floyd rose problems

[simon1138]

Hello,

i have a floyd rose that i want to fit. the template has the position and shape marked on it already. but i and not sure about how to fit it. i am not bothered at this point if the trem goes both ways, down is fine. so can i mount the bridge "on" the guitar or does it have to be recessed. i have not yet got a template for the floyd rose that goes both ways and i want to "keep it simple". my thinking is that there is more required when using a bridge that goes both up and down and recessing into the body would be required. i have the pdf for the floyd template but not the wood. i have 12mm mdf not 9mm. 

thanks

simon

[mistermikev]

it would boil down to how much clearance above the body there is.  iow... a floyd needs to be recessed on a strat style neck whereas on a gibson style it would likely be able to float above the body as the strings are much higher off the body at the intonnation line.  has almost nothing to do with just being able to go up/down, but more to do with string height at the body. 

for example, I have a hamer steve stevens that is not recessed, the trem goes up and down... but it is a set neck with an angle.

i suggest you go look at the design docs for your trem and pay close attention to the height that the string goes over the saddle, and where that is going to put the rest of the trem on your guitar.

[curtisa]

5 hours ago, simon1138 said:

i have the pdf for the floyd template but not the wood. i have 12mm mdf not 9mm. 

I assume that when you say you have the PDF templates you're referring to the ones provided here on ProjectGuitar.com. The suggestion to use 9mm MDF as detailed in the plans isn't prescriptive. Because the templates rely on up to two layers being stacked on top of each other in order to build up the full templates, 9mm was suggested as a way of ensuring that the templates don't become too bulky and necessitate the use of extremely long router bits in order to make the cuts. 

That said, if you want to perform a non-recessed Floyd Rose installation using those templates it's perfectly acceptable to use 12mm MDF (or even 6mm) and just utilise the two templates shown on pages 2 and 5; the remainder can be omitted.

 

5 hours ago, simon1138 said:

so can i mount the bridge "on" the guitar or does it have to be recessed

A non-recessed FR has the advantage of simplifying the install process, but has the drawback of leaving the action of the strings much higher than normal. A FR is a relatively tall bridge. Recessing the FR is only required where you either want the ability to pull the bar upwards by significant amounts, or the guitar is constructed in a way that prevents you from counteracting the side effect of high action caused by installing the FR flush to the top of the guitar (eg set neck or neck-through guitars with low or no neck angle).

If the guitar it is being installed on has a bolt-on neck this can be circumvented by removing the neck and installing a shim in the neck pocket to either raise the neck by an overall fixed amount, or tilt the neck backwards by a couple of degrees.