First time changing strings on a Floyd

[jonasaberg]

I changed strings on the Floyd-equipped Larrivee a couple of days ago.
It was somewhat trickier than on a regular bridge but nowhere near as difficult as some had lead me to believe. It took a bit longer to tune it but again, no major worries there. Now it stays in tune no matter what I do with the trem, it sits perfectly parallell to the body and intonation is spot on.

So to anyone on the fence about getting a guitar with a Floyd-it’s not that big of a deal. Just take your time and don’t stress through it the first time changing strings. Personally, I’m sold on locking tremolos from now on and will probably get a second Floyd:ed guitar in the future.

[Chromatic]

you are a great example for those who are afraid of buying a floyd because of this "issue"

It's not hard at all...only different

[jonasaberg]

"...It's not hard at all...only different ..."

Exactly. Even if you clamp down the strings before they are stretched out and you have to unlock them at the nut and retune it's not like that's some major procedure either. Can't really understand I even hesitated about getting one.

[El Chiguete]

Anyone that would say that puting new strings on a Floyd is too hard that that thats the reason why they don't use guitars with Floyd Rose tremolos should not be playing at all!!!

[emperor_black]

the real difficulty is not while changing strings...

if you decide to change the gauge of the strings, its harder with a floyd. Not only do you have to worry about intonation, you have to worry about the number of springs, tightening/loosening the spring claw and probably other stuff I forgot to mention.

Playing live, if you break a string, its not as simple as replacing one string and getting done with it.

on a whim, I change my tuning from standard to drop-D and sometimes to drop-C. With a floyd, I cant do all these. I have to worry about the above mentioned points...resetting the spring claw, removing/adding springs, etc.

that's primarily the reason why I will never buy a floyd-equipped guitar. For one, i hardly used the whammy bar and i have to deal with all the above probs.

[rjohnstone]

You could always block the Floyd to dive bomb only, instead of floating.
No worries if a string breaks and you can change tuning on the fly.

[Nazgul]

Playing live, if you break a string, its not as simple as replacing one string and getting done with it.

Just quickly replace that string, stretch it out and tune it up and the whole floyd comes back, set-up exactly as it was before .

[emperor_black]

You could always block the Floyd to dive bomb only, instead of floating.
No worries if a string breaks and you can change tuning on the fly.

Agreed. However, call it BS, but I found that I lost a lot of sustain when I blocked the trem in my Ibanez using the traditional method of using a wooden block. Maybe I should have used the "tremolo-no"... or probably the Ibanez was a crappy guitar afterall. :ROTF:

[sl2lover]

the real difficulty is not while changing strings...

if you decide to change the gauge of the strings, its harder with a floyd. Not only do you have to worry about intonation, you have to worry about the number of springs, tightening/loosening the spring claw and probably other stuff I forgot to mention.

Playing live, if you break a string, its not as simple as replacing one string and getting done with it.

on a whim, I change my tuning from standard to drop-D and sometimes to drop-C. With a floyd, I cant do all these. I have to worry about the above mentioned points...resetting the spring claw, removing/adding springs, etc.

that's primarily the reason why I will never buy a floyd-equipped guitar. For one, i hardly used the whammy bar and i have to deal with all the above probs.

Thats why it pays to have more than one guitar equipped with a Floyd etc

[scotty]

If you put enough string wraps on the pegs, all you have to do is pull a couple wraps off and re-insert it in the floyd. It doesn't take much time at all. Of course this only work if break the string at the saddle. Most of my string break at the point in floyd where the strings bend when you use a floyd. (the Saddle) So this has worked for me. Once the gig is over you can always put new strings if you want.

[Chad]

Tremol-No's are really cool. I have them on two of my trem equipped guitars. I just dug out an old guitar I hadn't played in a long time that has a Floyd....now I'm contemplating getting another Tremol-No for it. I love being able to so easily block the trem. Also, it's great for when you want to tune to an alternate tuning. It's almost like having a trem and fixed bridge on the same guitar.