How to Tune a Floating Tremolo
Learn how to tune a guitar with a floating tremolo if you have one and your strings never seem to stay in tune. "Floating" tremolos are bridges designed to wobble backwards and forwards in a manner controlled by a tremolo bar, or "whammy" bar. As a result of the movement of the bridge, tightening one string can often lead to the others bowing and becoming flat. Learning how to tune the tremolo can help you keep your guitar in tune.
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Instructions
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Locking Tremolos
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Tune your guitar as you normally would. Use the machine heads that are located on the headstock to alter the pitch of the notes until they are correct. The strings of a guitar (from thickest to thinnest) are tuned E, A, D, G, B and E. Use an online tuner if you don't have a guitar tuner.
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Look at the bridge from the side. Find your bridge by looking for the metallic section on the body that holds the strings and has six black circles on it. Looking from the side, you should be able to see if the bridge is parallel to the guitar body or not. If it is too far forwards, you need to tighten the springs underneath the bridge. If it leans backwards, you need to loosen them.
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Loosen your strings at the machine heads slightly to avoid damage when you tighten or loosen the springs. Remove the plastic plate opposite the locking tremolo bridge and look inside. There will be two to four springs that are connected to a bar, which should be parallel to the side of the hole. Loosen the screw that is tightest to even the springs out if they aren't at equal levels. Replace the plastic plate.
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Tune the guitar again using the tuning pegs. Check that the bridge is even and make any finer adjustments with the tuners at the bridge of the instrument. Lock the nut and turn the small cylindrical tuners at the bridge to make fine adjustments.
Other Floating Bridges
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Tune the strings too sharp if your strings always go too flat on your floating bridge. Often, the tightening of the first string you are tuning causes the bridge to pivot as if you were doing a dive-bomb with the tremolo. Tune the low E up to a G, the A to B sharp, D to E, G to A and B to B sharp. Tune E as you normally would. As the strings dip in pitch when you tune the remainder of the string, the previous strings you tuned should settle into place. Fine tune as needed.
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Tune the strings too flat if they ordinarily go too sharp on your floating bridge. Tune the low E down to C sharp, the A to F sharp, D to C, G to F, B to B flat and E as you normally would. Notice that the tuning gets progressively more accurate as you move through the strings. This is because less alteration is going to affect the tuning of the other strings as you go on. Fine tune as required.
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Alter the tuning of the minority of strings if you get both too high and too low strings. If two strings are too high, but the rest are too low, tune them down to the ideal pitch and see what happens to the rest of the strings. Aim to get to a position where all of the strings are too high or too low and then follow the instructions above.
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