To floyd or not to floyd...

[sty]

dood has the tiniest feet.. what's up with that?

huge flares

[Zaulkin]

I think you should just really think carefully about it. I know that's why you came here, to get help - but unfortunately guitar and life in general is full of compromises.

Personally I wouldn't go for a floyd on a strat unless I was 100% sure that it was one of those "life companions" if you know what I mean. I do think that most people in the market for a strat wont want a floating bridge on there, and also I just cringe at chopping out a chunk for it to fit. You never know, but maybe you can find an alternative?
For example:

On my first project guitar and one of my all time favourites (a G&L Legacy), I use the stock bridge and have tried various ways of setting it up. I don't use locking tuners or anything, but I can do pretty much any kind of floyd thing and it stays in tune.

I dont know if that helps. But ah well, good luck.

[Tsuken]

On my first project guitar and one of my all time favourites (a G&L Legacy), I use the stock bridge and have tried various ways of setting it up. I don't use locking tuners or anything, but I can do pretty much any kind of floyd thing and it stays in tune.

I dont know if that helps. But ah well, good luck.

To go further against my vote I have to agree thata Floyd isn't the only option for munty whammy-ness. The Wilkinson VG300 on my main guitar, with locking tuners and a graphtech nut, stays in tune amazingly well, despite moderate abuse. Of course, as Tom Anderson says: nothing will stay in tune quite like a double-locking trem. - So if you intend major-league whammy abuse a Floyd probably is the way to go; otherwise, a well set-up non-locking trem would likely do the job just as well (pretty much)

[Basket Case]

I just cringe at chopping out a chunk for it to fit.

Nothing needs to be chopped out unless you want to do extreme pull-ups on it (which I don't). But you're right in that there's no going back once the pivot posts are there.

[Basket Case]

are you gonna floyd my deluxe man?all good.we still on for saturday in warkworth?

Na I doubt I could bring myself to do it to your Deluxe. But yeah, definitely still on for Saturday. I'll get back to you about the time and place because I think I will have to go right into Auck to pick up a guitar that Ash has been working on. Also, if the wahine wants to come I'll have to work around clothes shopping expeditions

[Basket Case]

The Wilkinson VG300 on my main guitar, with locking tuners and a graphtech nut, stays in tune amazingly well, despite moderate abuse.

Hey Raf, Adrian mentioned that you had that trem and that it worked pretty well. I'll pm you with a few questions when I get around to it. It might be the way to go.

[Tsuken]

no probs

... still a 2-post jobby though ...

[Rog]

Is it sacrilege? Is it just plain wrong? What do you think?

If you're gonna go floyd, you may as well go headless and paint it black at the same time. No point in only half-destroying a decent guitar... might as well offend as many as possible.

[Bg]

Is it sacrilege? Is it just plain wrong? What do you think?

If you're gonna go floyd, you may as well go headless and paint it black at the same time. No point in only half-destroying a decent guitar... might as well offend as many as possible.

Shit now you're talking my man! I like your style

[Rog]

Riffles - learning from the master's feet, me....

[Basket Case]

Na, I prefer heterosexuality

[mr_sooty]

I set my Strat trems flat against the body, so I have downward movement only. I keep the springs fairly tight so that they're pullig the tremolo against the body slightly, meaning the tremolo goes back to the exact same position whenever I use it. This coupled with a little bit of graphite pencil dust in the nut slots means my strat trems hold their tune very well. I can even break a string and it'll stay close enought to in tune that I can at least finish the song.

[B45-12]

Strikes me that for the same price as the Floyd trem you could buy an el cheapo strat (say a bullet from China) and modify that first to see if it raised any doubts - after all tops it would be about $4-500 for the whole shebang as opposed to the US price and then some!

I do reckon there is a bit too much 'oh it's cash' concern over guitars - after all they are primarily there to be played, modified and used to create music - not to be treated as 'investments'. Besides our old mate Denche can allways 'fix er up good like new' for you and even change the colour to daphne blue!!

[Basket Case]

I already have a strat with an OFR in it, so I know how much fun they are.

I've ordered roller string trees and a graphite nut to see whether I can get the stock trem to stay in tune. Those are the problem areas as far as I can tell. Two of my strats have two point pivot trems already, so they should be reasonable. I'm not one for dive bombs, but it would be nice to be able to do the Gilmour vibrato without going out of tune.

I've tried pencil lead in the nut slots, which helps a bit, but I'm thinking of trying silicon in there. Anyone tried that?

[B45-12]

Oh and the other thing is the price drop from installing a floyd in a strat is based on the market NOW - who knows what will be collectible or desired in original condition in future?? Back in the 80's or 90's in Japan original strats suddenly fell in price and we've all seen just how cheap original Jacksons have been so there really is no indication. If you reckon you will sell in the next couple of years, then probably not a good idea (but then neither is actually playing/using it - ideally put it in a vault and don't touch it for max resale value) - otherwise go for it.

As for the nut I recall few years back there was a synthetic one that released lubricant (had micro balls of some sort either silicon or oil that ruptured as the string moved on them - like the scratch and sniff technology of mags) - can't recall what it's name was but Ash would probably know.