Floyd Rose clanky D revisited

[SpiderWars]

I made a post a long time ago about a guitar with a Floyd that had what I called a "clanky D" string. It's most noticeable on an open D string but whatever is causing it is also there on fretted notes. Almost like a weird harmonic or something. I've had that guitar looked at by a couple of techs and even paid for a PLEK job. The techs struggle to hear it so it's a battle from the get go. Never fixed...but it plays like a dream, kind of a shame. I was listening to this Deraps video and...there it was. The clanky D. Listen when he hits the D chord and kind of chugs a little on the open D...can you hear that weird 'clank'? Especially around 13:27 or so...it really pops out. When he reaches that same part again it pops out again.

FWIW, I now have TWO guitars with this exact same problem...both Floyds (one is an old Kramer og Floyd) and both tuned to Eb. Both guitars almost never get played because of that damn clanky D. You can't unhear it.

 

[phil b]

Make sure the string is straight in the saddle and not locked to the side. Thats an obvious and I'm sure you checked that already, but just in case. Two things you can try. If you have any foam try wrapping the springs to basically deaden them. You can use other material but foam seems to work best. Second is just for shits try replacing just the D string saddle with either a new one or from a Floyd you know is good. Not always but sometimes wrapping the springs does actually help the "Clank". Good luck!

 

[PDC]

Not sure if it’s the same malady, but I have a Floyd equipped guitar with weird, metallic vibration on the D string. I chased it down to the flat spring that sandwiches between the block and the bridge plate with the 6 spring ‘tabs’ that force the clamping bolts up against the bottom of the fine tuner screws. The tab for the D string had been bent downward and at a bit of an angle, allowing the D saddle to vibrate. I straightened it out and gently bent it upward to sit square underneath the D saddle bolt and to push up firmly against the fine tuner. FWIW, that quieted down the funky metallic vibration I was hearing.

 

[SpiderWars]

Not sure if it’s the same malady, but I have a Floyd equipped guitar with weird, metallic vibration on the D string. I chased it down to the flat spring that sandwiches between the block and the bridge plate with the 6 spring ‘tabs’ that force the clamping bolts up against the bottom of the fine tuner screws. The tab for the D string had been bent downward and at a bit of an angle, allowing the D saddle to vibrate. I straightened it out and gently bent it upward to sit square underneath the D saddle bolt and to push up firmly against the fine tuner. FWIW, that quieted down the funky metallic vibration I was hearing.

Thanks! It has to be something like this. I kept thinking "this has to be a common occurrence" but I didn't find anything on the web about it. It is a very metallic sound. I'll look into this tomorrow. I was already thinking maybe it had to do with brass block swaps and was going to dive into that area.

 

[Ben Waylin]

I hear what you're talking about in the Deraps video at the time-stamp you marked it, but I can't say I've ever heard that on a guitar I've played.

I also use a Schaller Floyd with a brass sustain block.

?‍

 

[mooncobra]

My friends guitar had that. His action was sooooo low. Told him to raise the action, and what do you know, it was gone. Is your action super low?

 

[SpiderWars]

My friends guitar had that. His action was sooooo low. Told him to raise the action, and what do you know, it was gone. Is your action super low?

No, I've tried it seems everything except disassembling the bridge. I tried raising the action to a ridic height just to eliminate that...and it got worse!

 

[Ben Waylin]

I'm guessing the fine tuner adjustment spring is the source of the noise ?

 

[PDC]

YES! Thanks to PLX for this diagram - plus the green highlighted Fine-Tuner Adjustment spring. That was definitely the thing I tried to describe in my earlier reply. And it was definitely the source of the metallic vibration on my guitar. Hope that's the case for Spider - once you narrow it down to this, its a pretty easy fix.

 

[cardinal]

Factory set ups almost never shim Floyd saddles to correctly match the radius. Even brand new ESP Original Series usually have the string heights all over the place.

I would check to see if that string is just too low. Easy fix: just shim it up as needed.

 

[shredi knight]

My D was clanky once, but a shot of penicillin from the doctor, and I was right as rain.