Floyd Rose Tips & Tricks
I credit my love of 80s movies as my entryway into the world of the Floyd Rose double locking trem. In Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, you hear it during Extreme's "Do You Wanna Play?". Since this was the song accompanying the mall-montage, the hook was in deep - a Floyd Rose just sounded "fun." I recognized it again in Back to the Future, when Marty uses a tape by "Edward Van Halen" to convince George McFly he's from the future - how fitting for the futuristic Floyd Rose.
A lot of guitarists have a fear of the FR. Peruse any guitar forum and you'll find a multitude of players complaining about how much of a pain it is to alter tunings, change strings, or make any adjustments at all. Some of it's true, but nearly all of it is exaggeration. Here's my experience with the Floyd Rose!
1. Get a long hex tool! I used the tiny hex tool that came with my guitar for about 2 seconds before I realized it wasn't going to do. Now I have one with a rubber T-handle that's about 6 inches long. It makes everything so much quicker and easier - but be careful with all that extra torque on the locking nut. Just kind of twist the handle with your thumb and fingers, no need to involve the wrist. You can and should go harder with it when you're securing the string ends into their slots at the bridge, however.
2. Use a lighter gauge! I'd first put my go-to Skinny Top Heavy Bottom set on my Floyd Rose guitar, but then I read somewhere the system was actually designed to work best with .9s, so I swapped the STHB for Super Slinkys. I immediately found the tuning to be much more stable, not to mention the looser feel makes using the whammy bar a much more fun and fluid experience. You could even go lighter, so long as you adjust the trem claw screws in the back.
3. Lubricate! You should lubricate the moving parts of any tremolo system, but especially a Floyd Rose. Put a small dab on its knife edges where the bridge makes contact with the two posts. I've tried plain Chapstick and it works in a pinch, but it's pretty messy and gets gunky. Something like Music Nomad's Tune-It will be worth the extra cost, not to mention it's much easier to apply.
4. Cut your ball-ends! This seems like common sense, but a while back I came across the idea of instead of cutting off the ball ends, reversing the direction of the strings and pulling them through the tuners towards the bridge, with the ball-ends resting against the tuning pegs. "What a genius idea," I thought! But I tried it and I personally hate how ugly it is, plus the ball-ends jamming against the tuning pegs seems like a recipe for eventual damage.
5. Explore! It's fun to use the Floyd Rose for dive bombs and squeals, but don't forget it's an expression tool! It can give your playing a much more vocal or lyrical quality, as if your guitar was breathing. I see the wah-pedal the same way - sure it's fun to use it in obvious, overstated ways, but it can add a real depth and beauty when you find its subtlety. Try using it to emulate a pedal-steel guitar sound, for example (pull up on the bar before you play a note, play the note then release the bar to let it fall). Try playing a melody using nothing but the bar! Just fret one note and push and pull on the bar to match the notes of the melody. Try anything!
