Floyd Rose 7 String won't return to pitch šŸ˜©šŸ˜­

IT'z Roberto

IT'z Roberto

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Soooo, I recently ordered a used 7 string with a no return policy... The said 7 string has a Floyd Rose special that is not returning to pitch, it's either sharp or flat, it seems to stick in either side but never fully returns to zero... Any advice?
 
groverj3

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IT'z Roberto said:
Soooo, I recently ordered a used 7 string with a no return policy... The said 7 string has a Floyd Rose special that is not returning to pitch, it's either sharp or flat, it seems to stick in either side but never fully returns to zero... Any advice?
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Is the baseplate relatively level? Ex. The bass and treble sides are about the same height, and is it level to the body of the guitar front to back?

Related, are the knife edges on the base plate sharp, or have they flattened? Are there grooves worn into the posts?

Another thing that can cause issues, the nut. Are there grooves worn into the clamps and/or the nut itself?
 
NoodleFace

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Check the knife edges,.check the studs, lubricate the studs, check the locking nut, replace the springs

If you hit the trem in the other direction (if it's flat pull back on the bar) does it return to pitch?
 
lost_horizon

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Most Floyd Specials are alright.

I don't trust any floyd, even the best and the worst will be better with a stabiliser.

I have a thread on here comparing them.
 
Hollowway

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Yeah, as stated above, Iā€™d say the two most likely culprits are:
1) the bass side is too high compared to the treble side, so the knife edges arenā€™t on the same plane.
2) the knife edges are worn.

Check #1, as itā€™s an easy fix. #2 youā€™ll have to take the bridge off (but you can leave the strings attached for a quick glance).

Does it make any creaking or clicking sounds? Thatā€™s a dead giveaway for these two issues.

If itā€™s not those, then youā€™re looking at posts, nut, etc. Iā€™ve not had issues with those, but have with the two Iā€™ve listed here.
 
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I have had 4 new guitars over the past few years with Floyd Rose Specials. In my view they all do it. My Schecter Banshee I use for one of my projects, I bought it because it was pretty. But the FR Special was just bad from day one.

I have eventually replaced all of them with OFRs and it's a significant upgrade. With the FR Specials, I would find I would need to retune every ten minutes or so, especially if I actually used the tremolo.

I have been using Floyds since the late 1990s, so I believe I have a clue about how to set them up and maintain them. So far, to date, I have not been able to keep an FR Special reliable. The OFRs I swapped in are dead on, I can wingy and wangy to my heart's content and the things stay in tune.

I found with the FR Specials I have taken off, the knife edges wear quite quickly, the one on the Schecte was 6 months old when I took it off and I could already see where the metal had degraded. The biggest issue to me I think are the saddles. I just think the material is not grippy enough to hold the string in. The one I took off of a Jackson DK2 was actually in worse condition, though it was a year old, it really had no more than 20 or so hours playing time on it. I found with the A string, no matter what I did, I could physically pull the string out of the saddle with minimal force. I dissected further to find that the string had created a groove on the front face of the saddle. Normally I would call this a symptom of over-tightening, but given it's lack of use, it could only have had one string change (I did ignore it after I got it, silly I know). And as I say, I have been using floyd rose bridges a long time, work as a tech on and off, I think I have some iota of a clue about these bridges.

My personal recommendation is to not waste your time. Go and get a replacement OFR and swap it out. The route is the same and that is 95% of the job.

If you want to do the job quick, plonk it in and away you go. To do the job right, my operation is:

- Remove the bushings from the FR Special from the body. The OFR bushings are better quality but everso slightly thicker than the FRS bushings. I ream out the bushing holes just very slightly larger on the drill press. One plunge and you're done sort of thing. It's very easy to do. You could do it with a roundfile if you wanted to, but I go the easy way.

- Tap the new bushings in place, move onto the locking nut. The FR Special Locking Nut is certainly a different material to the OFR's. I have found that typically the FRS nut is slightly shallower than the OFR's nut. Typically I will shave a little off the shelf on the neck otherwise the new OFR nut will sit slightly proud of the fretboard. Not a hard operation to do, but worth paying attention to.

- Next is the tremolo block. OFRs ship with 42mm blocks. This may or may not be appropriate for your guitar. The FR Special will have the correct block. You can either nick the one off that one, or as I did, spend the Ā£25 or so for the brass block of the appropriate size and swap it in. To be honest, I never really went for the brass block fad, the standard steel block has always done me fine, but if an apparently better block is the same money, why the hell not. If you don't have the correct size block, it will not meet the spring cavity correctly which you may or may not be able to work with.

- You will need to radius the new OFR properly. You can either take shims from the FR special, or order some up from FR, depending on what needs to happen.

- Like all these guitars, if you are that far into swapping things over, now is a good time to check frets are level and if any dressing is needed. I levelled and dressed the Schecter and the DK2 as both had high spots here and there.

- After that, it's the standard run of the mill set up.

As I say, I don't throw a Ā£300 bridge on a guitar lightly. But those FR Specials I truly believe are junk. I don't care where they are made neither am I one for sentiment. Regardless of the fact that the FR Special seems to deserve the Floyd Rose stamp on it or not, if a bridge does not stay in tune, then it's not fit for purpose.
 
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