Setting up an Ibanez Part 1

For those who wants to skip the story, just go to paragraph 2. I received many mails asking me how to setup an Ibanez nicely and I seldom have the chance to get a badly setup Ibanez for an example for picture taking but luckily, my friend happened to just bought one which was pretty badly setup. So as a favor, I will be doing the setting up for him.

First of all, the action of the guitar is high and from the first look, it can be attributed to the spring of the floating bridge not being balanced and neck warp. Whenever you wish to lower the action of the guitar, NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, did i say NEVER start with the truss rod. The truss rod is a rod that counter acts the tension of a steel/metal string instrument and it is not a magic wand that magically lowers the action of your instrument.

From the above example, we can tell that the bridge is tilted forward. For an Ibanez Edge bridge, the saddles or knife edge should be perpendicular to the cavity line of the body.

In this case, I will start with adjusting the spring claw screw in an attempt to balance the spring. Tighten the screws in this case as you want the spring's tension to be tighter to pull the tremolo down. If your tremolo is tilted towards the tail, loosen the screws.

There isn't a sure formula on how much you need to tighten and I usually do it with an estimation of half a screw turn. Do note that a little twist is enough to change the balancing of the tremolo.

After tightening the screws, proceed to re-tune the guitar to standard (or whatever alternate tunings) with a tuner (This is extremely important). Make sure that all notes are resting at the correct pitch accurately. Check again if the saddles or knife edge should be perpendicular to the cavity line of the body. If it isn't, check again if it's being pulled upwards or tilting backwards. Repeat tightening or loosening the screws until the saddles or knife edge should be perpendicular to the cavity line of the body.Remember to stretch the strings to make sure that it doesn't go out of tune later on when you decide to abuse the whammy.

After balancing the springs, the bridge should look like this with the knife edges or saddles perpendicular to the cavity line of the body.

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.