Replacing Guitar Bridge?

[anthonyn66]

I want to replace my Floyd Rose Tremolo with just a vintage tremolo on a strat like guitar, how do you do it?

[Paul]

I want to replace my Floyd Rose Tremolo with just a vintage tremolo on a strat like guitar, how do you do it?

Why would you want to do that? The Floyd is a much superior system to a vintage vibrato. Some say the Floyd Rose is even superior to a fixed bridge, although I would not tend to agree with that as an absolute statement. A Floyd Rose is llikely the best bridge system on solid body instruments, but I would suspect that same Floyd Rose just might not work quite right on a Super 400.

What kind of "Strat like" guitar do you have?

Which current Floyd do you have?

Which "vintage vibrato" do you want to install?

[anthonyn66]

Strat: SX SST Floyd Rose
Stock Floyd?

I just wanna replace it cuz i heard a lot of fuss about replacing strings, tuning and stuff like that

[Milkman]

Strat: SX SST Floyd Rose
Stock Floyd?

I just wanna replace it cuz i heard a lot of fuss about replacing strings, tuning and stuff like that

If you're really concerned about these much exaggerated issues, you might want to just replace the guitar with one that has no trem (or vibrato if you prefer) at all.

A stock "traditional" style trem will give you as much or more difficulties keeping the guitar in tune as a Floyd Rose will. Both can be made to work.

In the right hands a Floyd is really the ultimate in tuning stability, in my opinion.

[suttree]

boy. do i completely disagree with the two of you :D

well, not really.. properly set up, a real floyd rose (a STEEL one, not a pot metal knockoff piece of garbage), is absolutely rock solid in terms of tunability, longevity and tone. BUT. a) most of them aren't properly set up.. b) they're much more difficult to get into tune when you change strings.... c) they're not an appropriate choice for many (or arguably most) players. you can't do double stop bends on a floyd equipped guitar, so if you're into pretty much anything that relies on a lot of double stop work (like country or reggae or blues or classic rock or... well anything that ain't "meedley-meedley-meedley-meeeee (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvfUl8c_LjI)"

for the average beginning to early intermediate player, a floyd is a poor choice in bridge system, unless the player is ready to invest some serious time in learning to use and maintain the bridge. essentially, i would only recommend it to someone who has done their homework and knows what they're getting into.

rant over, as to the actual question, easiest solution is to block the tremolo so it won't move (get a piece of wood fitted in their, a luthier can do it for you, it shouldn't cost you much). replacing the bridge with a vintage one is going to cost more than a decent guitar with a vintage bridge on it (you have to fill the hole for the floyd, route a new hole for the new bridge, and refinish everything), so i'd just sell or swap your guitar if you find that the floyd isn't for you (give it a try first, you might come to love it), or just buy one with a traditional bridge to have as well.

[Milkman]

boy. do i completely disagree with the two of you :D

well, not really.. properly set up, a real floyd rose (a STEEL one, not a pot metal knockoff piece of garbage), is absolutely rock solid in terms of tunability, longevity and tone. BUT. a) most of them aren't properly set up.. b) they're much more difficult to get into tune when you change strings.... c) they're not an appropriate choice for many (or arguably most) players. you can't do double stop bends on a floyd equipped guitar, so if you're into pretty much anything that relies on a lot of double stop work (like country or reggae or blues or classic rock or... well anything that ain't "meedley-meedley-meedley-meeeee (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvfUl8c_LjI)"

for the average beginning to early intermediate player, a floyd is a poor choice in bridge system, unless the player is ready to invest some serious time in learning to use and maintain the bridge. essentially, i would only recommend it to someone who has done their homework and knows what they're getting into.

rant over, as to the actual question, easiest solution is to block the tremolo so it won't move (get a piece of wood fitted in their, a luthier can do it for you, it shouldn't cost you much). replacing the bridge with a vintage one is going to cost more than a decent guitar with a vintage bridge on it (you have to fill the hole for the floyd, route a new hole for the new bridge, and refinish everything), so i'd just sell or swap your guitar if you find that the floyd isn't for you (give it a try first, you might come to love it), or just buy one with a traditional bridge to have as well.


Well I personally don't do a lot of "meedley-meedley". Actually I'm a dyed in the wool classic rocker favouring the David Gilmour aproach over the (insert your favourite "meedley-meedley" player's name here).

A. Exactly right, and that's a mystery to me because setting up a Floyd is not tough at all. I would add that I've seen LOT'S of LPs, Teles and Strats set up poorly as well.

B. It takes me less than a half hour to change a complete set of strings and get them tuned and ready for stage.


C. Double stops (I presume you mean double stops with one note bent) can indeed be done effectively with a Floyd. You have to bend both notes (one more than the other of course) and this becomes instinctive in a very short time.

It's really one of the few systems that I have confidence in in terms of tuning stability, and that includes hard tails and TOMs.

I do certainly agree that they're not for beginners.