Re: Floyd Dilemma
a floyd is supposed to be parallel to the body for proper tuning stability.
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For a Floyd Rose to have any stability the knife edges MUST be in a position against the posts that only occurs when the baseplate of the vibrato is parallel to the body. You cannot have it tilted like a vintage Fender strat vibrato.
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Sorry bros, but NO.
A properly set up Floyd is parallel
to the plane that the fretboard is on, the angle on the posts is negligible when it`s not extreme ( that of a Fender strat factory setup would already be too much in most situations, that part is correct.)
The reason for this is simple to explain: If you have a guitar such as a San Dimas Soloist /Rhoads, Les Paul, Explorer, or ProMod with an angled neck, even if it is just 1°, and set the Floyd so it's parallel to the body, then any intonation adjustment will automatically affect the action by ever so slightly raising or lowering the individual strings as the saddle is moved. This is bad.
You can test this easily by setting the action w/ the saddle at it`s forward travel limit, setting the baseplate just a degree or so off the neck plane, then moving teh saddle back all the way to the other extreme. You will have a measurable difference in string heigt, and that is bad, because intonation is set up last after everything else is spot on. The last thing you want is for the intonation setup to negate the time and effort spent getting the action exactly where you like it.
Admittedly, in most cases, this is not a "real" problem. But if you have a shredder`s action of 1/16" or less and an inclined neck, you run the very real risk of getting single string buzzing due to uneven string height, even though the radius of the saddles was set properly before you set the intonation. The low E and (already problematic) G are most likely to get knackered by this.
To visualize this principle, this imagine a "normal" even bridge saddle curve. Now imagine the uneven angle of the bridge saddles as you go across the strings (when viewed from above). The further you divert from the neck plane, the more your string height is going to look like the intonation line, ie. the more the individual string height will vary out of spec from the curve you set.
The reason for the common misconception that it needs to be parallel to the body lies in the fact that MOST guitars that have a Floyd are superstrat designs with "flat" neck angles, especially on recessed trems. But alas, not all. My Rhoads for example has about 6 or 7° of neck angle, an action of 1/32, and is tuned to B. If I do not set the plate perfectly parallel to the neck (within about .5°), the guitar is either unplayable due to buzzing or cannot be made to feel right due to the g and low e being wierdly high, depending on which direction I`m skewed in. The same holds true for Phoenix and my Model 6, though to a lesser degree, primarily becasue the string`s vibrational arc is not as wide due to them being in standard tuning.
Cheers :beerchug:
