Almost as if the floyd rose trem should be sitting up at a higher height....
The strings seem to be pressing right around the end of fretboard i.e. 24th fret area
Some pics would help. You'll need to either host elsewhere and link, or resize them to be 1500 pixels or less on the longest side, and under 1meg in file size to upload directly to the site.
Firstly, is the neck basically straight with just a small amount of concave bow to it? Any back bow and you could experience the issue described.
Yes, you could have the Floyd Rose set down too low. The base plate would normally sit slightly proud of the body and should be parallel to it. If it's not sitting parallel, then it needs to be. The base plate can be raised up a bit if necessary, as there's no other method of adjusting saddle height on the bridge unit, but there are limits as to how high you'd want it sitting.
Is the neck sitting properly in the neck pocket? Any wood splinters or sawdust can act as a shim and adjust the neck angle. Screwing the neck screws in can push wood up from the body or pull it down from the neck. So make sure you remove any thing that might be stopping the neck and body mating properly. On this, if you have to screw the screws through the body before they hit the neck, then enlarge the holes in the body so they are the dame diameter as the screw, so the screws simply push tightly through the holes. If they screw in, then it is possible that the screw head hits the neck plate and stops turning before the neck itself is pulled down to the body. You then get a gap which can affect the neck angle.
Otherwise you may need to adjust the neck angle by putting a small shim at the headstock end of the neck pocket. A thin piece of veneer or a bit from an old credit card should do. Something hard and thin. Not too thick or you'll have trouble getting a low action. If this works, you could adjust the neck heel yourself by sanding the base at an angle, but it's not the easiest thing to do and keep the heel flat rather than rounded. So you can just keep the shim in.
You can buy a full length shim for the pocket, or even make on yourself, but I normally use a piece of thin maple veneer that's about 8mm x just under the width of the pocket, and normally have to cut the corners off to avoid the screw holes. I use a dab of a paper glue (I use Pritt Stick) to hold the shim in place when putting the neck back on.
Hi Simon. Having the same problem as the OP and just read your comprehensive reply and wanted to say thanks. I’ll work my way through those things and let you know how I go. Cheers.
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