Floyd Rose without locking nut. Locking tuners?

[Mazrim]

Gentlemen, advice for and old fool planning his first mutt.

I have a San Dimas like body I'm looking to buy that is apparently routed for a (non recessed) floyd rose bridge but I want to marry it to a vintage type fender neck that will (by the looks of it) not take a locking nut. If I choose to install Sperzel locking tuning pegs will this solve the problem?

I take it using a Floyd Rose without a locking nut is a bad idea otherwise? I dont want to spend half my life tuning the damn thing.

Thank you in advance.

[Grandturk]

I'll go out on a limb and say that for little warbles and dips, it will work 95% for you if the nut is properly cut and lubed with some graphite sludge and the Floyd is flush on the body .

Anything more than moderate trem use and tuning won't be the problem - the strings popping out of the nut slots will be the problem.

A retaining bar would help.

I would say bit the bullet and have the nut routed out for the floyd locking nut or install a Kahler string lock behind the nut - a la 1983.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Yeah you could get a playable guitar out of it (so long as you block the tremolo and then never touch it) but, it's just a bad idea.

[Mazrim]

I'm no divebomb lunatic but I like having the option. Would it be fair to say that if a body is routed for a Floyd rose, no other bridge will go in there? Hardtail? Without pissing about with the woodwork I mean.

I dont necessarily want a floyd in there. Its basically a really nice paint job and I'm planning the guitar around it. Plus I have a line on a really nice flamed maple vintage strat neck. I want to try and make them work together somehow.

The neck.



The Floyd route.

[Grandturk]

Oh, I seen that body on Ebay. Only looks good if its hanging up. Put it in playing position, and its sideways.

Is that neck from Allparts? These days you can order exactly what you need, with as much or as little flame as you want - WITH a Floyd nut.

My advise - keep looking and get what you need - compromise sucks.

[Mazrim]

Fair enough. And no, its not from Allparts but I will check them out.
Thanks.

I know its sideways but goddamn I love that artwork.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

If that's a real Charvel body then the place you need to look for a neck is Musikraft.

Don't try to put a Fender-heel neck on a Charvel. It will have a pretty sizable gap in the neck pocket which you can avoid by buying the 2 1/4" heeled neck.

[Grandturk]

If that's a real Charvel body then the place you need to look for a neck is Musikraft.

Don't try to put a Fender-heel neck on a Charvel. It will have a pretty sizable gap in the neck pocket which you can avoid by buying the 2 1/4" heeled neck.

If I remember the auction correctly, its not a Charvel body - its a knock-off, mighty mite or something.

Good point about the heel width - Musicraft is one of the only places out there that are making the correct Charvel/Jackson heel widths.

Jazznoise - you're a Floyd expert. So I've been noticing on my ProMod with German floyd and r3 nut, the E strings (both of them) seem to fall off the fret end with a lot less effort than on, say my Dave Murray and my Adrian Smith - i.e. if I'm not careful I'm pulling or pushing the strings off the fretboard. Now, this is on a "wide" Charvel neck. I thought maybe the neck had shifted, but then it would only be a problem on one string. I can't remember having this problem when i had the stock Korean floyd on it...

How would you address this problem on a narrow fender neck? The only other floyded guitars I've had for any length of time (real real Floyd) was a Kramer and I don't remember having this problem.

[Mazrim]

Its a custom painted Alder San Dimas Strat body by BC Guitars in Florida.

[Grandturk]

Its a custom painted Alder San Dimas Strat body by BC Guitars in Florida.

Careful. I just looked it up. It clearly says "San Dimas style" and notes in the description that it takes a standard Fender 2 3/16th neck. Its not a Charvel body.

[Mazrim]

I know its not an actual Charvel body. I meant San Dimas style. And thats also why Ive lined up a Fender spec neck and not a Charvel one.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

If I remember the auction correctly, its not a Charvel body - its a knock-off, mighty mite or something.

Ah, OK. Yeah I test fitted a Warmoth Strat-heel neck on a "real" Pro Mod body. It was not pretty.

Jazznoise - you're a Floyd expert. So I've been noticing on my ProMod with German floyd and r3 nut, the E strings (both of them) seem to fall off the fret end with a lot less effort than on, say my Dave Murray and my Adrian Smith - i.e. if I'm not careful I'm pulling or pushing the strings off the fretboard. Now, this is on a "wide" Charvel neck. I thought maybe the neck had shifted, but then it would only be a problem on one string. I can't remember having this problem when i had the stock Korean floyd on it...

How would you address this problem on a narrow fender neck? The only other floyded guitars I've had for any length of time (real real Floyd) was a Kramer and I don't remember having this problem.

Hmm. Well, the Korean and OFR are the same string spacing so there really shouldn't be any difference. :think:

It is possible to *slightly* angle the saddles to adjust string spacing but it doesn't get you a lot. So, make sure your saddles are straight - that is the only width adjustment there is, that's all I can think of that could be affecting it.

Mazrim, now that we know what it is and is not... There are a lot of places you can get a 2 3/16" heel neck with or without a Floyd nut cutout. If you are dead set on that neck, you could block the tremolo and leave the bar off, and use the standard nut (with or without locking tuners) and have a "hardtail" with a Floyd bridge. That is essentially what I did to my Model 88 (at least until I get my new string lock on there).

[Mazrim]

O.K, what about having an LSR roller nut?

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I think that would be a negligible improvement over the regular nut. Kind of a waste of money, and requires some semi-not-reversible modification for install (IIRC, which I think I do.)

Why do you not want to put a Floyd nut on there?

[Grandturk]

I think that would be a negligible improvement over the regular nut. Kind of a waste of money, and requires some semi-not-reversible modification for install (IIRC, which I think I do.)

Yep. Gotta cut some wood to install. It does hold the string in position better than a regular nut, though I'm not sure about for huge divebombs.