"Late at night I look at hard tail versions of you" -- when you said that, I died laughing. Had to pause video to regain composure.

I love how FR holds the tuning with heavy bending. I don't use whammy bar, so I had it blocked, coins on both sides. Ironically, it adds value to your guitar.

does it have to be the lowest denomination coin? cause I bet silver dollars have better tone.

I gotta be honest, my Ibanez RG with floating bridge has teached me so much. In the beginning it was so frustrating, but with patience and the right attitude, I honestly can say it was worth it. Love your videos... looking forward to get one of your shirts!

"late at night I look at hard tail versions of you" that's fucking brilliant! Love it!

is it just me or does everyone think that when they meet him irl, he will be a very kind person.

I LOVE my Floyd Rose! They're not that complicated, and learning to set them up yourself goes a long way. I've recently upgraded to Titanium, worth every penny.

It was 2008. I was 18. At this point I had been playing for around 2 years, when my girlfriend at the time spotted a guitar in the window at our local pawn store, and asked if I liked it. The guitar in question was a Ibanez RG370DX...which had a Floyd Rose. Steve Vai had a Floyd Rose which meant when the 18 year old me saw it, It had to be mine. No question. I had no idea of the utter horrors I was getting myself into 😐 I had no idea that changing to even dropped tuning would be a greater challenge to me than High School was. That changing to a step down would be more painful than jamming my arm into the jaws of a Great White, and asking it politely to, 'bite down harder, thanks 😐'. Yet. Fast forward 12 years. I was moving into a new house, and was searching through my belongings at my brothers house, when seemingly out of the darkness, shone the ibanez that I had tortured myself with, years before. Back when I was a young student, who could barely play the game of life, let alone fix this guitar. But, now there was a man was holding this guitar, a man who had access to a pit of unlimited knowledge that could aid him in his quest...that pit was KZfaq. And today, I can happily say that I blocked the fucking existence out of that ibanez with a 1/4 inch pieace of timber. It is now my Drop B guitar, and is now looking forward to it's first upgrade in the coming weeks; New nobs, a new pickup surround, replacing the long lost pickup selector switch and most importantly, a pickup upgrade. Possibly Dimarzio but I'm also thinking of trying a Seymour Duncan Invader in white in the bridge. Regardless. My point is this. If you buy a guitar with a floyd rose, put it back in the case, and get yourself a triangle 😐👍 Kind Regards

i love floyds. super stable and just plain fun. dive bombs and flutters and simple vibrato, they're just a sick tool to have. wouldn't recommend one as your only guitar though

I run a Floyd (floating) on most of my guitars, and they all stay in tune, because they are set up correctly, and are maintained. When I look at guitars that have tuning problems, I find the string saddles aren't tight, or the locking nut is loose on the next, or the trem springs aren't clamped in with a flat bar across the bottom, etc. It's not rocket surgery.... :O)

"Late at night i look at hardtail versions of you". Oh my god! Oh my god! I'm gonna use that line in my next song! I didnt know Phil is a standup comedian. LOL

FYI, flip your caliper around and put that end in the space to measure the gap. They're for when you want to measure from the "inside" of some distance.

I hate all tremolos. Switching over to guitars with fixed bridges was the best thing that I ever did.

I absolutely love my Ibanez Edge Zero tremolo, I've always wanted a guitar that I could slam on the whammy bar, up and down, and then play a perfect chord, and this trem does just that. I've had it since 2008 and it gives me zero problems, so nice to adjust the spring tension for different setups with the dial on the back. I guess I got kinda lucky with the timing of the purchase because looking through some reviews the general consensus seems to be that the Edge Zero II is made of cheaper materials and not as good.

🤣🤣 I love the thumbnail pic from this video. Explains how I felt when I got home for the first time with a floyd rose guitar not knowing what I had

Dude, you just saved me 74,94€ on blocking my Floyd. Think that were the most well invested 6 cent of my life.

Realize that most stores sell guitars with floyd rose bridges on them without instructions because then they get you for the cost of a setup. Learn to do it yourself. If you are mechanically adept you can learn how to make these things work.

why would block it? the point of a floyd rose is to do divebombs!!!

This year I made a promise to myself... I'll NEVER buy a guitar with a floyd rose system again

floyd rose is 100 times better than a fender tremolo for me.

Thanks man! I was thinking about selling my guitar because of the Floyd and now I will definitely keep it! Thanks to you.

Don't buy a guitar with a Floyd if you don't want to use it. The Floyd Rose is one of the best pieces of guitar tech ever invented, but you need to learn how it works if you want its benefits. Defeating the Floyds function is kind of silly. Just get a guitar without a Floyd if they bother you. Also if you're having trouble with intonation be sure to get "the key" - do a search for floyd rose intonation tool

Dude, you deserve a "youtube emmy" for this. I have watched this "cold open" at least a couple dozen times. Absolutely fantastic!

Every time I see that picture on YT I laugh my tail off. I'd love to see you ad that as one of your t-shirt designs. There are only about 5 guitar YT'er's that I follow and in all honesty you are number one. I'm almost 70 and my attention span doesn't seem to extend past 6 or 7 minutes and you always pack all your info in that time. Thanks for all the effort and for being the man you are.

After years of owning different guitars- I truly believe it just depends on the guitar itself. Some Floyd's work flawless , and others you tune it more than you play it !! Anyone else agree ??

Dude, I love open tunings but it sucks doing a setup every time I tune... this is awesome. Thanks!!!!

This helped so much. I stopped playing my floyed rose guitar for YEARS and although i've always loved it it drove me nuts. Im so happy that i saw this vid, Thank you so much!!!

This video just saved me from spending money on a new guitar, I bought a guitar with a Floyd Rose nearly 10 years ago and for some reason it’s been giving me absolute hell the past few months. Thank you.

I have been cutting maple blocks for tremolos for 39 years now. I also sell and install Tremol-No, Trem Setter and Ibanez Backstops, as well as my own machined super-sustain aluminum, steel, or bell brass block clamps. I drill and tap the sustain block and grind to fit. I can set up floating vintage Strat tremolos so they will stay in tune, 95% of the time. Sometimes there is something amiss with the guitar so it can't be done, but it's usually doable. I still have one of the first Kahler Flyer tremolos on a 1970s Les Paul Kahler used at a NAMM show. The cam block needs replacing after 10,000 hours of playing, I am on the 3rd set of frets and it is ready for another refret. I am down to .022" and still have trenches in the frets so them gotta go, again.

First, have yourself a legit Floyd Rose that is tunning stable and has good sustain not those cheap material "licensed" bs . Release the locking nut, drop some coins in the trem block to hold it steady while stringing. Then, tune your guitar in this order : Low E, E, B, A, G, D. Then check the bridge plate to be flush with the guitar, otherwise make it flush from those 2 spring screws and repeat tunning if necessary. Tighten the locking nut. Adjust the fine tuners in the bridge. They are able to go as far as a whole step. You're welcome

After years of love and hate, the love took the place after I installed the tremol-no on my guitar... That's life changing, fixing even cheap floyd rose special models...

I improvised using some duct tape, playing cards, change an eraser and glue. Worked like a charm. Thank you!

Thank you for saving my life, I hate Floyd Roses but own a 6 string electric that was passed down to me that I really want to put some work into. I also love the neck it's such a comfortable guitar to play. So this saves me from having to buy a whole new guitar when I already love everything except the Floyd Rose about this one!

If your Floyd aint stayin in tune, then there's only two possibilities: Either it was setup improperly or hastily (likely the latter, since many techs rush through FR setups due to their "pain in the ass" nature. Personally I enjoy setting them up and for full floating usage mind you, but then again I went through a phase where every guitar I owned but one was FR equipped so I got REALLY good at setting them up). And the second possibility is that quite simply: It aint a real Floyd. 9 out of 10 that I see are either licensed garbage or the 'somewhat better but still not as good' Floyd Rose Special series - a Floyd product designed and underseen by FR, but produced entirely overseas in the east. They're actually not bad for a budget double locking trem, but they're still no "Original German Made Floyd Rose".

Thank you so much Phillip! I own a Schecter Synyster Gates Custom S with a Sustaniac neck pickup, i HATE the Floyd Rose system on it, i even thought about returning it, but it’s such a badass guitar i decided to keep it, i looked all over youtube to find videos on how to remove the whole tremolo system and replace it with a hard tail bridge, i finally found your video after looking since September! I am so happy! I can put it in any tuning i want ZERO ISSUES WHATSOEVER, i love Killswitch Engage, and achieving their Drop C tuning is a breeze, keep making amazing content, and keep being awesome!!

How to set up a guitar with a FR: 1. Place a protective cloth under the FR and remove all strings from the guitar. 2. Clean the fretboard. 3. Install strings of the desired gauge. Start by installing each string loosely and once all six are on, give each tuning peg 1-3 turns until the strings are at pitch. Note you should stretch the strings out after you've installed them. 4. Balance the tremolo so the FR sits parallel to the body cavity when the guitar is in tune. This can be done by adjusting the spring tension in the back. 5. Adjust the truss rod to get the desired amount of forward/back bow in the neck. 6. Adjust the string action and pickup height. To preserve the knife edges of the floyd, it's important to loosen the strings before you raise or lower the bridge. 7. Set the intonation of the strings. This is done by adjusting the position of the saddles on the FR. 8. Lock the nut and use the fine tuners on the FR to tune back to pitch. If locking the nut causes a dramatic change in pitch, there are easy ways to adjust the nut to fix your problem depending on what it is. Just do a little research. Floyd's are actually very well put together, but they treat you the way you treat them. A properly set up floyd is the best tremolo you can ask for, but Floyds aren't magic and require maintenance to play well just like any other bridge or guitar. It really isn't too hard to get down and only really needs to be done a couple times a year or when you change string gauge. I actually just set up my Floyd-equipped Ibanez from scratch in a little under 2 hours last Sunday. I agree that Floyds make changing tunings harder, but you really shouldn't be trying to do that with a FR guitar in the first place. Hard tails are much better for this for so many reasons. If you're dead set on using a FR-guitar or only own a FR-guitar and want to drop tune, you can use one of the methods presented in this video.

Every Floyd Rose trem I've had works flawlessly. Full float mode all the time. Just don't expect it to work under detuning any more than just a drop D on the low E string. That's just not how physics work. Decent strings and sensible maintainence means I can whammy all day and still let go and strum a perfectly tuned E Major. If your trem can't do that, find out where it's failing and fix it. .10 gauge strings and heavier seem to perform the best. This is why pros still rely on them. EVH and JS know this.

Once in a while I just come back to hear the "Late at night I look at hard tail versions of you". It always makes me laugh :)

i just got a prs torero and the Floyd rose works perfectly love it best electric ive ever owned

Floyd Rose is really not as intimidating as many think they are. The first thing you gotta do when you make any kind of adjustments (truss rod, action, intonation, string gauge, tuning, string brand etc), is to block the bridge in both directions. Stacks of picks, coins, wood blocks or whatever you find will work. Keep the bridge parallel to the body, make the adjustments, tune up, unblock (this will make the bridge go out of tune), use screw drivers to adjust the spring claw screws to get the bridge back in parallel - the tuning will be fairly on point, repeat this tuning process until all strings are in tune and bridge is parallel, and you’ll be good to go! Cheers!

Useless effort... like buying a Bugatti Veyron and then disabling two of its turbos.

i don't understand, i thought the whole point of the floyd rose was that it had better tuning stability and that it was a big improvement over the fender vibrato system

I have a custom flying v with a floating Floyd Rose and a Kramer with a Floyd that only goes down. I have absolutely no tuning problems at all. When I change the strings on the floating Floyd I do one at a time so I'm not chasing the tuning up and down. Not complicated. Saw a big box store employee spend an hour changing and tuning strings. I also play tune o matic bridge guitars. You have to adapt your picking style. The trem locks are a really good addition if you can't come to terms.

the start to this video is worth my thumbs up

I've never had tuning problems with mine

Not sure why people hate Floyd Rose... I have had them since the early 90's and never have tuning problems with them. The only problem I occasionally have is wiggle/play in the trem bar on some guitars. And no... I am not going to put tape on a $3000 ESP.

The *only* issue I ever have is when changing tuning. Don't think you're going to go from standard to open G without adjusting the claw under the hood (which changes spring tension) Just make that part of the procedure straight away and you will save a ton of time. When putting on new strings, you need to use a String Stretcha (no spelling, it's the name) which is a stick with a hook and lever that really stretch out the strings to their normal pitch. Once you have properly stretched strings, you are golden.

I've been using Floyd Rose bridges since the early 80's they are the best...!!! If you continue to tune your guitar with different tunings, it's your own fault it doesn't stay in tune. Once you de tune your guitar, everything changes, from string height and intonation... It's not the bridge fault! I have 5 guitars with Floyds, once set up correctly they stay in tune.... String changes are a snap and tuning is easy! When you get to know your Floyd, you'll never switch...!!!

2:23 That's not how you use a caliper

a licensed floyd won't go out of tune quickly. just tune it like a you tune a hard tail "but" make sure that when you tune or retune with fresh string to dip it a half step and then retune to the pitch. that way you know that it doesn't go out of tune behind the niut and that the strings slide fine over the nut and doesn't get stuck. then lock trem blocks hand tight and fine tune if needed, keep the finetuners a bit above half for extra slack.

That pennies trick is genius for when it comes time to change the strings on my Jackson. Nice handy, temporary trick to keep the bridge still for string changing.

A proper set up on a Floyd rose is all you need and it will stay in tune for weeks.When I was learning we were also taught to be our own guitar techs, Floyd rose is not for a beginner. My friend had a made in USA strat but said the thing would not stay in tune, I went over to his house and in about 15 minutes had his Floyd Rose working like a champ, Pull on the strings bend them It wont go out of tune. He said if I would have known it was that easy I would have done it myself. It is easy but I bought an Ibanez EX to take apart and set up about 50 times and then yes it is easy. That was many years ago and I was taught by a professional how to do it.

Kahler, rail-tail, TransTrem, ZR, edge bridge... Floyd did it first, but they by no means do it the best.

Word has it Valarie did this to Frankenstein after a heated argument with Eddie.

My "tech" (luthier) offered up this same option just the other day as we were blocking my trem. Never heard of this option. It literally had me scratching my head. Why block this side and still allow the trem to work. The point of blocking a trem is for better tuning stability akin to what you would get from a fixed bridge. So flipping sides for the block to the backside locks the trem completely down. I can get a nice "body" vibrato now simply by using the heal of my palm on the trem. I've done this with my old Ibanez JS with a Flloyd and every other standard trem (not bixby). I did love that clamp but a solid piece of scrap wood, more affordable. Sorry Philip, have to disagree with your block method, but I still love and am grateful for your knowledge!

I own a PRS custom 24 Floyd Rose in the beggining it was an Inferno but now i undestand how to live in tune with that beauty

Wow, that intro was really hilarious!

it's painful seeing a floyd rose being destroyed

I was looking at the official tremol-no website and found some very low quality audio and video demos from 2006. So thanks for this video Phil you're the man!

8 pennies is too much, I am not made of money.

Ohh man you made me laugh at the beginning 😂😂

Does the Tremel-no work on 7 strings? Are there different claws for different amounts of strings on a guitar? Great vid dude.

I have two guitars with Floyds and two without. It's all in the set up, all four of them stay intune with no issues. My Kramer Nightswan I bought back in 1991-92 and I have a Hamer Californian I bought about 15 years ago. They both work great! The two hard tails are a Epiphone Zakk Wylde model and a Gibson Les Paul.

Boiling strings for 20 minutes so the strings expand this works great for the floyd rose or when you restring. tune a couple steps up and let it sit in the corner for a couple hours to stretch out.. there is a learning curve with the floyd rose like when you tighten down the locking nuts the string will go up in pitch a bit... say 1/3 of a step if you tune down a bit before locking this will help your cause....the cause being the fine tuners you only have so much tuning ability so if you don't have enough unlock and adjust the key tuners.....the bottom line for the floyd rose stretch the strings out before you lock down or stretch out like a normal string change before locking down....and if you break a string just grab another guitar every string goes out differently... but when you do break a string you can just feed a bit more string out from the key tuner feed it in to the fine tuner lock down and you are ready to go in fact you will save on strings... I usually only change strings for gig..... Rock On

I don't agree with the first statement... my Floyd rose guitars always stayed in tune fantastic once set!

Doesn't stay in tune if you don't have a real one ;3

Thanks for showing me how the Floyd rose works ! I was thinking about getting one on my strat but after watching what a headache they are , No way !!! Thanks for saving me the headaches Phil ...

I’ve let mine sit for YEARS and it was still in tune! I have one of the original ‘80s models, not a knockoff.

Well.....I own most all Trem systems made on various gtrs and my Floyd 1000 is fine. No issues. Only thing I recommend is getting the “push in bar” made by Floyd for any FR system. If you want to block it buy the FR block. Personally I don’t block trems, never as good feel, expression etc ( for me )

I always remove tremolos from my guitars and replace them with vibratos. Whenever I use a tremolo it makes my volume warble instead of my pitch. What's with that?

I love that picture of him sitting away from the guitar looking away...priceless!

In all fairness if you have a FR you probably have one setup properly and floating and want it that way. FR's have a whole slew of other problems like can't adjust individual string height and it's a nightmare to intonate. And that's just a couple big ones.

"you dont stay in tune" WHAT? I had my Ibanez RG550 from 1989 in a case for maybe 2 years unplayed and when i picked it up, it was in perfect tune. Not like my Gibson (not gonna say what model so you cant say "well that is a shitty guitar") that was in case for maybe 2 weeks and it was completely out of tune. So ... i dont know about the "original" Floyd Rose but the Ibanez one (at least the 1989 one) is always in tune.

This dude doesn't know how to use a caliper. You use the OPPOSITE SIDE for measuring between spaces...

😂😂 That intro was great 👍 Great video!

A good floating bridge (can be licensed or original FR) that is properly set up stays in tune perfectly fine for months and always returns to its zero point after use. Cheap units do not return to their zero point and are an immense source of grief. If you're on a really tight budget, do NOT get a floating bridge guitar, you'll hate it. I think what most people (mistakenly) refer to as "tuning stability" is usually these two: (1) changing tuning which throws the entire bridge off balance (just get another guitar) or (2) double stop bends where bending one strings makes the other go flat (you got to adjust your technique to bend both strings by different amount).

I used a FR from 1990 until a few years back on one guitar I had and I'd never go back. I sold the trem and got €90 for it. Not bad for a 30 year old piece. The hassle of cutting strings and fine tuning, blaaaa. I hate it. I even locked it down at one stage. I also hate the height of it and the ugly locking nut. Never again my friends. I love the simplicity of Fender type systems and the new Wilkinsons are pretty good too.

Ya fuck that, I'm just getting a hardtail

Dude, you are genius. I can get my table saw and cut a small wood block, that would keep it from moving side ways and fit tight from the bottom of the guitar till the springs barely touch it. Nice! Now all I need is a guitar 😅

I watched a few videos on tuning the FR before buying an Ibanez RG. Once it's flush with the body, you tune the strings like any other guitar. Tighten the locking screws at the nut and voila...it's ready to go. Need to tune again? Loosen the lock screws, tune, tighten lock screws. Done. Once the new strings have stretched and settled down, your guitar will stay in tune just like any other.

sorry for the dumb question what is the problem with the Floyd rose

My dimebag guitar with a Floyd stays in tune great. IDK why everyone says they go out of tune.

I took the neck from my favorite and first Ibanez with Floyd rose and put it on a hard tale body from ebay. works really good

I'm digging the penny trick for changing the strings with out having the bridge change position. Nice

i have a floyd special one guitar, an official on another and a gfs on another....and i can't live without them being on my guitars...i refuse to own any guitar tune o matic, hard tail, evertune...etc

Today I literally had to take a nap after restringing a FR guitar with a different gauge of strings. Do you think tremol-no will work for a 7-string guitar? I've been thinking about getting it for a while, but I have 4 (sometimes even 5) springs in my FR and that's a LOT of tension - I'm afraid it might tear the thing apart, it looks kind of fragile.

One thing that many people don't take into account with floating tremolos (any, not just Floyds) is that they adjust the claw to match the AMOUNT tension of that gauge of strings, but don't always take into account the RATE the tension changes when the bar is used. This is why you will sometimes see people change from 3 or 4 straight springs to 2 angled springs. This loads up those two springs with more tension than straight springs more "at rest". Either configuration can be tightened to match the strings and float... but when the bar is used with the angled springs, the resistance will build faster (springs getting closer to their maximum stretch and resistance). Some experimentation with this might suit your playing style better.

I get the frustration. My first electric guitar, my Peavey Tracer I bought in 1995 had one. I actually still have it and I LOVE it. I will completely redo the setup every 5 years. It did take me a few years of tinkering to figure it all out and how it worked on my guitar. But I did not even change any of the hardware until last year, it was so reliable. I blocked it once, for about a week. Realized that was just silly.

Same old routine! 'We need to talk' he says, when all he really wants to do is fiddle around with her parts and manipulate her, shove a little money her way, just so he can satisfy his own selfish gratification. Men!!!

So basically just go ahead and buy a Stratocaster. 😁

Lol I do the penny trick on my jem. Floyd rose is a love/hate thing . You're the man phill

thank you so much Phillip this was the best demo on how to do this

Thanks for posting this. I'll never buy a guitar with a Floyd Rose on it.

My first guitar had a floyd rose. :(

When measuring inside a cavity, you use the other side of the calipers (the pointy parts on the back of the head.) The side you used is for measuring from the outside.

By far the best guitar person on KZfaq. By faaaaaaaaaaaaaar.

So basically what you are saying is that a Floyd Rose is a P.O.S that needs to be modified so that your guitar is usable? Boy I'm glad I don't have a floyd rose on any of my guitars... never had a problem with my Ibanez Pro Rock'r Tremolo's :)

Just don't buy a guitar with a floyd xD

There’s a part called a Black Box. It’s installed into the tremolo cavity and works against the springs to keep your Floyd in tune by helping it return to its original position after diving. It also keeps the Floyd from going out of tune if a string breaks.

I double block my trems. I add a second piece of wood in the back of the trem as well. Takes a little more work. But still budget minded.