About Ready To Give Up on my Soloist

[jw3571]

Hey,

I've got a 2011 Jackson Soloist with the whammy bar. THis is my first guitar with a whammy bar and it's really causing me problems. It doesn't stay in tune and i really don't like how chords sound and while strumming. I have the 9's that it came with, maybe these are causing me the problem, i'm used to 10's. I may just list it for sale, this is really driving me crazy. I have changed the strings so they are fresh. Any suggestions or is someone interested in this guitar?

[holycross1]

I use 11-54 and 12-56 with a plain 3rd. And a Earvana lock nut and silent springs and stopper from Floyd Rose Upgrades. I have EXCELLENT tuning stability and the benefit of a floyd. Its just not floating. Try that. My tone is rock solid and I set all my Floyd's up this way. One note. Schallers have never been able to handle the gauge of strings I use. The base plate has been either to soft, or the saddle intonation lock screws were not deep enough to really grab the thread and hold the saddle. Floyd's can. They are hardened to harder then 60 rockwell on the whole base plate. Not just the pivot blades.
I am sure this will fix the very issue you are having. Even with light strings like 10's.
I am upgrading all my blocks to a fat block this tax season. A buddy did it. And it made a huge difference. So here I go. Haha

[neilli]

Is it set up properly? Do you rest your hand heavily on the bridge when you play?

[VitaminG]

You shouldn't need to throw a heap of money at the guitar, put super heavy strings on it or buying a bunch of ancillary parts to make it hold tune. The guitar should sound good and hold tune well in its stock form.

I'm guessing from your inexperience with Floyds that the setup may be suspect. Can you describe the issues you're having with it? Plenty of experienced old heads around here to talk you through whatever problems you're facing.

Those fresh strings you put on her - did you give them a good stretching out? If chords are sounding bad, how is your intonation? How is the position of the trem - is it sitting parallel to the face of the guitar?

[hunter1970]

His second sentence says it all,"this is my first guitar with a whammy bar".
When I was growing up I had the opportunity of one of my best friends having a Kramer Focus with a Floyd rose, and through that time he showed me the ins and outs of a proper Floyd set up.
So don't sell it, keep it and once you figure out the tension and how much the weight of your hand on the bridge plays into it.you'll be enlightened after you get it figured out. So take s little time and it will work out. You'll feel better about Floyded guitars.

[jw3571]

How do you check the intonation? I probably will need to take it to a tech. The bridge is is parallel

[Ward]

Quick & easy way to check the intonation is to make sure the note played at the 12th fret is the same as the harmonic at the 12th fret on each string.

The more accurate your tuner the better.

[tomanyjacksons]

Once you figure a Floyd out you'll love what you can do with one. Don't give up, learn how to manage one. They rock.

[Larz]

Google something about stringing floyds and watch a set up on youtube maybe, that should help. Don't get discouraged its a kick ass guitar.

You need to bend/stretch the new strings a bit before you lock it down permanently and fine tune and are good to go for divebombs, etc.

[dvscool]

I think I’m just going to repeat what most peeps are saying because they are right. You shouldn’t need to spend any cash on your Floyd (unless something is horribly worn, like the posts?) or put a heavier gage string on. In fact, I personally feel 9-42 is the sweet spot for Floyds. If you want a heavier gage by all means try it. Check your intonation, to me, that sounds like the overall issue. As everyone else is saying. Don't give up. Once its working you'll love it.

[ginsambo]

It must have taken me the best part of a year to go from Gibson Tune-o-matic bridges to floyds and really be comfortable with them, but it is worth it IMO. Not least because you can then buy into all this Jackson and especially the Charvel history obsession, which I have found very satisfying.

During that transition period I was playing an SL3. It was like learning to walk again, mainly because the floating, recessed floyd was so low and unstable and equivalent to a Fender V trem in height and the bridge kept moving as I rested my palm on it, or I knocked the fine tuners out of whack. I was used to roughly swinging my hand like a monkey with my palm heavily rested as a pivot point on the TOM bridge and my thumb bent backwards completely when picking on a Gibson. Also in terms of comfort, the neck wasn't angled away from the body on the SL3.

Basically I would hang in there, you can keep your same picking technique but you do learn to lighten up your palm resting on the bridge after a few months and finally the guitar becomes stable.

Various spring arrangements in the back can also make the trem alot more rigid which also helps when playing unison bends at first.

After being a Gibson traditionalist for a millenia, basically the whole exercise it turned me back onto Fender Strats again, and they are great guitars and so comfortable as well so it's all good. Now I don't have any problems swapping guitars, where as before, for years, playing floyded guitars put the fear of god into me.

Then I discovered non recessed floyds. Oh joy, haven't looked back since. Best of both worlds!

Whilst argueably, the tone might not be as deep or fat, blow your balls off, on these guitars as a TOM Bridge Gibson. They are built for efficiency and clarity and if you can get a handle on them, it will bring on your playing and technique no end and actually they don't sound half bad.

And now...as much as I would have hated to say it, I prefer floyded guitars over anything. You can get close to a Gibson sound and do so much more with them, where as with a Gibson, whilst it may well blow your bowels out and you might be able to do some wild vibrato and ten step bends (Which you can also learn to do with a floyd), you are kind of stuck with a one trick, muddy, pony.

[holycross1]

I was in no way telling him to use heavy strings. I was stating that's what I used. Springs are not that much money to experiment with. And since it is his first Floyd, I thought maybe he is heavy palming and just used it for dive bombing.
I blocked mine for an EVH D-tuner for a cover band that wanted to just go from a standard tuned song to a half step down drop Db song wit no break in the transitions.
I hated doing it. But after working with that and a Morpheus pedal I got used to it. Band leader was a prick about doing it just like the radio played it.
As far as The strings. ( work well. But I like the feel of heavier strings. 10-52 are the lightest I feel comfortable playing. Don't know why.
So no I was not telling him to drop a bunch of money. If you read what I wrote its pretty clear.
I also understood that others with good advice would also give him good advice. Funny how that turns into "You don't need heavy strings and a ton of parts for your Floyd" .....Really? Don't I seem marginalized.
Have fun.

[wilkinsi]

Take the whammy bar off

[decadence5423]

You should smash it and try to get it in as many pieces as that chlorine soloist posted a while back. Now that would be an accomplishment!

[Tonelover]

#1 rule: stretch, I mean really stretch, the fricking heck out of the strings before even bothering to tune up. I yank on them for a good 15 minutes while restringing. It's also important to learn how tension changes the floating bridge when tuning individual strings. If I get the low E all set but the other strings are flat, I know that by the time I go across them all the low E is going to be flat. So I over compensate on the lower strings in hopes that they'll be about where they are supposed to once I've gone across all six.