Recessed or Flush mounted Floyd?

ACH91332

ACH91332

New member
I have a Mockingbird that has a recessed Original Floyd Rose on it and I use it a lot. However I hate that because it is a floating bridge bending strings causes other strings to change pitch. I heard flush mounts don't have this issue which makes sense because the EVH drop D tuner would throw a floating bridge off when its engaged but people tend to use this on a flush mount Floyd and I'm assuming people play chords so yea.. must stay in tune.

The reason I ask is I am drawing up plans for a master guitar and am trying to decide to go recessed or flush mount. For those who are interested here's what I'm doing..

I'm making an HH Charvel Strat with the 5150 banana headstock. It will have a mahogany body and set/contoured maple neck with ebony fret board. 24-3/4" scale length, 12"-16" compound radius, 1-11/16" nut width, and a thin C profile. This is going to be a guitar with all my favorite appointments from every guitar I've ever played. Unfortunately I can't play any flush mount Floyds because guitar shops don't leave the bars on the tremolos because someone could damage the guitar if they are stupid with it.

What are the pros and cons of a flush mount? From what I understand you can do whatever you want with a recessed mount except that bending a string changes the pitch of the other stings. I hate that I can't do certain rock and country licks without it sounding a 1/4 step off pitch. I don't believe I do a lot of techniques that move the pitch upwards other than maybe fluttering or if I just divebomb and go crazy with the thing but I don't do either constantly so I guess I can live without both. Just wondering what you guys think.

And by the way. Can you move the pitch up at all? I know I won't be able to do much but is there enough play to put vibrato on a note? Not tremolo I'm talkin' bout moving the pitch up and back not down and back.

Thanks.

Thanks.
 
Re: Recessed or Flush mounted Floyd?

If there were any 'play' at all, it wouldn't be stable enough to stay put when bending. It really has to sit flat (or be blocked by some method). The springs have to be tight enough that they can compensate for the extra tension of a bent string without the bridge leaning forward. This goes for any floating trem, in theory anyway.

The other advantage of having it flush mount is you don't risk pushing the notes sharp when resting your hand on the bridge for palm muting or whatever. I do have a tendency to do this when I play.

An alternative to flush mount would be something like a Tremol-no or Trem-Stop. This would allow it so stay stable while still having the wood removed under the bridge in case you change your mind. You could just leave the back plate off and switch on the fly. This still gives you all the 'dive only' features, and would allow the D to be dropped as well.

Check out this Tremol-no demo video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiZnipHc1ec

I don't have as much Floyd experience as some other members here, but that's just my two cents.
 
Re: Recessed or Flush mounted Floyd?

With the flush mount you would only be able to dive, not come up. Any unison and blues bends should stay in tune as long as you have enough springs to hold the floyd against the body.
If you have a recessed floyd you can just block it so you can only dive, it will have the same effect.

There are also devices to help with this on fully floating floyds. I can't remember what they are called though.


Found some examples of it:
http://joe.emenaker.com/TremStabilizers/
These are all the major ones I've heard of, but they stabilize the tremolo so that bends will stay in tune, but you can still use it to dive or pull up.
 
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Re: Recessed or Flush mounted Floyd?

I'm giving this a bump so we can get more opinions or info. Good question, IMO.
 
Re: Recessed or Flush mounted Floyd?

I prefer flush mount since the bridge won't go sharp while my hand sits on the bridge. There's also added tuning stability.

That being said, all a flush mount does is prevent the trem from being pulled up, and it can only dive bomb. You can get any guitar with a floating Floyd and block it with a Trem Stop or Tremolo-no and get the same effect- and still have the option of taking the block out if you want it to float at a later date so you can do pull-ups.

A flush mounted Floyd needs an angled neck pocket, or else you need to use shims in the neck pocket, which I wouldn't want in a custom guitar. Some guitar makers (like the new pro mod Charvels) don't route the neck pocket deep enough so you still have a little bit of float. A recessed Floyd needs no angled neck pocket or shims, so it's easier to route.

To sum it up, it makes no difference whether the guitar comes with a Flush or Recessed trem, as these days there's products on the market to make the trem non floating very easily. A recessed Floyd gives you the option of changing your mind later on
 
Re: Recessed or Flush mounted Floyd?

I prefer top mount with float. I don't really abuse the Floyd, but I like to add both up and down warble - wide vibrato that goes higher and lower. You can't do that with a flush mount.

In general, I don't like recessed Floyds because I don't like the strings to be that low/close to the body.

IMO - if you've got the springs so tight that the bridge won't move when you bend strings, the guitar is going to play very stiffly, and I don't like that. A true hardtail is always going to play better than a flush or blocked double locker, IMO.
 
Re: Recessed or Flush mounted Floyd?

You could just learn to do without the whole wangbar wankery in the first place...
 
Re: Recessed or Flush mounted Floyd?

Here's another idea to throw into the mix.

Well, since it IS a custom built guitar, why not just have the trem route routed in such a way that the block of the floyd rose actually RESTS on the wall of the route when in the parallel position?

That way, you can maintain the adjustment ease that a recessed floyd has while still maintaining tuning stability and sth I didn't noticed getting mentioned, a heckload more sustain (since the SUSTAIN block will have direct contact with the body of the guitar...)

In any case that's what I'm doing for my custom build...
 
Re: Recessed or Flush mounted Floyd?

I looked into those trem stabilizers and it looks like the Ibanez backstop would be the ticket for me but they aren't made or something anymore. I might go with the Göldo Back Box or the Hipshot Tremsetter. It seems like they keep the tuning stable enough to do all the Floyd techniques (except fluttering prolly but whatever thats fine) but will allow me to do unison bends and stuff without the pitch changing. I read on a forum one guy who used the tremsetter said he can break a string on his guitar and it would still be in tune.

And to Aceman just because you don't like using anything other than a hardtail doesn't make that the case with me. I'm a Les Paul guy at heart I don't base my technique off my ability to use a tremolo. Every now and then there's a time to use a tremolo and I do so. If I want to do something that involves using a tremolo I want that ability at my finger tips. This is my everything guitar so it's going to have everything I'll need in one package. I don't like using 5 stage guitars anymore.
 
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