Floyd rose set-up

[Mihai Doană]

Hello my fellow synners.I am having some technical difficulties with my schecter synyster custom. I got my guitar almost 2 months ago and everything was great, until I changed my string gauge to 10-52. At the moment I didin’t know anything about the changes this could make. After a while, the action raised(at least that’s wjat I think) and I am starting to have some fret buzz. I tried adjusting the truss rod and the action, but I might have just made the truss rod worse, As I didn’t really know if I needed to tighten it or loosen it. Could you please help me learn how to fix my floyd rose and maintain it this way? I am open to anything, from a piece of advice to a video call or something. Thank you in advance

 

[Ed Seith]

Okay, you may need to UNDO the changes you made to action, for sure, and probably the truss rod, but we’ll get to that in a moment. When you change string gauges on a floating bridge system like a Floyd Rose, it changes the tension you’re putting on one side of a balance system. You need to adjust the OTHER side.
What you first need to do is adjust the springs in the back so the Floyd sits parallel to the strings (or the body of the guitar, if it’s a flat top). See here:
http://www.ibanezrules.com/images/tech/angle/fr_type.jpg
To do this, turn the guitar over and take off the black plastic cover in the center of the guitar. You will need a #1 Phillips-head screwdriver to remove the (usually) six screws. Inside, you’ll see the bottom of the floyd connected to a “claw” by 3 or 4 springs. The claw then has two screws directly into the body of the guitar. Tightening those screws will bring the back of the floyd down towards the body of the guitar. loosening it, will raise it away from the body. You need to adjust these screws, retune the guitar, and then continue adjusting and tuning as needed until it is level.
THEN you can look at action and truss rod adjustments. Rule of thumb: if the buzz is above the 15th fret, you need to raise the action. If it’s below the 15th fret, you need to loosen the truss rod (no more than 1/4 turn every 24 hours, always with retuning).
Let me know how far you get and we can continue from there.

 

[Mihai Doană]

Oh, I already did that, my bridge is perfectly aligned with the guitar’s body.

 

[Mihai Doană]

Forgot to mention :I get fret buzz around the 7th fret

 

[Ed Seith]

Okay, loosen the truss rod 1/4 turn, retune, wait 24 hours and check for buzz again.

 

[Adin Shepherd]

I found the best fix for all my Floyd issues was to sell that guitar and buy a nice string through, hard-tail.
Your mileage may vary, haha.

 

[Mihai Doană]

Not my case though )) not ready to give up on it. Despite it’s tough setups, I think a floyd rose guitar that’s set up well is better than a hardtail. That’s just my opinion.

 

[Julian Penz]

I have the same Problem. The high E String has a fret buzz on the 5th fret. So I have to loose the truss rod right? Thanks

 

[Ed Seith]

@julian, no more than 1/4 turn every 24 hours. It really should not take more than 1/2 to 3/4 turn total, and that’s if it’s pretty bad.

 

[Mihai Doană]

Ok so, i adjusted the truss rod almost 24 hours ago and the buzz has reduced. I didn’t need to loosen it more than 1/4,you were right. Now, i would like to lower the action, because the strings are too high for my taste. Any tips? Beside detuning the strings before lowering the action

 

[Julian Penz]

Yeah it also worked with my guitar, Thanks Ed.
Mihai, I hope this Video can help you to adjust the action of your guitar. https://youtu.be/4FD4RNOshSU

 

[Skarlet_Vvein69]

(Synyster Custom S) My Floyd rose is too low, and I have the right gauge for a drop c#, but when I’m adjusting the springs, and tuning it, do I tune it to drop c#? Or do I tune it higher or lower?

 

[Ed Seith]

Final bridge adjustments can't be done unless you have the guitar tuned how you want it with the strings you want. Then, you adjust and retune until it's right. If you're keeping it in Drop C#, then make all your adjustments tuned to drop C#.