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Floyd top mount vs flush: preference?


Travis

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Just out of curiosity, do you guys have a preference and why?

I’m partial to fixed bridges myself but I do have one remaining Floyd equipped guitar left, and I’ve had several others over the years. Now that I think about it, I believe all of my Floyd equipped guitars have been top mount...

Along the same lines, do you prefer your Floyds to be completely floating or blocked for dive only?  I get there are benefits to each, just curious what y’all have and how you set them up. 

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I don't really dive bomb, so only vibrato and some up and down bends are what I do on the tremolo, so it needs to be floating.

Generally if I'm playing music with lots of bends, I'm on a hard tail, not a tremolo bridge.

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Top versus flush ... only a comfort and familiarity thing. If you grew up with or simply prefer stock strats and teles, you'll prefer flush. If you grew up with or simply prefer TOMs or wraps, you'll prefer it riding higher in relation to the body face. I've had so much shit over the years, that ride height really doesn't matter that much to me anymore.

I prefer completely floating. Even when I gigged regularly, I rarely broke strings. If I wanted a detuning or E flat or drop D, I preferred to either use a Morpheus Droptune or just grab a hardtail.

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Both of the Floyd-ed guitars I’ve owned were floated appx 1/8” above the top. Like Jeffro said, this had a very familiar feel. However, I always preferred the way oldskool Charvel/Jackson, ESP, Kramer, etc., felt and sounded with a decked Floyd. 

I used a trem-stop on one to help with bending/intonation. Not a big fan of blocking FRs (or any) trems. It worked well enough, but eventually went back to decked, brass Charvel trems. 

One thing you have to keep in mind with decked FRs is that you have to have the right neck angle and the neck pocket cut properly. MusicMan Axis guitars come with color-coded neck shims to use if you decide to raise the FR off the body.

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I prefer blocking my Floyd since I can bend strings up with my hands and I don't do the "boing, boing" flutter thing with a floating trem. Plus, I can use a D-tuna for drop D, and tuning overall is easier. And while I never break strings, there's no fear that a broken string will throw the entire thing out of tune. Honestly, since notes can be bent up with one's hands, I don't really see the advantage of a floating Floyd. 

On the other hand, bending an entire chord up with a Bigsby is something else altogether, and I do enjoy that a lot, but I never want to bend an entire chord up when playing anything that requires a Floyd. I guess it's like having different kinds of guitars for playing different styles of music. Same thing with vibratos, i.e., I prefer different kinds for different styles of music. 

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I don’t own a Floyd so  I’m out...but on a Strat, I prefer a floating vibrato for one reason: it is the key for keeping a Strat in tune.

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I have them all and Kahler Pros. I prefer the Top mounted Floyds raised above the body first, Kahler Pro 2nd or really 1B as I love them both. I like flush mounted Floyds and adjust, but prefer them higher up like a Tunamatic bridge.

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I have both and they're great for different things.  I have a Wayne alder with a maple neck one pickup and a decked Floyd with D Tuna.  It's great for those things.  I have a couple of others where it floats and it's not hard to get used to.  I also have a Carvin bolt with a Wilkinson non locking trem that's floats.  I like those options.  It's just another peculiarity of a guitar to deal with, like pickups, volume and switch placement.  That's how I look at it.  

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I've played quite few iterations - top, flush, (recessed), floating, hard decked, blocked. Like Ree-shard, I've come to be not quite so picky about the height off the deck, so long as it's not really high up there like the earlier 80's Floyded Hamers I owned- a Firebird, a couple of Blitz(es). They had Floyds so far off the deck it f-ed up my attempts at playing. Hell, I've had a few Diablos that, despite being routed for floating/pull ups, still had the base plate sitting a full 1/4 inch off the deck. 🤔 Maybe with a slight shave of the neck heel or a proper shim to bring the neck to a better angle, I could've gotten those Floyds a little lower in the cavity. My ideal height (these days) is roughly at hard decked level but floating.

Speaking of floating: I've been playing mostly floating trems for the last 35+ years. I've come to enjoy the unique attributes a floating Floyd brings. As a result, I've adapted my shitty technique and back alley dumpster playing style to compensate for the drawbacks floating trems have. Trem (over)use is scattered in all my playing; I sprinkle that shit throughout like bargain Parmesan cheese on spaghetti. I rationalize thusly:  EVH (using a dive only OFR) does some great shit but you couldn't do the stuff that Vai, Satch, Beck, Gillis and Belew do.

For those who think that floating trems are only for schmaltzy sound effects and gags (which I love dearly) - this guy makes a decent case for more tasteful use of a floating trem:

 

 

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, RobB said:

Praises to Odin for that!

Really? Jeff Beck doesn't rate your oh-so discerning respect?

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3 minutes ago, RobB said:

Oh, quite the contrary. Respectfully-speaking, I find most OTT, whammy-strangling to be distracting and egregious. Strictly from my own discernment, of course. 

I can't fault you for that (at least, publicly ;)) as tastes are obviously wildly subjective but I was surprised you lumped Beck in with your disain for the other floating whammy stranglers.

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