How to Set Up a Floyd Rose Style Guitar With Heavier Strings

The pitch of a guitar string is based on its thickness and tension. Heavier gauge strings need to have more string tension to produce the same pitch as thinner strings. This creates an added issue when setting up guitars with Floyd Rose style bridges. A Floyd Rose bridge needs to have an equal tension force created by the bridge springs and guitar strings to function properly. The bridge springs need to be adjusted to match the string tension of the heavier strings.

Allen key
Screwdriver
Wire cutters

Instructions

- 1
  Loosen the bolts on the locking nut of the guitar with the Allen key. You do not need to remove the bolts completely. The bolts only need to be loose enough to allow the strings to move freely underneath.
- 2
  Remove the plate on the back of the guitar body to access the spring cavity.
- 3
  Remove the 6th (low E) string from the guitar.
- 4
  Replace the string with the heavier gauge string.
- 5
  Tune the string to pitch.
- 6
  Repeat Steps 3-5 to replace each guitar string. Only remove one guitar string at a time to replace it.
- 7
  Retune each string on the guitar. Each time you tune a guitar string on a Floyd Rose guitar, the other strings go slightly out of tune. You need to keep retuning each string until all of the strings are at the correct pitch. The bridge should be pulled too far forward due to the tension of the bridge springs being less than the string tension.
- 8
  Loosen all of the strings on the guitar slightly.
- 9
  Tighten the two screws in the spring cavity a quarter of a turn. This increases the bridge spring tension.
- 10
  Tune all of the strings on the guitar again.
- 11
  Repeat Step 9 and Step 10 until the top of the Floyd Rose bridge is level with the guitar body.
- 12
  Cut the excess length of guitar string hanging off the tuning posts.
- 13
  Tighten the bolts in the locking nut to secure the strings in place.

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