PRS - Floyd Rose

FelineGuitars · January 2021

ICBM said:

You can actually remove a Floyd without taking the strings off or even detuning them . Hold the bridge back with the arm and take the springs off! I've done it many times to work on the electrics. But probably not recommended for those of a nervous nature... you're relying on the locking nut bolts to take the full string tension for an extended time.

And when you pop the bridge back in place and reattach the springs it is often delightfully still in tune.

ICBM · January 2021

skullfunkerry said:

I've done this a few times with my Jackson. I didn't think of this until after I'd done it, but presumably you could slacken off the tuners, then there'd be no stress on the nut at all?

No - but it would be very difficult to get them back to the right tension afterwards.

skullfunkerry · January 2021

ICBM said:

skullfunkerry said:

I've done this a few times with my Jackson. I didn't think of this until after I'd done it, but presumably you could slacken off the tuners, then there'd be no stress on the nut at all?

No - but it would be very difficult to get them back to the right tension afterwards.

Would that matter though? Obviously it would once you unlocked the nut, but if it was all in tune then it would be alright until you needed to change strings wouldn't it?

(Just to be clear: I'm not trying to be arsey here, just genuinely wondering)

ICBM · January 2021

skullfunkerry said:

Would that matter though? Obviously it would once you unlocked the nut, but if it was all in tune then it would be alright until you needed to change strings wouldn't it?

(Just to be clear: I'm not trying to be arsey here, just genuinely wondering)

Yes - apart from that it would then very likely have widely differing tension on each side of the nut, which might possibly cause the strings to creep over time - although probably not, if the clamps were tight enough for it not to when the bridge was off.

I've worked on several guitars with at least one string broken beyond the nut that were perfectly OK though, so it may not be an issue at all.

M1ck · January 2021

That is for all the advice.
Just to reiterate as a few comments centered around the saddle position and intonation I did notice at least one saddle had slipped after I took the photo, shortly after I did correct it.
Anyway - Finally got round to having a ‘proper’ look at it,
Mistake no. 1 - buying a PRS with a Floyd!
Mistake no. 2 - I took the strings and springs off!

Stripped it right back to clean it and examine it for wear, there is a little wear but it mostly appears to be on the posts, the bridge block has some wear but not as much. And yes I did put the saddles back in the right order!

Polished the frets etc and checked the pickup connections while it was unstrung.
Restrung it and now have a much better idea why techs charge more for working with Floyd’s!

Mistake no. 3 - forgetting to remove the intonation tool before checking intonation doh!
Intonation is now spot on according to my tuner (it wasn’t bad before I started) bridge is level and action is good (both were good before I started).
General opinion was don’t bother replacing the tuners which is fair enough. My thoughts were more moollah for pickups but.....I checked heights etc made some adjustments and don’t think I need to do anything with them - for now anyway.
It’s now like a new guitar (to me) not knowing it’s history it was good to get into it and learn a bit about it. One thing for sure the next string change will be one string at a time!

ICBM · January 2021

M1ck said:

That is for all the advice.
Just to reiterate as a few comments centered around the saddle position and intonation I did notice at least one saddle had slipped after I took the photo, shortly after I did correct it.
Anyway - Finally got round to having a ‘proper’ look at it,
Mistake no. 1 - buying a PRS with a Floyd!
Mistake no. 2 - I took the strings and springs off!
Stripped it right back to clean it and examine it for wear, there is a little wear but it mostly appears to be on the posts, the bridge block has some wear but not as much. And yes I did put the saddles back in the right order!
Polished the frets etc and checked the pickup connections while it was unstrung.
Restrung it and now have a much better idea why techs charge more for working with Floyd’s!
Mistake no. 3 - forgetting to remove the intonation tool before checking intonation doh!
Intonation is now spot on according to my tuner (it wasn’t bad before I started) bridge is level and action is good (both were good before I started).
General opinion was don’t bother replacing the tuners which is fair enough. My thoughts were more moollah for pickups but.....I checked heights etc made some adjustments and don’t think I need to do anything with them - for now anyway.
It’s now like a new guitar (to me) not knowing it’s history it was good to get into it and learn a bit about it. One thing for sure the next string change will be one string at a time!

But now you do know how it's done

.

If it makes you feel any better to know how I learned, it was in the days before the internet, I had never worked on a guitar with a Floyd before, and someone brought me a Pensa-Suhr (over £2K at the time, and this was the late 80s) that he'd imported from the US, and it arrived *unstrung*. As in, no strings present at all... so I had to work out how it all worked, from first principles, just with what I had in my hands.

At that point I didn't even know you cut the ball ends off the strings, it was only after about half an hour of head-scratching and looking for any way the strings could possibly feed through from the back that I finally came to the conclusion that there was no other way it could work! It probably took me the best part of a day to figure it all out. Since then, working on them has been a piece of cake really

.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

PRS - Floyd Rose

Comments