Non Locking Floyd questions. Help

marshallmel

marshallmel

Well-known member
Looking at a Luxxtone but it has a non locking Floyd. The old school style with no locking nut or fine tuners. How is the tuning stability on these things??
 
Tuning stability is about the same as any other 2 post trem. The nut will still be your biggest struggle with keeping it in tune. Some guys sem to be able to keep a non-locking trem in tune all night long, and that becomes part of their playing technique and others look at a non-locking trem wrong and it goes out of tune immediately. Then again, a Les Paul is the same for me. I can't keep one in tune long enough to record a single take of a song and I watch other guys play the same Les Paul all night.
 
Chubtone said:
Tuning stability is about the same as any other 2 post trem. The nut will still be your biggest struggle with keeping it in tune. Some guys sem to be able to keep a non-locking trem in tune all night long, and that becomes part of their playing technique and others look at a non-locking trem wrong and it goes out of tune immediately. Then again, a Les Paul is the same for me. I can't keep one in tune long enough to record a single take of a song and I watch other guys play the same Les Paul all night.
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According to the spec sheet Jerry had this one set up with 9’s. I use 10’s and I’m guessing the nut slots would need attention with the change in string gauge. Thanks for the input.
 
Thing is, back in the day you were supposed to use the locking nut despite the lack of fine-tuners. If you get it in tune when clamping the lock nut it´s as stable as the later, standard Floyd. That´s how Brad Gillis and the other few earliest adopters did it.
 
Dave L said:
Thing is, back in the day you were supposed to use the locking nut despite the lack of fine-tuners. If you get it in tune when clamping the lock nut it´s as stable as the later, standard Floyd. That´s how Brad Gillis and the other few earliest adopters did it.
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This guitar just has a bone nut and no locking nut.
 
Just my opinion....
Even set up perfectly with the nut dialed in/lubed and strings stretched out and blah blah blah...
...it's still just a fancy standard two post trem.

If you treat it as such and don't go all EVH on it,it MIGHT stay in tune-ish.
I'd treat it like a stop tail piece.
But I'm way too heavy handed on each paw. That's why I don't play other folks guitars.
 
I would at least add locking tuners, and yes the nut may need some attention if you go with 10’s..
 
Dave L said:
Thing is, back in the day you were supposed to use the locking nut despite the lack of fine-tuners. If you get it in tune when clamping the lock nut it´s as stable as the later, standard Floyd. That´s how Brad Gillis and the other few earliest adopters did it.
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How does that work? You tune it but then locking the nut usually throws at least a couple strings sharp. With no fine tuners how does one compensate? Trial and error by tuning those particular strings a bit flat before the nut gets clamped down?
 
thegame said:
How does that work? You tune it but then locking the nut usually throws at least a couple strings sharp. With no fine tuners how does one compensate? Trial and error by tuning those particular strings a bit flat before the nut gets clamped down?
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Yes. I have a regular OFR Charvel that does this…I’m so used to how the G/B string react when I lock it that I leave those TW a little flat. Lock it and I usually don’t have to touch the fine tuners
 
This is the configuration I'm going with on my next super Strat. The Gotoh 510 on my Warmoth stays in tune great with the Tusq XL nut, but I prefer the height of the Floyd Rose.
 
thegame said:
How does that work? You tune it but then locking the nut usually throws at least a couple strings sharp. With no fine tuners how does one compensate? Trial and error by tuning those particular strings a bit flat before the nut gets clamped down?
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Yes, exactly so, and if you have enough angle where the strings leave the back of the lock nut it helps a lot. But with that said, it's no wonder the fine-tuners were hot on the heels of the original version.
 
I’ve got non-locking Floyds on 3 of my franken-builds and I am using Hipshot Locking Tuners on all 3. Two of them have drop-in Earvana Compensated nuts in Graph Tec material. They were pre-grooved and slid firmly into a standard Fender style nut slot. Each one took just a few swipes with a rounded nut file to get the strings at the right height at the 1st fret and both guitars stay in tune as well as my 2 locking Floyd guitars. The 3rd guitar has a brass nut - and that one was a b*tch to get set up and staying in tune. A couple of the grooves were binding and the nut was just enough thinner than the slot that it rocked back and forth almost imperceptibly - but enough to go out of tune every time I so much as ‘looked’ at the bar. I finally figured out what was going on and added 2 drops of super glue between the nut and the nut slot and kept it steady. Then - after some patient smoothing of the grooves with rounded nut files and a drop of 3-in-one oil, that guitar holds tune rock solid. I also switched to those D’addario ‘XL’ strings and I do find that they really hold tune very well after an initial stretch.
 
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