So today was a big day: I had a spring
to add and new strings to put on... so here's what I did, in order.
1) I set up my working space. It needs
to be well lit, secure, and comfortable. I put an old sock between the Floyd and the body so that if anything happens it doesn't
snap against the body and chip the paint even more. You don't want nor need to take any risks. All my tools were sorted out
in order of use. What you usually need: a 2mm, 3mm and 4mm allen key, a philips and flathead screwdriver, cloth, some small
screwdrivers, and anything else you ever use.
2) if your trem cavity is usually covered,
uncover it. You want easy and quick access to it. Mine was uncovered.
2 bis) I took the knobs out of the guitar:
they somewhat get in the way of polishing
3) I unlocked the locking nut and tuned
all the strings down. The Floyd was resting against the sock which is good. I did not tune them down all the way, because
I had to turn the guitar over to untighten the spring clamp. Had I detuned them all the way, the Floyd would have just come
out of the guitar, maybe scratching it on the way or sending pieces flying. It never happened to me but who knows, I made
a lot of stupid mistakes too... no one is secure :ph34r: . Anyhoo after this, I took all the springs off, I took the Floyd
off, and I untightened the string blocks locks from the tem unit.
( that's when I decided that I was going
to, Dun dun, clean the whole darn thing. So I took EVERYTHING out of it... that's what resulted of it:
And
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/PierreEmmanuel/DSC01144.jpg
I cleaned it all using a product that prevents
rust from forming and cleans up metallic parts (WD40). And then carefully reassembled it.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/PierreEmmanuel/DSC01147.jpg
That was halfway through the assembly:
I actually had assembled some parts the wrong way. First big mistake, when you do something like this for the first time,
do a diagram with clear explanations. In my case, the spring block was the wrong way :lol: You see how the saddles are not
all at the same heights? That's to fit the fingerboard radius. For an OFR it's usually of 10'' I believe. I'm not sure about
this one unit (Jackson JT6). When I reassembled it, I put all the saddles at the same level. This meant that I had to intonate
it later but I had a nice surprise, 4 strings were intonated properly this way. I'm not going to bother with the others, intonating
is a pain in the ass with those and my tuner isn't all great.
Here's my Floyd when assembled, taken from
my previous tutorial on tuning:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/PierreEmmanuel/Floyd.jpg
4) I lemon oiled the fingerboard. I rubbed
carefully but strongly, taking all the goo off and making it smoother than a baby's er, cheeks.
Before:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/PierreEmmanuel/DSC01137.jpg
After:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/PierreEmmanuel/DSC01149.jpg
I didn't capture the difference well so
if you don't see it, nevermind. Just know that it now smells better and looks slightly better too. Ah it plays better too
:biglaugh:
5) I polished the body. All clean and nice.
6) Now comes the big deal... I cut the
ball ends of the springs about 3 quarter of an inch from it, and inserted the cut end into the saddles, then locked them with
the spring blocks. I placed the Floyd Rose into its posts carefuly, not rubbing the knife edges too much against them. I put
each strings into its machinehead and tuned a little. They were still very slack and didn't make the Floyd go out of place.
7) I secured the Floyd with its springs.
8) I tuned up. Before tuning make sure
that every fine tuner is in its middle position, as to have movement in both directions.
This is my very poor winding job. I suggest
everyone to learn how to wind properly, I never did and I always regret it, noone even seems to know how to do it properly
around me. It's helpful.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/PierreEmmanuel/DSC01159.jpg
9) Well the guitar is now in tune... so
I locked the nut, and did loads of pull ups on the whammy bar, to stretch the strings. I played the guitar for a bit, always
checking on the tuner. When it stopped detuning I unlocked the nut and tuned back again properly. I don't think you need to
lock the locknut first, but if you don't the Floyd will naturally not stay in tune as well as with it being locked, therefore
misleading you in whether your strings are stretched or not.
The guitar is now in tune. I put the knobs
back on, and here it is:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/PierreEmmanuel/DSC01150.jpg
With the 5 springs at the back
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/PierreEmmanuel/DSC01154.jpg
10) I checked for buzz and various other
concerns. There was none. The guitar was very well set up. The action is lower than the previous gauge, without having changed
it, and it doesn't buzz AT ALL. I'll check again tomorrow and do more stretching, just to be sure. I then cut the unnecessary
bits of string that were hanging on at the machineheads, and I was done.
That's what a locknut looks like when out
of the guitar. I took it off and checked every parts of it. Sometimes the little blocks you can see can cause problems. Just
moving them usually solves it. At first my high e was very weird to tune, a lot of movement on the machinehead seemed to have
little effects on the string. After I snapped one, I just took the nut out and moved the block a little, and it was then fine.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/PierreEmmanuel/DSC01148.jpg
I went from 10/52 to 11/49 by the way.
Just to try basically.
Ok I think that's it. Any questions, ask
for them :)
Oh also: if you don't plan on oiling your
fingerboard: don't bother with that. Change you strings ONE AT A TIME. It'll be much easier and quicker. When they're put
on, just stretch them and it's ready.
