going from non- to recessed floyd? also simple refin cost est.?

[Final Sacrifice]

Is this easy enough to do with a drill myself? I'm tired of dive bomb only. I want to refinish my strat in white anyway, so I figured I could just drill it while the paint is off. Or, any idea on how much it would cost to get this done, for all combinations of drilling and/or painting? Thanks a lot.

[slash]

I wouldn't attempt to recess a floyd with a drill... You need a router and a good template to do it properly.

[toejam]

I'm tired of dive bomb only.

So then raise the trem up off the body so it floats and you can pull up.

[Final Sacrifice]

So then raise the trem up off the body so it floats and you can pull up.

How could I do that then?

[mm2002]

Shim the neck.

[toejam]

Yeah, if raising the pivot posts of the Floyd brings your action up too high, then you'll have to shim the neck to have it tilted back, then you can raise the Floyd even higher.

[Sunbane]

If your guitar was built for a non-recessed Floyd, then you could probably just alter the setup a bit, and it will pull up fine. I think often an inability to pull up on non-recessed trems is the consequence of a poor setup. Too many people set the trem up to be parallel with the body, instead of parallel with the strings. Set it up to match the neck/string angle, and you will be able to pull up.

(I know a lot of people here don't agree with that idea, but as far as I'm concerned, this is the right way to do it.)

If your guitar was converted from a v-trem to a Floyd though, it may be that the Floyd practically rests on the body to get the strings close enough to the fretboard. In this case, shimming the neck and raising the Floyd is in order.

[JZ06]

Steve Vai's JACK BUTLER axe in Crossroads had the floyd set-up that way. You can set up the floyd to sit with the tail in the air and pull up without a recess. LOL some I'm sure have experienced this while changing strings, or their first time messing with a floyd.