Rocket

you can save the hassle of 3m spray adhesive and get aluminum tape, it's aluminum foil with adhesive already on the back, available at home depots, hardware stores.

I have some Sperzals, 12:1 gear ratio is pretty bad. it's sometimes hard to get just the right spot. I'd go with LSR's if I ever needed tuners again on a guitar w/o a locking nut.

I'd have to go with an Ibanez RG550 or "1550" as it's now called.

i use the Peterson VS-1. if it has to be under $100 i'd suggest either the Boss TU-12H or the TU-15, something with a needle. LED's won't cut it.

well you could block the tremolo, so there would be no sharp movement. then put like all 5 springs in and tighten them as far as you can and it would pretty much be a fixed bridge. then look to Allparts for an ebonal nut, it replaces the floyd Rose style lock nut.

I drilled the holes for my stud anchors too big. But I just epoxied them and they are rock solid. I didn't want to pound mine in because I had carved out a lot of wood in the trem cavity and was afraid it would split, the holes were very near the outside of the wood. I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants with this stuff. I'm not so much for that fancy book-learnin'

Or just go down to your local Ibanez dealer, they can order them. I'd use the Ibanez studs, the OFR & Edge studs are not interchangable. The issue is, will the IBZ trem work with those studs. I know for a fact the OFR trem won't work correctly with IBZ studs and the reverse is likely so.

Myself, I like the Original Floyd Rose. Actually i'm using the "PRO" model now, but used an OFR for years. I'm sure Schaller is good too. But if you ordered an OFR, and your neck radius is 10" just stick with that.

No R2, is 1 5/8" width, 10" radius. AT LEAST as far as the real, original Floyd Rose stuff goes. ALL Floyd Rose bridges are 10" radius. They do make some nuts with 15" radius. But not bridges.Real Floyd Rose. I'm not as familiar with the Schaller stuff. And you can always change the radius of the bridge with shims.

I would bet on the Schaller being 10" even though it does say 14" in the catalog (***?). But it would be good to double check the radius like Scott said.

OK, looking at the website the trem is a Schaller, comes with a locking nut and both are a 10" radius, same as actual Floyd Rose. You did get the locking nut with the trem right? I mean you didn't have to purchase the nut seperately? The locking nut they sell alone is 14" in radius, and does not say Schaller. Looking at the quality of mine(like I said, I bought one of those) versus a real Floyd Rose lock nut is what lead me to assume it was a knock off, it just didn't look as quality as my Floyd Rose nuts.

Something I decided to address when I was suping up my Strat(the one I re-radiused the fretboard) were the posts for the trem - a Floyd Rose "PRO" - which were the wood screw type and had ovaled out the wood from many years of use. I went the bushing/stud route. But since I had 2 sets of studs/bushing around I came up with the idea of locking the studs. I found I could screw the studs into the bushings from either end (of the bushing), imagine a bushing with a stud sticking out of both ends, a mirror image. So to mount that in the guitar I first drilled all the way throught the body where the woodscrew studs had been. With just enough room for a stud to go in from the back. Then I drilled the top bushing holes and epoxied them in. I had to grind the tops off the studs that would do the locking, this part \ / to make it more l l so it would fit in the rear hole. It totally worked! After being spoiled by Ibanez locking studs I had to figure out a way with my Floyd Rose. I don't see doing this to a prized possession, but my old Strat is a player guitar.

Warmoth's nut is probably a Schaller, thus 10" radius. The Stew Mac one is a knock off. I bought one of those because I happen to have a neck that was 14" radius. I use 1 5/8th's nut on some other guitars, and I have several Ibanez RG's. The thing with the RG nut width is that it's in between 1 5/8" and 1 11/16". It's slightly less than 1 11/16". A happy medium I suppose.

I put one in a Warmoth Start I put together. I went with a graphite nut, locking tuners. For 1, it didn't stay in tune with bar usage. And 2 it was so stiff that using the bar was no fun. But I left the Tremsetter in and never use the bar so it's pretty much a fixed bridge, I like that I can double stop bend and not have the string go flat. and that I can drop the low E down to D.

I used a roto-tool(Dremel type thing) and cut one on a scrap neck freehand and it worked.

Locking posts like the ones Ibanez used to use have a set screw inside them. When you screw this little set screw against the bottom of the bushing (after you've set your action and everything) it locks the post preventing it from slight movement back & forth. Because the posts/studs are not super tight in the bushing alone. Same with Floyd Rose studs, the move a little bit. There were locking Floyd Rose studs at one time, I don't know if they were made by Floyd Rose themselves. I have an old Warmoth catalog from 1993/94 and they were selling them at the time. I wish i would've snatched a few pair of those!

The holes will deform eventually with trem use. I finally discovered that with my wood screw Floyd posts. Tuning stability was terrible. I finally took the trem off and noticed I could rock the posts back and forth in the hole quite a bit. This is from years of use however. You may be OK in the short term. But anchors are something that need to be done. It's just so easy. I did mine freehand - I couldn't fit the body under a drill press - and they came out a little big but I epoxied them in and they are solid as a rock now.

Yes a Stratocaster neck. A 1978. The hole where the truss rod nut sticks out is really close to the top of the fretboard AT LEAST at the nut end. I don't know if it curves back from there (toward the back of the neck. It might. I'm looking at a photo of a cross section of a Strat neck from Dan Erlewines old GP column and it does curve back from there.) I would've sanded through at the area the Floyd nut mounts against anyway. If I sanded enough to fix the problem. I was going to just take the fretboard off. It's maple w/ maple neck. It's a one piece though, there is no seperate fretboard. It would have to be sawed off. When I was going to buy the frets, the shop I went to had right there what looked to be a 1978 Strat, I mean it was exact to mine except the color. The repairperson looked it over and agreed it was a one piece. With a thin skunk stripe of darker wood on the back of the neck.

No not compound, I was just making the whole thing 10". I did pull the frets out and was going to level the board futher but then noticed where the Floyd nut goes(it was out) the truss rod channel was VERY close to the top the fretboard. i didn't want to risk sanding it more and then cutting the fret slots through into the channel. That would've been bad. So I just put more frets in and it made it worse because I went with a slightly larger size...ah, I'm an idiot. Anyway, I've been doing some weird leveling, leaving it backbowed and only leveling the high E & B area, trying to take the hump down. It worked somewhat. The notes don't ring clearly between about the 4th fret to the 12th. (E & B strings) I might go with a heavier string gauge to pull it straighter, though I wish I didn't have to do that. It doesn't matter all that much, it's good experience and I figure I can either take it to a shop and have them put a new fingerboard on or just buy another neck as a last option. I just thought I'd try this since the neck was mine anyway, cheaper.

I was re-radiusing a neck from 7.25" to 10" and everything seemed cool before I put the frets in. After I had it fretted I checked the fingerboard with one of those Stew Mac notched straight edges and when I got the middle of the neck to read straight the high E side had a convex bow, and the low E side had a concave bow. I was confused as to how I should check for high frets so I just straightened the high E side.....anyway, I screwed the pooch, the frets are ruined now, I'm assuming the neck is twisted, right? So #1. Is it worth continuing to work on it? Or is it scrap? #2. if it is salvagable, after I rip the frets out, should I just keep planing until it's straight on all sides? Thing is, i could've swore i checked the high E & low E sides of the fretboard before fretting. The frets were the same size as before, and even though I deepened the slots I used a Stew Mac saw and Stew Mac frets so everything should've worked. Any thoughts?

slow for me too

You don't necessarily have to clear coat solid colors such as black or white. you can just buff them out. but if it's a metallic of any sort you need clear. nitro vs. "regular paint" : i assume you mean the stuff you'd find at Home Depot, spray cans. those are enamels and are not great for guitars i've found. If you can find acrylic lacquer say at an auto parts store, that works very well. you don't have to use nitro. Nitro's the only way to go if you want to replicate vintage fiinishes but if you just want to paint the thing use acrylic. that's my attitude about it.

Floyd Rose IS a floating trem. Bigsby, no good. I like Floyd Roses and Ibanez trems. You can go nuts on them and stay in tune.

I made a body out of pine when I was 13 or 14, and stuck a cheapo neck on it. The thing I remember most is when I strapped it on the first time the neck headed straight for the floor : it was WAY neck heavy. But if it's just for practice, why not. And the Fenders from pine, I think they were the very very first Tele's, called Esquires(??) or maybe before that.

I just picked up a 10 pk. of those D'Addarrios at GC today. I like those and Boomers but for $3 a set I can't pass it up. I may have to go back for seconds.