Floating a non-recessed Floyd

[stratamania]

You want a non-recessed Floyd but without the angled neck pocket.  Maybe W will do it for you, maybe not.  Then shim the neck to the correct height.  Stewmac has the wood kind that fills the whole pocket, not just the end to make it angled.  It will look like my '91 ESP Kamikaze here which has significant space between the strings and body.

Shims can be a pain in the ass, if you're sure a non recessed is what you want, it's best to just get the neck pocket angled.

Agreed, the angle is the solution. The shim at best a workaround.

 

[Wolfie351]

You want a non-recessed Floyd but without the angled neck pocket.  Maybe W will do it for you, maybe not.  Then shim the neck to the correct height.  Stewmac has the wood kind that fills the whole pocket, not just the end to make it angled.  It will look like my '91 ESP Kamikaze here which has significant space between the strings and body.

Shims can be a pain in the ass, if you're sure a non recessed is what you want, it's best to just get the neck pocket angled.

Agreed, the angle is the solution. The shim at best a workaround.

I'd go with the angled pocket as well, but OP wanted significant distance between the strings and body.  Angled pocket isn't going to provide much of that so shims or custom is the only way to do it.  Or, perhaps an 80s Kramer body?

 

[Cederick]

A non-angled pocket would be good for all out there who wants a dive-only floyd. Of couse, action must be set by careful shimming, or a fender neck tilt mechanism.

I usually block my recessed floyds to dive-only because I like the more "hardtail feel" of the bridge that way.

 

[stratamania]

Nothing wrong with having a dive only Floyd if thats what you want, but the OP was asking about a floating non recessed bridge.

 

[Cagey]

Actually, a vibrato bridge is not functional as a vibrato bridge if it's set up in "dive only" mode. Since they're already mis-labelled by many as "tremolo" bridges, perhaps we should start a trend by calling them "dive bars". At least it would be a more accurate description of its function  :laughing7:

That said, I don't undestand why anybody would install and set up a Floyd as a dive bar. It's an unecessarily expensive way of getting that effect. If the thing is locked back through excessive spring tension or other mechanical means, you don't have to worry about a broken string putting the instrument out of tune (which a Floyd doesn't help anyway) or mounting issues affecting stability (another thing Floyds don't help with). When diving is the only purpose driving the installaion of a vibrato bridge, you could put any old Pacific rim Fender-style knock-off bridge on there, lock it back and accomplish the same thing for an order of magnitude less money.

 

[stratamania]

I personally would not want a dive only trem or vib whether it is a Floyd or a stock Fender six screw bridge.

One use for a dive only or blocked Floyd  (a la EVH) is if you are using a D-Tuna. Quite a good idea, but one would lose the ability to float the bridge.