By Ronnie North

Being a long time Floyd Rose tremolo user I, thought I’d go over a little proper set up for our readers. Over the years I’ve met so many people that come up to me and say I know you use a Floyd but I have one and I can’t get mine to function correctly and /or I can’t get the action right for me. More often than not when I look at the person’s Guitar with one of the various Floyd type double locking systems, I usually notice it’s not setup correctly. Let’s go over a few simple common problems I have seen that will work for most double locking system Like the Floyd Rose , the Ibanez Edge or one of the many other cool systems available.

Here’s a couple quick fixes for some of the most common problems I have seen. Remember there’s lots of other things that could happen so I’m just dipping in a little…just to get you going. If you have an issue that is not mentioned you should consult a qualified guitar repairman that knows about locking trems (not all of them do). You can also go on YouTube and look around. There’s so many guitar repair and troubleshooting tutorials on there. Most are very informative. Now let’s get into it.

1.) Even though I have the Bridge all locked down, the guitar still goes out of tune.

     Answer: The most common problem I have seen is the strings weren’t stretch enough after everything was locked down. I usually tug the strings both by the nut and by the bridge a few times once I get each String to pitch before I lock down the nut. After I tune all the strings I lock the nut down and use the fine tuners to tweak the tuning if it went out from the nut lock. I then play a little and go a little nuts with the whammy bar. That usually does the trick. It’s also important to make sure you leave some play in your fine tuners when you’re changing the strings so when you do have it locked down that you  have room to make some tweaks to the tuning up and down if needed.

Another common problem I’ve seen is that the player didn’t lock the strings in the bridge tight enough so the string is shifting a little in the saddle and going out of tune. It’s important to make sure the strings are locked in good to the bridge when you’re changing strings. On that note, put them in the locking saddle firm but don’t tweak it too tight or you might break the insert.

One more issue I’ve seen is that the locking nut has come loose a little from use. With wood guitars this happens just because wood expands and contracts with weather. Some guitars have the nut bolted on from two holes in the back of the neck at the nut. A lot of newer companies secure the nut from the top using the two mounting holes in the nut that are located on the top of the nut under the string locks. To see them, remove the nut locks and they will be obvious. In both cases give them a little tweak so the screws are snug and if that was the issue that should fix it.

2.) I can’t get the playing action right for me.

     Answer: Provided the neck is adjusted properly, I would guess that the trem is not sitting level. To adjust this all you have to do is remove the backplate on the back of the guitar that covers the springs. If your trem is leaning forward you need to tighten the screws that attach to the spring claw that secure the springs. This is located closest to the neck in the cavity. Before doing this you need to loosen the locking nut so the strings have play. If the bridge is leaning back tightened the screws. In both cases do a half turn and then re-tune the guitar until the bridge is sitting level with the body. It will take a few tweaks to get it level but once you have it you will have better action and the bridge will actually sound better since the string will be making better contact with it. 

If your bridge already seems to be level but your action is a little high for your taste it might be as easy as just lowering the action on the bridge. This is accomplished by tightening the two posts on the bridge that secure it to the body, and that the bridge rocks on. Do a quarter turn on each side and then check the tuning before playing up the neck, bending strings up the neck, and using the trem while you’re playing. If the tremolo is floating (capable of going both up and down in pitch ) then pull up and down on the tremolo making sure the notes stay clear and don’t fret out. You will have to do a trial and error thing and see what works best for you.

If you get the action comfortable and it’s not fretting out at all on your bends but is fretting out when you pull up on the tremolo and everything else seems to be good, you might have to adjust the neck a little and or adjust the angle of the neck to provide more clearance (provided you have a bolt on neck). This is something you should consult a qualified guitar tech on if you’re not confident in your guitar setup abilities.

These adjustment should get you going and it should be noted that just keeping the contact points properly lubed (I use Big Bends Nut sauce on the posts) and common maintenance will do wonders to improving the performance of your tremolo.