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Bought a Made in Japan Fender w/floyd rose over the weekend for a stupid cheap price. Brought it home, restrung it, and the damned thing went out of tune BAD each time. So... here's what I checked and how I fixed it.
1) I turned the tuning gears on the headstock while playing open strings to see if the nut lock worked. If the pitch changed while I was dinking around on the tuners, then the nut lock wasnt working. No change in pitch on any of the strings, so I could focus on the floyd end of things.
2) I checked the tremolo cavity for anything that could interfere with the travel of the floyd. Nope, nothing there.
3) Next was depressing the trem all the way down (full dive bomb) and loosening the strings in the nut lock. Then I retightened them loose... so I could take the floyd out of the guitar without the string tension fighting me. Took the springs out of the back of the guitar, floyd came out easily, if still attached to the strings. I didn't want to mess with reseating each string in the floyd, so I did this. If they weren't new strings, I would have likely just taken the floyd completely loose anyways.
4) I took the posts out that the floyd rocks on (both of them) and looked for any scarring or damage. Nope, both were clean.
5) I checked the pivot points on the floyd for signs of being chewed up or damaged. They were fine also.
6) Ok, not much left... so I put the posts back in the body, and pulled on them. There was some play in them. BINGO. I pulled the post inserts out of the body, and checked to see if the posts were rocking in the inserts. Nope. So... I had the inserts loose in the body. I added some wood glue to the holes carefully, reseated the post inserts, made VERY sure that I didn't get glue inside the threaded parts where the posts screw in, and let em dry.
7) put the posts back in, reinstalled the floyd, tuned back to pitch, and it stays in tune perfectly.
One other note: If you have an older Charvel or 80s guitar with floyd, they may have the 'screw in' pivots for the floyd. if so and they are loose, you'd be best off gluing wooden dowels in the holes and redrilling them.
Hope this helps someone!
Pete
1) I turned the tuning gears on the headstock while playing open strings to see if the nut lock worked. If the pitch changed while I was dinking around on the tuners, then the nut lock wasnt working. No change in pitch on any of the strings, so I could focus on the floyd end of things.
2) I checked the tremolo cavity for anything that could interfere with the travel of the floyd. Nope, nothing there.
3) Next was depressing the trem all the way down (full dive bomb) and loosening the strings in the nut lock. Then I retightened them loose... so I could take the floyd out of the guitar without the string tension fighting me. Took the springs out of the back of the guitar, floyd came out easily, if still attached to the strings. I didn't want to mess with reseating each string in the floyd, so I did this. If they weren't new strings, I would have likely just taken the floyd completely loose anyways.
4) I took the posts out that the floyd rocks on (both of them) and looked for any scarring or damage. Nope, both were clean.
5) I checked the pivot points on the floyd for signs of being chewed up or damaged. They were fine also.
6) Ok, not much left... so I put the posts back in the body, and pulled on them. There was some play in them. BINGO. I pulled the post inserts out of the body, and checked to see if the posts were rocking in the inserts. Nope. So... I had the inserts loose in the body. I added some wood glue to the holes carefully, reseated the post inserts, made VERY sure that I didn't get glue inside the threaded parts where the posts screw in, and let em dry.
7) put the posts back in, reinstalled the floyd, tuned back to pitch, and it stays in tune perfectly.
One other note: If you have an older Charvel or 80s guitar with floyd, they may have the 'screw in' pivots for the floyd. if so and they are loose, you'd be best off gluing wooden dowels in the holes and redrilling them.
Hope this helps someone!
Pete