The Vangaurd has a double locking Floyd Rose tremolo system. I have the bridge set up fully floating so you can both lower and raise the pitch. The neck has a locking nut and the strings are anchored straight to the saddles. It makes a very stable system that can stay in tune even with silly dove bombs.
There are downsides to a fully floating system though
- One string can pull the others out of tune (double stop bends are sad)
- Tuning is difficult because the strings are balanced against spring force
- Changing tuning is tedious and multi-step process
There are various ways to fix the issues above, but most of them take all the fun out of having a Floyd Rose. I decided to install a Tremol-No system. Using a couple thumb screws, you can change the guitar to fully floating, dive only (only lower the pitch), or fixed bridge. It’s easy enough to do it between songs while standing up. There is no drilling or soldering required, and no permanent modifications
It takes about an hour to install and only requires basic tools.
It works really good! Changing it to “dive only” let’s me change to Drop D or E flat real quick which is the biggest selling point for me.
You must be logged in to post a comment.