Set Up For Floyd Rose

This is a basic outline of the procedures needed to be taken when playing with action levels on a floyd rose designed guitar. First things first, get comfy and be in a good mood as a stressed mind will not be good if things get complex! You can start by unscrewing the lock nut on the neck of the guitar so it is not putting any tension on the strings. Also, you wil need to undo all the fine tuners until they are all the way out. Once this is done, turn the fine tuners approx. 1/4 to 1/2 turn back in to stop them sticking on the threads!

To explain the next steps please read and follow instructions: grab your guitar and check to see that when the guitar is in tune, the floyd rose bridge is very close to parallel with your guitars body. If the bridge is leaning towards the front of the guitar (head) read the next step. If your floyd rose bridge is leaning towards the back of the guitar read from the **** futher down this page.
Towards the front: start by using the normal tuning heads to tune all the strings flat because it is alot easier to set up the floyd rose if it is already too far back. From here, open up the panel on the back of your guitar (spring cavity) and tighten the spring adjustment screw in a few turns (clockwise) which should result in the face plate of the floyd rose to tilt back slightly once all the strings are in tune.

Once you have re-adjusted the spring adjustment screw, begin to re-tune your guitar (use a digital or an analogue tuner). Start with low E and work your way up the strings ending on high E. The desired effect you are lloking for is the floyd rose to be parallel to the guitars body. This procedure may take a while so be patient. It takes me roughly 4-6 full tune ups before my guitar is "in-tune"!!! You will notice that after about the 2nd or 3rd pass, the strings will require less and less tuning. Make sure you don't make the tuning too sharp or over pitch! As the time rolls by you will reach a point where you no longer need to tune your guitar up. From this point your guitar should be roughly in tune, with the floyd rose now pointing further towards the body of the guitar, rather than the head. Of course for some of you, you may of set up the spring tension/string tension 'perfectly'. This is the case if the floyd rose is running parallel with the body of your guitar. If so well done, your doing better than me.

Towards the back: so your floyd rose is now leaning towards the back of your guitar. This can be fixed by adjusting the spring tension screws out approx 1/4 turn at a time. Once you have released some tension by a 1/4 turn, start to retune your guitar again with the low E to high E.

Note: Due to the design of the floyd rose system, you cannot use the spring adjustmet screws to obtain the units parallel. The reason for this is the floyd rose system works as a counter-tension to create the 'floating' bridge. There needs to be an equal tension between the springs and the strings plus the bridge to run parrallel with the guitars body to obtian a 'perfect pitch.' Once the faceplate of the bridge is almost parallel to the guitars body, making sure that the guitar is in tune, re-lock the lock nut (if ya have one) on the neck and using the fine tuners now, obtain your perfect pitch by starting on low E working your way through to high E. It may take a few tries to get it down right but like everything practise makes perfect. Happy playin'.

Comments

[AxeMan88uk]

first again... WOO!!
will ppl stop wrting bout floyd roses, ur gonna make the poor confused ones even more confused, let them leanr by example from sum1 else and theyll know howeasy it actually is

[Slipknot_Midget]

took me a while but its not that hard

[Ash_Lawrence]

Not bad...there are better guides...but good job anyways *4*

[damn_punks]

can you do drop d tunings? I'm a dumbass

[nickvictory88]

hei dude whats up!! can i set up a band?? but guitar not good o~how to do

[Mick Mackler]

Good stuff...'bout time somebody wrote an article about this. I have a Floyd Rose bridge on my Samick, and I hate it. I bought a Washburn that didn't have it instead after that. This process of tuning takes a looong time, and it pissed me off because every time I changed the gauge of my strings, I had to go through this tuning process again. I'd only buy another if I somehow got successful enough to have my own guitar tech because the negatives outweigh the positives.

Nevertheless, a good article.

[williamyb]

dis so confusing...how u supposed to understand dis shit

[heggazz]

hey im a newb to floyd roses and i bought one for my guitar how do you actually set it up on your guitar. coz im havin a lot of trouble

[kapp]

hey, do you have some pictures about this flyd rose, stringin'/tunung/etc. ?

[andy_rox_69]

hey, h0w r yall tonite? I got this cheap ass strat copy which i have been ***in around wif and it has a tremolo on it. is it possible to fit a floyd rose onto it WITHOUGHT altering the nut. if not, why?

[vaishredder]

Floyed Rose systems are aswome!

[ronnie_sjr]

Its comprehendable if ya understand a bit of guitar technical knowledge. Otherwise take the guitar to a local shop and have it done up.

Good job nevertheless.

[Themarsh]

what is a Floyd Rose and why would i need to set up for 1

[vetocaution]

i have no idea what a floyd rose is but i do know that veto caution rox

[randall_truscot]

Floyd rose, is the best type of tremelo you can get, but only when its set up right. Your best to take your guitar to a shop to get it set up or put in or fixed. It will save a huge amount of playing time and effort, and quality and for the 30 bucks you get it done right.....Ps.I have a floyd rose w/ locking nut on my gutiar and it took me a night to setup, and it still isnt done propeely so im taking it to the shop.....And if you want good guidlines on seting up a floyd rose tremelo system go to www.floydrose.com And theres instrusctions on how to do pretty much everything.

[EatsP1es]

i got some washburn Chicago Series guitar given to me and it's awesome, but it has a Floyd Rose tremolo and I hate the thing, not becuase it isnt a good tremolo (it's a damn good one) but for speed on stage I leave the neck locks (top of neck) unlocked so I can use alternate tunings quickly without an allen key. But it keps frigging going out of tune and it's really annoying!

[CBassett]

The floyd rose is not the best- there is the steinberger. It work on pure magic and make the guitar sound like your using a slide when you pull up.

[robertgower]

The tip reagrding instructions and jpegs on www.floydrose.com helped me alot. Does anyone have any tips for Intonating your guitar. The floydrose site only described intonating at the 12th fret. I've heard there are other proven methods, possibly depending on what part of the neck you may want to intonate better than another ?

[MachinesJosh]

I was half expecting this lesson to read "You should've bought a fixed bridge, moron."

[Navin]

Thks thats bout what i needed to know bout my bridge

[the_newbe]

Ive got a problem w/ my floyd rose when its "tuned" with the bridge where its sopposed to be its about 2 steps too high. if you try to tune it to standard tuning it goes so far into the bridge cavity that you cant play because the strings are touching on the frets.

[mylife06310]

i need some help can some one send me some sort of easy starting directions for my first time playing quitar. I am really trying to use this web sit but it dose not work

[Toiletboy]

Good article! Some pictures would do it good though!

spam deleted

[ICANSEEYOU7687]

I have a floyd rose on my Ibanez...probably not a great choice for my first guitar, but i got it at such a good deal couldnt resist. Anyways, this...lesson...did in fact help me out some. Im still having trouble tuning this, but hopefully ill get it eventually.

[belliman]

Good times!! Too the rest, don't hate, participate!!

14GreenDay wrote:
ur stupid

No, your stupid.
He/she is asking a simple question. No need to flame. Consider this a warning to a warning.

your comment has been deleted

[Aint_My_Bitch]

can someone tell me if you can fit floyd rose system on a regular guitar, because i hav an ibanez and it has a whammy bar n stuff, but it keeps detuning so i want a floyd rose, but is it possible to actually fit one on it? cheers

[ESP MAN]

You can do but how difficult it is depends on the guitar. Guitars such as Les Pauls that have no whammy systems need to have a whole made through the entire guitar in order to fit a tremelo system. Guitars that already have them such as fender strats (not floyd rose just the basic tremelo system) may need the hole to be slightly bigger or they may not depending on the specifications of the floyd rose or licensed floyd rose bridge you would like to place on the guitar. You can find out the sizes and other specs of the bridges on the manufacturers official site.If you do decide that a Floyd rose is what you want you will want to convert te neck to be able to support a locking nut or else your new tremelo system is going to be as bad as your old one. What kind of tremelo system does your Ibanez have on it right now ?? I'm intrigued as to why it comes out of tune because it could be many other reason for the detuning. It could be that the neck has been subjected to hot or cold situations and the neck has bent or warped. (warping is the worst one especially if your neck isn't bolted on). It could be that you are using cheap strings or they are new strings and are setting into how you have them set up (new strings often detune easily for the first few days)it could also be that your guitar isn't of good quality but I don't know of any cheap Ibanez so I doubt that is it. Hope that was helpful.
I use an ESP LTD KH-603 with active EMG 81's and an original Floyd Rose bridge and I know alot about it so don't hesitate to email me. [e-mail].

Fraz xxx

[*KryptioN*]

OK! well i just burned through 3 hours and a six pack trying to fix my new floyd rose. The best place to go and get exact instructions is http://www.floydrose.com/originaltremolo.html
its really simple, but being new some of the parts names they were refering to i didnt understand at first. so ill put it really simply just in case you run into the same problem.
(string clamps)- near the head of the guitar, use a allen wrench to loosen etc.
(tuner screws)- refering to the ones on the bridge, not on the head.
(low "E")- the string on top, closest to you.
(bridge base plate)- refering to the flat part of the bridge, hold your guitar at eye level and look at the body and this peice to determine if its parallel.
(spring claw screws)- open the backplate of your guitar, should be three springs connected to 3 hooks, connected to two screws, there ya go. hope this can help clarify.

[Normozoidz]

It's not very necessary to have a floyd rose bridge. as long as you have a tremolo system, it has thesame fuc**n way to f*ck with it. anyway it's such a pain in the a** if you would replace your strings with this bridge.

[joshjhasarrived]

Great, that was really helpful, man!!

[weve]

Setting up a floyd is not hard. I beleive most are set up for 9's. If You use a different gauge or drop ur tunning, then you will have to remove the rear cover to adjust the spring tension. Iv got to the point where it only takes a couple minutes to swap out a set of strings and retune. If you can, get a Kahler, easier to set up, dont need to cut the strings and can use different gauge strings and whatever tuning you want. It just costs more than a Floyd and is way cooler looking.

[Brandon_leigh]

my strings get untuned when I use mannually a tremolo..:i anyway, i've got an FR system

[punkMETALskater]

i jus got an ibanez s,and the zr trem isnt holding tune,and when i got it,it was in standard d DGCFAD,and i tunned it up,and then noticed the trem rose,so i put it ba in d and it is fine,but bending,trem use knocks it outta tune,what is causing this,could the nut need tightening,or what,some email me at [e-mail] and give me some info on what to do,thnx!-chad-

[rebelyell3000]

I love floyd rose until it comes time to change the strings, now i know what to do when the system is sticking stright out. Thanks, thank god for guitar shops

[jacksonwarrior]

yeah my jackson has a floyd rose and its the handeist thing evr i can go mad with my whammmy bar and im still in tune whoop

[ledcaveman]

andy_rox_69 wrote:

hey, h0w r yall tonite? I got this cheap ass strat copy which i have been ***in around wif and it has a tremolo on it. is it possible to fit a floyd rose onto it WITHOUGHT altering the nut. if not, why?

cos u have to route(cut) bits out of the guitar in order for the floyd rose to fit in cos they're bigger than standard strat tremolos, and to the noobs. GO TO FLOYDROSE.COM OR WIKIPEDIA AND FUKING READ ABOUT THE DAMN THING

[Kenit]

Hey I am thinking of getting a guitar with a floyd rose on it and wanted to ask if you can easily tune from the top E to drop D. Will i have to adjust the floyd rose too or just the tuning keys?

[arondadi]

Kenit wrote:

Hey I am thinking of getting a guitar with a floyd rose on it and wanted to ask if you can easily tune from the top E to drop D. Will i have to adjust the floyd rose too or just the tuning keys?

If the Floyd Rose is used to be tuned to E, tuning it to drop D will **** with the whole system and it will take time and work for it to ajust. Just have it in E or dropped D, not chance alot.

[Kenit]

And what if I tune the Floyd to standard E, and after I tune only the guitar string to D, will it play correct to D without setting the floyd rose and not using it for D but I only use to bridge when its in E?

[The_Wooper]

Great! thanks. i tuned my guitar one step down using this article but! you dropped out some importent info.. how do i deal with buzzing strings and string action after the tuning?

[Dude...]

This may be off subject, but my Rg has an Edge Pro on it and i had it tuned within like a minute, is it different or something b/c i don't see where everyone is having a problem with the tuning. I can understand the prob with changing tunings.

[fiestared]

my string clamps are blocked by the screws that hold the bracket that holds the string clams in place....what should I do??...buy new screws?? answers to [e-mail] PLEASE!!!

[MiNdDiVidED]

i picked up the se razorback..what a smooth ride. and i dont normally use a tremolo. however dime was my idol so i went with it. **** floyd rose...this thing is a pain in the ass...thats why he had guitar techs...they tunes his shit for fun lol...had it for a week...already its rattle is driving me nuts. anyway...next time i go with the les paul

[guitar_demon48]

the best way to learn to use a floyd is to just **** around with it, really people, there not brain surgery or anything

[Demonikk]

williamyb wrote:

dis so confusing...how u supposed to understand dis shit

Could try learning the names of the parts on your guitar. Or learning the English language would also help a lot.

[underoath0902]

MESSED UP MY FR AND COST $85 TO FIX IT :grr

[underoath0902]

[Alex Growllin]

I am afraid that will happen to me too.

[Alex Growllin]

it happened

[XxPanicsFallxX]

Someone please help me. e-mail me @ [e-mail]

I tried to put my Floyd Rose in Eb, and, the bridge shot down way into the cavity, I took it to Guitar Center, and, then the guy put some wood behind it so that I couldnt pull up on the whammy bar, but, I could go into different tunings. I tried to go in Eb again, and, it totally screwed up, the strings are insanely loose, the action is so low that the string rests on the fretbars. and. I thinkthe Floyd Rose itself is messed up. I dont want to take the guitar back to Guitar Center so the guy could screw it up again for 50$, so, any help please? please email me

[superslash1994]

panics fall, if he did screw it up, go back and make him put it right, if he doesn't you can sue. :P

[evh95]

i strung a floyd my first time and it was perfect i was very surprised

[LimoZeen]

THANK YOU!!! I have an axe build which has a floyd, and I was thinking about selling the Floyd for a speedloader Floyd because I could not get it to work, but you have shown me how to use a FLoyd correctly. Thnx again.

[stillfretdog2]

any advice on resetting intonation

[markscott]

FLOYD ROSE ORIGINAL TREMOLO - INTONATING YOUR BRIDGE
http://www.floydrose.com/originaltremolo.html

[qu ote]stillfretdog2 wrote:

any advice on resetting intonation[/quote]