"Blocking" a Floyd

baldy

What is the easiest, non invasive way, of blocking a Floyd ?

guitarmangler

Wrap some coins in masking tape and jam either side of the block.

breakstuff

This is how I did my Charvel. 

I had some 4mm strips of pine laying around and five strips filled the gaps perfectly. Absolutely zero movement. I've done my Strat in the same way with similar results. 

 

baldy

Funny enough @breakstuff it is a Charvel I want to block the Floyd on.
Thanks both for the suggestions, I will see what I have lying around.

WiresDreamDisasters

I used coins in the past too. Cheeky bonus is that it increases the value of the guitar.

stonevibe

I used a wood block on one of mine, was simple to do and means the Floyd won't budge. Plus, it is lighter than coins.

Stevepage

Embarrassingly I used taped together plectrums. Did work though

proggy

Does this work with an ordinary Fender Strat tremolo system?

I'd like to block mine, it drives me mad.

merciful-evans

proggy said:

Does this work with an ordinary Fender Strat tremolo system?

I'd like to block mine, it drives me mad.

yes. Just the same.

proggy

merciful-evans said:

proggy said:

Does this work with an ordinary Fender Strat tremolo system?

I'd like to block mine, it drives me mad.

yes. Just the same.

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

andy1839

I've blocked mine with a Tremol-No. 
You can pick then up now and again used. Got mine for about £30.
Never had one bit of bother with it, its held rock solid for over a year.

skullfunkerry

andy1839 said:

I've blocked mine with a Tremol-No. 
You can pick then up now and again used. Got mine for about £30.
Never had one bit of bother with it, its held rock solid for over a year.

I used one of them in a Jackson Kelly that I briefly had... bought it new, stupidly: it was really expensive. Worked perfectly, though... no idea what actually happened to it though  

hollywoodrox

Cool thread , I like dive only trem’s and lots of guitars I love have floating bridges. On my Jackson I had one of those trem stoppers which is like a brass “L” shape that butts against the block. It was rather noisy though. The wood is a great idea ,also the coins as wrapping them in duck tape will also soften the contact with the block.  Phillip mc knight on YouTube mentions these ideas and also stresses that using locking tuners means you can do away with the need for the top of the locking nut if you want . The tremel -no looks good but I have seen some mention of units that rattle noisily or do not adjust satisfactorily, I do not know if this is down to poor installation . The disconcerting thing is YouTube demos from the manufacturer are old and filmed in something like 260 pixels and other people have mentioned difficulty in communicating with them.

guitars4you

Stevepage said:

Embarrassingly I used taped together plectrums. Did work though

that is the pick of the options so far !!!!!!

PetGerbil

Ice Lolly sticks.
Aldi's ones have the best tone.

Roland

I wondered how long before someone introduced tonewood.

PetGerbil

They make all the difference to my plywood guitar and monkey-metal floyd,I'll have you know!  

tekbow

Out of interest, why do you want to block it?

kennedydream1980

hollywoodrox said:

Cool thread , I like dive only trem’s and lots of guitars I love have floating bridges. On my Jackson I had one of those trem stoppers which is like a brass “L” shape that butts against the block. It was rather noisy though. The wood is a great idea ,also the coins as wrapping them in duck tape will also soften the contact with the block.  Phillip mc knight on YouTube mentions these ideas and also stresses that using locking tuners means you can do away with the need for the top of the locking nut if you want . The tremel -no looks good but I have seen some mention of units that rattle noisily or do not adjust satisfactorily, I do not know if this is down to poor installation . The disconcerting thing is YouTube demos from the manufacturer are old and filmed in something like 260 pixels and other people have mentioned difficulty in communicating with them.

I used the coins wrapped in electrical tape trick to block the Floyd on my Charvel and it works great. However it doesn’t mean you can do away with the top of the locking nut as per Phillip McKnight’s YouTube vid, that for me is very misleading.

Locking nuts are not designed to function as conventional nuts. So what you will find is the strings will ‘snag’ on the nut and cause major tuning issues. So even though the Floyd is blocked you still need to tighten the nut down and use the fine tuners at the bridge.

ICBM

kennedydream1980 said:

I used the coins wrapped in electrical tape trick to block the Floyd on my Charvel and it works great. However it doesn’t mean you can do away with the top of the locking nut as per Phillip McKnight’s YouTube vid, that for me is very misleading.

Locking nuts are not designed to function as conventional nuts. So what you will find is the strings will ‘snag’ on the nut and cause major tuning issues. So even though the Floyd is blocked you still need to tighten the nut down and use the fine tuners at the bridge.

This. The Floyd nut is designed to maximise friction, on purpose - to lock the strings firmly in place with the minimum clamping force.

You can reduce this by raising the tension bar behind the nut which pulls the strings down fully over the surface, and lubricate it, but it will still produce more friction than a normal nut.

baldy

tekbow said:

Out of interest, why do you want to block it?

I just can"t get on with the position I have to place my picking hand, it just feels uncomfortable & I don"t really use the Floyd.
The guitar is a Charvel San Dimas Pro Mod style 1.
When I bought it I was actually after the hard tail version but couldn"t find one.
I thought I would get used to the picking position & use the Floyd but TBH after 6 months of ownership I haven"t.
It is a lovely guitar other than that so rather than get rid of it I thought I would block the Floyd as I really like the neck & tone.