Hello. I've been doing searches as well as talking to various techs about setting up a floating term. My usual tech said to just deck it because floaters can't stay in tune. I have the six pointer. There is a lot of conflicting info out here. Also I'm not a tech so is it so above a player setting it up. Thanks.

Depends on how good your ear is, mainly.

I'd offer that a floating trem is way more accurate than a decked trem. If you can hear which side of your trem needs less or more pressure. if the bass side is returning to zero point sounding sharp, loosen the trem claw that side. Same applies if the treble side does it.
If flat tighten.

Lots of work but eventually it will pay off when you get the balance of spring to string tension right.

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Couldn't agree more..

As for your tech's comment that you'll never get a floater stable.. well that's just rubbish. It can be a challenge, but it is possible with experience and a little knowledge. Leo Fender and his team knew what they were doing when they designed that trem unit, and it's been copied by everyone from Trevor Wilkinson to PRS (with their own tweaks of course).

Even if you can only get it 90% stable, you're still in better shape than having the trem bridge decked. A tiny upward flick on a floating arm will immediately pull any slight tuning problems back into line. It becomes second nature after a while - watch Jeff Beck on a Strat with a standard floating (2 point or 6 screw) trem bridge. If your trem is decked and the tuning comes back sharp or flat after you've used it, you can do nothing except reach for the tuners..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

You are correct, that is the best that you can do with a six point bridge, you've confirmed exactly what the tech is telling the OP, it isn't "rubbish". With a decked bridge the tuning will be stable, but when floated you will have to "flick" the trem arm to get back in tune after using the trem, no way around it, but few want to admit it. How can a decked bridge possibly have "worse" tuning stability than floating? That makes no sense.

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The floating trem is easy to set up yourself, and, if you find you don't like the results (tuning issues or other), no harm has been done, and just set it back "on the deck".

The only issue with a floating trem, is if you break a string! Then the tension balance goes completely outta whack, and the whole guitar is outta tune. (Real bummer while playing live )

On a perfectly set up guitar, I would agree that a decked trem should be completely stable in terms of return to pitch once you've dipped it.

But any hardware mis-alignments, neck movement, incorrectly fitted strings, or improperly addressed friction points at the nut, string tree or on the saddles will scupper that. One or more strings could come then come back detuned. It is not easy to alleviate every one of these isuues without throwing out the baby with the bath water, despite your best efforts. That's why I personally like the option of a last quick wobble or upward flick that a floating trem allows.

From a musical point of view, I also think that down ward only trem vibrato sounds un-natural. True vibrato allows for pitch movement both below and above the target note. Actually - more above than below in fact.

But in the interests of fairness, I have to agree with the consensus view (not yet expressed in this thread) that a decked trem bridge allows for better resonance and harmonic transfer from the strings to the body. But hey, if that's critical to you, then buy a Les Paul - it's not what I personally think a Strat is all about..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

It's not nonsense at all Lou. With no ability for up-pull. You are constantly at the mercy of your tuning heads and nutslots.

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No no and no

Hiya Shimmi,
With any trem without a locking nut, every time you use it the strings pull, and move along their length (opposed to just the lateral movement of the vibration.) on any non-locking nut, the best you can do is minimize the friction to limit the binding. there's no such thing as zero friction so the best you can do is make it really small. but this means even in the best case your strings won't always return exactly to pitch. For when they do get hung up the floating trem makes it so you can give 'em a nudge back to where they need to be.

Not really more stable, but not less stable, and easier to compensate for once you have experience.

the only truly stable trems are blocked and locked, like a hard tail.

A properly balanced trem can really minimize tuning issues. Most people have no idea how to properly set one up, once you do it's a whole different world. badly set up trems suck the playability out of your guitar.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Twelvebar,

We are saying the same thing, a floated bridge will definitely have tuning issues with whammy use, no matter how "slight", they are still unstable and require some finesse to stay "playably in tune". But with the bridge decked it does not move, thus eliminating bridge movement as part of the tuning stability issue. The decked bridge, when done properly, does not move and the tuning is as stable as a telecaster or Les Paul. Of course all guitars are subject to temperature and humidity changes, but we're only talking about trem use and tuning stability here.

nikininja,

adey said that what the tech told the OP about the floated bridge was "rubbish" and then proceeded to state the tuning stability problems with the floated bridge (can't be both). So, I say that it is nonsense to state that a floated bridge is "way more accurate" than a decked one. By that reasoning, a Strat with a trem is more stable than a Tele or Les Paul (obviously not). Again, we must have different ideas of what "staying in tune" means. To me if you whammy, and then the strings are all slightly sharp or slightly flat, that is not in tune. If the slightly out of pitch is fine for you that's great. But to me there aren't degrees of "in tune", it either is or isn't, there is no in between.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Hmm.. in all my years everyone who talked about "decking" their bridge meant they were tightening it down to the body, so it would only have downward motion. Guys who wanted to immobilize the bridge completely called it "blocking" the bridge.

I think this is where the misunderstanding in this thread has come from.

Twelvebar's "infallable web Wigglestick glossary" :

Floating: A balanced trem which allows for both upward and downward motion of the vibrato arm.

Decked: trem is tightened down to body, only allowing downward motion of the whammy.

Blocked: trem is immobilized, usually with a block of wood.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I've never played a les paul that was in the slightest bit stable. That nut design is just plain wrong, everything about the headstock end of those guitars is poorly thought out.
Conversely, I haven't had to tune either of my floating trem strats since Christmass when I last changed strings. You are thinking from the suppostition that a decked trem doesn't move at all in your statement. When that is plainly not true.

I seriously doubt you'll find anyone more picky than I for pitch correctness. To the point I offered to tune my vocal tutors piano the first time I heard him play it.

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I have yet to play an angled headstock guitar that doesn't go out of tune from normal string bends.

There is a trade off for that extra down force imparted to the strings by the neck angle.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Yes, terminology and different understandings of what we are saying can cause misunderstandings. To be clear, I'm talking about tightening the trem claw down so tight that the bridge does not move at all, not even in a hurricane. I imagine that setting up the bridge for downward only whammy, is not much more stable than floating it, and using a block of wood is just plain worthless right up to the point that the block of wood shrinks and falls out of place. If the bridge doesn't move, it has to be more stable than one that does move, seems like simple rare-sense to me.

OK, forget Les Paul, so what about the tuning stability on a Tele? I say that the Tele is much more stable tuning wise that a Strat with floated bridge.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

For sure, but now we're actually all having the same conversation!



You use a block of hardwood so you can have the bridge sit properly for the break angles on the string throughs.

I blocked a friends Strat in 1990, that same block of wood is still in there, and never fallen out.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

"I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony..." c'mon, everybody sing!

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.