Floyd Rose Tremolo Maintenance

Maintenance, tips and repair + troubleshoot your floating
guitar tremolo bridge

Proper maintenance of your Floyd Rose type floating guitar bridge will help it perform as intended and keep you happy. A mistreated and poorly working tremolo is a major pain in the butt and in a live situation, it can be hell on earth.
This article will help you perform a service check on your Floyd Rose tremolo and help you troubleshoot issues you may have using this tremolo device. Get to know your Floyd before it fails on you!

Updates

I'm building this little article from various posts I've done on forums in the past, to help you do some troubleshooting and maintenance on your floating bridge. I might add comments from other forum users as well, if they want to chime in. A few of the pictures used here, are copied from various discussions on the net.

The article will start out with no real structure - I'm just gonna write up bits and pieces as I go along. I am not going to cover all aspects of a floating bridge, but rather pick out topics I find interesting and useful to pass on. Initially, I am not going to focus on simple setup and adjustment of the Floyd bridge, because there's plenty of info already available on the net. Maybe later I will. Okay, let's get started.

The floating bridge is a sensitive piece of equipment, operating in a tough environment full of human acid (sweat), gunk and humidity. To have it function properly at all times, some basic maintenance is needed. So I thought cleaning would be a good first topic.

Cleaning is long overdue! Photo by slo100 (Kahler trem).

Take it apart

Here we go. Take the floyd tremolo off of the guitar and take it apart as much as you can. Don't use excessive force - if anything seems stuck or impossible to unscrew, just leave it as is, and go forward with the oiling / cleaning. Stuck or frozen parts will probably become unstuck after a few days in an oil bath.

To help you disassemble it and put it back together, click on the exploded view to zoom. The figure shows a Floyd Rose type of tremolo. I will later add here, a detailed description on how to correctly remove the Floyd from your guitar.

Note where the different parts go on the tremolo, so you can reassemble it correctly. Be sure to check the other info further down, as it may help you disassemble and reassemble your tremolo and help you if a problem occur, like a stuck String Lock Insert. Also be sure to check the Tremolo Info Project page, where you will find lots of pictures and info on the various Schaller designed tremolos.

Shims used for saddle adjustment

During disassembly and cleaning, be aware that sometimes there are little shims of thin copper or other metal, mounted underneath the saddles. This is typically done at the factory as part of the final bridge setup; shimming the saddles to match the fingerboard radius.

Do not discard these shims - re-glue them onto the saddle they came from originally to keep the factory setup. Many guitarists have asked how to adjust the height of a single saddle on the Floyd Rose. This is the answer.

Soak the parts in oil

Find a small plastic container and put ALL the parts in there and spray / pour oil on it. The parts doesn't have to fully submerged in oil; just spray a good amount on there.

I use very thin teflon oil called Tri-Flow Superior Lubricant, on aerosol can. It's a super lubricant, but is also useful for loosening dirt and rust and preserving metal.

Brush the parts

Let the parts soak for a day or two and be sure to stirr them around a couple of times, to make sure the oil gets everywhere. After the first day in oil, you could take a used toothbrush and brush all the parts thoroughly while soaking in the oil. Eventually, the oil will find its way into every corner and small invisible pit in the metal and that's what we want.

Clean the parts

After another day in the oil bath, take the parts up and clean them good with some dry cloths or even compressed air. Don't worry; using compressed air won't remove all the oil - there's plenty left to lube and preserve the metal.

Make sure the bottom of the saddles and the corresponding surface on the baseplate is carefully wiped off, or even cleaned with acetone; you don't want the saddles to slip due to oil. Renew parts that are still rusty. Try Stewmac, Warmoth or Allparts. You don't have to be picky about choosing the oil. Almost any oil will do, but the thin teflon based oils are superb. Don't expect it to remove deep rust though.

The tremolo needs this oil-job every once in a while - depends on how much you play, how and where you store the guitar and the level and type of acid in your sweat.

The little block is often stuck in the saddle, because it is cracked by the force of the String Holder Locking Bolt. If stuck, it can make string changes very annoying. It can be hard to see any cracks when installed, because it often crack at the bottom.

When it cracks, it expands and often get stuck inside the saddle. After oiling like described above, tap it out or use a small screwdriver and wiggle it out. Remove the String Holder Locking Bolt first. Replace any damaged blocks.

It can also be stuck simply due to gunk and rust build-up and the pre-oiling will help here too.

On many Schaller designed tremolos, the saddles form an arc or slight curve when mounted correctly on the baseplate.

This is to have them follow the shape of the fingerboard and they need to be put back in the correct position after disassembly. If you fail to do so, you'll screw up the arc and the resulting string height will be messed up. Explained in detail in the following...

Matching pairs

The saddles match up in pairs: E+E, A+B and D+G. These pairs have the same height, meaning that the E+E saddles are low, A+B saddles are medium and D+G are highest. Sometimes the saddles are marked with dots or numbers hammered into the metal at the bottom, making it easy to tell them apart. Others don't, but lay them on a flat surface and check their height, so you can match them correctly.

This piece of information is to let you know, that a tremolo base plate with stripped threads CAN indeed be fixed.

Stripping a thread on the original Floyd Rose tremolos is fairly uncommon, due to its use of hardened high grade steel for almost all parts, including the base plate. It's a rock solid unit.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with many of the Licensed Under Floyd Rose Patents tremolos using cast zinc for the base plate - including the Schaller types made in Germany. These are fairly easy to strip; I hear about all the time and have had the problem myself. Overtightening the little saddle screws is typically the problem, but don't blame it all on yourself - having threads in cast zinc is just asking for trouble!

The newer Schaller FRII baseplates (from 1994 onward, I think), are still made of cast zinc, but comes with threaded inserts made of hardened steel; a much needed improvement.

Renewal or repair

Basically, you have two options when the problem occur - renewal of the base plate or repair. I haven't done this repair myself, but I've talked with a machinist about it and also had a short conversation with Harmony Central user "Burgess", who had someone fix his stripped JT-590 with Heli-Coils.

It is a fairly straight forward repair if you know how to handle tools. Some of the info in the following is taken from the Ersco site, where you can read more about the products. I've seen several Heli-Coil repair kits available on eBay as well. What you need in size, is a metric M3 repair kit and they look something like this:

Two different kits shown. Photos are for illustration purposes only.

Here's a quick explanation on how it's done (taken from the Ersco site):

DRILL
Drill out the damaged threads using the drill size specified on the kit or set. Drill to sufficient depth to accomodate the insert length and bolt or screw being used. On a base plate, you just drill all the way through the plate.

TAP
Use the Heli-Coil tap supplied in the kit or set. Check the size on the shank to make sure you have the right one. Tap the hole to sufficient depth to accomodate the insert length and bolt or screw being used. On a base plate, you tap all the way through.

INSTALL
Use the installation tool supplied in the kit or set. Just wind the insert into the hole until the top coil is 1/4 - 1/2 turn into the tapped thread. Now you're back to the original size thread and the original size fastener can be used.

Below is the final result shown on a test object, the special "driving tang" removed, ready to accept the original bolt. From the ERSCO site:

During installation, the inserting tool reduces the diameter of the leading coil so it can enter the tapped hole. After the installation, each high tensile stainless steel coil expands outwards against the tapped hole to permanently anchor the insert. Photo and text from the ERSCO site.

When reassembling a Floyd type tremolo, pay special attention to the direction of the tremolo block. It can easily be turned over and mounted the wrong way. I've seen this done several times.

If you mount it the wrong way, chances are that the tremolo springs will slowly work its way out of the block during use of the tremolo, and all sorts of problems arise.

If the block is facing the wrong way, you can experience tuning instabilities, springs scraping against the tremolo cavity cover, springs popping out of the block completely and springs making squeaking noises when diving the tremolo.

At the bottom of the tremolo block, there's a little entry hole for every spring end to go into. This hole is drilled at an angle; the same angle the spring end has. Take a look at FIG. 1 below, which shows the WRONG way of mounting the tremolo block:

FIG. 1: Wrong installation! Notice the angle of the entry hole in the block. The spring will go in allright, but will be angled upwards and this will cause problems

Here's the correct way of mounting it:

FIG. 2: Mounting the block like this, will result in the spring to sit much more level with the body of the guitar and it will now stay in place

The following is a short How-To guide and review on replacing the standard Floyd tremolo block with a large size brass tremolo block. This article has been kindly supplied by guitarist Drew Lankford.

He acquired the large block from Adam Reiver at www.floydupgrades.com.

Drew speaks

-Ok, this one is most definitely going into the "holy crap" category. HUGE difference!! It gave the guitar so much more of its low end boldness, sustain, just a bigger overall sound... wow. The cleans alone were where the difference was most obvious. Big bold deep powerful cleans that I had no idea were lurking in that Carvin C66!! Best $40 EVAR!!

Install

• Loosen or remove strings. I ended up just unlocking the strings from the saddles.
• Remove tremolo claw springs.
• Floyd should easily come out.
• Unscrew the inner 4 saddle locking screws and set aside.
• Unscrew the 4 intonation screws holding the saddles and set aside. (you may want to note where they are for intonation purposes.)
• Saddles should lift free. Keep them in the right order as a lot of the time, they get progressively taller towards the center two strings.

You should see these 3 black hex screws now. Use the same hex wrench used to unlock the saddles/nut to remove these. Set the old block aside and line up the 3 screw holes of the new block.

Fine Tuner adjustment spring

Here's where it can get tricky. I didn't realize there was a small metal plate and a thinner metal strip between the block and the base of the floyd. The thin metal sheet goes between the metal plate and the base. This applies the pressure to the locking pins so that the fine tuners work. The other thin metal plate..well.. I'm not sure what it does besides maybe reinforce the thin springy metal piece but that goes between the thin metal piece and the new brass block.

This is a pic of the block attached to the body for mock up to make sure it fit before removing and installing it with the springy piece and that 3rd metal piece.

NOTE: The block faces a certain direction. If you look at the picture below, you see that the 6 little pin holes are on one side of the block. They HAVE to be closest to the front of the guitar because if they're not, the little claw springs can't reach across the block into the small pin holes.... ask me how I know this...

Here it is installed without the Tremol-No™. I've switched to a simple L bracket screwed to the body to block the trem. Also, I had to cut a square opening in the tremolo cover on the back to accomodate the taller brass block. no big deal.. probably my mistake for ordering the biggest block.

Is the swap worth it for the money?

In my opinion, it's worth every penny. I probably can't say the same for the titanium blocks. Anyways, it really does everything the guy claims it will do. It adds more sustain, a bigger bolder sound to the overall note structure, etc. It's most noticeable on the cleans.

Due to the block's size, it's taller than the stock floyd block so I had to cut a square opening in the tremolo cavity cover to allow the plate to go back onto the guitar and allow the block to move back and forth. Also, due to its added thickness, you do sacrifice a little forwards and backwards travel with the block before it touches the inner route of the trem cavity. It wasn't enough to make a big deal for myself.

Anyways, if I get another floyd equipped guitar, it'll be the first thing that goes onto the guitar. I think it really did make that much of a difference.

Thanks to JCF member Budman68, here's a short piece on how to mount the locking clamps on the locking nut correctly. It's just one of those seemingly unimportant things, that tend to be overlooked by many, but it can have a significant impact on the performance of the tremolo system.

Budman68 speaks

-Ok, I just want to comment a bit on these pieces of hardware for a moment. If you look on the underside of the locking clamp plate, you’ll notice it has a "cupped" area that is recessed and tapers to the surface as it gets closer to the edges. This forms 2 clamping surfaces to bite into the string, allowing it to remain in tune.

I've noticed some people complaining about slippage of strings with these and in a lot of cases, I see they have the blocks turned the wrong way. The peak of the top of the block should be running parallel to the strings, not perpendicular.

If your guitar goes out of tune whenever you use the tremolo or after bending strings, it could very well be the nut causing the problem. But how do you find out where the problem really is? Read on. In the follwing I'll cover how to check the nut for string slippage.

This description is intended for a double locking tremolo system, but the advice given, could also be somewhat applied on a normal nut without a locking device.

Tighten, stretch and tune

First make sure that the Saddle Lock Down Screws and the String Holder Locking Bolts are tightened on the tremolo. Then, with the locking nut open (loosen all the Locking Clamp Bolts), make sure every string is stretched good, especially if they are new! Then tune the guitar using the tuning machines (still with the locking nuts open, of course). Now, lock the nut by tightening the bolts and do a final tune up if necessary by using the Fine tuners.

NOTE: If stretching the strings seems like a never ending task (the strings keep going flat after stretching and tuning), you have to 1) improve the way you wrap the strings around the tuning machines or 2) you need to adjust the tremolo spring tension in the tremolo cavity, to have the tremolo bridge piece floating level with the surface of the guitar body.

Press or use the tuning machines

Now, with the guitar in perfect tune, pluck the open string in question and listen carefully to the note, while pressing the string down towards the head stock BEHIND the nut. Start with the thin E-string, because the thin, unwound strings are more likely to slip at the nut. For every string pressed down, listen for it going sharp or possibly hook it up to your tuner and look at the meter. If it stays perfectly in tune, the nut on this string is not the problem.

Look at the picture of the head stock below and notice the blue circle; this is where you press the string down towards- and perpendicular to the head stock. Just press it down slightly - quarter of an inch or so.

You could also do the test by tightening the string just a bit by using the tuning machines. It's basically the same thing; you force possible slippage at the nut. But be careful with this method, as you have a lot of destructive power available, using the tuning machines.

Press the string down perpendicular to the head stock (blue circle)

Don't touch the tremolo

Very important: Do NOT use the tremolo during this test! You're not testing the bridge, you're testing the locking nut. In fact, I would recommend NOT doing any bends either, when checking for tuning; bending would be the same as using the tremolo and that would render this test useless.

Yes, I have slippage!

If you experience slippage, the particular locking clamp could be worn with deep grooves, making the string slip, or it could perhaps be mounted wrong, see above. On the old JT-6 type of locking nut (on a Jackson pointy head), the high E-string typically want to work its way to the very edge of the clamp, making it difficult for the clamp to grab and lock the string. This is due to the design of the nut and the sharp angle at which it is located. Rotate the locking clamp 180 degrees to try fix this problem.

More tips to come...