Floyd Post Broke through Schecter! / NGD

[State of Epicicity]

*rout.

Route us the path you take to go somewhere.

Rout is the hole you carve into something.

I don't think ROUS really exist.

Holy Shit, I never knew! One might say the space in my mind where the incorrect use of the word route has become a rout, carefully plugged and finished with my intended meaning and setting me on the route of greater knowledge. Much appreciated!

 

[Andy Eagle]

It's there a difference in the route itself on Fender, Charvel, or Jackson? If the route is the same on those, what would make that area stronger on those guitars? Sorry, I'm not following.

It's not the same. The better companies leave more wood around the posts. You don't need to rout the bridge pickup hole any bigger that the pickup which can leave more wood in front of the posts. Also don't rout a recess any deeper under the front any more than is needed. These two things can make all the difference with a soft wood.

 

[Sashman]

Music Man for example doesn’t use bushings with their Floyd Rose equipped guitars.
They are screwing the studs right into the wood without any bushings.
So that also leaves more wood onto the body.
In all my years of a luthier, I never had Music Man a guitar with a loose stud etc. but maybe others have different experiences.

 

[Andy Eagle]

Music Man for example doesn’t use bushings with their Floyd Rose equipped guitars.
They are screwing the studs right into the wood without any bushings.
So that also leaves more wood onto the body.
In all my years of a luthier, I never had Music Man a guitar with a loose stud etc. but maybe others have different experiences.

The MM wood screw is a large diameter on the thread and never set up to protrude much from the surface . Both of which are the reason you don't see failed MM floyd guitars . The OFR came with wood screws for the first few years and generally these are the most prone to failure because the bridges were usually fitted high with a neck angled at this time and the small diameter or the wood screw post concentrated the pressure on a small area. Now add an oversized rout in soft wood to the lever effect of the high bridge and you see why the bushing was designed. Some companies even made oversized longer body inserts to distribute the pressure better. IME these never fail.
Two of the most famous guitars to have Floyds both failed because of the wood screw posts.

Look at the cracks. and the other:

Both repaired multiple times.

 

[Great South Bay]

Tonight, I noticed the post on the treble side of my Floyd was butted up against the pickguard of my Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Exotic FR Black Limba, so I took a deeper look and saw that the post has broken through the body of the guitar itself! I have two questions:

Does anyone have any good advice for how to fix this?

Does anyone have any good contacts at Schecter who might be able to help?

I bought this guitar in May of 2021, and the one odd thing I noticed was that the body wood, the black limba, is extremely soft. Many of the screws for the pickguard, the floyd spring claw in the back, and the strap buttons have all gotten loose with no threading in the wood over time. My remedy was to put toothpicks in those holes to give the screws something to grip onto. But this? This is a different level. I play in E standard, and I could maybe understand if I was using ridiculously heavy strings that a Floyd couldn't handle, but here are the only strings I've ever used with the guitar:

D'Addario EXL125 (9-46)
D'Addario NYXL1046 (10-46)
D'Addario EXL120BT (9-40)
D'Addario EXL110BT (10-46)

I've been using the EXL110BT (balanced tension) set for the past month or so. The guitar comes from the factory with the Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky #2222 (.009-.046) set, so using balanced tension 10s shouldn't be a big deal. I think the wood they used for this is just too damn soft.

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I had a similar incident occur many years ago at of all places the Playboy Club in Des Moines Iowa.
I was giging there back in 1986 and I was holding this Playboy Bunny in the lobby of the club with my Schecter Strat slung around my back. And of course I didn't have strap locks on the guitar and it fell onto the marble floor and I sheared the low E side Floyd Rose post almost out of the gtr body. So I didn't panic, what I did was grab a bunch of tooth picks and put them in the post hole and screwed it back in and it worked fine. Then I found a luthier and he routed the wood outta the body where the two posts were located. He replaced the wood with the same wood the guitar was made of, Alder. It was all glued in and in a day I got my gtr back and to this day it still works fine. You may have to do the same with your guitar. Only you might want to consider using a much more dense piece of wood, something like Alder would work well for you.

Good luck.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I had a similar incident occur many years ago at of all places the Playboy Club in Des Moines Iowa.
I was giging there back in 1986 and I was holding this Playboy Bunny in the lobby of the club with my Schecter Strat slung around my back. And of course I didn't have strap locks on the guitar and it fell onto the marble floor and I sheared the low E side Floyd Rose post almost out of the gtr body. So I didn't panic, what I did was grab a bunch of tooth picks and put them in the post hole and screwed it back in and it worked fine. Then I found a luthier and he routed the wood outta the body where the two posts were located. He replaced the wood with the same wood the guitar was made of, Alder. It was all glued in and in a day I got my gtr back and to this day it still works fine. You may have to do the same with your guitar. Only you might want to consider using a much more dense piece of wood, something like Alder would work well for you.

Good luck.

That's so awesome you were able to get that fixed quickly, even more awesome that you were holding a Playboy Bunny! Schecter actually replaced the guitar for me.

 

[Great South Bay]

That's so awesome you were able to get that fixed quickly, even more awesome that you were holding a Playboy Bunny! Schecter actually replaced the guitar for me.

I'm glad it worked out well for you! And to be honest, there was a lot more than holding going on!
There were times when I was "holding" 3 at a time. But thats for an entirely different forum!