more locking wammy bar hell!

[adetheheat]

Ok I need more help with this. I bought the Ibanez RGR420EX. So I thought I'd put new strings on it.

1. Firstly it took about 90 minutes to tune up. You tune up the 1st, 2nd.... 6th string. Then go back to the first string and its a semi tone out. So I repeat the process and ... its a semi tone out. Repeat ad nauseum and after 60 minues it's in tune. Is there a quicker way ?
then....

2. I noticed that one of the fine tuners didn't really do much now - it just seemed loose. Turning it any direction did little difference. Have i got this wrong ?

3. I thought I'd 'make sure' the nuts that lock the strings to the bridge were really tight (seemed logical at the time). So i kept tightening the 1st string nnut and then - "kerrzing" - the first string went really loose and the whole guitar was now way out of tune.

I give up. All the above took about 2 hours !!

[manicguitarist2]

Restringing a guitar with a floating floyd rose is not easy till you get the knack of it.

One way is to only change one string at a time - thus keeping the tension on the bridge.

However, what I do is I take all the strings off and clean the guitar - then put it all back together but stuff the string packet underneath the back of the floyd rose - then I tune up and remove the string packet. It will still take a few iterations before it is all in tune - but eventually you get the knack of how much each string should be tuned sharp so that it is in tune when all the strings are done.


Re the fine tuner - have a look at how it works - is the threaded thing moving up and down? If not, then you might have stripped the threads.

Re the locking nut? I don't know what you have done there.

I do find that licensed floyd rose copies (as on Ibanez guitars etc) are not a patch on the original model when it comes to stability, ease of tuning and longevity.

It takes me about 10mins to change the strings on a floyd equipped guitar - but I've had a lot of practice.

[evilmags]

1. Firstly it took about 90 minutes to tune up. You tune up the 1st, 2nd.... 6th string. Then go back to the first string and its a semi tone out. So I repeat the process and ... its a semi tone out. Repeat ad nauseum and after 60 minues it's in tune. Is there a quicker way ?


Tune EE, AB and GD. Overtighten the E strings by about a semitone and do similar to the A&B. Then when you bring G&D up to pitch the Es and the A&B should be closer to correct. Always tune EE AB and GD in that sort of order.

2. I noticed that one of the fine tuners didn't really do much now - it just seemed loose. Turning it any direction did little difference. Have i got this wrong ?

They should work for at least a semitone/

3. I thought I'd 'make sure' the nuts that lock the strings to the bridge were really tight (seemed logical at the time). So i kept tightening the 1st string nnut and then - "kerrzing" - the first string went really loose and the whole guitar was now way out of tune.

Tighten so they lock. No need to go mental with them.

[Bogwhoppit]

I find the strings last longer on my Floyd equipped Jackson if I dont play it ,its much longer between string changes and I dont kick the dog half as much.

[andrewrg]

All that faffing around just for a bit of wobblage...and then you break a string and need to start all over again.
I'd rather nail my bollocks to the table.

[MattANJH]

Just takes some getting used to, when I first got one of these it took me a similar amount of time. I tend to go with Manic's technique of one string at a time now. If I do have to take off all the strings, I tend to put something under the bridge so that it's just slightly lower than it's normal floating position, that way when the strings are tuned up, it's quite similar to a fixed bridge and it'll only need small amounts of tweaking.

What Mags said about doing opposite strings together also works well, it means you're increasing the tension in an even fashion rather than from one side to the other.