I'm new to the world of floyd rose tremelo systems and also to any trem system in fact. I've been using a fixed bridge guitar for years and when I've come to have a guitar with a floyd rose trem system I don't know where to start. Can you push the tremelo arm right down to the body because the tension on the trem seems like it's going to snap?

Yup!

God I love Floyd Roses!

You can push the bar to the body so that the strings go completely slack. Or you can do what Dimebag did and fix the bar so that it points away from the pickups. I only find this useful for harmonic screams but it's quite a cool trick.

Guitars strings are, generally, pretty resilient. In my experience, the only way to snap a string with a Floyd is with sweat. On my old Ibanez, for example, I could make a low E go to a Bb and the strings came nowhere near snapping.

If you are going to get a guitar with a Floyd Rose, make sure it's a good Floyd Rose: made by Floyd Rose, Schaller, Gotoh or Ibanez (used to be Gotoh-made). You've probably already heard this so much already that you think that there is some kind of snobbery associated with Floyd Roses but I do think it is true.

I had to struggle with three shit Licensed Floyd Roses before I bought an Original Floyd Rose and it's the best thing I've ever done. Last night was the first time I've had to tune a single string in over a week!

Oh yeah!

There was another guy on here (I forget his name) that bought an Original Floyd Rose for a pretty killer price and said he was also well pleased with it.

That would be me!

Well impressed with it!

Don't have to tune it often at all,

last time I even had to fine tune was about 3 weeks ago!

Floyd Roses are the best bridge for any guitar!!!

You can slack the strings ALL the way down (makes some really weird sounds if you shake it while it slack), and can pull up on the bar kinda far too, but you'll know to stop before the strings would snap, it gets really tense so it's kind of a pre-warning! Also if you have a decent trem, as Iain and zykloned have said, it won't go out of tune often at all, I have a Jackson stock floyd rose and it's perfect, even though it's not the best, I never really go out of tune (unless the strings are getting old..)

The one thing about OFRs is that they don't have the bar from the trem blockl like Ibanez do. So if you raise the bar too much the springs at the back can pop out. I hate it when that happens because your guitar immediately tunes itself to like, a high G!

Metal Iain wrote:The one thing about OFRs is that they don't have the bar from the trem blockl like Ibanez do. So if you raise the bar too much the springs at the back can pop out. I hate it when that happens because your guitar immediately tunes itself to like, a high G!

never heard of that happening before... The only prob I've ever had with any floating trem is the one I put in this guitar I have, the trem block hits the inside of the guitar cavity... my fault though!

Yeah, I mean with my guitar you just have to be careful you don't over do it with using the bar in the reverse position.



That reminds me, got to set my guitar up tonight.

Ive really been struggling with the rose and was never that impressed.

Now one of the main criteria for me getting a new axe is that it doesnt have a floyd rose....

...might also be coz my floyd rose is a crappy indonesian copy (on a Jackson RR3 Rhoads, which I bloody love besides of that)

It makes sense; with an Original Floyd Rose or Schaller Licensed Floyd Rose you get American companies with an efficient and skilled workforce. In Indonesian you get twelve year old hookers with hammers and a guitar.

I'm in the process of building a guitar but I'm still waiting for the body to arrive to see how the trem is spaced for definite. If it can take an OFR then one will be going on; otherwise it'll be a Kahler Spyder (if I can find one) or a two-pivot vintage strat trem.