Hey all...im a newbie

I decided to get some heavier guage strings to replace my crappy Super Slinkys, so I bought some Ernie Ball Power Slinkys ( 11 , 14, 18p, 28, 38, 48).

So I put em on and they sound awsome...but then noticed that my bridge was raised (ass up) a whole lot higher then it originally was. It seems a bit abnormal because its actually raised so high that it cant go any further, making the tremola pretty much unusable.

I just wanted to know if this was normal, and if it isnt then what can I do to fix it?

Thanx in advance

First, do you have a floyd or a vintage tremolo (if you dont know, its the one you see on fenders usually)? if you have a vintage trem, id suggest tightening your trem claw, which is behind were you put shove the strings through the bridge. or add another spring and then tighten it. Or you could block it with a peice of wood like i did, and now your guitar is like a stop bar.

If its a floyd, i dunno, start drop tuning to lower the tension.

so what ibanez are you using?

you do know how to adjust your trem springs, don't you boi!?

I have an Ibanez RG170DX...Yeah yeah its the cheap one, but its got shark-tooth inlays so at least it looks cool

Its got the Floyd Rose trem.

Trem springs?? oops no I dont think so. Are they the little screws that are at the back of the trem...1 for each string?? If thats them then what can i do?

don't touch those!!! haha

you see the back of your RG? it has a black cover plate (the big one in the middle)

theres 3 springs in there to hold back your trem, because you've got a thicker gauge string now, you've fuck up the tension on the springs and you need to add tension to straighten out the floyd again.

its pretty easy, theres two screws on the locking plate (at the side of the neck) turn them more into the body to add tension (thats what you need to do, turn them equally, be sure to count your turns)

if you want to put on less tension, just turn them counterclockwise, that way the trem goes up again.

theres tutorials about how to adjust floyd's on the net, they probably explain it in more detail then I just did, but you get the idea, its something you NEED to learn, because everytime you change strings or want to change the action, its nice to know how to do it..

I cant help you with that, since ive never used a floyd... but i might be getting a jackson Dkmg soon, so if i run into a problem and fix it ill email you with the details

i hate when my bridge goes up...i buy what the manual said and it still goes up when I tune to E... and can't stay tuned for very long and I constantly am tuning it tighter and tighter...evil shit.

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Hmmmm... *hands behind my back*... Iv seen them before but iv always been to scared to play around with springs and screws and things. I think Im gonna buy a cheap guitar off ebay sometime to mess around with coz i really wanna know how to setup a guitar properly.

Im going to give it a go now. Thanx for your help!

Innards-decay, yeah thanks that would be cool. Those dinkys are hot! Iv had my eye on the DKMGTFF(the one with flame inlays) for quite a while now

yeah, put an 81/85 in there and ill be smokin!

This should have been posted in the Offical Bridge Thread, but since it isent ill just give you this useful link which you would have found in the first page of The Official Bridge Thread... if you cared to read before you post.

http://www.glowingtubes.com/p/FloydTuning.htm

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Look at this
http://www.glowingtubes.com/images/...usic/spring.gif
Since the bridge is leaning forward, you'll need to tighten the springs. This happens when you put heavier strings on because they have more tension.
If you already didnt know, the strings hold the bridge up. The springs keep the bridge down thus making it floating. You can see how all that works in the pic.

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sucker!
ha! all us cool people disable our floyds....
no more going out of tune when i break a string.....

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Pfft, why even have a floyd then?

just get a KAHLER

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because most of ibanez's nicest guitars only come with floyd style trems..... my early 90's rg570 is sweet as hell... and i got way good deal on it, when you buy things used you don't get "options". i have no need for a trem anyways. sorry stevie ray.

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Yes you do, it should be illegal to have a guitar without a Kahler.

otherwise its a waste

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Yeah BLS I did read before I posted, but since I had just put on heavier gauge strings, and I thought was more of a strings question...but I was wrong

Thanks for the links though, they pretty much explain it all and is very helpfull

I would disable my floyd, but I do use it sometimes, although I dont really use the bar, I just palm the bridge to get a bit of a whammy sound, kinda like munky and head from korn although I think they have special bridges on their K7s to do that properly.

Just one more question, right now the screws are tightened to the max, so if I was to ever put an even heavier guage on then would I have to get stronger springs??

Thanx for your help

Put even heavyer gauge strings on it and tune to standard E, and you most definitly fuck up the neck of your guitar.

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he's prolly not tuning in E, since really thick gauge strings in standard tuning play like ass. (especially when you do bends and shit)

Floyd's are fucking incredible. I love my '89 Edge trem!

Yeah not in E, Its in dropped D tuning..thats why I thought I could get away with thicker guage strings, but now thats its all fixed its cool

kahlers are good n' all, but i don't like to depend on trems, not all good guitars have them.... i dunno, it's just better without for me...

my rg570 has an edge too, it's iight, better than my 2000 pgm's....... but still, similar probs.

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probs? like what? I have never broken a string on my RG750...

I replace them a lot though, but I allways broke strings on my jackson dinky (the one that got stolen) I guess the Ibanez is of a better quality (though its old.)

not all good guitars have trems, ofcourse not lol, that wouldn't make any sense, theres loads of people that just don't use trems. some guitars aren't meant to be fitted with trems IMO, like Les Pauls and SG's, I've played the angus young SG with the bigby trem, it was just too fucking weird (and no range at all, haha)

breaking strings isnt always about the quality of the guitar.... after a couple weeks of band practice once or twice a day and then the occasional gig..... strings just break.
i don't break strings very often anymore cuz i play thicker strings than i used to and i have thinner picks.... i used to play .009's in E standard with 1.00mm or thicker picks.... and every other practice i'd break a string.
now i play .012's in D standard with .73 picks...... the slightly thinner picks make it easier to play fast triplets and tremelo picking, but strumming sounds better and more even too... the thicker strings help gives me a phat tone that just crunches, making my sound heavier and darker sounding. great for jazzy stuff too.
and for some reason i can now go a couple weeks without breaking any...
the rg570 has aways stayed in tune better than the pgm, but they both stay in tune really well, because i took the bolt things off of the locking nut and put on some sperzel locking tuners... it's just easier that way. sometimes i can go days without having to retune....

but i don't like trems...

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Def, play a Les Paul with a Kahler on it... you'll love it.

I never break a string using a tremolo system, since they allow more movement in the strings your less likely to break one. Bending also seems easier using a trem, since the bridge will slighty move making it alot easier and smoother. I think of a trem as just another aspect of the guitar i can master. But some people get addicted to trem's and use them when not needed.

To each their own i guess, but seeing a quality floyd copy like the Edge go unused makes baby jesus cry

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so eh, how many times a month do you replace strings?

its not allways the quality of the guitar but in my case it surely is, I still have the same playing style after years and its pretty raw,

I practise daily and do gigs about 2/3 times a month, I never ever broke strings on this guitar, I broke loads on my old guitars though (the punk'd out strat and the jackson) I'm pretty sure it has to do with the quality if the ancient edge trem versus a crap fender style bridge and a POS korean floyd on the dinky.

I play with .10's in standard tuning or with eb skinny top heavy bottoms in full D.

I tune like once a week, and its hardly off, the most time I spend tuning is when I just installed new strings, like every two weeks. new strings stretch out slightly, but thats pretty much it, when I was on holiday and I got back the thing was perfectly in tune, when I played two gigs in a week I didn't even have to retune it and I'm known as a guitar basher, lol. I can't explain it, but I love it though, on my other guitars I can even break strings that aren't a week old... it stays in tune better then any non-trem equipped guitar I ever had.


anyways, I'm a floyd-a-holic I guess, I love to do the dimebag shit every now and then, and weird feedback fx are cool to do with a trem too. I wouldn't even think about disabling my floyd. that would be like unholy, haha

haha word!

Les Paul's are great, but IMO I don't think the body is comfortable and they are heavy as hell and those necks are just sluggish compared to Wizzard I necks!!

I haven't ever seen an LP with a trem in stores here, do they have those big ass bigsby things too? (those things have NO range at all!!)

Bigsbys SUCK.

Ive played a Les Paul with a floyd.... it was horrible. It made the Les Paul sound horrible, i never realized what the lame ass spring cavity does to sustain.

The Kahler that i played on a Les Paul was a Kahler 2300 Pro NOT the one that can be installed on the studs, but a real one that requires some inch deep routing. All it needed was 24 frets and i woulda bought it.

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yeah, I can see a floyd not working on an LP... it has one bigass cavity and a LP is all about body/sustain IMO, thats the reason to buy one in the first place.

imagine a bigsby on it, strapping a piece of metal that big would make the allready LP a killer for your back haha!

for some reason theres not a lot of gibby's over here... seems to be crawling with stinkin' fenders though

i might be able to help since i have an ibanez with the floatin trem and 11's

you wil need the following: a screwdriver, phillips, and an extra tremolo spring,
open the back of your guitar, the big black plate. then add a spring to the bridge. then you will notice the springs attach to a large silver claw lik thing. there are two large screws that attach it to the body. tighten that and tune up and keep repeating until your bridge is perfectly parallellelellleell to the body of the guitar. then close it up, lock the tuning and jam away!!!

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