Scott Horner
Scottimus Maximus
I've given up on them but mainly because I have absolutely no need for one. I actually just sold my FR equipped guitar.
Floyd Rose is the cause of every war since 1979.
Floyd Rose is the cause of every war since 1979.
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 ?))
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.
53Crëw;9972998 said: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.
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.
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
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