Rebuilding a Floyd Rose Speed Loader guitar

[rob91bob]

I recently was ask by a friend to come up with a solution to his Floyd Rose Speedloader guitar. For anyone not familiar, the guitar is set up similar to a no headstock guitar and uses what looks like the fender bullet string ends on each end of the string.
Well no one makes the strings any longer. I tore down the guitar today and low and behold the neck pocket is identical to a telecaster neck pocket.

I am going to order a tele neck with a r4 nut and just swap the neck out. From there I will get the fender bullet strings and keep the existing trem.

I will update this thread as parts arrive.

attached is a picture of what the nut and headstock on these look like.

 

[rob91bob]

Some updates to the Floyd Rose guitar.

Some pictures before I got started.

The stock headstock with the speed loaders that they no longer make strings for.

The stock pickguard outer layer pearl was peeling off from the lower layer.

First step was to measure the neck and it so happens to be a perfect Tele neck pocket. with the exception that the one screw hits the side adjustment truss rod, so I needed a vintage or modern vintage truss rod. Warmoth doesn't make a vintage or modern/vintage with a floyd rose shelf so I ordered a USA Custom tele style neck. I should have it in 10-12 weeks lol.

 

[rob91bob]

Next project to tackle was the peeling pickguard. After peeling off the rest of the black pearl I gave it a quick sand and prepared it for copper leafing.

I am now going to let the glue from the leafing dry over night and tomorrow give it a few shots of a satin clear nitro.

I think the leafing adds a very nice touch to the guitar.

The customer has a second Floyd Rose similar to this one except blue. I am going to try to modify this existing neck to take tuners by filling in the little triangle with some exotic wood, rosewood probably and then building up a few layers of 1/8 maple veneer on the back of the headstock for strength, then sand the face down some to give it some fall away to get the strings down from the nut to the tuner.

 

[rob91bob]

Back to work on the neck. I started by sanding the front of the headstock to an even thickness and give it some fall away. The thickness now is 7/16" I am going to laminate a 1/4 piece of maple to the back of the headstock to get it to 11/16". The center portion i decided to fill in with walnut. I had a piece of rosewood but it did not match the fretboard at all. I picked up some walnut and I think it will match nice with some finish on it. I will cut the walnut a bit bigger than the opening and sand to a perfect fit. Once everything I will glue it up and wait a day to finish sand.

 

[rob91bob]

Update on the pickguard and body

I finished the pickguard, 3 coats of satin Nitro and assembled it with some 1990's vintage NOS Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck and JBL in the bridge

 

[rob91bob]

I got the headstock finished up on Saturday except for drilling for tuners. I will work on that this week. The walnut filler came out great. I think with some finish it will be a good match to the rosewood fingerboard. I will post some pics when I get home tonight.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Cool project! My guitar teacher has one of those speed-loader guitars that he brought in a couple of times, could go from playing to removing a string to re-installing the string to being back in tune and playing in about 30 seconds flat, I was pretty impressed! I could not match his time with my Bigsby equipped Tele....

 

[rob91bob]

Cool project! My guitar teacher has one of those speed-loader guitars that he brought in a couple of times, could go from playing to removing a string to re-installing the string to being back in tune and playing in about 30 seconds flat, I was pretty impressed! I could not match his time with my Bigsby equipped Tele....

They are a cool system just quality control issues with strings lead to no one making them. Can find strings on eBay now and then for $50-75 a set.

 

[Cagey]

Pretty pricey for a wear part with the life expectancy of a fruit fly.

 

[rob91bob]

Pretty pricey for a wear part with the life expectancy of a fruit fly.

Exactly the reason for the retro-fit to standard locking nut and tuners. Will be able to use standard Fender Bullit strings. Should still be a relatively easy string change. Put the bullet strings in the tremolo, run across the nut and through locking tuners to clamp down. No cutting off the ball ends and messing with clamping them in.