Tracking guitar with floyd.

[Ermz]

Just saw this post.
I'd say go for whatever sounds the tightest too. It seems like it would easier to dial in a little bit of balls back in if the Jacksons are perhaps a little too tight, than to have to deal with a flubby lower mid range.
The 24.75 inch scale of the Eclipse definitely doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
If you were to use either the Eclipse of Hellraiser, the Hellraiser seems a much better bet with the 26.5 inch scale, plus the fact that EMG 707s were designed to sound in between EMG 81s and 85s (albeit for 7 string guitars of course), so perhaps wont be as potentially muddy.

Yes so far the winner tonally has been the Hellraiser, but it is a 7 string guitar and it would take some adjustment for the player to get used to.

 

[Josh Burgess]

One of the things that bothers me is that we had one of the floyd loaded guitars in on the first day of pre-production, and it took all of 30 minutes to snap a string. We had to get the Hellraiser out and finish up the tracking with it.

The downtime associated with intonating a floyd, and replacing strings day by day is not something that's desirable for a long stretch of guitar tracking. Besides this there are not many techs here (yourself excluded, Chris) who I'd trust to give me something even resembling correct intonation on a floyd-loaded guitar, which means a fair bit of down time on the first day just getting it set up right.

The issue with the Hellraiser and Eclipse is that they may be a little bit too deep and muddy sounding for this music. These guys are constantly coasting around 200bpm, and their music requires lots of clarity on muted 16ths, so mahogany plus 707 and 85 may not be the ticket.

It's a bit of a pickle, but we'll nut it out I'm sure.

While the 81 and 81-7 are definitely tighter and sharper sounding, I think the 85 and 707 are both tight enough if you're boosting with a tubescreamer.

Check out the album Invade by Within The Ruins... mixed by Joshua Wickman on here. I believe the guitar used had an 85 in the bridge and they are tuned to Drop Ab... There's a lot of fast paced riffing, and the guitars still sound very clean and tight.

 

[JonWormwood]

Haters gonna hate

Wang bar all the way

 

[egan.]

What Josh and Harry said. Also, if you palm mute so hard you pull a floyd out of tune, then you are certainly pulling the strings sharp on a tune-o-matic.

 

[cyril_v]

Fuck.. I wish all of my guitars had floyds on it if only for the locking/fine tuners. I'd say if there is an issue for you: get the guitar set-up, and then block it... call it a day. That way if you break a string it's not the same headache because putting another string one will take all of a minute and the rest of the strings will stay in tune and you'll still keep the awesome tuning stability. Either a piece of wood, a tremstopper or maybe a tremol-no and you have nothing to worry about.

 

[grywolf627]

Haters gonna hate

Wang bar all the way

You know it brother!

I've been quad tracking parts on guitars with floyds or (preferably) Ibanez edge (the original) for years and years, and have never had any problems. It's all about technique and just what you're used to playing.

 

[Ermz]

What's the best way to block off the trem? I'm liking the JB too much presently...

The Mahogany + 85 combo has these awesome low-mids I love about 'The End of Heartache' record, but it's just too muddy and aggressive or something. The JB has this gorgeous scoop down in the lower mids, and the highs aren't edgy either, so it's just pushing the core mids a lot, which is where I tend to seat my guitars naturally in mixes. Biggest drawback is that the lows on the JB aren't tight, even in the Alder. The mahogany with 85's still somehow manages to stay more focused down there.

 

[bryan_kilco]

You can cut a piece of wood to fit under the trem, or anything hard really. just make sure it's the proper size so that the bridge floats flush with the body. A buddy of mine blocked my trem years ago with a stack of picks once. it worked.

EDIT: I'm talking about blocked so that, it cannot go sharp....I never blocked it the other way, sorry I should have thought before I posted. I'm guessing these guys are talking about blocking it both ways, so that it can't go sharp or flat? I'd image the wooden block would work for both....

 

[LeSedna]

A good set up tremolno does the job.
Sometimes i have seen people putting a wood block to block it effectively and for no cost. A stupid DIY solution can be the way to go with whatever you have.
EDIT : bryan beat me