Floyd Rose Tremlo Question

[axtrick]

Ok,
I am planning on installing a floyd rose on my current build and having no experience with one, I was wondering if locking tuners are needed or is it just over kill?

[Deleted]

Jun 9, 2013 10:22:19 GMT -5 axtrick said:

Ok,
I am planning on installing a floyd rose on my current build and having no experience with one, I was wondering if locking tuners are needed or is it just over kill?

if your guitar will have locking nut, then no need for locking tuners. If you are going for 80's style dive bombs, then by all means locking nut (Gotoh preferably or Schaller) is the way to go. If more moderate use of whammy bar is intended, (presumably without locking nut) then got for locking tuners.

[4real]

Jun 9, 2013 10:22:19 GMT -5 axtrick said:

Ok,
I am planning on installing a floyd rose on my current build and having no experience with one, I was wondering if locking tuners are needed or is it just over kill?

It depends what you want to do, perhaps if not too late, you might want to really look into the floyds and all that that means, personally I have never got on with them.

I'm spoiled by and hooked on locking tuners, just installing them on my acoustic. But you need to look at the whole trem system from tuners and nut to bridge system. Floyds take out some of that, essentially the tuners are taken out of the equation once the nut is 'locked' so locking tuners are probably excessive though they make string changes quick and easy. Because the nut is locked, you need to use those fine tuners though. There are all kinds of fussyness with floyds and little allan keys and such to do things like unlock the nut or clamp the strings into the bridge. They seem to me to come from an era before the advent of great affordable locking tuners and less fussy trem systems.

But then, I am possibly biased and found more conventional trems systems to more than suffice, or khalers offer more 'range' than even a floyd but expensive. They do leave a lot more wood in the guitar though so they tend to be a lot stronger where it is needed most, not weakened by that huge spring cavity right under teh pups. I quite like the feel of the traditional fender strat trems too and can work really well if set up right, more so with a more modern two point pivot or similar. And they all 'feel' different too, which is often a big factor.

So, if not committed yet, perhaps go check out some floyds in person and see how the strings change and clamp and assess what it is that you want from the trem and work back to a system that will best suit...