user to lower the pitch of the notes being played... the floating system allows both lowering (by pressing the trem bar towards the body of the guitar) and raising (by pulling the ba away from the guitar) of the notes.. most non floating don't have any protection against detuning also :cool:

Doctor J

With a non floating trem the baseplate of the trem sits against the body, meaning it won't go sharp if you pull back on the trem bar or break a string, because there is nowhere for it to go. A folating trem is set up in a neutral position where the tension of the tuned strings pulling it forward is equal to the springs pulling it back. You can sharpen pitch by pulling back on the trem bar but also, if you break a string, the load of the springs is greater than the load of the strings and the trem is pulled back, making the remaining strings go sharp. The floating trems, though more unstable, are more fun.

-=al=-

yep all that stuff^^^ the tension of the strings relies on the tension of the springs, and the Bridge rests or "floats" inbetween the 2 so u can sharpen or flatten the notes by moving the bar

they're much more fun and u can do a whole wider range of things with them i wont buy a guitar without them now! but if u break a string on stage with one ur ****ed cause the tension of the strings isnt as good, so ****s up the whole bridge, i kinda explained that ina ****ed up way

Doctor J

Perhaps if you got your keyboard fixed so it didn't jam on the * key?

-=al=-

Damn cencors!!

jcoote

i don't see the big ****ing deal its only **** like **** **** **** **** :rolleyes:

It wasn't me!

Yeah, I'm setting mine up at the moment and trying to get everything balanced is a nightmare. So far it's taken me about three hours and I ain't done yet. :rolleyes:

jcoote

i found it better to leave loadsa slack to play with at the end of the bridge.. of course thats on an ibanez trem

It wasn't me!

Mine is an Ibanez. RG. I've just got to deal with any truss rod adjustments, pickup adjustments and I should be done. Then it's going in its case and thence in the Buy and Sell.

feylya

Why do people find it so hard to set up a Floyd? Had a guy down here, playing an S series Ibanez with a Lo-Trs piece of crap. It's arse was way up in the air. About 15-20 minutes later, armed with only a screwdriver, an allen key and a sleeping bag and it was sorted. Easy stuff

It wasn't me!

Mine's lovely and flat now. It was starting to get a bit high, which was why I went to the trouble in the first place. Should be grand in a short while though.

Recon

are the bc richs with the floyd rose trem floating trems?

Doctor J

Yep, and some of them are Floyd Rose Speedloader trems, which are definitely an acquired taste (no tuners on the headstock). Generally, the vast majoritu of Floyd Rose equipped guitars will be floating.

-=al=-

thats how i have mine set up i like it like that and suits me fine, + yeah they arent hard to set up, Once u got it set up everyhting fine its easy... i tune it once lock it and after that all i need to do is fine tune it, it has great tuning stability for the amount of whammy bar abuse i give it

Oh and it goes

Edge Pro > floys Roses

feylya

Agreed. They do indeed rock. The Lo TRS sucks donkey balls though.

Recon

feylya wrote:

The Lo TRS sucks donkey balls though.

what's a Lo TRS?

Doctor J wrote:

definitely an acquired taste (no tuners on the headstock).

no tuners??

how do i tune the guitar?

i was looking at a bc rich warlock platinum in a shop in cork and the neck of the guitar was meeting the body at a bit of an angle with made it look crap, i code see the untreated wood of the neck. Are all the warlocks like that or was it just because the one in the shop was ****?

feylya

Recon wrote:

what's a Lo TRS?

An Ibanez Floyd Rose copy.

Recon wrote:

no tuners??

how do i tune the guitar?

With the fine tuners on the bridge.

curtains

Can anyone explain to me why my tremelo bar doesn't seem to work properly. It takes effort just to get it to slightly alter a note never mind a chord. I thought this just was the way it was but last ngiht I saw a guy playing a fender strat (it's non-floating) and he only had to abrley swing the thing and he got a dreamy swish kind of sound.

feylya

Any chance in any more information about your guitar?

curtains

It's a Vintage Strat, with a humbucker in the bridge, bought alst year. Non floating tremolo. Thanks

feylya

Is the bridge blocked? Have you tried loosening the springs? Have you done anything to try and make it easier? What sort of bridge is it?

curtains

Yes i've tried loosing the springs but it made almost no difference. I don't know what you mean by the bridge being blocked. It's just the normal kind of bridge you find on a stratocaster guitar.

feylya

Is there a lump of wood stuck in the back stopping it from moving? Is it two post or six screws holding the trem to the body?

curtains

No wood as far as I can remember. 2 screws.

feylya

Does it look something like this:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar_tremolos/1/Hipshot_Tremolo/Pictures.html#details

curtains

Yeah almost the same, but there are two screws.

feylya

How many springs are in the back?

curtains

Sorry! I meant two springs rather than 2 screws (but there are 2 screws)! lol

curtains

These type of guitars (tho I have an older model)
http://www.jhs.co.uk/vintageelectric.html

feylya

Does the bridge move at all?

curtains

yes a little, works well enough for single notes, but is too stiff to affect whole chords.

feylya

That doesn't really make sense. If you can move the bridge to effect one note, it will effect the rest of the strings during a chord.

curtains

No it requires a fair bit of pressure downwards to affect one note, to keep all six strings down at one time is a much bigger problem.

feylya

The effort required to change the pitch of one string is the same effort that is required to change the pitch of all strings. That's the way the thing is designed.

curtains

well then somethings wrong, and i really want to fix it.

feylya

Let me get this straight. You play a chord like a D and push down on the trem arm and it's tougher to push than if you played the 3rd fret on the high E and pushed down?

curtains

yep

curtains

or at least for the same amount of pressure, the single note sounds okay while the chord just sounds crap.

feylya

Trem sitting properly on the screws? Was it ever easy to use?

curtains

Well, you see, I don't know what is proper for it. No it was never easy, this is my first guitar with a trem. Thanks

feylya

curtains wrote:

or at least for the same amount of pressure, the single note sounds okay while the chord just sounds crap.

Of course it's going to sound crap with a vintage style tremelo. When you move the trem, you're realising different tensions from each string so they don't all detune the same.

curtains

maybe, but I seen a guitar only last night get nice 60's swish sounds with the same type of tremelo (with little effort too)

feylya

Swish sounds? Any chance of an example in a song?

curtains

To be quite honest, I can't think of a great example this second, it's just one of those things you know. The closest thing I can think of would be Here Comes Your Man by the Pixies, a kind of surf sound.

feylya

Fraid I've no idea. I'll let someone else deal with it.

-=al=-

good for u feylya sounds like a hassle of a prob alrite, dont worry about it u can alwas go to a tech to get it set up properly jus messa round with it check up sites read manuals trems are not that hard to set up