Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

[FalloutMaster]

Hey all, so I'm starting this guitar project, I have an Ibanez GIO with a 6 post style Fender trem, it was very cheap and my first guitar, and I'm thinking of turning it into a floyd rose bridge. I'm having a hard time finding guitars that have non-recessed floyd's on them. I don't like playing recessed FR's because the way I rest my hand on the bridge pulls notes sharp no matter how hard I try to be gentle, but I really like the smooth vibrato action of a FR and the benefit of a double locking system, and I only do divebombs anyway so I don't need a floating bridge. I'm wondering if the trem block on a floyd will fit into the hole for the existing tremolo? I'll probably be replacing the neck with one that is routed for a FR so I'm not worried about that. Other than drilling holes for the posts to fit into what else do I need to know? Has anyone here done this before?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

This is a good example of where simply buying a body already setup for the trem is beneficial.
You will have to dowel and redrill for the mounting screws, and I'm sure you'll need to change the rout for the block anyhow.

You are changing the neck too......at what point does the project then become too much like a completely new guitar??


The other possible option is this:
https://super-vee.com/products/tremolo-systems/super-vee-locking-bridge-and-nut-system/

Means you keep your body and neck and simply drops in.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

It's not actually that hard to do. All you need to do is put the Floyd in where the original bridge was, put both e strings in to make sure that the bridge is in the right place, mark where the posts need to be, and then drill. It takes some skill, but it's not that hard. If it's your first woodworking job, I wouldn't do it. Get a new guitar or send it to someone else.

 

[Blille]

Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

I would suggest a new guitar.

Edit: don’t want to sound dismissive but I’ve been down that road before [emoji4] I pretty much agree with what coma wrote below. You can get an RG with a Floyd Rose-y bridge for $400.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[FalloutMaster]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

This is a good example of where simply buying a body already setup for the trem is beneficial.
You will have to dowel and redrill for the mounting screws, and I'm sure you'll need to change the rout for the block anyhow.

You are changing the neck too......at what point does the project then become too much like a completely new guitar??


The other possible option is this:
https://super-vee.com/products/tremolo-systems/super-vee-locking-bridge-and-nut-system/

Means you keep your body and neck and simply drops in.

I guess I figured I could save some money since I already have the body and it's in fine shape. I mean, the neck has got to go anyway since it's a bit warped, I figure $200 for a warmoth neck and and another 200 for the floyd and I already have a humbucker ready for it, so I'm getting the guitar I want for $400 and a little elbow grease. But, if I can find a body for not too much that isn't routed for a recessed floyd that'd be perfect too but I dont know if that exists. I really don't want a floating trem, just a locking trem. I thought about like a floyd rail tail or something similar paired with some locking tuners, do you think that would stay in tune as well as a locking unit?

 

[I NEED HELP123]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

I'm planning on doing the same thing with one of my guitars.

This video i found really really helpfull: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMpIXdzW92o&t=564s

I took out the bridge of the guitar and had a floyd lying around and it fit perfectly. THIS ISN'T THE CASE WITH EVERY GUITAR!!
It's very important that if you do this, you measure very precisely and carefully. it depends on what floyd you're going to fit. Go to the website of the manufacturer and look up some templates.

Also, you're probably going to have problems with where the springs sit because the tremblock of a floyd is shorter than a normal trem. maybe somebody sells special tremblocks, if not you would have to remove some wood there.

 

[FalloutMaster]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

I'm planning on doing the same thing with one of my guitars.

This video i found really really helpfull: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMpIXdzW92o&t=564s

I took out the bridge of the guitar and had a floyd lying around and it fit perfectly. THIS ISN'T THE CASE WITH EVERY GUITAR!!
It's very important that if you do this, you measure very precisely and carefully. it depends on what floyd you're going to fit. Go to the website of the manufacturer and look up some templates.

Also, you're probably going to have problems with where the springs sit because the tremblock of a floyd is shorter than a normal trem. maybe somebody sells special tremblocks, if not you would have to remove some wood there.

Thanks for the video, I bookmarked it for future use. I know a really good luthier that I may have fit the bridge in the body for me and I can do the rest.

 

[Coma]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

Not gonna lecture you on what to do, its your guitar and your money and I'm certainly no stranger to putting money into guitars knowing fully well I will never see a dime back on that investment. That being said, you might want to consider the following:

1. The GIO line is the cheapest stuff you can get from Ibanez. That doesn't necessarily make it a bad instrument, but corners have been cut. That makes it an ideal modding platform if you wanna learn more about tweaking your gear past manufacturers specs. By extension, it also makes it something you don't really want to be putting a lot of money into. An entry-level guitar with high-end gear tacked onto it can only go upwards in sound a quality, but it might never sound and play and feel as good as something that was a bit pricier to begin with.

2. A Floyd can be a bit pricey (at least on this side of the pond). You can get the lower end ones or Ibanez own locking bridges. I have zero experience with those, so I'll leave the quality assessment to others, but putting an expensive bridge on there, not to mention having a luthier do the prep work for you, is a bit of an investment. If you also want a new neck to match - that's another cost tacked onto something that is likely not going to hold its value. At the end of the day, if you want THAT guitar because it has sentimental value or does something that few other axes can do, then by all means. But you'd probably end up both saving money AND having better instrument on your hands by just going out and getting a used guitar in good shape that has the specs you're looking for.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

A German Floyd would cost more than the guitar is worth.

Plenty of pre-owned models you can buy with flat mount Floyds

 

[I NEED HELP123]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

you can get a second hand floyd rose special for around 60 euro on ebay.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

And what about neck angle? Noone mentions that. A Floyd is taller than a fender style trem so if you were to just install the Floyd (no need to fill the holes from the old trem, a Floyd has a much wider spacing) the action will be sky high. You need a 3-5 degree angle.hence most recesses. I recess my Floyds but only so I can get the action within spec. It is still a dive only trem. Recessed Floyd = / = full floating.

 

[I NEED HELP123]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

And what about neck angle? Noone mentions that. A Floyd is taller than a fender style trem so if you were to just install the Floyd (no need to fill the holes from the old trem, a Floyd has a much wider spacing) the action will be sky high. You need a 3-5 degree angle.hence most recesses. I recess my Floyds but only so I can get the action within spec. It is still a dive only trem. Recessed Floyd = / = full floating.

it depends where you live but you can buy neck shims from stewmac to give the neck another angle.

http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_an...itar_Necks/StewMac_Neck_Shims_for_Guitar.html

you can also try making them yourself.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

Hey all, so I'm starting this guitar project, I have an Ibanez GIO with a 6 post style Fender trem, it was very cheap and my first guitar, and I'm thinking of turning it into a floyd rose bridge. I'm having a hard time finding guitars that have non-recessed floyd's on them. I don't like playing recessed FR's because the way I rest my hand on the bridge pulls notes sharp no matter how hard I try to be gentle, but I really like the smooth vibrato action of a FR and the benefit of a double locking system, and I only do divebombs anyway so I don't need a floating bridge. I'm wondering if the trem block on a floyd will fit into the hole for the existing tremolo? I'll probably be replacing the neck with one that is routed for a FR so I'm not worried about that. Other than drilling holes for the posts to fit into what else do I need to know? Has anyone here done this before?

That Super vee might be best option. Or you could also try fitting Fender slanted trem block to it. I have that in 6 screw tremolo from Peavey, it can do dive bombs as far as sustain allows.

 

[I NEED HELP123]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

That Super vee might be best option. Or you could also try fitting Fender slanted trem block to it. I have that in 6 screw tremolo from Peavey, it can do dive bombs as far as sustain allows.

View attachment 86507

does it stay in tune?

 

[FalloutMaster]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

Not gonna lecture you on what to do, its your guitar and your money and I'm certainly no stranger to putting money into guitars knowing fully well I will never see a dime back on that investment. That being said, you might want to consider the following:

1. The GIO line is the cheapest stuff you can get from Ibanez. That doesn't necessarily make it a bad instrument, but corners have been cut. That makes it an ideal modding platform if you wanna learn more about tweaking your gear past manufacturers specs. By extension, it also makes it something you don't really want to be putting a lot of money into. An entry-level guitar with high-end gear tacked onto it can only go upwards in sound a quality, but it might never sound and play and feel as good as something that was a bit pricier to begin with.

2. A Floyd can be a bit pricey (at least on this side of the pond). You can get the lower end ones or Ibanez own locking bridges. I have zero experience with those, so I'll leave the quality assessment to others, but putting an expensive bridge on there, not to mention having a luthier do the prep work for you, is a bit of an investment. If you also want a new neck to match - that's another cost tacked onto something that is likely not going to hold its value. At the end of the day, if you want THAT guitar because it has sentimental value or does something that few other axes can do, then by all means. But you'd probably end up both saving money AND having better instrument on your hands by just going out and getting a used guitar in good shape that has the specs you're looking for.

I totally understand where you're coming from, and believe me I don't expect any return on my investment haha. I just have this picture in my head of the guitar I want and I'm have a hard time finding it. I know it's all cheap stuff, I fully intend to rebuild the whole guitar, new neck, new pickups and pots, down to the output jack; the only thing that will be left is the body. I don't really have any sentimental value in this guitar other than that it was my first guitar. I'm only considering building on the body because I have it and it has a trem on it already. My other Ibby is a hardtail and I don't want to do anything to my MIA Strat because its great the way it is. I guess it's mostly that I looked at guitars up into the $900 range and I still didn't see exactly what I wanted, and having done the math I can build it for less. And I kinda just want to build a guitar. But thinking about it now, Ibanez probably used the cheapest slab of basswood they could find for this axe, and given that I'm going to repaint it anyways it might make sense to just buy a new (or used) body to use as my platform...

 

[CaptainWhizz]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

I was looking at doing this, then I realised that by the time I'd bought the Floyd Rose, the locking nut, done all the work, and bought a decent humbucker (it was a Squier Strat), it made sense just to grab a used EVH Striped Series for £350. Then I ended up with an extra guitar, and it had the great neck on it too.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Putting a Floyd Rose on a Fender trem guitar?

does it stay in tune?

Yes. Perfectly. I has locking tuners and nut lubricated with pencil graphite (~ 4 years ago, so it seems darn long lasting solution).

Big thing to make sure with 6-screw trem is that trem plate screws are loose enough: When adjusting them, loose them far away, pull trem as far up it goes (block hits the cavity wall), and then tighten until they just touch plate (so that they don't push it downwards). Having them too tight messes up the set up and risks damage if you do heavy bending.