Floyd Rose Questions??????

[MARKVECTOR82]

OK I have an 85 Hamer SS on its way to me Should hopefully be here late next week and its got a floyd. I've never had a guitar w/one Always been a Khaler man

When i've used whammys . What are the pros/cons? are they easy to set up?

Do they change the sound of the instrument in comparison to other whammys?

[RobB]

>What are the pros/cons?

Pros: Once properly set up w/stretched strings, sucker WILL stay in tune.

Allows much more travel than a Fender style, usually.

Nicely machined saddles feel good under the hand for palm-muting

Cons: If the Floyd is floating, doing unison bends or pedal steel licks

becomes challenging because the bridge dumps forward when you

bend strings. Stock EB/MM Axis, VH guitars install their Floyds flat

to the guitars face, no up-pull.

They need a bit more tweaking than standard trems, and regular

maintenance to play their best.

>Are they easy to set up?

Once you get used to working on them, it's no problem. Like anything mechanical, it takes a while to get used to adjusting them to your own liking.

>Do they change the sound of the instrument in comparison to other whammys?

Some claim Floyds thin-out the sounds of guitars. Since a Fender baseplate is connected to the body w/6 screws, in theory there would be more contact of the bridge/body. It's really subjective, almost impossible to determine a comparison against other trems.

I guess you'll have to see if you like it in your SS or not.

[MARKVECTOR82]

Thank you that was enlightening! I appreciate the information.

[Guest JackButler]

Chances are on a SS, the bridge won't be recessed, but you can still have it float a little and get maybe a third or so's worth of pull up, if desired. Or you could set it to rest against the body and not pull up.

If you do any live performing (as opposed to dead performing..lol) with a floyd, its good to have a backup, as if you break a string, the whole thing goes horribly out of tune. You can always install something like a tremsetter or tremel-no device to stop that from happening.

On the whole double stop bending thing..you really have to "play the floyd" and learn your sweet spots.

Someone once told me you either play guitar or you play Tele...I feel the same can be said of floyds...you either play 'em or you don't. That being said, all except for one of mine (used for altered tunings/stop tail) are floyd equipped guitars.

As far as changing the tone of a guitar..that's purely subjective to your ears...no two people hear a song the same either.

edited to add: Once you get it home..spend a little while with it...if there's any questions or anything I can help you with just drop me a line and I'd be happy to help.

[MARKVECTOR82]

Thanks I will

[holLoWskull]

Up until the past couple years, every electric I owned had a Floyd on it. Now that I have other guitars to compare, I will say that to me, I notice a definite effect on tone with a Floyd. Comparing it to my Daytona and Mirage II that both have Wilkinson VSV trems, the Floyd equipped guitars don't match up in the sustain or "richness" of tone department. That being said, you can't do half the whammy tricks with a VSV that you can with a properly set up floating Floyd, so you have to decide what you're guitar needs are. The only trem that I have that can come close to a floating Floyd for "warbles" and "flutters" is the ABM unit on my T-62. It sounds better than a Floyd but still isn't quite as good for "divebombing" and "pull-ups". FLoating Floyd's are great for what they're built for, staying in tune while doing trem bar antics but like JackButler suggested, DO NOT PLAY OUT WITH ONE WITHOUT HAVING A BACKUP GUITAR ON HAND! Another word of caution, if your SS has a floating Floyd, be careful doing crazy pull ups on the bar as I'm almost positive your SS has a mahogany neck. Bar pull ups put a lot of stress on a neck, and you don't want to crack a headstock (which is why so many Floyd Rose equiped guitars have maple necks).