Floyd Rose Discussion

Henry

Experienced
Starting a new thread to get a clean slate for Floyd Rose related questions. Hoping to get @Andy Eagle 's attention ... ;)

Picture to set the mood. My first question will come below. This is my new Fender Player MIM HSS Stratocaster that I started to mod.

1649710938712.png
 
My first questions are related to the locking nut.

I started doing a setup on the MIM Fender Player above. 0.095 string set. Straightened the neck a bit to get to 0.006 relief for the low E. String height at 12th fret was 5 and 4 64ths (low/high E) after that, which works for me for now.

Now, the nut. Low E is 0.030, High E is 0.025 at first fret. I'd like to get to 0.018. Good thing though that I measured all strings, because the D and G are at 0.018 already, so I can't uniformly make the nut thinner at the bottom.

Fender says the neck radius should be 12", and an R3 nut should also be 12". From the measurements something is off, seems like the nut is too flat or the neck is too rounded (I doubt that).

Q1: Is it really an absolute no-no to file down the individual slots on a locking nut?

Q2: Is it possible that the locking nut of this "Floyd Rose Special" setup is out of spec, and buying another (official) R3 locking nut might actually have the correct 12" radius and solve my problem?
 
Second question: Country of Origin and quality difference between a "Special" and "1000 Series".
 
Second question: Country of Origin and quality difference between a "Special" and "1000 Series".
FRT1000 is steel saddles and the Special has zinc. Unfortunately I would swap out both for either a Gotoh 1996 or a new German Floyd with CNC saddles but this is very much more money than the Gotoh .The Schaller Lockmiester is also a good option (basically a Floyd without the branding.)
By the time you have replaced all the substandard parts on the special you could have just got the Gotoh.
 
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You can't alter a nut and I would have guessed the Player Strat actually has a 9.5" radius but I haven't measured one of the Floyd versions.
 
You can't alter a nut and I would have guessed the Player Strat actually has a 9.5" radius but I haven't measured one of the Floyd versions.

Thanks Andy! That would actually explain it. However the Fender site insists that it's 12". Maybe it's a mistake on their site. The non-FR Player Strats are indeed 9.5".

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I wonder why Fender spec's out their necks like that. This is from the top-of-the-line Ultra Luxe. Seems like the R3 nut with 12" radius would have the same issue that I observed on my MIM Strat:

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The larger gotoh studs are better and they are locking once you set bridge height. However you can run into problems if the cavity routes are too close. I've installed gotohs both ways...stock studs work fine.
 
My understanding was that all the original Floyd nuts were 10" radius by that I mean R1~ 5 and L1~5 but in a lot of lists it says the R3 L3 are 12" which would make sense as this nut was designed for Les Pauls with binding (also a 12" radius) the string spacing was the advertised difference between it and the R4 L4. The nut for the special is 12".
I would guess that if you have a very old nut (one that can only be bolted through ) it is likely a 10" but a newer one will be 12".
 
All Schallers are 10" except for the R9 and R10 that have a 12" radius.
Thanks! I was going off of this chart from Sweetwater, that's why I thought R3 are 12". Which would match the Fender claim that the neck radius is 12".

I should get radius gauges soon, hopefully that will help me clear things up.

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Radius gauges arrived. To the best of my measuring abilities, the neck of my MIM Fender Player HSS Floyd Rose does seem to be 12" radius.

I'll probably keep it the way it is and live with slightly higher high and low E string nut slots.
 
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This is a really interesting thread as I have a Gotoh 1996T on one of my Shur's and they are really gear. I have a Korean Ibanez rg350/70 which I would like to bring back from the dead - the trem system is knackered so was thinking of replacing with a Gotoh but I don't know what the nut size r3/r2 etc but I don't think the Gotoh would be compatible as the Ibanez is a thru neck bolt one I might just change the clamps though as there was a rough one which would sometimes break the string.

Sorry to hijack the thread :)
 
This is a really interesting thread as I have a Gotoh 1996T on one of my Shur's and they are really gear. I have a Korean Ibanez rg350/70 which I would like to bring back from the dead - the trem system is knackered so was thinking of replacing with a Gotoh but I don't know what the nut size r3/r2 etc but I don't think the Gotoh would be compatible as the Ibanez is a thru neck bolt one I might just change the clamps though as there was a rough one which would sometimes break the string.

Sorry to hijack the thread :)
I was actually hoping that this thread would be used to discuss FR-related topics!

I know @Andy Eagle is a big fan of the Gotoh 1996, he might be able to help you with the nut size question!
 
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