Floyd Rose Style Tremolos & T.o.m.s

[Zeb_hendrix]

On my fender strat the where the string hits the saddle its about 12ml of the body.

Im not familair with T.O.M bridges but i want to install one that is 12.075 ml high so why wuld their be the need for a neck angle?

[MescaBug]

Just curious, but what type of TOM you wanna use? I've never seen a TOM as low as 12mm.

TOM are usually higher than 12mm. A standard Gotoh TOM is approx 14-15mm. Assuming the fingerboard is flush with the body (6.35mm fingerboard + 1.2mm medium frets), there is a 6.45mm height difference between the saddles and the frets. Even if you adjust the saddles higher, will never be able to get a good action. The strings angle will be way too high.

You will notice that the neck on your Strat is not flush with the body. They always have 2-3mm of the neck under the fingerboard. If we do the maths, 6.35mm fingerboard + 1.2mm medium frets + 3mm gap = 10.55mm. A small 1.45mm difference between the 12mm bridge and the frets. Strings angle will be ok, you can then adjust the saddles if you have some fret buzz.

You can do that with a TOM. But you will have a huge gap between the body and the fingerboard. It will look awful and will not offer a good stability. That's why guitars equipped with TOM always have the fingerboard almost flush with the body and a neck angle. Except a few guitars, like Godin.

What you can do, is to recess the bridge. But if your TOM is really 12mm, then you don't need a neck angle.

Read carefully this article. It should answer your question better than I did

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=14036

Edited February 7, 2008 by MescaBug

[Zeb_hendrix]

Heres a link to the Bridge

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailp...cs.html#details

[aidlook]

Are you thinking of recessing it? Because that's the only way that bridge is going to get to 12,70mm.

The main piece is 12,70mm then there are the mounting studs wich protude 1,57 off the body. And then there's the mounting screws wich at minimum would set the bridge at least about 2mm off the body.

[Hector]

the bridge you want to use is 12.7mm high, not 12.07mm

and that is at its lowest possible action, with the bridge touching the body of the guitar.

I don`t think i`ll work.

and even if it does, you`re gonna have to do some major adjustments and modifications to the body.

it`s not worth it.

[Zeb_hendrix]

Alrite theres a good point but have a look at this one then.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailp...arts/Specs.html

[aidlook]

That one doesn't really say how tall the saddles are, neither did you post wich of the strings you wanted 12,075ml of the body (ml is a measure of volume by the way). The second one you posted is almost 11mm off the body without taking the saddles into account so you would probably be too high on the lowest settings anyway. Recessing a t-o-m would probably be the best way to do it anyway since there's some major wood-work to convert from a floyd rose anyway and it's not really that hard.

[Zeb_hendrix]

So if i recessed the TOM i wuldnt hav 2 angle my neck?

[aidlook]

If your string height at the bridge is the same as with a tremolo, why would you have to angle the neck?

[Zeb_hendrix]

I wouldnt

[aidlook]

Since you have a floyd rose in the guitar I'm assuming you're gonna fill all the cavities with wood and refinish the guitar as well, after filling the cavities with blocks of wood, just drill holes for the TOM, then countersink those holes with and route straight lines between them for the recess...then refinish

[Zeb_hendrix]

Ooops>

My bad at the start when i say im installing a TOM i dont mean on myStrat i mean on the guitar im making.