How to drop tune an esp ltd mh-53 floyd rose?

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How to drop tune an esp ltd mh-53 floyd rose?

My guitar doesnt stay in drop tunes :/... When i tried to drop tune it to d standard the floyd rose started leaning to the back of the guitar. This prevents me from playing songs from my faverit bands. Bechause i need a drop tuned 24 fret guitar whit whammy. Any tips?

Pushead

That's one of the issues with a floating Floyd Rose style bridge.  They're not exactly easy to change string gauge or tunings quickly.  There are hundreds of videos about Floyd Rose setup and/or restringing on youtube.  Here's one that's pretty good.  He gets into your issue around the 6:40 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCc7GnirTTU

Another option is to "block" your bridge.  The downside to that is that you lose the ability to pull back on the bar (bend the pitch up), but you gain the ability to leave the neck locks off and adjust the tuning easier.  There are dozens of ways to do it, but I've found the quickest, cheapest way is to do something like this:

Laken_The_Wildchild

Thanks

Michael T.

Hi there, I actually recently got a ESP LTD EC331FR for Christmas and I immediately tried to drop tune it(just for the heck of it). This is my first Floyd Rose, so I had a great deal of reading up to do as it's alot different to my other guitars! I did encounter the exact same issue you have with the bridge leaning forward as soon as I finally got it to be "in tune" and after a few more websites and videos (like the one that was posted above) I think I've got it down now. You _are_ going to want to adjust your tremelo springs at the back of your guitar to level/even out your tremelo/bridge. If you tighten the springs, your bridge should lower from the back and if you tighten it, the front of it should rise(I may have mixed that up, but I'm confident you will figure it out!). Be sure to adjust the springs an even amount btw! Now, you're doing a major tuning change is why the guitar doesn't stay in tune, but once you've adjusted your tremelo springs and you retune, the guitar should stay in tune! That is, until your next major tuning change, where I suspect the same effect would occur again.

 

From my understanding of it, every single time you tune a string, it evens itself off on the bridge to keep it straight and will "pull" on the strings you just tuned to keep the bridge even, which may make it appear that it goes back to the old tuning after you tune it. This can be frustrating, but for me I simply dropped by a few turns, all of my strings in a steady enough manner so that they all lose tension evenly enough that the bridge doesn't have to do much "floating back to level" before I'm in tune, then I just tuned it a few more times and I was pretty much dead on. After that, I locked my locking nut at the neck of the guitar and I used my "fine tuners" to adjust anything that was a little sharp or flat (It's important to have these at the middle mark when you're finished getting it in tune so you have an even range for your adjustments). My guitar has been in tuning and hasn't come out for the past few days.

 

I hope this little ramble/rant is somewhat helpful bro , good luck. 

Ian M.

on the back of the guitar is a cover and if you look in, there are two screws that attach to what they call a "claw" which has springs attached to it.  Unlock the locking nut and use the tuners to tune to the note you want.  If the bridge is leaning upward (away from body), tighten those two screws.  If it is leaning backward (toward body) loosen those screws.  Once tuned up and the bridge is level to the body, lock the nut and use the fine tuners to tune it to the right pitch again (this shouldn't effect bridge height and if it does, shouldn't be a lot and won't matter) and the bridge should still be level if you adjusted your bridge tension when the strings where tuned exactly to the right pitch.  DO NOT use the fine tuners on the bridge until you lock the but down or else you'll just have to unlock the but again, turn the fine tuners to half way in, tune up with the tuners on the headstock, and adjust the bridge again.  I always like that claw to be dead horizontal and level, so adjust the screws the same amount each time.  You will also probably need to adjust neck tension for the lower tuning which will also mess with the bridge.  It gets hard, but I started setting up floods when I was 13 and I only play with floyd now because I love them.  Good luck!

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