Im finding i really hard to downtune my guitar with a floyd rose bridge and setting the intonation can somone please give me some help

what you're gonna have to do is open up the back of your guitar. take that plastic plate off. notice the springs that are attached to a place, which connects to a screw. detune your guitar as much as you want it to be detuned. you should notice that your bridge is no longer flush with the body (or at the correct angle, depending on your bridge). to fix that and give it the correct angle, which in most cases is totally flat with the body, you'll need to adjust the screw accordingly. when detuning, your bridge will probably look sunken into the body of your guitar. compensate for the lower string pressure by unscrewing the screw a bit until the bridge is once again flush with the body. check your tuning again, and the bridge may have moved a little more. adjust the screw accordingly, and retune. repeat until you're in perfect tune and the bridge is perfectly flat. (once you get good, you'll be able to do this in fewer adjust+retune repetitions by compensating for the retune and not adjusting the bridge to be perfectly flat, so that when it's retuned it goes flat, but it's easier to start out by just making it flat each time as i said first).

if you're detuning quite a bit (not just half a step, etc), and you have 3 springs in, i'd recommend that you try dropping down to 2 springs. it's personal preference as long as the screw can be adjustmed enough, but it can't hurt to try. (changes the slinkiness/stiffness feeling of the strings a bit when removing some of the tension caused by the springs in there)

for intonation, get the bridge setup correctly, then grab your tuner. the 12th fret harmonics should be the same exact note as the 12th fret notes. if it's slightly off, you need to change the length of the string between the bridge and nut. to do this, there are little adjustments on each string's block on the floyd rose bridge. move it closer to or further away from the neck of the guitar until the 12th fret harmonic is the same note as the 12th fret note. repeat for each string. retune, recheck.

The floyd rose website has instructions.

http://www.floydrose.com/originaltremolo.html

Follow those instructions rigorously, don't cut corners, give it plenty of time and care and even a liscenced floyd will behave its self (shock, horror!).
If you get sloppy it will be all over the place. I think alot of people don't realise that the performance of a floyd rose bridge depends on how carefully you set it up.
I have used floyds for the past few years and have now decided they are simply not worth the hassle. Have fun...

If you need any more help check out this site http://www.glowingtubes.com/p/FloydTuning.htm

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only licensed floyd worth a dime in my opinion is the ibanez edge type. i'm using an original edge, but the newer ones also seem pretty nice. regardless of how well other licensed floyds are setup, the quality of the material limits their accuracy. the blades dull, pivots bend, etc.. which makes returning in tune impossible.

Yeah i have a '90 Ibanez with an Edge on it, and it seems quite good. 100x better than my other guitar.
Plus they are quite tight, which allows for easy flutters and other trem tricks.

At first you will look at setting up a floyd and freak. But its not too hard once you do a few string changes, it does however, take fucking ages until you get the hang. Even then it is an asshole.

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I have a floyd rose on my jackson and recently detuned it from e to c. heres some info i found on the net.Enjoy. It's a pain in the ass, lots of trial and error.

First prepare the guitar:

Remove the locking lugs from the nut and set them carefully aside.
Many suggest simply loosening these lugs, but I find that complete
removal rules out any friction here during the set up;
Loosen all fine tuning screws at the bridge end to fully out (normally
counter-clockwise which detunes or flattens the string). This will
give you the maximum leeway to tighten (sharpen) the strings once the
nut-locks are replaced;
Remove the backplate from the guitar to reveal the trem mechanism and
the springs that give the trem its stability against the pull of the
strings.
Look at the springs revealed in the back cavity of the guitar. These
are attached to the body of the instrument by screws (normally two)
that secure the claw onto which the springs are hooked. These screws
complete the balance of tension on the instrument. The strings will
pull in one direction which is countered by the springs pulling in the
other. The tension on the strings will be dictated by the tuning you
use and the gauge of strings you have fitted. Between these two
variables string tension is a constant. So the only way to change the
balance of the trem is by adjusting these screws.

Look at the screws again. They are your friends.

If your guitar is brand new from the factory and has had no further
set-up it is highly likely that these screws will need to be tightened
a turn or a turn-and-a-half at least before we can start to approach
an in-tune instrument. So on brand new guitars I tighten these screws
as a matter of course at the beginning to save time later.

Make sure you use a screwdriver that exactly fits the screws.
Screwdriver slippage this close to the guitar's pristine sparkly
finish does not produce attractive results.

Next fit your strings. Part of the science of the Floyd Rose type of
trem is to keep the strings securely locked in place to maintain a
constant string length (and therefore a predictable tension). It is
likely therefore that the bridge unit will incorporate a clamp for the
ball-end of the string. Having removed the backplate this will be
easier to sort out, but you may need a "third hand" to help the first
few times that you change strings. Once all the strings are firmly
anchored, turn the guitar over and attach the strings to the tuning
heads in your preferred manner.

I like to have about three winds of each string on its capstan. Make
sure as you tighten each string it is seated properly in its dedicated
bridge saddle and nut slot. Don't try to tune the guitar at this
point, simply put enough tension on each string to keep it in place
and then move onto the next.

Once all the strings are fitted bring the guitar into a seated playing
position and plug into your electronic tuner. Take a look at the trem
unit. At this point it should be tilted backwards towards the tail of
the guitar. This is desirable. It indicates that the pull on the
springs is far greater that the tension on the un-tuned strings.
Exactly what you'd expect.

Start to tune the strings from the 6th (low E) upwards. Don't be
precious at this early stage, just get it into the ballpark and move on.
When you finish at the 1st string (high E) you'll find that the rest
of the strings are hopelessly detuned. But if you think about it, this
is to be expected. As you've tuned each string in succession you've
increased the sum total of tension applied by all the strings. This has
tilted the bridge assembly towards the neck. This movement has
released tension on the strings you've previously tuned so causing
them to drop in pitch.

Congratulations, you've just reached the point where most people
give up and think they've got a faulty guitar. Take my hand and
let's move on...

Continue to tune in a cycle from 6th to 1st. Each time you will
notice the amount of re-tuning required will decrease ever-so-slightly
(this may take many tuning cycles and quite some time). You are now
on your way to the Holy Grail of a balanced Floyd Rose trem.

As you approach closer and closer to stable tuning, keep checking the
degree of tilt on the bridge against the level of the guitar's body.
Ideally we are looking for a parallel trem unit. So if, as you approach
stable tuning, the unit is tilting forward (to the neck), go to the
screws in the back recess and tighten them slightly. If the unit is
tilting backwards (towards the tail) then the screws need to be
loosened slightly. You can see that judicious tweaking of the screws
as you approach stable tuning will deliver a perfectly parallel unit.
But again don't be too precious, near enough is good enough in most
cases. (But whatever adjustment you make, always tighten or loosen
these screws by the equal amounts to retain the lateral balance of
tension in the vibrato unit.)

Now the guitar is in tune, but we are far from finished yet. You must
stretch the strings. All new strings need stretching after they've
been taken to concert pitch for the first time. Lay the guitar on your
lap, grab the 6th string between thumb and forefinger at the 12th fret
and pull it away from the fretboard a few times. Do this with each
string and retune. Repeat the stretch and retune procedure until
stretching has no detuning effect.

Now you've got a balanced Floyd Rose trem that's in tune with
properly stretched strings. Take a moment to congratulate yourself.

The next step is to ever-so-very-slightly flatten (detune) each
string. Remember we set the fine-tuners to have maximum "sharpening"
ability. Detuning by a tiny degree will compensate for any small
increase in tension caused by fitting the nut locks.

You ca now replace the back panel. It's unlikely you'll have to
change the position of the screws again unless you start using a
drop-tuning, open tuning or change the gauge of strings that you play.
Now re-fit the nut locks, securely but not over-tight. It's a musical
instrument remember, not a thumb-screw.

Once the nut locks are secure you must resist the all-too-natural
temptation to reach for the machine heads. Absent minded tweaking
of the tuning pegs now will break strings and may damage the guitar.

So, now we're set to do the final tuning using the fine-tuning
screws at the bridge. There should be enough "sharpening slack" in
these tuners to allow for tuning adjustments under normal conditions
for the playable life of the strings. If for some reason this isn't
the case (such as cold weather increasing the tension on the strings)
then simply remove the locking nuts and reset the tuning balance as
described above.

u can either do that, or use a string gauge thats one size heavier than what youre using.

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definfitely. i'd recommend going up a gauge if you're detuning much. all i generally play is standard or a half step down, but if you want to go way down, it works much better to increase string gauge. i find 9s to be way too sloppy when detuned. detuning decreases tension (making strings loose/sloppy) and increasing the gauge increases tension to balance it out.

whenever you change the string gauge you'll want to adjust the springs in the back cavity to get your bridge to be flush with the guitar body again, too.

exactly, it also makes it harder to play w/ loose strings

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I'm sure all guitarists to ever use a floyd have thought this at one stage or another

oh absolutely

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