Interesting find on Floyd Rose on SD1 and Soloist

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

This weekend, I'm having "fun" replacing some "Original Korean" Floyd Rose tremolos on a couple of my Charvel/Jackson guitars.

First up is my SD1. I take the new Floyd out of the box and remove the "factory" shim which is under saddles 2 - 5.

Next, I take a look at the one I've removed from my SD1. Unexpectedly, there are NO shims under any saddles.

According to Charvel the SD1 neck is a 12-16 compound radius and therefore I would expect it would need shimmed... But it isn't.

I know the Floyd is 10" radius "out of the box." What is the radius of an OFR with the factory shim removed?

I'm gonna look at my Japanese Soloist later this weekend, I expect to find the same thing.

Is the OFR with the factory 4-saddle shim a good enough fit for the C/J compound radius necks? Here I was getting ready to cut and drill some nice "soda can" shims to get it working, but it seems the Pro models are "good enough" with no shims at all on the OFR.

Thanks for any tips.

[Newc]

The shims would create a rounder radius. Remember, the radius is basically a circle, so the flatter the radius, the bigger the circle, so the shims would actually make a smaller circle.

10" would probably be for a Strat.

You could probably get a radius guage to find the unshimmed radius.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Right, Strat is close to 10" radius.

So, what gives on the San Dimas? 12-16 compound radius with unshimmed Floyd. I'm guessing it's gotta be close to 16" without the "stock shim" or it wouldn't work very well.

I can't find a radius gauge *ANYWHERE" and I've checked every hardware store in my area. I think I'm going to bend some wire to match the 22nd fret and "eyeball it."

[Grandturk]

You get free radius guages in dan erlewine's book. Get it. Also, I put an ofr on my sd1. Played fine with shim. Plays fine without the shim. I don't think radius matters until the strings hit the fret, personally.

[Newc]

No need to buy the book. It's handy to have, but there are free printable radius gages online.

Saddle radius determines how soon or how late the string hits the fret when fretted at a given fret.

While the height increase at the saddles is only the thickness of the shim, everything changes in relative scale when you move away from a given point - i.e. the radius at the nut is different from the radius at the bridge. Ergo, if the shim is 1mm thick, then the distance from the string to a given fret is not an extra 1mm, but because of relative scale difference could be 2mm.


And measuring the radius at the last fret will not be the same as the saddles.

[Spivonious]

And measuring the radius at the last fret will not be the same as the saddles.

Right. The radius at the saddles would be closer to 20" IIRC.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Yeah from what I had read before starting this project a 12-16" compound radius neck should have an 18" - 20" bridge radius for optimum action.

I found the radius gauge and printed/cut one out. The radius of the unshimmed Floyd is 14/15, exactly the same as the stock SD1 Floyd.

The heel of the neck is definitely 16" so, it seems Charvel is shipping a 12-16" compound radius neck on a guitar with a 15" bridge radius.

wtf?

I'm gonna have to fix that.

[warlok]

Radius gauges

I have a .pdf you can print and use for radius gauges. I don't know how to post it though.

Aha! Here's the link. Print it from adobe, not the "internet explorer/firefox/whatever browser your using" print button and it should be the right size. If you print it and trace/cut onto something sturdier it's easier to use. If you want, make cuts in each side to fit over your strings and you can use it to find the radius of a fretboard without pulling strinigs too. Hope it helps.

http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_setup/bass_guitar_radius_gauge.pdf

[Spivonious]

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[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Here's the one I used:

http://www.pickguardian.com/pickguardian/Images/Pickguardian%20Neck%20Radius%20Gauges.pdf

Printed it on some heavy cardstock. It worked great for my purposes, but it's only as accurate as your cuttin' finger is with the X-acto.