Attention all Floyd Rose users!

[Eddie Van Halen]

I was wondering what the pros and cons are of owning a floyd rose tremolo system. I already know the basic, it hardly goes out of tune and its a long process to re string, but is there anything else?

 

[aaronb]

floyds.....not a big fan personally. I have two guitars with actual floyds (i think ebmm uses real ones, not 'licenced') They are a bit of a pain to re-string, but thats not the biggest drawback. They are very hard to work with when it comes to ajusting your string tension and they cause the rest of the guitar to go out of tune when you bend notes. I had a ebmm axis with a floyd and it was quite nice, but I would of still prefered a vintage trem, or hardtail. I find with the ebmm vintage trem on my sub HH, that you can do dives and everything that floyds offer while staying in tune even better and not having the rest of the guitar pitch bend when you bend one note. So thats my 2 cents..

 

[Eddie Van Halen]

ya i know, i noticed that when i played one today...


anything else?

 

[bluebullet]

if the floyd is flush mounted to the body then you can increase the spring tension so it doesnt go out of tune when you bend strings. one of the drawbacks of a floyd compared to a vintage trem is the floyd has a heavier feel its harder to get that flutery jeff beck or trower vibrato sound out of it. it is more trouble to change strings on a floyd but once they are stretched they hold tune like nothing else. but with locking tuners the music man trem holds tune really well. if you want dive bombs go floyd if you want vibrato go vintage style.

 

[aaronb]

um...the only other thing i can think of is that if you are thinking of buying a guitar with a "officially licenced floyd" knock off, re-consider. lol

 

[Eddie Van Halen]

well what floyd dose the axis have?

 

[bluebullet]

it has a music man version of the original and its every bit as good. i like the tension adjustment on the arm on the ebmm version more than the original. some of the copys out there use cheaper grades of metal and are cast and not machined but the ebmm's are top notch.

 

[Eddie Van Halen]

whats the tension adjustment? anyone have a pic?

 

[aaronb]

string tension ajustment has many variables, including the springs that hold the trem, the truss rod, and the gauge of strings you use(larger strings have more resistance)

 

[Eddie Van Halen]

will an axis floyd rose work with a D-Tuna?

 

[bluebullet]

the arm that you hold with your hand has a clamp type adjustment that you use to adjust the drag so you can adjust it to stay where you put it or keep it loose so it swings out of the way. it also keeps it from getting wobbly. and yes you can put a d tuna on any floyd type whammy as long as it sits flat against the body otherwise when you use the d tuna with a floating floyd when you change the string tension the bar tilts back and the other strings go out of tune.

 

[Eddie Van Halen]

the arm that you hold with your hand has a clamp type adjustment that you use to adjust the drag so you can adjust it to stay where you put it or keep it loose so it swings out of the way. it also keeps it from getting wobbly. and yes you can put a d tuna on any floyd type whammy as long as it sits flat against the body otherwise when you use the d tuna with a floating floyd when you change the string tension the bar tilts back and the other strings go out of tune.

Can you tell me how to do this? The arm when it stays where you let go of it is a pain in the ass and id much rather it dangle down when i let go of it


Does the Axis Floyd sit flat against the body?

 

[bluebullet]

string tension has more to do with string gage and scale length than the bridge type or spring size. a guitar with high action will feel stiffer than a guitar with low action. and a guitar with a shorter scale length neck will feel looser than one with a longer scale length but the bridge type has nothing to do with it. the longer scale length requires more tension to get to pitch than a shorter one.

 

[bluebullet]

yes the axis floyd sits flat against the body unless you bought it used and somebody changed it to float . the tension adjustment is at the base where the bar goes down into the bridge if look at the bridge from the side on the side where the volume control is you will see a little allen screw if you turn it out it will loosen the drag if you turn it in it will tighten and increase the drag. if your guitar is new you might want to wait because it will loosen up a little on its own.

 

[Eddie Van Halen]

ok thanks man, will that affect the dive bombs or vibratos?

 

[bluebullet]

no

 

[Eddie Van Halen]

So basically

Pros
-You can do the cool tricks
-Stays in tune

Cons
-Tuning takes longer
-Bends make whole guitar go slightly out of tune


is that basically it?

 

[bluebullet]

the bends wont go out of tune on the axis because it doesnt float so the springs have enough tension on them to hold the bridge down when you bend .with a floating bridge the spring tension and string tension are balanced so when you bend a string the bridge pulls forward and the other strings go flat this doesnt happen with a axis because the bridge is flat against the body. but you cant pull up on the bar it only lowers which never bothered me because i can bend a string up if i want to raise the pitch and having it flat on the body makes it much more stable as far as bends and when you rest your hand on the bridge for palm mutes the weight of your hand doesnt mess with the tuning also if you play in a band and you break a string it doesnt go out of tune so you can get through the song.

 

[jongitarz]

Here's another for the cons. No individual saddle height adjustment. Also if you rest your palm on the bridge when you play, it's not comfortable. Personally I wouldn't own a guitar with the Floyd.

 

[blackspy]

You might get something out of this thread as well. http://www.ernieball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6720