Floyd Rose Installing, Making Templates, Setting Action, Restringing, Intonation, etc

From Guitar Gear Building and Customising Wiki

Hi all I've seen way to many questions about Floyd Roses all over the place, so i figured, someone has to make a tutorial to help out these people and stop all these questions. So here we go....

INSTALLATION

Templates: You can simply buy these from stew mac or make your own You will need: Bandsaw, router Ball bearing router bit Plywood or something similar These, Measurements in mm, inches available Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4

1: Draw up pics 1 and 3 on the plywood. 2: Cut out the drawings on the Plywood with a Bandsaw, Jigsaw, Handsaw or router

Routing for the nut 1: Using the jig shown on this website route for the nut. If you don't have enough room on the end of your fretboard you can use a wood filler or a bit of wood and make a small platform on the headstock. Dont cover up the truss rod

Routing the body 1: Fill in the original holes from your old bridge using wood filler 2: Put your neck on for a mockup and measure from the nut to the 12th fret. double that measurement and that is your scale length and where the strings should meet the saddles 3: Clamp your body down to something flat and secure. Make sure the clamps won't get in the way of the router 4: Using clamps or double sided tape, put the template onto the body in the right place 5: Using the router with a ball bearing bit, route out the cavities to the right depth shown in pic 2 6: Now that you have routed the body put your floyd in as a mockup and measure where the holes will be for the bushings. (LFR sometimes differ) 7: Using a drill press and a slightly smaller drill bit than the bushings drill the holes for the bushings 8: Hammer the bushings in using a hammer and a piece of scrapwood. (Use glue if you want to) 9: Screw in the little things that go into the bushings and hold the bridge in place

Routing on a carved top 1: Make the template on some sort of wood about 1" or so thick. Make sure you put the cutout right in the middle of the board. The board must be wide enough to reach over the whole body 2: Make sides the same height as your guitar 3: Nail the sides to the top You should have something that kinda looks like a table (like this) ___________ .................|.................| 4: Slide it over your body and route out the cavity. This way you are routing on a flat surface If you do not understand this, post below and I will try explaining it more to my best ability, Just think of it this way, You are making a small table to put over the top of your guitar

Routing for a Seven String Floyd: Use the above tutorials only using these pictures for the templates... All measurements are in inches, if you need the pictures with mm's Pm me Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4

Replacing a Tune – O – Matic bridge on a guitar with a neck angle to a FR This is only possible if your guitar has a bolt on neck as you will need to take the neck off. (or any other type of neck that you can get off the body with damaging it. Step 1: Firstly disassemble the guitar (including taking the neck off). Step 2: Fill in all 4 of the holes from the bridge and tailpiece with wood filler or regular glue mixed with sawdust. Step 3: Put the neck back on as a mock up with something underneath the headstock so that the neck is level with the guitar (no neck angle) Step 4: Find the scale length and mark out where the FR will go. Step 5: Measure the gap in the neck pocket between the neck and the body and make a shim. Your neck should now sit flat. (A little neck angle may be required, depending on how you like your action) Step 6: Take your neck of and glue the shim in place. Step 7: Get your templates (All the way up the top it teaches you how to make them) and put them in the right spot on the guitar. Step 8: Follow instructions on routing at the top, on either a curved top or a flat top.

People seem to understand pics better so heres a drawing i did in MS Paint, hope its clear enough. Clicky

dont do this :no:

COMPLETE SETUP

Reduced: 62% of original size [ 1024 x 571 ] - Click to view full image

RESTRINGING Single Locking 1: Put a block(or anything stable ) underneath the fine tuners 2: Unscrew the string clamp screw on the nut 3: Feed the strings through the little tube in the bridge 4: Take your strings and feed them underneath the string retainer then through the tuner like normal, stretch the strings and then tune your guitar. 5: You should start off with one spring and then as you put every 2 strings on add another spring (if you are using 3 springs, which is most common) After all strings and springs are on, you will need to keep retuning the guitar about 3-4 times until right. 6: Put the string clamp screw back on the nut and tighten them. 7: Fine tune your guitar using the fine tuners on the bridge

Stringing Double Locking Floyd Follow steps 1-3^ 4: Snip the ball ends off your strings and put them in front of the little clamping block. 5: Tighten the clamps in the bridge 6: Take your strings and feed them underneath the string retainer then through the tuner like normal, stretch the strings and then tune your guitar. 7: You should start off with one spring and then as you put every 2 strings on add another spring (if you are using 3 springs, which is most common) After all strings and springs are on, you will need to keep retuning the guitar about 3-4 times until right. 8: Put the string clamp screws back on the nut and tighten them. 9: Fine tune your guitar using the fine tuners on the bridge

videos for the Double locking floyd rose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwNVjNohOt4 http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=IePfzUzlDng&...feature=related

INTONATION You need to get the intonation right or else your guitar won't stay in tune. If your guitar is 25" scale the distance between the nut and the 12th fret must be 12 1/2" and the same distance from the 12th fret to where the string meets the saddles on the bridge. So you must adjust each saddle forwards or backwards so that each string is the right scale. To do this you must: 1: Measure the distance between the nut and the 12th fret and double to find the scale length. 2: Loosen the saddles one at a time and move either forwards or backwards so that each saddle is the correct scale length and tighten again.

SETTING ACTION Lower Action = Strings lower Higher Action = Strings higher

To make the action higher, loosen the trem posts (the ones screw into the bushings) To make the action lower, tighten the trem posts in the bridge. Play around with this until you find the right action for you.

Floyd Principle

Reduced: 86% of original size [ 744 x 564 ] - Click to view full image

SINGLE LOCKING AND DOUBLE LOCKING DIFFERENCES

Single locking trems use plain old strings, sliding in from the rear, over the saddle and then through the locking nut to the tuner. This is a good choice for someone that doesnt pull hard or divebomb alot. The double locking trem is a bit more complicated to string up but certainly more stable. The string is more stable for harder trem use.

Different Types of Floyds F: Fits OFR route N: Doesn't fit, PM me for template Original Floyd Rose F

Floyd Rose II F

Floyd Rose Pro F

Floyd Rose 7 String N

Floyd Rose Speedloader Tremolo N

Floyd Rose Speedloader fixed bridge N

Floyd Rose Single Locking F

First Floyd Rose made N

Les Paul Floyd Rose N

Ibanez Edge N

Ibanez Edge II N

Ibanez Edge III N

Ibanez Fixed Edge N

Ibanez Low Pro Edge N

Ibanez Double Edge N

Ibanez Edge Zero N

Ibanez Edge Pro N

Licensed Schaller Floyd Rose F

Licensed Gotoh Floyd Rose F

Licensed Guitar Fetish Fast Loader Floyd Rose F

Licensed Mighty mite x3 N

Standard Licensed Double Locking Floyd Rose F & N

Standard Licensed Single Locking Floyd Rose F & N

Kahler Spyder N

Helpful Websites http://www.georgemangos.com/floyd/index.htm http://www.floydrose.com/video.html http://www.floydrose.com/originaltremolo.html http://www.glowingtubes.com/p/FloydTuning.htm##disc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Rose