Sort of curious of what yall think. Is there really much tone/resonance difference by floating the trem rather than tightening it enough to bottom it out?

This is for the non whammy bar users.

Oh, and why.

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Gary

No both option

I have one floating one decked and one blocked so..... I honestly don't notice a HUGE difference. but after blocking the one, I noticed a slight gain in sustain and tone.

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Yep, need a both option otherwise I cannot participate in your poll because I have both.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

My strats are floating - voted yes. My Carvin/Floyd Rose is blocked - got tired of that sway / set-up
And using most teles these days - good to play a real hard tail

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A-man

My intention was leaning more towards an educational and technical discussion on the basics. Perhaps adding a poll was a bad idea.

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Gary

I'd have to go along with this.
I had my Strat floating for a long time. Now have it decked and I hear a slight increase in sustain and a bit tighter in tone (tighter = term I'm using to describe something I can't really describe but hear ). It's noticeable but not earth shaking.

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

I am no expert - but I make my own set-ups . If you are seeking some explanations , this guy , Frudua , has got a lot of them Here's one :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7luUzgDwwcs

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A-man

don't worry about the poll thingy neighbor, i believe you successfully got the ball rolling in the direction you intended.
LET "JEEBUS" THE BOARD IDIOT SPEAK!!!!!!!!
i dislike whammy bars. or do i? my old charvel has a kahler that i never use but i love the locking system. my new charvel has a floyd rose and the guitar actually stays in tune when i use the whammy. (biotch to tune). my MIM is blocked.
i guess my answer would be yes. what are the advantages/disadvantages?

I'm sort of disappointed that most folks would rather talk about social things rather than technical stuff.

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Gary

OK, Gary. I'll stick my neck out and give an opinion for you if it will help get the topic rolling. Difference in tone or resonance? If there is any it's subtle enough that I can't hear it and I have a pretty good ear. I suspect if there is any difference it could be in the harmonics.

Someone brought up sustain. It makes sense to me that there could possibly be a difference in sustain but that would be really tough to measure without a scope and a stop watch. For practical purposes I don't think any differences whether measured or simply percieved would be significant enough that it would make a difference on stage.

I have one Strat with a bridge that floats 50/50 and one with a bridge that is decked and blocked. Blocked very, very tightly I might add. There is a lot of pressure in the contact between the trem block and the body wood. You might think that would be an adequate situation to discern a difference but they have completely different pickups as well as configurations. One is HSS and one is SSS. The HSS is a solid Ash body and the SSS is Koa over Alder. Different frets. Different bridge configuration and material. Different nuts. Any comparison between them would be meaningless to this discussion.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I have always had my vibrato arms decked ever since I bought my first Strat in 1974.I never had any need for the "pull back" function and if I need a note or notes to go sharp,I either do a behind the nut bend or man-handle the neck by pulling it back to bring the notes sharp.It is also much easier to keep the guitar in tune when it's decked.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Sorry , Gary - it appears that I did not even read trough your first question Just clicked the topic -POLL! answered -blah blah. Anyway - have no more to contribute with to this discussion

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A-man

I have only 2 out of 7 floating, so I voted NO. I very seldomly use the floating ones, just wanted the option to do so, IF(!!) I wanted. (referring to my strats here).

I do vibrate with my fingers, including when playing chords.

For my way of using a trem system, I need a Floyd Rose system, which I have on two Ibanez guitars. They're set floating, of course, to provide divebombs and upbends.

As far as the sound goes: I can't detect any difference in sound and/or sustain between my floating and non-floating systems on my strats. Since I received EVERY strat with floating trem, I could compare after I had set them decked.

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Always floating just the tiniest bit just to allow a little bit of upward movement on vibrato on the rare occasion I use it, and always with as much spring tension as I can get away with. Normally results in a trem which stays in tune and lets you bend one string with the others not dropping in pitch by a noticeable amount. Regular divebombing is pretty much out of the question unless you want to end up looking like an asymmetric Popeye.

All my trems are set up that way, whether they be six screw or two post. I can't deal with lightly sprung trems, I feel like I'm going to break them.

Now were getting somewhere.

The reason I brought this up is that when I first got my Godin it was decked and in order to float it I had to remove one of the springs leaving only two springs. Then I read one of our forum members here recommend using these Raw Vintage springs that are softer and use a larger diameter gauge wire. They're website sorta suggests using all 5 springs if possible for a deeper tone. At the same time I went from 10's to 11's on my strings so as usual making these type of changes, I have been tweaking for the last two days.

http://www.rawvintage.com/eng/item_springs.php

Then I got to thinking. What if I cranked the claw screws all the way down, decking the trem and stretching the springs so the coils of the springs no longer touch each other. I'm probably going to try that this weekend and see what happens.

On my last MiA Strat I used 12's and it was a constant battle keeping the trem height right. And I may to 12's before I'm done.

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Gary