Any of you ever give up on a floyd rose tremolo?

[Scott Horner]

I've given up on them but mainly because I have absolutely no need for one. I actually just sold my FR equipped guitar.

 

[grywolf627]

A fixed bridge (or a blocked floyd) might be fine for rhythms, in fact, I would like another one just for the simplicity of changing tunings. BUT...for solos...I have to, have to, have to have a (non-blocked) floyd of some sort. It's just too integral to my style. Not to mention, I just prefer the feel of a floyd under my hand when playing. The original Ibanez edge is by FAR the best floyd type of trem I've ever played.

 

[Djabthrash]

OT : do you guys have a properly set-up (means by the books/in a professional way, and fitting your tastes (action height, strings tension, etc)) guitar that has absolutely ZERO buzzing ?

When i took my first (Floyd-Rose equipped) guitar to the luthier, i leaned toward a low action and a decent string tension (i like to feel like i have to dig in the strings when playing). At some point my luthier told me : "If you want lower action, you're gonna start getting a little buzz (even after adjusting the truss rod "properly"), but that's no biggie cuz' it won't get to the point where it's some horrible buzz that distracts you when you play, and when you play through an amp with distortion you don't hear the buzz coming out of your guitar cab speakers". So at the end of the day i reached a compromise where i have a little buzz but a very comfortable guitar for me (low action, hard tension), and it seems that there is no way i can get rid of that little buzz without compromising the action or string tension or something else. Of course i would like to hear no buzz while playing, but it's just a slight buzz and i actually don't hear it out of the guitar cab.

Does that ring a bell to any of you ?

Also, apart from the fact that string buzzing can distract you and annoy you while playing, does it really matter in terms of tone (does it prevent the string from resonating "properly" and does it hardly have any effect on that matter ? Can it shorten your sustain ? Can it alter pitch ? Can it make the string resonate in some uneven way ?
If so, is there a "acceptable" level of buzzing ? (by acceptable i mean that it doesn't cause much of a problem regarding the aforementioned points above (resonance, pitch, unevenness...)).

For those with low action and heavy gauge strings (i use Ernie Balls Medium Light 12-54's on a standard C# guitar (schecter hellraiser C1-FR) with a regular (25'5 ?) neck length (radius ?))

 

[aytchster]

Floyd Rose is the cause of every war since 1979.

Hahaha. +1

Gave up on floyd rose guitars a few years back and I won't be looking back.

Hadi

 

[grywolf627]

Floyd Rose is the cause of every war since 1979.

Says the guy that owns a Kahler.

 

[53Crëw]

For the FR owners : do you guys have a properly set-up (means by the books/in a professional way, and fitting your tastes (action height, strings tension, etc)) guitar that has absolutely ZERO buzzing ?

When i took my first Floyd-Rose equipped guitar to the luthier, i leaned toward a low action and a decent string tension (i like to feel like i have to dig in the strings when playing). At some point my luthier told me : "If you want lower action, you're gonna start getting a little buzz (even after adjusting the truss rod "properly"), but that's no biggie cuz' it won't get to the point where it's some horrible buzz that distracts you when you play, and when you play through an amp with distortion you don't hear the buzz coming out of your guitar cab speakers". So at the end of the day i reached a compromise where i have a little buzz but a very comfortable guitar for me (low action, hard tension), and it seems that there is no way i can get rid of that little buzz without compromising the action or string tension or something else. Of course i would like to hear no buzz while playing, but it's just a slight buzz and i actually don't hear it out of the guitar cab.

Does that ring a bell to any of you ?

Also, apart from the fact that string buzzing can distract you and annoy you while playing, does it really matter in terms of tone (does it prevent the string from resonating "properly" and does it hardly have any effect on that matter ? Can it shorten your sustain ? Can it alter pitch ? Can it make the string resonate in some uneven way ?
If so, is there a "acceptable" level of buzzing ? (by acceptable i mean that it doesn't cause much of a problem regarding the aforementioned points above (resonance, pitch, unevenness...)).

For those with low action and heavy gauge strings (i use Ernie Balls Medium Light 12-54's on a standard C# guitar (schecter hellraiser C1-FR) with a regular (25'5 ?) neck length (radius ?))

Fret buzz is often a tradeoff with low action. It doesn't matter what kind of bridge you have. You have to just decide how much buzz you can live with.

As you lower the action, you can get minor fret buzz, but in most cases, it's not something that is objectionable. As you continue to lower the action, notes can start getting choked, losing sustain, and it can adversely affect the tone of each note.

A Floyd does not cause fret buzz more than other style bridges. Fret buzz is simply a function of how low you set up the strings, and whether the neck has proper relief.

 

[Melb_shredder]

To make a point about the parallel thing...the second you put your finger on a fret, that string is no longer parallel...it doesn't matter at all. Just set up the guitar any way you can so that it doesn't buzz and feels good. You should take it to a tech but if you want to still try yourself, take the shim out of the neck pocket, and make sure the neck bolts are AS TIGHT as you can make them. Adjust the truss rod so that the fretboard is flat or has a LITTLE bit of relief, and adjust the action until you find a good ratio of no buzz/feels good. Forget the parallel thing...if it sounds good and feels good, it is good. If none of that will get it to stop buzzing it might need some fretwork so take it to a good guitar tech.

And about the springs in the back, the conventional way to do it is to set the tremolo so it is parallel to the body at the action you want, BUT, it makes no practical difference except having room to move the bar in both directions. Hell, on some of my guitars with non-recessed floyds I have the springs tightened all the way so that the floyd rests against the inside of the body...more resonance and blocks it into being a one way tremolo.

Sorry to hijack, but regarding what you said about the Floyd position in relation to being parallel to the body, it does matter. If it's resting against the body then the saddles are further from the neck so your intonation will be flat. So that's why it should be parallel

 

[Ozterkvlt]

Never had any problems with the FR in my jackson, and it's only a licensed one. I guess there's lots of lemons among the licensed FR's though, maybe yours is one of the bad ones? Or is it an OFR?

 

[Djabthrash]

OT :

Fret buzz is often a tradeoff with low action. It doesn't matter what kind of bridge you have. You have to just decide how much buzz you can live with.

As you lower the action, you can get minor fret buzz, but in most cases, it's not something that is objectionable. As you continue to lower the action, notes can start getting choked, losing sustain, and it can adversely affect the tone of each note.

A Floyd does not cause fret buzz more than other style bridges. Fret buzz is simply a function of how low you set up the strings, and whether the neck has proper relief.

Thanks that's exactly the kind of feedback i was looking for !

And sorry if it was a bit off-thread (it has more to do with general guitar set-up than Floyd Rose issues).

(I edited my first post to remove any Floyd Rose references)

 

[Notuern]

Personally i cant stand low action.. i usually set up my guitars with quite a bit of relief and medium-high action, that way i get loads of sustain, dynamics and harmonics.
I get other issues with intonation, but with my playing style its rarely a problem.

 

[Djabthrash]

OT :

Personally i cant stand low action.. i usually set up my guitars with quite a bit of relief and medium-high action, that way i get loads of sustain, dynamics and harmonics.
I get other issues with intonation, but with my playing style its rarely a problem.

I'd use medium/high action but i really have a hard time (= stuff gets hard to play, feels a bit uncomfortable and gets painful (wrists) as a result) playing riffs with tons of power chords slides in it (i'm mainly into hardcore/thrash/punk/death so there's tons of them when i play ) and the low action helps a lot for that
Depends of how hard your strings feel (tension) and if you have tough guy forearms/hands/fingers like Zakk Wylde (= tons of strength and no pain while playing hard on heavy gauge strings) or if you're just a pussy like me
And even with low action i can't say i play effortlessly...

I'd be curious to see if some guys can pull off some Dying Fetus/Suffocation/Terror/Exodus with super high action

 

[Paulie!]

A) Take it to a tech and have it set it up properly for the tuning you want to use

B) I personally string the guitar backwards... the string ball will keep the string from sliding around on the tuning post and you only have to cut once.
Note: This also allows you to leave the nut unlocked if you wanted to (I mean, I wouldn't leave it unlocked for a show, but I'd leave it unlocked about 90% of the time...)

C) I'm not a huge dive bomb-whammy bar kinda guy so I really don't use it for all that, but knowing the guitar is intune from one song to the next is a priceless thing

 

[Notuern]

OT :

I'd use medium/high action but i really have a hard time (= stuff gets hard to play, feels a bit uncomfortable and gets painful (wrists) as a result) playing riffs with tons of power chords slides in it (i'm mainly into hardcore/thrash/punk/death so there's tons of them when i play ) and the low action helps a lot for that
Depends of how hard your strings feel (tension) and if you have tough guy forearms/hands/fingers like Zakk Wylde (= tons of strength and no pain while playing hard on heavy gauge strings) or if you're just a pussy like me
And even with low action i can't say i play effortlessly...

I'd be curious to see if some guys can pull off some Dying Fetus/Suffocation/Terror/Exodus with super high action

As you probably know im more of the 80's kind of guy.
However i do play allot of sliding chords(Not just powerchords.), and i use allot of vibrato(Both on single notes & chords.).
Its all a matter of getting used to it, but i will admit that playing more extreme metal wont be easy with a high relief/high action setup.. its possible, but you would need some pretty god damn strong fingers in your left hand.

I suffer massively from "the tone curse".. and no, its not the same as for most of you guys on here.
I play 11's with a medium-high action with allot of relief just to get the response i want out of the instrument.
I won't use a distortion or overdrive pedal as it compresses and removes too much of the dynamics(I don't use gates or compressors either.).
I prefer having most pedals between the guitar and the amp, so that they alter the dynamics of my guitar(Reverb goes in the loop though.)

But essentially, this has lead me to use what to most people would be a really akward setup.. all from the guitar to the amp.
It took allot of time to figure out how to actually get a decent tone out of that setup, but once i started mastering it i thought it sounded MUCH better then before.
(And yes, i do play like crap no matter what. )

"No pain no gain"

C) I'm not a huge dive bomb-whammy bar kinda guy so I really don't use it for all that, but knowing the guitar is intune from one song to the next is a priceless thing

If you have a guitar with high quality hardware this shouldn't be a problem at all.

 

[Harry Hughes]

I use a relatively high action, maybe not quite medium high, more around just plain medium. Pretty much perfect to me, not too low, not too high.
Never going back to super low uber shred action ever again.
No reason why it would even stop you from playing technical metal anyway.
Once you get used to the higher action, it doesn't even slow you down, you just play as fast as you used too

 

[beechstudio]

I started playing Floyd Rose equipped guitars back in 1982. For playing live, I can't live without 'em. Stays in tune! Although, I do have extra springs on the tremelo, and also have the butt end of the bridge resting against the body of my Kramer, so if I break a string, the guitar still stays in tune.