Details on Floyd Rose spring types.

[PoopHead]

Hey guys I have a few questions regarding floyd rose spring types. I've been looking around the internet for explainations on heavy duty, springy, and other forms of springs for your floyd and their applications. The problem is that many of these places don't really explain what the type of springs are actually good for aside from being noiseless. So I was wondering could anyone shed some light on which situations and setups each type of springs would work best for? thanks.

[toejam]

Well, let's say you've got "normal" springs with regular tension and you use three of them. A heavy-duty spring would provide higher tension and make the Floyd (or any floating type of trem) "harder" or stiffer to push down on, and you could use two of them to get the same amount of force as your regular normal springs. I find the heavy-duty version to just actually be slightly shorter than regular springs and that's why they seem to have a little more tension to them.

On any guitars I've ever had with Floyds, I'd use four or five springs, as I liked the stiffer feel it gave and wouldn't pull the guitar out of tune as quick when bending strings when using only three. Some people only use two, and I even saw someone set up their Floyd with only one spring.

As far as "vintage" or lighter-duty or whatever, it's just they give the trem more pull and don't hold the trem back as much, making it a little easier to use. It's all a matter of preference, but you just need to make sure the trem is level and returns to pitch after using it.

Hope that kind of makes sense to you.

http://www.fu-tone.com/catalog/index...udqkl9gke7nf37

[PoopHead]

Well, let's say you've got "normal" springs with regular tension and you use three of them. A heavy-duty spring would provide higher tension and make the Floyd (or any floating type of trem) "harder" or stiffer to push down on, and you could use two of them to get the same amount of force as your regular normal springs. I find the heavy-duty version to just actually be slightly shorter than regular springs and that's why they seem to have a little more tension to them.

On any guitars I've ever had with Floyds, I'd use four or five springs, as I liked the stiffer feel it gave and wouldn't pull the guitar out of tune as quick when bending strings when using only three. Some people only use two, and I even saw someone set up their Floyd with only one spring.

As far as "vintage" or lighter-duty or whatever, it's just they give the trem more pull and don't hold the trem back as much, making it a little easier to use. It's all a matter of preference, but you just need to make sure the trem is level and returns to pitch after using it.

Hope that kind of makes sense to you.

http://www.fu-tone.com/catalog/index...udqkl9gke7nf37

Thank you so much for the explaination toejam. I do have a question though does it have an influence on how stiff the strings feel as well? Or is that it's own thing?

[toejam]

Not really. Though, the strings of a floating bridge tend to move a little more as your bridge is being pulled forward when bending, but you might just have to bend a tiny bit more to get the string to pitch. I never really thought much about it.

[Razor]

I've always used three springs because that's what all of mine have had on them. One of these days I'll have to try a four spring setup. I didn't even know there were different spring types based on "heavy duty", "vintage", or "light" tension so I learned something new today.

[toejam]

I pretty much stuck with four or five whenever I used Floyds.

I got the noiseless heavy duty red set a couple months ago for my G&L Legacy, just wanted to try them out. They're actually cut a little shorter than a typical spring, so they pull the trem back more. I only wound up using one and having to loosen the claw a little bit since there was quite a bit of pull. I probably could have gotten away with two of the red ones and it would most likely have been around the same tension as the three regular springs, but I wanted a tiny bit more tension than the regular springs that were on there. Seems to be fine, but I don't really notice the noiseless properties with the other two regular springs. I just put some foam behind the backplate, anyway.

G&L's trem claw is also weird in that it's only got room for three springs, so I'd have to get a whole new claw if I wanted four or five, plus I'd have to redrill because of the weird offset holes compared to any other claw.
DSC_0010 (1).jpg

[xenophobe]

The number and resistance that a spring provides definitely has an impact on how much bending a string pulls the trem. Stiffer and more springs helps but it also makes the trem more stiff. Finding the balance you like is the trick.

There are all sorts of springs... I like the tension the Gotoh springs bring, they're a little stiffer than standard OFR German springs. And there are coated noiseless springs, probably several different spring weights as well. There are a lot of cheap springs that are really weak that can have problems with bridge stability.

[PoopHead]

The number and resistance that a spring provides definitely has an impact on how much bending a string pulls the trem. Stiffer and more springs helps but it also makes the trem more stiff. Finding the balance you like is the trick.

There are all sorts of springs... I like the tension the Gotoh springs bring, they're a little stiffer than standard OFR German springs. And there are coated noiseless springs, probably several different spring weights as well. There are a lot of cheap springs that are really weak that can have problems with bridge stability.

Huh I've always thought that the springs contributed also to how tight the strings were gonna feel aswell but I noticed that that is dependant on the claw and how far the screws are screwed in unless I'm wrong. Thats the issue I've been having with my soloist and lately I've had to drop it down a half step from standard so that I could at least play with more comfort because eveytime I set up that guitar for new strings(9-42) the bridge always pulls up and by the time i set it down flush to the body the trem claw screws are already screwd far in. Not to in to where it's the screws can no longer turn but far in. This is the reason why I've bought extra springy and heavy duty springs from fu tone to see if this will contribute anything to string tension because I don't really mind too much on how stiff the trem feels.