i figured i'd save myself 30 bucks by doing it myself.
as you all know i recently got a jackson DKMG for **** cheap. and in excellent condition.
i figured those who are good in setting up floyd rose guitars can help me with these problems. string changing is easy for me. its not as big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be.
first of all it seems that the licensed floyd rose is bending backwards and people have told me it needs to be parrallel to the body. how would i do this?
also it seems that i cannot pull up on the floyd rose. i can divebomb but i cannot pull up. someone told me it is because i am missing a spring in the back of the guitar. . what could be the problem? i have 4 springs, but one of them is diagonal and hooking onto another hook then the one that is directly across from it like the other spings. so it is 3 verticle springs, and 1 diagonal spring. i don't know if that means i am missing one, or if that is good or bad.
also some notes past the 12th fret do not ring, they just sound dead. and sometimes when i bend some notes past the 12th fret, the bend dies in half a second. however, it seems the action is very high for a jackson guitar. what could be the remedy for this?
"Those who dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible.
If it were me, I'd probably spend the dough to have it looked at by a tech. I don't think it'll cost too much since you already installed it. As for changing strings with a Floyd, I also never thought it a big deal. The time consuming part is stretching and tuning. Takes patience.
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It sounds to me like that 4th spring is the problem both pulling the bridge back and blocking the pull up. My guess is someone went with heavier strings and compensated with the extra spring. If you have 9's or 10's on there it is probably pulling it back too much. Try removing the diagonal spring, leveling it and retuning.
The issue at the 12th fret + is a combination of neck relief and string height (action) so once you get the bridge settled then check and adjust them. No sense in even trying that until you get the bridge leveled.
Rich,
I have I think the same guitar but I haven't messed with the Floyd Rose much. I have changed a couple strings which wasn't that big of a deal.
I can take the cover off the back and let you know what the springs are supposed to look like. If I can talk the guy from work here into letting me take the digital camera home I might be able to take a couple pictures for you to look at.
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It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
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I am not familiar with your guitar, so some of this is guesswork. But it sounds very similar to a Strat.
Take off the back plate. You should be able to adjust the tension of those springs with screws that move in or out. If that is the case they are screwed too far in. This is too much tension and pulling the bridge down in the back. If there are not adjustment screws then try removing one spring.
As for the notes dead up high. This sounds like the neck is tilted. On my Strat there is a hole in the plate where the neck bolts on. There is a Allen screw in there. This can be used to tilt the neck. It is called MicroTilt on Fenders. Maybe your guitar has this feature. If so, this has been adjusted too far. The high end of the neck has been raised too much and the headstock tilted down. People do this to get dead low action.
Loosen the four screws and back this Allen screw out some.
If your guitar does not have this feature it is also possible someone has put a slim piece of plastic, metal, or even paper under the neck to tilt it like this. This is done by some (I have done this before). It is the same effect. So you might take the neck off and look for this.
I am almost certain from your description that this is the problem. This neck sounds tilted to me.
It is possible that your neck has way too much relief. Look down the neck. If it looks very concave it has too much relief. Tighten the truss rod. Go 1/4 turn at a time, retune and check. This could also cause the higher notes to go dead.
It is one or the other.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Sounds to me that the its not floating right. With that many springs on it the tension from them has them compressed and when you pull up on it they have no where to go. It will take some adjusting to get it back to a floating position. I would remove one spring. Have one spring in the middle and one on each outside edge. Then tune the guitar, then adjust the screws for the claw to get it level with the body. then tune it again, adjust it some more.
This process takes sometime to get it right. The springs need to be stretched by the tension of the strings, and the level is set by the screws for the claw. That way when you pull up on it the strings will compress and then when you let go of it, it will return to its floating position. Hope I explained it so you understand.
Joe
