Floyd Rose troubleshooting

[CTN]

The floyd on my Dean (see avatar) is acting up...actually it's always been acting up, but I've begun playing it a lot more lately, and this is beginning to annoy me. It's a Floyd Rose "Special" (Made in Korea by Floyd Rose themselves)

I know double locking trems can be a pain and you kinda have to adjust your playing style a little bit to accomdate them, but tell me if I'm crazy or if there is a fix for this.

Every time I do a bend on the B string, it goes flat. horribly flat. The high E usually stays in tune, but the B always goes out. I've tried tightening the B's saddle lock and tightening the nut clamp as well after re-tuning the whole guitar, but it still keeps going flat every time I do a bend. The trem itself (and the guitar) are set up perfectly. I have string/spring tension perfectly matched, and the trem's baseplate is sitting parallel to the neck angle (which is very, very, very slight - almost parallel to the guitar's top)

Now, I am playing increasingly more blues stuff, so I need to do bends, despite the fact that when i bend on one string, the others go off, but I only bend maybe a half step, or a whole step at the very most.

So is there a fix for this? Or should I just never play anything with bends on this guitar?

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Floyd Rose troubleshooting

Do you pre-stretch your strings before clamping them down? Check the locking nut and the bridge saddle to make sure the contact points are even and free of burs and wear. Also, check to make sure the string clamp at the neck is properly "locking" that particular string. Obviously, even a tiny bit of movement there will throw the string's tuning off. You could mark the string at the nut with a fine-tip marker, flex the trem and see if the dot moves at all.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Floyd Rose troubleshooting

The B and E strings on a new Floyd guitar can cut into the chrome on the nut. This can cause weird overtones, or cause the string to hang.

Are you having the same problem with a new set of strings?

Change the strings, and look at the nut to see if there is any roughness that needs to be smoothed.

 

[CTN]

Re: Floyd Rose troubleshooting

I definitely pre-stretched the strings before tuning/setting up.

I'm gonna try it with a fresh set of strings and a full new setup.

Gonna check the saddles and string grooves in the nut to make sure there aren't any burrs or places that the string is catching. Maybe it was some weird bum string that's doing that.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Floyd Rose troubleshooting

The knife edges may be worn, or the spot on the pivot posts where they contact them could be notched.