How to set up a non-recessed Floyd Rose or GE1996 for dive only?

TheOtherEric

Junior Member
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I’m planning a Soloist or 7/8 Strat build with non-recessed Floyd or Gotoh GE1996 and wondering how I can set it up for dive-only. Would love hearing some experiences.  Seems like two options:

1) Tighten the trem springs so it’s pulled down onto the body. But two issues here: (a) if the bridge sits high, then it will have a severe downward angle. The fix would require an angled neck shim or to route away Warmoth’s angled neck pocket.  And (b) I think this could limit fine tuner travel, as a fine tuner could contact the body if fully tightened. (I saw this happening on a Kramer The 84 at a music store).

2) Use a trem blocker in the rear. Definitely not my preferred method, for obvious reasons.

How are you guys doing it?
 
I'm not a Floyd Rose enthusiast but I hear tell that a US quarter is the preferred method.  EVH himself used a 1971 quarter, but this tribute axe employs a 1988 for a more modern tone.


IMG_20160710_172922.jpg
 
Bagman67 said:
I'm not a Floyd Rose enthusiast but I hear tell that a US quarter is the preferred method.  EVH himself used a 1971 quarter, but this tribute axe employs a 1988 for a more modern tone.
Ha ha, yeah I guess that’s option #3. Wouldn’t have to shim the neck, and avoids a sharp bridge angle, and would give more clearance in case you ever need to crank a fine tuner all the way down.
 
Or just dive only with the bar you don't have to pull up on it. Is there a reason you want it to only dive?
 
stratamania said:
Or just dive only with the bar you don't have to pull up on it. Is there a reason you want it to only dive?
Sure, I prefer dive-only for the normal reasons.  (a) pitch stays correct during double-stop bends, (b) breaking a string doesn't cause everything to fall out of tune, (c) tuning stability, (d) quicker and easier when tuning up, (e) I don't ever really pull back on the trem bar anyway.
 
I have 2 soloists with top mount Floyd trems. My favorite method is the Goldo / Rockinger black box. You adjust this to basically counter act the tremolo springs. I run this with a D-tuna and can still use the Floyd for vibrato and use the D-tuna without things going out of tune.

I have another one with a Tremol-No, but don’t particularly care for it. One of these days I’ll order another black box and swap it over.

FU-tone sells them in the US, but it’s cheaper to import one from Germany. It takes a while but you save 10-20 bucks.

https://www.fu-tone.com/product/tremolo-black-box/

If you just want to lock it to dive only the Tremol-No will work well. Or you can get something like this that is cheap and works fine

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FRTL40--floyd-rose-frtl40-tremolo-stop-lock-nickel?mrkgadid=3331288751&mrkgcl=28&mrkgen=gpla&mrkgbflag=0&mrkgcat=guitars&acctid=21700000001645388&dskeywordid=92700046938601045&lid=92700046938601045&ds_s_kwgid=58700005283398302&ds_s_inventory_feed_id=97700000007215323&dsproductgroupid=525073936057&product_id=FRTL40&prodctry=US&prodlang=en&channel=online&storeid=&device=m&network=g&matchtype=&adpos=largenumber&locationid=9010799&creative=332063179836&targetid=aud-522492682534:pla-525073936057&campaignid=1708733954&awsearchcpc=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAyoeCBhCTARIsAOfpKxju7PFhwfoJJWco0yCPEVALuasYXfVMlv_r6e1jzwruz8KVMCQR4VwaAilBEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
 
TheOtherEric said:
stratamania said:
Or just dive only with the bar you don't have to pull up on it. Is there a reason you want it to only dive?
Sure, I prefer dive-only for the normal reasons.  (a) pitch stays correct during double-stop bends, (b) breaking a string doesn't cause everything to fall out of tune, (c) tuning stability, (d) quicker and easier when tuning up, (e) I don't ever really pull back on the trem bar anyway.

I see. I came to the conclusion many years ago that Floyds and trems in general are meant to float and that double stop bends were better done on a hardtail. These are among the reasons I have different guitars for different purposes and backups when I played live.

Of course if you have only a guitar with a Floyd and want to do the odd double stops etc a tremel-no is a good solution. It can be set to float, dive only, or not move.
 
Chad11491 said:
I have 2 soloists with top mount Floyd trems. My favorite method is the Goldo / Rockinger black box. You adjust this to basically counter act the tremolo springs. I run this with a D-tuna and can still use the Floyd for vibrato and use the D-tuna without things going out of tune.

I have another one with a Tremol-No, but don’t particularly care for it. One of these days I’ll order another black box and swap it over.

FU-tone sells them in the US, but it’s cheaper to import one from Germany. It takes a while but you save 10-20 bucks.

https://www.fu-tone.com/product/tremolo-black-box/

If you just want to lock it to dive only the Tremol-No will work well. Or you can get something like this that is cheap and works fine

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FRTL40--floyd-rose-frtl40-tremolo-stop-lock-nickel?mrkgadid=3331288751&mrkgcl=28&mrkgen=gpla&mrkgbflag=0&mrkgcat=guitars&acctid=21700000001645388&dskeywordid=92700046938601045&lid=92700046938601045&ds_s_kwgid=58700005283398302&ds_s_inventory_feed_id=97700000007215323&dsproductgroupid=525073936057&product_id=FRTL40&prodctry=US&prodlang=en&channel=online&storeid=&device=m&network=g&matchtype=&adpos=largenumber&locationid=9010799&creative=332063179836&targetid=aud-522492682534:pla-525073936057&campaignid=1708733954&awsearchcpc=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAyoeCBhCTARIsAOfpKxju7PFhwfoJJWco0yCPEVALuasYXfVMlv_r6e1jzwruz8KVMCQR4VwaAilBEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
I’ve installed a few trem stoppers (I bought my first Rockinger 30 years ago) so I get it.  But to me, much of the advantage of non-recessed trems is that you don’t need a trem stopper; just tighten the springs. Works great on a Gotoh 510, but I haven’t tried this with a non-rec’d FR. Is there some reason you use a trem stopper instead of just tightening the springs?
 
I like to use the trem for subtle vibrato sometimes, and if I can set up the trem to do that and be stable for double stops and going back and forth with drop d with a d-tuna then why not, I guess. Just a preference thing.
 
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