Stew Mac Hot Rod and Floyd Rose Questions

[ELXVintagefade]

I purchased the Stew Mac Hot Rod with Fender style adjustment. How would I go about installing this with adjustment at the top? The instructions that came with it only show how to use bottom adjustment. Also on Stew Mac site it says that the Floyd Rose Bridge has a 14" string radius. Does this mean my fretboard needs a 14" radius too? In this case could I re-radius my 12" fretboard to 14" with a radiused sanding block or do I need to order a new one?

[krazyderek]

if you don't have the frets on the FB then ya, just flatten it down to 14"

the truss rod, just rout a chanel in the neck a tad longer then the actuall rod, (brass to brass) then adjust the dept of your router and rout a small (shallower) channel about 1" to 1½" long from the end of the towards the end of the headstock so you can get an allen key or what have you in under the nut to adjust the rod..

[daveq]

Don't forget that the locking nut will most likely be a 10" radius. Stewmac sells replacement locking nuts that are 14" radius but the nuts that come with the Floyd are 10" radius.

You don't need to radius your fretboard if you don't want to. I would actually favor shimming your bridge to match the fretboard radius - less work and less prone to mistakes that will cause buzzing and all sorts of crap later on. Messing with the fretboard is dangerous in my opinion.

Let me know if you need more info on this. I ran into this same issue when I first started. Actually, this was back when stewmac claimed that the bridge was a 10" radius bridge incorrectly. They corrected it after I complained.

Good luck.

[daveq]

I forgot to mention that the shims can be found at AllParts.com and are used under the saddles. From what I have heard, it's a fairly common solution to this problem of bridge to fretboard radius difference.

I'd just be nervous that messing with the fretboard would result in an uneven surface or something like that - just more work to do when fretting/leveling that could be avoided.