Tremol-No / Floyd Rose and Drop D

andyp

Hi folks.

I got myself a Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas late last year and it's a fantastic guitar. I just want to play it all the time and can never put it down once I start. But there's one thing that's got me thinking if there's a way round it... Drop D tuning. I really like the Floyd and after two string changes I've got the hang of setting it up and all that, but I'm feeling like I want to use it to play some stuff in drop D (and maybe even drop C or C#). I like the Floyd, my only real niggle is being fixed in one tuning, although I don't do very much that's not in Standard to be fair... so far anyway.

Please excuse the Rookie questions, but a lot of this is new to me.

1. Would a Tremol-No let me change tunings if it's set to locked? I assume I just loosen the nut and use the machine heads?
2. What are the drawbacks of a Tremol-No (I've read on here about them being notchy feeling, for example)
3. Is there a better option than a Tremol-no? Maybe I just block it with some wood and abandon using the bar, which barely ever gets used anyway.
4. Am I better trying to set the guitar up with the low E fine-tuner set so I can drop a full tone by winding it right in / out? (Is that even do-able?

Any experiences at all with this sort of thing would be really helpful. On the face of it, the Tremol-no can do it all and would let me swap tunings, but it seems people have mixed feelings on them. I looked at a D Tuna, but my bridge is floating so they don't seem to work for me.

Cheers.

Andy

ICBM

1 - In theory the Tremol-No will do what you want, at least with Drop D. In practice it probably won't.

4 - You can get a Floyd into Drop D even without a D-Tuna, if you start with the fine tuning screw most of the way down for E, there's usually enough travel. Further down that that will mean undoing the locking nut, and the Tremol-No probably won't hold tightly enough to cope with that.

2 - The main drawbacks are that it doesn't hold tightly enough in general anyway, tends to slip, rattle and generally misbehave. The problem is that the engineering isn't quite robust enough to handle the forces involved - the little thumbscrews can't be tightened enough to grip properly.

3 - If you want lowered tunings and aren't bothered about locking it for double-stops, a simple backstop device will work much better - either a proper one, or almost anything screwed to the trem spring cavity floor so that it contacts the front face of the block and stops it moving forward. This will also allow the bridge to move normally for downbends.

Google image search 'tremolo backstop' for a range of options, including some amusing DIY ones... but which will actually work.

poopot

Get the Dtuner... works really well. You just need something to stop the Floyd from “pulling up”.

i have one fitted to my floydy guitar.



My my trem is still floating but the little gizmo below only let the trem dive bomb, it stops the trem from pulling up so the change in string tension doesn’t effect it.



Ebay about a tenner....

NelsonP

I do 4 on my Ibanez. It works but it's not perfect as the other stings change pitch slightly. And it's considerably more hassle than just turning a tuner.

Net result is the Ibanez stays in std tuning. I use my Tele deluxe for drop tunings.
Which seems a bit back to front I'll admit!

andyp

Aye, that’s my thinking with my two guitars too. I use my SG for stuff in drop D and my Charvel for standard. I don’t particularly want to have my Charvel fixed in drop D, but maybe that’s the better bet. Could just be a case of learning more stuff in Drop D...

skunkwerx

No no no. You’re doing it all wrong. 

A 3rd guitar will solve all your issues here... heheheh

skunkwerx

I used to do the same though as Icbm mentioned. 

Basically set the fine adjustment screw so that you have enough travel to detune the low e to d. 

It worked, but I never did it often or kept it that way for long to know if it could cause any other imbalances per se. 

revsorg

I searched Ebay but all I came across of note was this invisible chastity belt.  Please can you give a link to the £10 Ebay thing?

skunkwerx

revsorg said:

I searched Ebay but all I came across of note was this invisible chastity belt.  Please can you give a link to the £10 Ebay thing?

Yeah don’t wear that, the buckle rash would be horrendous! 

andyp

I’m actually thinking the idea of the D Tuna and the wee threaded rod thingy might be the answer here. All I’m looking to do there is stop the bridge going back down into the cavity, which would mean the D Tuna hits the body, right?

fastonebaz

I have that exact guitar and love it too and i bought a tremol no for it.   I wanted to make it fixed bridge for a certain band i was in at the time. It worked brilliantly for that but i found when unlocking the thumb screws and making it floating again i just felt the whammy action wad slightly less fluid with the tremo no in place.  Eventually i took it out and sold it.   I'd say use two guitars.  Funnily enough my second guitar is an SG as well.  Weird. 

andyp

Yeah... I really don’t want to be drilling holes, even in the cavity, so I’m not sure if I want to do that D Tuna option. If the Tremol-no is a bit hit and miss then I think I’ll be as well sticking as I am, or just going the simple route ICBM mentioned.

When I checked the previous threads on here and googled a little, this query seems to be a perpetual issue for folk.

Love your SG by the way!

ICBM

You can actually do the 'back stop' without drilling any holes - simply fix a piece or wood or other solid material of the right thickness to the front wall of the trem block cavity with double-sided tape. The tricky bit is getting it the right thickness, but as long as it's very close you can adjust the tuning and the spring tension afterwards to make it work.

poopot

revsorg said:

I searched Ebay but all I came across of note was this invisible chastity belt.  Please can you give a link to the £10 Ebay thing?

Wasn’t this exact one but it’s similar:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F141825338522

FX_Munkee

I do exactly the same as @poopot with one of my Floyd guitars. It works fine. On my other the Floyd is top mount and just sits on the body, both have D Tunas which work exactly as you'd want and very easy to set up.

hassleham

Tremol-no’s suck.


http://www.lonephantom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/20120204-183746.jpg

andyp

I think I've decided to order one of the wee bracket thingies... It looks like it would be handy for re-stringing etc. too.

Oh, and D Tunas look to be hard to find and quite a bit dearer than I thought they'd be. I'm gonna be in the US soon, so might keep my eyes open for one in a Guitar Center or something.

NelsonP

hassleham said:

Tremol-no’s suck.


http://www.lonephantom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/20120204-183746.jpg

Genius

Handsome_Chris

I use the Tremol-no on a couple of my guitars, and soon to be third.  Easy as your hat to install and set-up. 

I do I don't bother with a D-tuna and manage by just adjust the Floyd so that the low E can be slackened off to D. 

The great thing is that it can be removed without leaving any evidence of it being there.

Handsome_Chris

hassleham said:

Tremol-no’s suck.


http://www.lonephantom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/20120204-183746.jpg

I think I've seen that before.  Someone said that it was photoshopped.

andyp

I opted to order one of the L bracket things today. For the sake of two pretty tiny holes, I think it’ll be worth a go.

I may end up looking at the D Tuna later, but step one will be to try the bracket setup. Fingers crossed.