Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

[TheProphet]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

I've never had that guitar go out of tune when I break a string. Can't say the same for my other guitars with a floating tremolo.

Just saying.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Well it should be...or you use some weenie small ones
Check it out on a tuner next time.....it is out for sure

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Why wouldn't you be able to do that on a Strat vibrato that was set up to do that?

I'm still a bit confused.

Does arc length have to be constant across all 6 strings to get equal pitch shifting?

Methinks that the wound strings require more arc length per unit of tension (trem rotation angle x radius from the center of rotation) and this would have to be compensated for at the saddles, followed by using the right gauge of strings that will intonate at that setting. It's a compromise, but it seems to be the only way to get distance traveled for saddles to be proportional to a string's elasticity constant, thus giving you the same pitch shift across all the strings. Other bridge types like what Mincer mentioned have this design element built in already?

 

[TheProphet]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Oh there's probably a slight change in pitch.

But with it locked down, the change isn't noticeble when playing with the band.
With the floating trem, it's enough of a difference that I have to drop the volume and go and retune/swap guitars.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

I never cared.....changed it on the fly or just played on with one string only

 

[TheProphet]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

I never cared.....changed it on the fly or just played on with one string only

LOL ... suddenly I got a mental picture of you stringing all of your guitars with just two strings.

I will say that seeing Jeff Beck live on DVD kind of makes me want to float mine ... but I can't play like JB :banghead:

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Hehe real rock'n'roll...look ma only two strings....ups erm one....heh!
Eat crow Keff!

Who be Beck????












Runs

 

[Zhaggy]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

BTW you can bend a LP or other fixed bridge guitar out of tune quite easily. Well probably not the ones that have a baseball bat as a neck but any "normal" fixed bridge guitar WILL go slightly out of tune when you bend one string and play, say, open E string.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

^....phantom powers....

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

All I could find was this Premier Guitar article http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2007/Jul/Floating_Tremolos.aspx which states, "The original Strat tremolo was designed to float, meaning that the tremolo's rear edge is raised up off the body. Anyone who doubts that this is true should look at the patent drawings submitted by Leo Fender. That doesn't necessarily mean that you need to set your bridge to float - set it how you like it." I still can't say if that's a definitive answer, because I'm not looking at the patent drawings, but I still think it makes sense with regard to the nature of vibrato itself, being the wavering above and below the central pitch.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the concept of locking it down came about later because of the string breaking/tuning problem or the double stop issues that have troubled Strat players.




Cheers........................................ wahwah

Thanks Wah wah.....On my strats that stay in tune well floating,I Leave em floating....On the problem child ones,like this one I just put together,I have the bridge on the body...Now that I have the tuning issue worked out,I may be able to float the bridge again on this one?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Gotta love what a good tech can do. It doesn't hurt when it's a master like the brilliant Dave Ulbrick.
Here's a demo showing the half step across all strings, and the joys of a floating bridge giving the true vibrato effect across chords. This is the Strat loaded with the 5 Raw Vintage springs.
http://soundcloud.com/geoff-wells/strat-vibrato-demo
Cheers................................... wahwah

very nice stuff and beautiful playing!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Do we know for certain that Leo set the bridge to actually float off the body,or did the bridge move downward and not actually had the rear of the bridge sticking up? For years I have seen the 1/8" and 5/32" specs for rear bridge height off the body...Yet upon researching and reading,alot of pros use the bridge,but it doesn't float...Guys like EJ for instance,can pull the bridge forward but prefer no uplift...The amount of springs varies greatly also...I'm just thinking that pretty much anything goes and is right...No wrong way!

If you look at PAT drawings Leo intended both UP and DOWN movement of the tailpiece...

Also, FWIW, I think EJ floats his as well...

You're right there is no right or wrong...all I was saying was Leo intended floating.

 

[dano8180]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

I would love to float mine with the step and half, step, and half step setup like CV, and have tried twice, but when I do if I bend a sting even a step it pulls the trem forward, of course, but knocks the whole thing out of tune really, really bad. Tighten the springs and deck it, can do step and half bends and never goes out of tune. Strange...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Here is the pat drawing for the Strat bridge:

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Around 2 minutes you can see EJ's Strat bridge...floating

Not that it matters just saying...

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Here is the pat drawing for the Strat bridge:

Awesome....Thanks Pal!

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

Around 2 minutes you can see EJ's Strat bridge...floating

Not that it matters just saying...

I read in another forum that about the first 700 EJ strats had a floating bridge,but later ones had the bridges decked...Quite a few EJ strat owners wrote on the forum stating their new EJ strats were bridge decked...Strange huh?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

I read in another forum that about the first 700 EJ strats had a floating bridge,but later ones had the bridges decked...Quite a few EJ strat owners wrote on the forum stating their new EJ strats were bridge decked...Strange huh?

I dunno how Fender sets 'em up but EJ floats his own, again not that it matters at all to me.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

I dunno how Fender sets 'em up but EJ floats his own, again not that it matters at all to me.

I Know and its just some useless info we are all posting...So that EJ reading stated that the first 700 EJ strats were setup floating by the CS...Later ones were setup I'm guessing elsewhere and were set with the bridge flat...EJ,like myself,must have some strats that float and some that don't...I own 5 strats and each one is different...Even the action on em is different... ;o)

 

[Gunny47]

Re: Strat Guys....Bridge...Floating Or Decked?

hehe this is such a cool thread.