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How to Get Lower Action on a Guitar With a Floyd Rose Tremolo

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By MommyBear
User-Submitted Video
Get Lower Action on a Guitar With a Floyd Rose Tremolo
Get Lower Action on a Guitar With a Floyd Rose Tremolo

Unlike many other vintage style tremolo and non-tremolo bridges, there is no way to adjust the height of an individual string saddle on a Floyd Rose Original tremolo. This is because it is a solid piece of metal, which is actually a good thing when it comes to transmitting vibration from the string to the bridge base plate. However, when you want to be able to get lower action, the design forces you to be a little more creative.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
  1. Step 1

    Remove the strings from your guitar.

  2. Step 2

    Remove the screws that clamp the strings completely from the tremolo bridge. Be careful to keep the little black metal cube that sits inside the saddle from falling out. If it does fall out, make sure that the side that has a circular indentation is installed facing the screw that you just removed.

  3. Step 3

    Remove the saddles from the base plate of the bridge.

  4. Step 4

    There are three different heights of the saddles, and two of each height. The normal order puts the shortest ones at the ends for the high E and low E strings. The middle height ones are used for the A and B strings. The tallest ones are used for the center strings, D and G. This is intended to the follow the curvature of the neck. The base plate of the bridge is supposed to be level with the body, so this ends up putting the high E and the low E at the same height from the fretboard. Since the high E does not vibrate as widely as the low E, due to the mass of the string, it can be set lower to the fretboard. We will do this by putting the saddles in a different order, putting the lighter gauge strings closer to the fretboard than the heavier ones. With the saddles in the original order, all you do is move the short saddle used for the low E to the high E, and shift the others down. So now, the low E should use a middle height saddle, the A and D will use the tall saddles, and the B and high E will use the short ones.

  5. Step 5

    Reinstall the saddles in the new order. You can also add shims beneath the saddles to more finely adjust the height. In this example, I am using a shim that came with the bridge beneath the A, D, G, and B strings.

  6. Step 6

    Restring your guitar and tune to pitch.

  7. Step 7

    Adjust the posts so that the base plate is level with the body, then lower the base plate equally on both sides until the high E is as low as you can get it without having the strings buzz off of the frets when played in any position. Check the other strings, too, since one of them could bottom out sooner than the low E.

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