Tuning down

danceinflames

danceinflames

Member
Dec 8, 2001
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Izmir
hello everyone,
i have a cort X-6 guitar and i want to play some of the low-tuned songs on it.But when i try to tune my guitar down to D (or lower) my floyd rose tremolo system eventually goes down and then i tune the guitar again and again until the floyd rose touches the body of my guitar and when it is the there the strings come so close to the neck that lots of buzzes occur while playing.I know this happens because my gear is not a very good one (or am i doing something wrong?) but is there any way of tuning down without having to lower the floyd rose and therefore making the strings touch the neck? I would get an ESP soon but for the time being i want to jam with what i have and for that i need that info.Please help and thanks.
 
Unless you really like that Floyd Rose, I would take it to a local music store and have them disable it. It's going to cause a lot of problems for you, guaranteed. Actually, I used to have the following as advice on my old band's website: "Never buy a guitar with a Floyd Rose tremolo system. It makes you want to kill yourself." :lol: When you detune things with an active Floyd Rose tremolo system, the bridge does exactly as you said, and in some instances it will actually make your action ridiculously low (or vice versa). One thing that will fuck everything up is if you put the strings on incorrectly.

So, here's the proper way to put new strings on and then tune a guitar with a Floyd Rose:

The most important thing to remember is that you may only remove and replace ONE string at a time. Also, you should have an allen wrench. Take the wrench and go to the part on the bridge where the strings come out. There's a small bolt on the end of each part where the strings are, so use the allen wrench and turn these bolts to loosen them. You'll see that there is a very small block that squeezes the string in place, and it squeezes the string more as you tighten the bolt. So untightening it will make the string pop out. Also, there should be three bolts on the nut. If you're replacing/tuning the E and/or A strings, use the allen wrench to take off the bolt that the E and A pass through. Now, take the E string off (remember, one at a time). Unclip the ball from the end of your new E string using a wire cutter. Now, bend the end where you unclipped the ball about 1 or 2 centimeters from the end. Bend it so it's between 90 and 180 degrees (135 roughly, but you don't have to get that specific). Now, insert the bent end into the part of the bridge where the strings go. Tighten the bolt so that that small block squeezes the string into place (you may want to hold the end of the string until you get it tight enough). With that string firmly in place, perform the usual ritual of wrapping it around the pegs on the headstock. Now, tune the string to whatever you wish. Repeat this process for the A string. Now, you can put the bolt back on the nut. You won't be needing to take it off unless you're going to drastically change the tuning range. Now, how do you tune the guitar if it goes out? Go back to the bridge, and you will see circular things on the end of it (behind the pegs you had to undo to get the string out of the bridge). These are the fine tuning pegs, which is what you use to tune once the bridge is locked. However, they can only tune in the range of about a half step, so if you're going to drastically change your tuning range, you'll have the undo the bolt at the neck again and tune it regularly.

This process is very long and esoteric, so I would highly suggest getting that tremolo system disabled unless you really like using it. Hope this helps, though.

Ryan
 
Right.

Heres a REAL answer to your problem.

A floyd rose is spring balanced ...

Look at the back of the guitar, you will see a large opening behind the bridge usually covered with plastic... remove the plastic and you will see a square block with 3/4/5 springs attatched to a claw thats screwed into the body.

Tuning down releives tension on the springs so the bridge dips...
What you do is take a screw driver and Unscrew the claw so the bridge rises, do it 1 or two turns, tune, one or two turns, tune, etc till you're in tune and the bridge is flat balanced and action is normal.

this job can take in excess of half an hour to 2hours, depending on the springs, sometimes you can be lucky and the job'll take 5mins.

If you wish i can post a photograph of whats what?
 
Removing a spring or so.... would drasticly up or down it, you HAVE to do it my way to get a balanced floyd.
its the ONLY way to get it perfect.
 
thank you for your answers.One more thing, what kind of strings would be best for my guitar?(I mean the ones that can make the tuning easier)Thanks again.
 
I use Ernie Ball Light top heavy bottoms...

They keep in tune pretty well...

Heavy as fuck strings for chords (4th 5th and 6th) and the 1st 2nd 3rd are all light for soloing.
 
NeedledWarheart said:
Right.

Heres a REAL answer to your problem.
Click to expand...

Well my suggestion wasn't necessarily supposed to be an answer but it's all I could offer and I figured it would help him in the future because I've fucked up my Floyd Rose after putting the strings on incorrectly so I don't know, it was just a helpful piece of advice.
 
NeedledWarheart said:
I use Ernie Ball Light top heavy bottoms...

They keep in tune pretty well...

Heavy as fuck strings for chords (4th 5th and 6th) and the 1st 2nd 3rd are all light for soloing.
Click to expand...

Maybe that's what I need, I've been using Ernie Ball .009's - .042's because I wanted lighter strings for my solos, but maybe I can get the best of both worlds with this set. What color is the package?
 
danceinflames said:
hello everyone,
i have a cort X-6 guitar and i want to play some of the low-tuned songs on it.But when i try to tune my guitar down to D (or lower) my floyd rose tremolo system eventually goes down and then i tune the guitar again and again until the floyd rose touches the body of my guitar and when it is the there the strings come so close to the neck that lots of buzzes occur while playing.I know this happens because my gear is not a very good one (or am i doing something wrong?) but is there any way of tuning down without having to lower the floyd rose and therefore making the strings touch the neck? I would get an ESP soon but for the time being i want to jam with what i have and for that i need that info.Please help and thanks.
Click to expand...

Google.com, look for info about floyd rose tremolos, there are shitloads of sites that go through step by step about them, inotation, action, setting up floyds etc. There is also one guy who had a tip about drop D tuning, using the precision tuning pins on the bridge...can't be fucked looking now, but have a look anyway (the guy has a dragon on something on his guitar)
 
Why would anyone want to play drop D? its for pussies.

I can move just as fast with proper tuned powerchords than i can with drop D powerchords.
 
well thats great you can move just as fast, i don't really give two shits, let alone one, it was simply a suggestion and part of a tutorial about setting up floyd roses...if you think about it, it actually just lets you understand this style tremolos and how they work a bit more, which obviously is what this person needs to learn
 
NeedledWarheart said:
Why would anyone want to play drop D? its for pussies.

I can move just as fast with proper tuned powerchords than i can with drop D powerchords.
Click to expand...

I'll tell you why: it's a quick way to tune down a whole step as long as you move everything else down, it's actually quite handy when you're writing stuff and you want a lower sound but don't want to tune the whole guitar down.
 
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