 Hello, everyone, and welcome to Blackstar Potential. My name is Lee Fuge, and I'm here today with musicteacher.com. In this video, we're going to be talking about ways to restring a floating tremolo. In this video, I'm going to be changing the strings on my Jackson Adrian Smith SDX, which is equipped with a Floyd Rose locking tremolo. So if you have a guitar with a locking tremolo or you're thinking about getting one, one of the most common complaints is that they can be quite tricky to restring. Now, this is one of those maintenance tips that once you've done a few times, it does get a lot easier. A locking tremolo bears a lot of resemblance to a standard non-locking tremolo, except the difference being we have a locking nut here and the strings clamp into the bridge. That means when I'm using the tremolo, I can really give the tremolo arm some abuse and it's going to hold tune. It's not going to slip out of tune like a vintage tremolo would if I was to dive bomb the tremolo all the way to the guitar's body like so. It's going to return to the pitch at which we tuned it. The reason this kind of tremolo system is slightly tricky to restring because the bridge is what is known as a floating bridge. It goes both down and up. So the bridge is actually floating and the tension is balanced with some springs, which are housed inside this back cavity. So when we're restringing this, we have to balance the string tension. So we're balancing the string tension, which pulls the bridge up and the spring tension, which pulls the bridge back. So what we want to do is we want to get the bridge level to the body so it can go both up and down without any issues. So I always recommend restringing your float rows one string at a time. So that's what we're going to do. So the first thing I'm going to do is take off the whammy bar. I'm just going to pop this on the desk in front of me. So to complete this job, we need just a few simple tools. You're going to need a screwdriver. This is to help balance the springs in the back. We're going to need some wire cutters or some string cutters because we're going to be cutting the ball end off the string, but also to trim any excess at the headstock. We also need a three millimetre Allen key. If you've bought a flow, grows a quick guitar. It should come with the correct size Allen key. This is to loosen these bridge screws here. These are the clamp screws that hold the string in place. The string is held in place via a block, which these Allen key bolts here control. And there are also Allen keys here at the top where the nut is to keep the strings locked down up there. So first thing we're going to do is loosen these. You can take these off completely if you want. Once you've loosened them, the entire block will simply pull away. So we're going to take that off and then we're going to remove the back plate. And then we're going to start taking the strings off one by one. So once you've gotten your three locking nut bolts off and you put those safely to one side, flip the guitar over. And then you want to remove the six screws that hold the back plate in place. This is going to release the back plate and allow us access to the springs that are inside the back to allow us to balance the bridge correctly. Once you've removed the back plate, here's what the inside looks like. So this particular guitar has three springs, which are all moving in a straight line. They are attached to the tremolo claw and the bottom of the tremolo block. So when we push the whammy bar down, these are the springs that pull it back to its neutral point. So the tension of these springs has to match the tension of the guitar strings. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to take the low E string off. So we can do this two different ways. You could just cut the string off if you want. I like to loosen it slightly at the tuning peg and then using my allen key. I'm going to undo this first bolt. They can be slightly stiff. So just take your time when taking them off. And then eventually that string is just going to pop out of the bridge saddle. Like so. Now I can take that spring off the guitar. So there's my first string removed. So I'm just going to set that to one side. Obviously, you need a set of fresh strings for this. I'm going to be setting this up with a set of 10 gauge strings. If you're going to a different string gauge to the string gauge already on your guitar, the bridge is going to need some additional balancing. I'm changing this for the same gauge strings. So I shouldn't have to do too much adjustment to the tremolo claw. The reason I recommend doing this one string at a time is just because if you take all the strings off, this bridge is just going to go straight down to the body. You're going to have to rebalance the bridge as you go. If you do it one string at a time, it just allows some string tension to stay in place, which means minimal rework on the back of the bridge. So we need to prep our first string. So remove the string from its packet, set the packet to one side. What you want to do here is you want to unravel the string. Be careful of your eyes. The end of the string where the ball is, this is the end that typically grips the inside of a bridge on a regular style guitar bridge. We want to get a wire cut us here. Now, on most of the general guitar strings you can buy, the windings come down to a point where they thicken out. I was cut just above that point. So I'm just doing this and I'm removing the ball end of the string altogether. Now I have a string with no end. So that is going to go in this point of the bridge here that we talked about earlier, where this bolt is pushing a little block against the string. So push that right in, make sure it's contacting the bottom so it's not going to fall out. So you need your Allen key. You're going to tighten this bolt. So we're going to put that in place. A few turns you should never, ever force a flow drive system. So just keep turning these until they naturally stop. This can be a little bit of a fiddly job when you first start doing it. Once you've done this a few times, you will get faster at the process. But the first time you restring a Flowing Grows guitar will take some time. So get that tightened up. Like I said, don't force it. Just turn the Allen key until it naturally stops. So now I'm not really putting any tension on that, but it's not going any further. I would just give it a slight nudge past that point. And that is now locked in place. So that string is now locked into the bridge. So what we now need to do is take the other end of the string and now we're just going to restring this in the conventional way. So obviously we're going to come up the neck. Most Flowing Grows guitars will have a string retainer of some sort. So you want to put the string through the nut under the string retainer and then wrap that around the tuning peg before threading it through as you normally would when restricting a guitar. So we're just going to push that through like so. I've done two winds around the headstock post there, and I'm just going to push that through and make sure everything is lined up and tight. So now I have a string on the guitar locked in place, but it's loose. We can't really use that. So now we need to tune it. So I'm going to plug my guitar into my guitar tuner. Now, on a Flowing Grows tremolo, we have a series of fine tuners on the bridge. These allow us to change the pitch of the string in small increments once it's locked in place. What I always do is I like to reset the tuner to about halfway on its travel each time I change the string because I do use these to keep my guitar in tune. So sometimes you may screw these right down or right up. So when you do take the string off and you've got it here with no tension in, just reset it so it's about halfway in its entire travel. Now we can just start tuning that string as normal. So I'm going to use the tuning peg and I'm just going to tune this string up until it registers as an E on my tuner. Once I've put a little bit of tension in the string, I always like to just recheck that bridge pin just to make sure that's not loose. And if I'm happy with that, I will continue to turn in that string until my guitar tuner shows an E. Now we're going to stretch the string a little bit. I like to do this as I go along with Floyd Rose guitars. Just give that string a little pole at a few different places along its length. Check it again and you'll see it drop down to a D sharp. So I'm going to tune that back up to an E. I'm going to do that a few more times just until it settles as an E. This just pulls out any kinks or any loose parts of the string. Make sure it's connected and seated correctly. So once I'm happy that my string is stretched and in tune, now I'm going to check the bridge. So I'm going to hold the guitar sideways and I want to look at the bridge along here. What I want is to see that this plate, the bottom of the bridge plate is level with the body of the guitar. So when it parallel, but with a gap. So this is level. So I'm happy with that for the first string. So in this case, it is level. The bridge plate is parallel with the body. I'm happy with that. And now I'm going to proceed. So the next thing I'm going to do now and I'm going to take off the A string. So I'm going to loosen the A string. Then I'm going to unlock the bridge until the string pops out. And we're going to remove that string in the same way. So this thing applies. Take your second string out of the packet, cut the ball end off just under the windings and insert that into the bridge. And lock the bridge down. Once you've done that, the same thing applies. Now we're going to make sure that string is now wrapped around the tuner. So same thing now up the neck. Under the string retainer and through the nut. And then we're going to get this around the second tuning post. So this is the A string. So we're going to pull that tight, wrap it around the post two wraps and then push it through. And now we're ready to tune up. The A string. So I'm going to just check that my fine tuner is about halfway on its travel by loosening that and tune up the A string. Again, I'll do a couple of turns and then I'll check it at the bridge just to make sure that this is properly locked down, which it is. So we're going to get that more or less in tune. Once that is in place, we're going to start stretching the string just to make sure it holds tune really, really well. Don't be afraid to give the strings a good tug just to make sure you're pulling out any loose ends. And once I can stretch the string and it stays pretty much where it is, I'm pretty happy that that is more or less done. For now, I'll give it another full stretch at the end. So I'm going to check the bridge again. Now, this time it does have a slight backwards lean. So the bridge is actually tilted back slightly. So to me, that means the string tension in the back is greater than the tension of the strings pulling. So I'm going to put the guitar flat like this and I'm just going to loosen by just a quarter of a turn. I don't want to do too much. And I'm going to check again. So that bridge is actually now level. It was only slightly out. So by loosening the screws in the back, I've straightened the bridge on the top. But what I've now done is I've actually de-tuned these strings. So I'm going to re-tune the E and A quickly. And now that I'm happy with those, I can proceed. So now I'm going to change the other four strings and then we'll come back and we'll finalize the setup. All right, so all six strings are on. So that took me around about 15 to 20 minutes with the cameras off there. Obviously, like I said, I've reached strong Floyd Rose guitars many times. But if it's your first time, it's going to take you a bit longer. So I would set aside maybe like an hour if this is your first time doing it. As you do it more and more, you will get faster with it. So now all six strings are on. So we're going to do some final checks before we get the guitar ready. So the first thing I'm going to do is check every string is in tune. So some of them are slightly flat because obviously, like I said, we're dealing with a floating bridge here. And I've made sure that all my fine tuners, except my high E1, are balanced. These are going to allow me to make tuning adjustments once the guitar is fully locked. Now that that's in tune, I'm going to use my Allen key. And I'm just going to make sure that everything here is secure. So I'm not forcing it. I'm just checking that there's no additional travel in these bolts because obviously we don't want the strings to slip out when in use, but you should never force this. Just turn it to make sure that it's not loose. Okay, so I'm quite happy with that. So this guitar now should sound in tune. So now we want to replace the locking nut. So each part of the locking nut is made up of a small bolt and a plate. The plate goes across the strings like so. And then the bolt goes through that into the nut. You can thumb screw this into a certain point. When I do this, I always like to just thumb screw them in place just so I know where they are. And then I'll lock them down fully and we can do our final tune up. So at this point with those thumb screwed in, I'll once again check my bridge. So that is level. That is exactly how I wanted it. So at this point now, I can proceed to take my allen key and lock the nut in place. So same as with the bridge, tighten it until it won't tighten anymore without any excessive force. And then just a slight nudge past that point. You should never force this because not only do you risk stripping the bolt, that's going to be a nightmare to get off, but you can also apply too much pressure to the strings up here, which can cause breakages. So we want to just turn that until it naturally stops. So that's naturally stopped now. I'm just going to give it a little pull beyond that point. Now to get that to go any further, I would need to use quite a lot of force. I'm going to do the same thing for the final one. Natural stop in point, little pull and we're done. So now that's still pretty much in tune. Now I'm going to use my guitar tune and the fine tune is on here to tune it. So you can see my E there is slightly sharp. So I'm going to use the fine tune now to bring that E into tune. I'm going to do the same thing for all six strings. Now I can replace the back plate. So obviously I'm happy that my tremolo isn't going to be adjusted anymore. So I'm going to pop that back plate back on and put the six screws back in. I no longer need to balance the bridge because that is done. OK, now we're going to take our string cutters. We're going to tidy up these unsightly strings on the headstock unless you like that kind of thing, of course. Some people prefer to leave their guitars like this. I personally don't. So we're going to snip the strings off as neat as we possibly can. And now I can simply take my tremolo on, screw that back into place. And now my Floyd Rose locking tremolo quick guitar is really strong, tuned up and ready to go. Let me know down below in the comments if you guys have got any Floyd Rose tips or tricks that I might have missed in this video that you want to share with anyone else checking this out. If you enjoyed this maintenance video and there are any other maintenance tips and tricks you guys want to see us talk about in these videos, let us know down below as well. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to check out Black Star Amplification on YouTube for more videos just like this. If you're looking for a guitar teacher in your local area, please head over to musicteacher.com. It's a great network of music teachers all around the UK waiting to help you guys out. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you soon.