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Beginner's Q&A Forum
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Topic starter
12/04/2006 10:19 pm
Hi everyone,
Got my new guitar today, a ESP LTD KH-602. I thought I had done all the research, printed off instructions on how to tune a guitar with a Floyd Rose floating tremolo. Oh how I was wrong.
I picked the guitar up today after getting a great deal on it and saving my £250 on the guitar brand new with a hardcase, Levy strap and stand. Got it home, started to play it when I noticed it was out of tune. Just my luck or was I bit over realistic that the guitar would come already tuned and set up.
So, on finding out it was out of tune I got the instructions on how to tune it from Floyd Rose's website and got started on it. I loosened the string clamps, put the little tuners on the bridge to middle. Then I tuned it, tuned it again until it was all in tune, then had to lower the action because the bridge was facing away from the guitar. Did this, got the bridge inline with the guitar again. Tuned again only to find this took the bridge down into the guitar. So I upped the action. Then I got stuck. It just seems like I am going around in circles. I up the action so it's flat with the body of the guitar. Retune it and suddenly the bridge is high out of the guitar. So I lower it back to inline with the body, retune and now it's angled down into the guitar. I'm just going around in big circles and it's not fair!
Can anyone help, is their any tutorials with videos or photos? Am I doing anything wrong? Is there any step by step, really basic tutorials? I need your help, I can't stand it sitting here with my lovely, shinny new guitar just sitting downstairs laughing at me because I can't do a simple thing like tune it. Please, I need your help!
All help is greatly appreciated,
Thanks,
Jonathan H
13/04/2006 8:20 am
I also have a Floyd Rose and when I change strings and tune it I use the instructions from the Floyd Rose homepage.
I think what you are doing wrong is to lower the action when the bridge plate is tilting. If you read the instructions more carefully you'll se that if the bridge plate is tilting you're supposed to adjust the springs in the back of the guitar. Check under "FLOYD ROSE ORIGINAL TREMOLO - STRING TUNING INSTRUCTIONS".
And when you're done with all that and got it in tune, you'll have to intonate the guitar. The best thing you can do is to bring the guitar back to the shop and ask if they can do a setup for you.
"Talent is luck. The important thing in life is courage."
Topic starter
13/04/2006 8:48 am
Yeh, I've been adjusting the bridge plate by adjusting the springs in the back of the guitar. Every time I make the bridge plate parallel with the guitars body, as the instructions from their site tells me, and tune it back in the bridge plate goes back to how it was before I adjusted it.
Thats the bit I understand because it seems that as I tune it and then sort the bridge plate out and retune it, it jsut isn't doing anything other than making me go round in circles doing the same thing over and over again without actrully getting the guitar in tune and staying in tune when I have to adjust the bridge plate.
Thanks for the quick reply though, I will give it another shot in a while and if it still isn't doing anything I'll take it back to be set up. It's just kinda annoying that I spent £1000 on a guitar that didn't even come set up properly.
13/04/2006 2:53 pm
Your making to big of adjustments at a time. Tune two string Low E and A, tune the High E and B, tune the G and D strings. Now when you make adjust ment s to the spring claw make them every so slightly. I mean trun them about 1/32 then retune like above. This will take numerous times till the guitars in-tune and setup. Be patience it take time to master.
Patience: Sit back and wait for an expected outcome without experiencing anxiety, tension, or frustration.
Joe
13/04/2006 5:34 pm
Is it possible for someone to put in a photo of a Floyd Rose tremelo whatsit - I' planning on purchasing my next electric, so I want to avoid one with this on.
Topic starter
13/04/2006 7:45 pm
Thanks for the help guys. After a lot of fiddalling around with it I finally got it in tune. Should be alot easier next time I come to tuning it. It seems that, as forrok star correctly said, I was making way to bigger adjustments. So I made much smaller adjustments and wala, got it in tune and it plays like a dream.
And NO1Scapegoat, I hope this thread hasn't put you off Floyd Rose tremolos. They are really good, this is the first guitar I have had with a decent tremolo on. I used to play a Squire Strat and I lost my tremolo's arm so I never used it. But having only played this gutiar for a day I have started to use the tremolo alot and some of the sounds and cool things you can do with it is really awsome. It just is another tool in the toolbox for me to master and then use to make my guitar playing even more different. It was definatly worth the little bit of hassle last night and this morning.
Thats what they look at by the way. And again, thanks for all your help!
13/04/2006 8:11 pm
Man, that sounds like a lot of work and frustration. I'm running from whammied guitars.... :shock:
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
13/04/2006 8:37 pm
Your Welcome.
At first it seems alittle over the top when it come to setting them up, but once you get use to it. Yes I've used one for many years and can never find enough area's to pull something out of my hat. Wait till you start playing out and all the folks want to see some flash. You reach down push or pull away you go. Have fun.
Joe
14/04/2006 12:56 am
Postings such as this make me wonder why with all the mechanical complexity FR put into that trem design, a locking mechanism to hold the bridge plate parallel for adjustments wasn't included. It could be very simple, and save much time when doing string changes and new set ups. It would also provide a limp-along option when one breaks a string. Such an obvious design oversight ...
-=tension & release=-
14/04/2006 3:07 am
One thing nobody asked was what tuning Jonathan is using. If he is tuning down two whole steps the way many players do today, that would certainly explain the springs pulling the bridge back.
Jonathan, are you using standard tuning, or tuning your guitar down?
If you do choose to use down tunings, it helps to use heavier gauge strings.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Topic starter
17/04/2006 5:01 pm
I am using standard tuning at the moment and I'm going to use my guitar with a fixed bridge for drop D tuning. I don't play that much in drop D or in other tuning's so it would be to much work to tune my new guitar down to D just for a couple of songs.
18/04/2006 6:09 am
Thats one reason to have more than one guitar, you can have them tuned different.
Joe