Floyd Rose Special Quality

[vel0c1ty]

Re: Floyd Rose Special Quality

The string lock blocks in the lower line bridges is the problem with string slippage. Pull one out and check it, but I bet you will find deep impressions. You can replace them with steel or titanium.

The Gotoh bridge is an excellent unit and will take decades to wear the fulcrum points.

Do not over think the OFR radius. There are millions of them in use on all different radius fretboards. You do not have to shim the saddles to get good action.

I'm 90% sure it's the saddles themselves. I've switched, turned, scored, and sanded the blocks with no change. But I haven't tried fully replacing them, so I guess I can't knock it till I try it. One thing I noticed when I changed the strings was that I needed to kinda yank them out of the saddles even with string tension and block tension loosened, leading me to believe that the strings were stuck in their imprint.

 

[dpaterson]

Re: Floyd Rose Special Quality

One thing I noticed when I changed the strings was that I needed to kinda yank them out of the saddles even with string tension and block tension loosened, leading me to believe that the strings were stuck in their imprint.

Yip. Exactly the same thing with me and the FR Special. And ironically also on the B string. What I found was that when this happened the string was bent at the bottom almost as if it had gone in and under the saddle block. Exactly how this is even possible I know not given that when I insert a string before tightening it's 100% perpendicular to the end of the saddle and to the block (in other words it's not like I'm pushing the string in and it's "threading" itself under the saddle block).

Look: I'm being extremely negative here about these things. Fine: I've got two and they're both crap (so that to me is a 100% failure rate). But let's face it: even some of the expensive Jacksons are shipped with FR Specials. Maybe it would pay you to order either a replacement saddle or a set of saddles and a set of saddle blocks.

Matter of fact you've got me thinking (as I typed the above): I think I must take a pic. of the box that these FR Specials came in from StewMac. Hell: for all I know I did indeed end up with those eBay type "specials" (not saying that StewMac would be selling those but maybe they got duped as well as has happened with Amazon and SD pickups). I mean to say: given what I typed above there is no way that Jackson would ship guitars with the same poor quality as that of the aftermarket FR Special units that I received. Will post pic. shortly.

 

[dpaterson]

Re: Floyd Rose Special Quality

Here (with reference to my post above). Does this look like "real deal" FR Special packaging ("real deal FR Special" being a contradiction in terms I know):







And yes (before anyone "starts"!!! LOL!!!). I know. I ordered the R2 versions. StewMac only had these in stock as a complete unit. I ordered R3 nuts separately!!! LOL!!!

Anyways (and depending on any input received here if course): maybe these were just a REALLY bad batch and I just got unlucky.

Still: never again. As I've noted before: there's a reason why these things are less than half the price of an ORIGINAL FR.