Adjusting the action of your floyd rose bridge guitar

The action of the guitar is a very important aspect of determining the playability of the guitar. The action of the guitar is pretty much determined by the type of bridge of the guitar. In this case, I will be explaining on how to adjusting the action of the Floyd rose (Or other licensed variation).

The Floyd Rose is a bridge with it's tension being suspended by the tension of the strings and the springs behind the guitar. The part where it's highlighted within the red boxes, in the pictures are known as the studs of the Bridge. The knife edges of the bridges is being anchored to the studs and the studs are the ones to adjust, to adjust the action of the bridge.

The studs usually can be adjusted with Allen keys (different brands require different sizes), usually size 3. Turn the studs counter clockwise to lower the action and clockwise to raise the action. Try and balance both sides and check for buzzing after adjusting. I normally use a pick as a gauge for my preferred action.

If there are no buzzing after adjusting the action, you can leave it as it is. If there are buzzing at certain frets, especially the upper frets, you will have to adjust the action higher. Adjusting action of a Floyd Rose Guitar isn't hard and is actually quite easy and won't cause permanent damage to your guitar. Try it out today.

Sugizo's Brilliant Mixed Media

If you have seen Sugizo's signature guitar it is an amazing piece of Art in my honest opinion. The design of the guitar is an age old design of the Les Paul shape. However, what is interesting in this application from ESP is that the guitar, instead of using traditional wood types for Les Paul (mahogany) utilizes alder as the body wood instead.

What makes it more interesting is the use of 3 single coils instead of 2 humbuckers. This application allows the expression of the single coil tone, yet without the typical strat tones we hear so much from Fender Strats. The neck thru offers superior sustain and the alder wood offers well balance tones compared to mahogany's wall of sound.

Lastly, instead of a standard tune o matic bridge, the Brilliant Mixed Media has a Floyd Rose bridge, either for superior tuning stability or whammy abuse. Either way, this guitar is a good example of wheel reinvention. Different shape with the same design applications.

Luna sea is a famous and popular Visual Kei band from Japan and they are probably most famous for their song "I for You". I've attached a video below for all my readers out there to enjoy. In the video, Sugizo is however using a Strat.

Floyd Rose Special bridge

Have you ever seen guitars with sub $1000 price tag armed with one of these? These are real Floyd Rose tremolos but however, they aren't the same as the Original Floyd Rose. These are kind of like the licensed bridge by Floyd Rose themselves. However that being said, they aren't that bad either. These are pretty high quality bridges compared to a lot of the licensed bridge out there. However, it is still always better to take note that these are the Original Floyd Rose and might not give the player the same kind of performance.

Locking nut for Vibrato Tremolo double locking Bridges

Recently, a topic came up in one of the local forums asking about the locking nut of the Vibrato Tremolo Bridges (Floyd Rose). This may seem simple to change but as easy as it may seem, there are some important points to take note of.

1. Measure the existing nut and make sure you get the correct measurements. They usually come in 42mm or 43mm. Don't make the mistake of getting the wrong one.

2. Check if it's top mounted or bottom mounted. The top mounted one has 2 screws that screws into the neck from the top while the bottom mounted has 2 allen key screws that go through the neck from the bottom.

3. Make sure to take note of the way the order the pressure pads are being remove during string changes. You don't want to have the bass string pressure pads on the treble strings and vice versa. This actually kills the pressure pad faster than it can last.

No ball end cutting for Vibrato Tremolo (Flyod Rose) equipped guitars?

Today, I was restringing one of my guitars and I noticed that I enjoying restringing a Vibrato Tremolo (Flyod Rose) equipped guitars a certain way which most people do not. Not only do I not cut the ball end, I do not face the risk of hurting myself when I touch the headstock of my guitar. The only draw back is every time I restring, I have a hard removing the strings. However, I think that is a small price to play for safety.

Ibanez RG(5)270DX "Frankenstein"

This isn't actually my first guitar but it's as close as a first can get. I've actually gave my first electric guitar away to my cousin who wanted to pick up the guitar. Well anyway, this is the first decent electric guitar I bought for myself in 2002. For those who hasn't read about my story on how I eventually get to this, you can find the story here.

This Guitar went through a lot in terms of modification and is considered my test bed for future modifications to come. It originally was an Ibanez RG270DX which was made in Korea. I have nothing against guitars that aren't made in Japan or US but this particular piece isn't very well constructed. The locking nut holes are not well drilled and half of it has been drilled off. Nonetheless, I have sentimental values for this guitar as it is the first guitar I ever bought with my own salary.

The guitar started out with only pick up swap of Dimarzio Evolution, neck and bridge and FS-1 installed as it's main modification. For the longest time it was my main guitar. I was once paranoid about rusting parts and I had the stupidest idea of putting dehumidifier together with the guitar in the bag. The dehumidifier burst off and the contents leaked out without my knowledge. Just after months of returning from the World of Warcraft, I open up the bag, to my horror, most of the parts are rusted. I decided to give it an over haul and this was the second time I modified the guitar again. The whole guitar is being refitted with superior hardware, Gotoh locking nut, Gotoh Floyd Rose licensed tremolo vibrato bridge and Gotoh tuning machine heads.

So, there was once where I managed to try one of those old RG550, where the neck is super thin (17mm first fret and 19mm 12th fret). I decided that I wanted to sand mine down to achieve the same thickness. I bought a pair of vernier calipers and measured the neck. To my horror, the neck measured 20mm on the first fret and 22mm on the 12th fret. It's totally different from what a wizard neck should be (19mm on the first fret and 21mm on the 12th fret). So I proceed and sand down the neck. It took me about 3 hours with a palm sander, to sand the neck down to wizard II thickness. But I was happy with that for a while and kept it that way. I refinished the neck with hand rubbed oil finish.

After that, I read from project guitar forum on how to do a material finish such as the Jem 77FP. Once again, my the DIY bug in got the better of me and this guitar came out as the first choice for an experiment. It was a fun DIY but none the less a lot of hardwork.

After building and assembling a few Ibanez I accumulated an extra Made in Japan (MIJ) Mahogany body and decided to transfer the neck over to the body instead. The new body, a RG520QS body which I sanded down and refinished with Tung Oil. Once again feeling that the neck was still too thick for my liking, I proceed in sanding it down to the thickness of prestige wizard (18mm first fret and 19mm 12th fret). It has a slight different feel compared to a prestige neck though. As I didn't scalped the shape of the neck, the sides are still beefy while the back is flat. To my surprise, the neck is actually quite comfortable. Due to the 400mm radius actually allows comfortable chording while the flat back allows the thumb to grip comfortably and usually keeping the thumb in an upright position. Thanks to the new thickness, it also allows easy scale running without the hindering of baseball bat kind of necks. Due to it's combination of a Korean neck and Made in Japan body, I named it the Frankenstein. The guitar went through a couple of pickup changes. At one point of time, this guitar is fitted with Dragonfire Screamer pickups. I wanted to find out cheaper alternatives and since these screamers are made by Artec, I was more than willing to give it a try. The sound is pretty decent for a pickup about a quarter of a Dimarzio or Seymour Duncan. The main problem with it is, I find the pickup too bassy for my liking. I wanted something with less bass but more mid bass.

The next pair of cheaper but good pickups I've tried are Entwistle Dark Stars. These pickups are special in the way that they are designed around Neodymium magnets instead of the conventional alnico or Ceramic magnets. These pickups are high output and are hot. Soundwise, these pickups are really decent for it's price. Entwistle Dark Star shall stay in this guitar.




Ibanez RG(5)270DX "Frankenstein" Specs
neck type: 3pc Made in Korea Wizard II with Prestige thickness neck
fingerboard: Rosewood with sharktooth inlay
body: Oiled Mahogany body with Quilted Salepe Veneer
fret: Jumbo frets
bridge: Gotoh Licensed Floyd Rose Bridge
neck pu: Entwistle Dark Star neck
bridge pu: Entwistle Dark Star bridge

Neck Specs
Scale: 648mm/25.5"
a : Width at Nut 43mm
b : Width at Last Fret 54mm
c: Thickness at 1st 18mm
d : Thickness at 12th 20mm
Radius: 400mmR

Entwistle Darkstar Neck Neo Classical Test by Adrian Goh

Dragonfire neo classical test by Adrian Goh

Replacement Floyd Rose Tremolo Vibrato Bridge

Often when we buy a low to mid-range licensed Floyd Rose equipped guitar, we might be in for tuning stability hell. More then often, after doing a full pull up, the bridge either doesn't return to true zero position or is just simply out of tune. We might accredit it to string being un-stretched most of the time, but what if the strings has already been stretched?

We can usually fault it on the inferior licensed Floyd Rose bridge that is being constructed with Pot mystery metal with weak knife edges that are prone to blunting. If you are one of those who are looking to replace your bridge with an Original Floyd Rose (OFR), look no further. I have something, in my opinion is superior even to the OFR. The Gotoh Licensed Floyd Rose Tremolo Bridge.

The Good news for this bridge is that it doesn't require a guitar that is pre-fitted with a Floyd Rose routed cavity with an existing Licensed Floyd Rose bridge extra routing. Namely, lower to mid range ESP and Ibanez. What this means is that as long as the user knows how to take out the bridge, it is not actually hard to replace it and is in fact just a matter of swapping the bridge.

The best part about the Gotoh Floyd Rose Bridge is that it comes with a set of lock studs. What this means is more tuning stability compared to even the OFR, which doesn't have the locking stud installed. This is however only for the adventurous who are willing to dabble into some DIY. All the user need to do is actually to pull out the existing bushings in the body of the guitar, re-drill (usually a bigger) hole and hammer in the new bushings.

The Gotoh Floyd Rose Bridge also comes with an existing Brass Block instead of Pot Mystery Metal that usually comes with the low end licensed bridge. This actually improves the tone of the instrument, give it a fuller yet richer sound.

In terms of usage, the Gotoh Floyd Rose Bridge functions smoothly both on pulling up and whamming down and usually return to near absolute Zero without much audible pitch difference. (No Floyd Rose designed Bridge goes back to absolute Zero).

The Arm of the Tremolo has a unique design in which it is internally threaded while there is a screw at the bottom of the tremolo arm holder. The user just needs to turn the tremolo arm in to keep it in the arm holder while there is a separate arm grub screw to adjust the looseness or tightness of the tremolo arm. This greatly allows flexibility on giving the player the option of how they want the Arm to hang in the arm holder.

All and all, the Gotoh Floyd Rose Tremolo Bridge is a huge upgrade from Pot Mystery Metal Licensed Floyd Rose Tremolo Bridge while being priced at almost less than an OFR. This doesn't only improves the guitar tone wise but also in terms of tuning stability, often making a guitar so much nicer to pick up that you probably wouldn't want to put it down.

Ibanez Edge

Often, when we walk into a store or surfing around the net, looking to buy an Ibanez Tremolo Vibrato (Floyd Rose) equipped electric guitar, we might usually be asking ourselves if this guitar comes with a decent bridge. Ibanez being a company with over 20 years of producing Tremolo Vibrato equipped bridges, there is no wonder that there are so many of them that leaves the potential buyer lost. Fear not, in this article, I shall introduce to my readers the common, popular different Tremolo Vibrato bridges that Ibanez has every produced.

Ibanez Original Edge



Ibanez take on the Tremolo Vibrato Bridge. To many, this has been an all time favorite and is known for it's Tuning stability. The bridge has a spring lock bar and push in arm. Comes with Locking Studs.

Lo-Pro Ibanez Edge (Low Profile)



Design is pretty similar to the Original Edge with a few exceptional differences. It has fine tuners moved to the back while it is heavier compared to the Original Edge. String lock screw is located at the saddle. Has the same tuning stability as Original Edge. Comes with Locking Studs.

Edge Pro



The Edge Pro is the further modification of the Lo-Pro design. It features sound metal chips at the saddles that improves overall tone and can accept ball ends. It is the lowest profile Tremolo Vibrato Bridge. Tuning stability has been reduced because the locking studs which was included with the previous Edge incarnations were being excluded. However, Rich Harris from Ibanezrules came up with a Locking Stud mod and with them installed the tuning stability is on par with Edge/Lo Pro. 2003

Edge Zero



Ibanez created an all new tremolo system which supposedly has the ability to counter the flaw of every Tremolo Vibrato Bridge. That is the whole guitar going out of tune with the breakage of one string. This is known as the ZPS system. What this doe is, it is a giant spring that is placed at the tremolo cavity, acting as a counter force pushing the tremolo to a "Zero" position. It is of course switchable to a floating position by removing the ZPS system. The profile is slightly higher compared to Edge Pro. Features built-in intonation tool. Pre 2011, these come without the locking studs but from 2010 onwards, all of them are pre equipped with a pair of locking studs which therefore, increase stability.

Edge pro 2



This is the cheaper version of the Edge Pro. The visual difference are the excluding of sound metal chips. It has poor tuning stability with it's weak knife edges. However, the routing is able to accommodate Original Floyd Rose without the need of further routing should the player desire to switch to a bridge with better tuning stability.

Edge III



This was the bridge designed to replaced the Edge Pro 2 due to the conflict of patent rights with Floyd Rose. It features the same arm as the EP2.
Tuning stability is about the same compared to the Edge Pro 2. The routing is able to accommodate Original Floyd Rose without the need of further routing should the player desire to switch to a bridge with better tuning stability.


Edge Zero II



The Edge Zero II was introduced in 2011 to replace the Edge III as it's mid range Ibanez Trem. This is so far the best midrange system ever made by Ibanez. It features the zero point system with all the functions of the Edge Zero with the exception of the intonation tool. It has way better Tuning stability compared to Edge III and features locking studs for better stability performance.

ZR



The ZR is a Ibanez design Tremolo which functions close to a Khaler system. Instead of having Knife edges like the traditional Floyd Rose designed Tremolos, it uses a ball bearing-based pivot point instead. It has a different feeling compared to Knife Edge Tremolos but has great tuning stability none the less. This bridge also features a Zero point system which are existent in Ibanez Edge Zero series.


ZR II



ZR II is the successor to the ZR tremolo. the main Tremolo system is the same as the original ZR tremolo with the exception being the use of a different alloy in the spring assembly and a new design of arm holder. The Original ZR system had a flaw where too much wood had to be removed for it's cavity and the arm holders breaks easily. This bridge has great tuning stability and features the Zero point system which are existent in Ibanez Edge Zero series.