12 Step Tutorial to Setup a Floyd Rose Guitar for Beginners

In this video I am going to show you everything you need to know about the setup of a floyd rose guitar and a detailed step by step procedure.

Previous video about Deep Cleaning, fretboard and fret polish

Part 1: PREPARATION
- Stuff you need to have. 2:11
- Theory of the setup 5:20
Part 2: PROCEDURE
- Remove the strings and clean 11:38
- Set the neck straight 12:42
- 3 ways to put strings 13:25
- Put first and last string 17:14
- Block the bridge 20:17
- Set the string action 21:16
- Put the rest of the strings and tune to pitch 24:18
- Set the neck relief 25:08
- Double check action and neck relief 29:12
- Intonation 30:13
- Remove the block from the bridge 38:04
- Set the pickup height 39:54

[MikeRondeau]

It blows my mind that only 77 people have clicked the "like" button. Brother, this is just the perfect information that I've needed for so, so long. I can't thank you enough... THANK YOU SO MUCH! You have improved my life by taking the time and effort in posting this tutorial. I am truly in your debt man!

[BrokenPik]

1000s of people are putting string on Floyds the wrong way... Me included.. what a God send!!!! cheers man. great job.

[VarriKitsune-vyen]

I have searched hundreds or videos on this and this has been the absolute best one I’ve seen and to make things easier I have the Damien platinum version with the bat inlays and now I know how to keep it working properly. I also loved how you explained different ways to attach the strings to the head stock…you just taught me more about restringing a guitar in 42 minutes than I’ve learned in 25 years thank you so much!

[TaylorDX]

WOW You know this video is informative and this guy really knows his stuff because it only has 3.9k likes at 115k views. An easy way is not presented; just the correct way. Thanks!

[gid]

Been at war with my Yamaha for a week, it was driving me mad, your video helped restore some calm to my life. Cheers mate!

[panzyleta]

Man, thank you!
I’ve just spent about 5 hours with movie and the guitar and finally it sounds as I always wanted it to be after, attention, 10 years.

Thank you one more time!

[olispin]

So far the best tutorial on the matter. Put some likes folks 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[AlbertTimashev]

This is simply the best and most thorough tutorial on Floyd Rose setup! I just finished my very first build of my own custom guitar (I bought Ibanez-style DIY kit from US), and this guide helped me to perform the final steps very fast and efficiently! Thanks a lot, Al, for sharing your experience!

[troylink]

This guy is great, to the point of the complete set up, you can see and understand him very well.

[wolverine]

Thank you so much, sir! My first guitar has a Floyd Rose bridge, and today I not only changed strings on a guitar for the first time, but now I know how everything works!

[itermneight]

Just picked up an older Washburn MG30 with floyd rose setup...I followed your instructions to the letter and I got one awesome sounding axe...man I have to tell you I know everything about the floyd rose thanks to you...killer video...if anybody is looking for instruction on setting one of these up this is the video to watch nothing else needed to do it right...thank you very much for putting it all together and sharing. Great personality too! Take care

[paulflores]

Bud, for not knowing English as your main language, you did good, and thanks for sharing your talents and your hard work.

[TaoGroovewitch]

I've been playing guitar for 37 years and I can't even believe how drastic a difference in playability, resonance, and overall performance that all of these adjustments have made. Playing guitars a half turn of the truss rod looser than they should have been is like playing with bricks tied to your fingers lol. Shred City here we come! Can't thank you enough!

[robertwilley]

Much appreciated, my buddy loaned me his guitar, and it's like this set up you show, the first time I used Floyd Rose, and was like WTF...now I got it. Thanks.

[Paaricaa]

This is the best video about floyd rose setup I`ve ever seen. Really perfect. Thank you

[VanishedPNW]

You're the best, man. No pretense or forcing us to hear your playing throughout the video, thorough and pragmatic. Now I will dutifully seek out videos of you playing and subscribe to do my meager part. You rule.

[coryparker]

A year later, and now playing hqckson with floyd rose special this method really works. Thank you

[tomhathaway]

Best vid about this, all guitar teachers should give this to students, very easy to understand, great great video!

[RubberDucky]

Thanks man, I bought and setup my guitar for my first time, it felt pretty daunting at times to even unscrew ANYTHING on it. Had the problem of my strings laying on top of my pickups lol was sooo frustrated I felt like tossing the whole thing out the window.
Thanks to you I can practice now with a smile, thanks again!!!

[TheDarkmore]

Thank you for the detailed video!

It is almost impossibble the make a video that covers all points of setting up a guitar expecially with a floyd rose bridge. I would add some personal points to the topic:

1. If the nut is too high the main problem is that the notes freted at the 1. and 2. fret will go very sharp, they are usually a bit sharp (you would need tempered nut and tempered frets to avoid this) but with a perfect nut hight it is more torelable.
2. Truss rod, just to clarify it: it does practically what you said: it counters the string pull effect on the neck. What it really does: if you thingten it it brings the fretboard closer to the strings, if you loosen it it will bring the fretboard away from the strings. The neck it self is usually rockhard maple/mahagony the fretboard is much thinner and usually softer, the truss rod could never put a bow to the whole neck it just adjust the curve of the fretboard, this is why adjusting the truss rod has so little effect on the 1-3 frets and on the 15-24 frets.
3. Micro tilt does what you said and this helps (mostly) to get better action on the 17-24 frets.
4. Exotic string winding is not that important with a locking nut, but I found the best method the "John Carruthers" way, just search for it, it is another way of locking the strings to the tunning pegs.
5. Forget any mesurments. I know this is not really a help for total beginners, but later on you should never ever measure anything on a guitar, just go by feel.