Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a floyd rose setup job from a returning customer...

I have completed the setup but the last thing to do is to set the bridge intonation, but the floyd rose intonation adjustment is loose, as in there are no screws to turn, instead you loosen the saddle and the whole thing comes loose so you move the saddle to your desired position, which presents a challenge with the guitar strung up.

Is there a better way to intonate a floyd rose without buying "the key" because its a little expensive for something that only works with original floyd rose and not its copies (schaller, Ibanez, et. al.) which is going to be a lot more common than original floyd rose.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I hold the saddle in place with a small flathead screwdriver, loosen the screw, push it where I want it, tighten the screw, re-tune.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

Thumbs up for the returning customer.

Just listen to the whisperer.
Also works better if you use an older screwdriver with no sharp edges as it will be less likely to mark the surface on black or gold ones

Looks like some of you are trying to do this under tension without the special little tool. Pushing around those saddles with a screwdriver is an invitation for disaster. I would not take the chance on putting a scratch in a customers instrument to save a few minutes. I never want to make that call..." Hey man we had a little accident with your guitar...." You need to slack the string to properly access the lock screw anyway, or you will put nicks in the string with the wrench and cause stress risers. So I start by measuring the offset in intonation and then calculate how far to shift the bridge. Lets say it's a fender with a25.5 scale and it is reading 3.7 cents sharp at the 12th. The distance of one semitone here is 1.431", the distance between the nut and center of the first fret. So 3.7% of that is about 0.053". So slack the string, measure the saddle location to a fixed point on the plate ( usually the front edge), loosen the lock and move the saddle that distance the appropriate direction depending on whether it was sharp or flat, in my example that would be away from the nut. Tighten the lock, re-tune and check again. This usually gets me close enough that I can make one or two small final adjustments by eye on each string and it's done. All fulcrum trems are a pain to set-up, they take time and patience. That is why I charge almost double what I do a fixed bridge to set-up.

_________________
Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Yea, I did charge more to do a floyd setup than a regular tremolo or fixed bridge. Regular isn't so difficult but the floyd is definitely a lot harder.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Nope. It's fast, quick, accurate, and easy. I've never scratched a customers guitar as a result.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

I haven't worked on one in a while but I used to use small needle nose pliers with heat shrink tubing as a protectorant ( is that a word?) and use them as a lever to pry the string lock tighteners back and then lock the saddle locks. It wasn't perfect and was tedious but worked. Now there is a tool out there for such a thing. I don't own one but may pick one up just in case....Mike
P.S this is available from stew mac and various others including allparts

_________________
Another day, another dollar.