Converting standard nut into a Floyd Rose shelf

[ZacMetal99]

Hey guys, so already I've read so much helpful stuff here on this that and everything in-between, and I was looking for some advice. I've got a guitar that I'm bits'n'piecing and I've nicked the neck off an LTD EC-50. However the body has a route (just for strat styled trem at the moment) that I want to adjust into a Floyd Rose fitting, and as such, need to do something about the nut, to put Locking Nuts there. Has anyone got any suggestions, advice, or tips about this?

[keloooe]

Might need a new neck or just graft on some scrap wood and file away the upper part of the board?

[ZacMetal99]

Also while you can see it, can someone recommend a high gain bridge pickup for a reasonable price?

[ZacMetal99]

Might need a new neck or just graft on some scrap wood and file away the upper part of the board?

Yeah, I've seen something similar done to a Charvette I own. What do you mean "part of the board"?

[wokkaboy]

Zac you better find out the dimensions of the floyd rose bridge and I'd tape off the dimension on the body to see if it will work. You will need the 2 pivot screws and there is quite a large route for the FR body.
Should be able to get a lock nut conversion set I'd say but that will need a fair bit of work too

The Tonerider and Entwistle pickups on the Pitbull site are pretty good value check them out

[ZacMetal99]

Zac you better find out the dimensions of the floyd rose bridge and I'd tape off the dimension on the body to see if it will work. You will need the 2 pivot screws and there is quite a large route for the FR body.
Should be able to get a lock nut conversion set I'd say but that will need a fair bit of work too

The Tonerider and Entwistle pickups on the Pitbull site are pretty good value check them out

Cheers, I'll do that whenever I get the chance. I believe (though not a very accurate method) I placed a spare Floyd Rose I used to have in the route to see if it roughly might fit, and it sat in the correct placement (posts excluded) and the string blocks lined up pretty well with the pole pieces of the pickups. I will tape it all though just to re-affirm this. I've got not issue with the recessing, as I have done it before for a friend, and am fairly confident in doing that.

As for pickups, are there any specific models you would suggest? The standout choice seems to be the X-3 at the moment.

Thankyou too, appreciated.

[ZacMetal99]

This is the Charvette with the seemingly converted nut.

[wokkaboy]

The FR needs a recess the length of the tremelo to where the fine adjustment screws are.
I've put some Entwistle Dark stars in an Explorer build they sound good, sure the X3's should have plenty of punch

[ZacMetal99]

Thankyou, already this forum is pretty much the best thing ever :D

[DrNomis_44]

I'm looking at getting a Floyd Rose Trem installed on my Korean made PRS SE Custom 24 guitar too, I've got all the new hardware I need but I'm still in the process of organizing someone to do the installation for me as I don't have the tools I need to do the job right without ruining the guitar, on my PRS SE Custom 24 guitar, the nut shelf needs about 1mm shaved off the neck just behind the end of the fretboard where the nut goes, the body of the guitar needs to be routed so that the new bridge can sit at the correct height, the guy I'm going to get to do the installation of the new trem system said he was going to be a bit busy this week but he would see if he could pop by my place to have a look at the guitar on Wednesday this week, whatever you do, the best option is to get an experienced person to do the installation for you because the performance of the Floyd Rose system depends on it being accurately positioned for it to function and stay in tune well, sure it might cost you a bit but in the long run it's worth it.


Feel free to check out my PRS SE Custom 24 thread in the non Pitbull Guitars gear section.

[ZacMetal99]

I'm looking at getting a Floyd Rose Trem installed on my Korean made PRS SE Custom 24 guitar too, I've got all the new hardware I need but I'm still in the process of organizing someone to do the installation for me as I don't have the tools I need to do the job right without ruining the guitar, on my PRS SE Custom 24 guitar, the nut shelf needs about 1mm shaved off the neck just behind the end of the fretboard where the nut goes, the body of the guitar needs to be routed so that the new bridge can sit at the correct height, the guy I'm going to get to do the installation of the new trem system said he was going to be a bit buys this week but he would see if he could pop by my place to have a look at the guitar on Wednesday this week, whatever you do, the best option is to get an experienced person to do the installation for you because the performance of the Floyd Rose system depends on it being accurately positioned for it to function and stay in tune well, sure it might cost you a bit but in the long run it's worth it.


Feel free to check out my PRS SE Custom 24 thread in the non Pitbull Guitars gear section.

Will do, cheers :)

[DrNomis_44]

buys=busy

Oops, sorry about that, looks like I need to go back to school and repeat spelling 101.....lol

[Fretworn]

How about using locking tuners instead and don't do anything to the nut?

[ZacMetal99]

How about using locking tuners instead and don't do anything to the nut?

That won't work I believe. Once you dive the tremolo the lack of tension will pop the strings off the nut.

[DrNomis_44]

I tried installing about three different types of locking tuners from three different manufacturers on my PRS SE Custom 24 guitar, to be honest they didn't improve the tuning stability of the stock trem on my PRS SE Custom 24, it was mostly due to a combination of friction-issues in the nut slots and manufacturing flaws in the tuners, I even tried lubricating all the nut slots with both graphite from a pencil and specially made lubricants, nothing worked, hence the reason I decided to replace the stock trem with a Floyd Rose system, the only thing the locking tuners did was to speed up changing out the old strings for new ones.

[ZacMetal99]

I tried installing about three different types of locking tuners from three different manufacturers on my PRS SE Custom 24 guitar, to be honest they didn't improve the tuning stability of the stock trem on my PRS SE Custom 24, it was mostly due to a combination of friction-issues in the nut slots and manufacturing flaws in the tuners, I even tried lubricating all the nut slots with both graphite from a pencil and specially made lubricants, nothing worked, hence the reason I decided to replace the stock trem with a Floyd Rose system, the only thing the locking tuners did was to speed up changing out the old strings for new ones.

I know what you mean, and despite the fact it has a locking nut, I intend on also getting locking tuners (Grovers)

[DrNomis_44]

I know what you mean, and despite the fact it has a locking nut, I intend on also getting locking tuners (Grovers)



Hope everything works out well, I'm still in the process of organizing someone to do the Floyd Rose installation on my guitar for me, been doing some test-fitting and haven't come across any major issues so far.

[ZacMetal99]

Hope everything works out well, I'm still in the process of organizing someone to do the Floyd Rose installation on my guitar for me, been doing some test-fitting and haven't come across any major issues so far.

What do you need done on the installation?

[DrNomis_44]

What do you need done on the installation?


Basically, the nut-shelf needs about 1mm routed off the bottom of it to give enough wood for the nut to sit on, and the routing for the bridge needs to be done in order for the bridge to sit properly to ensure a low enough action when the strings are tuned up to pitch, also the mounting holes for the nut needs to be drilled so that the mounting screws can go through the neck.


Oh, and also the holes for the bridge pivot-posts drilled too.


The guy I've talked to about doing the installation doesn't know if he still has the needed routing templates as it's been a long time since he last did an installation.

[dingobass]

Personally, after years of doing this stuff, FR trems are not worth the metal used to make them.
Regardless of what you do, locking machine heads, locking nut etc the second you touch that trem arm BOOM! Outta tune.......

I know a lot of peeps have a lot of love for FR but from this Luthiers point of view they are useless, fiddly and over complicated to set up.... Break a string whilst playing? Thats it, shows over folks....
If anyone ever tells you they can set up a FR so it remains stable and in tune, they are full of BS.....

IMHO, Khaler makes a far superior floating trem but still the tuning stability is always going to be an issue.

Now for installation.... If you are out of whack by so much as 1/2mm you will never get the damn thing to perform correctly.
I recently had a MIM Strat in for a service and after lots of head scratching and swearing I discovered the FR was not perfectly square to the neck.
This poor Guitar just wouldnt stay in tune as a result of the bad install job of the FR and constantly broke high E strings for no apparent reason.
Some will tell you that there are tolerances in Luthiery, but I call Shennanigans on that idea. Out by 1/2 mm at the bridge can and will often equate to at least 2mm at the nut.

I would suggest you that it is always better to get a Luthier to sort it out for you, otherwise you may be very disappointed...

[wazkelly]

Sounds like too much hassle for something so fidgety.

[DrNomis_44]

From my previous experiences with double-locking trem systems (a licensed copy on an Ibanez EX270 and a ZR system on an Ibanez S420WK), the Floyd Rose trem is actually not that fiddly/fidgety to set up once you know how to, there's a little trick that speeds up the setup process, basically you use a small block of wood in the spring cavity to position the bridge properly with respect to the body of the guitar, once you have done that you can then set the intonation after tuning the guitar up, then you set the spring tension and the block of wood should almost fall out.

[ZacMetal99]

From my previous experiences with double-locking trem systems (a licensed copy on an Ibanez EX270 and a ZR system on an Ibanez S420WK), the Floyd Rose trem is actually not that fiddly/fidgety to set up once you know how to, there's a little trick that speeds up the setup process, basically you use a small block of wood in the spring cavity to position the bridge properly with respect to the body of the guitar, once you have done that you can then set the intonation after tuning the guitar up, then you set the spring tension and the block of wood should almost fall out.

Yeah, it's going to be 10 times hard if you haven't blocked it out before/during the setup.