Action on Guitars with Floating Trems

[Codyyy]

This happened with my cheap Jackson, so I'm wondering if this is the standard for Floyds and such.

I suppose I like my action a bit low (about 2mm at the 12th fret roughly). On my old guitar with a Floyd, I had to keep the action far higher than that in order to be able to raise the pitch with the Floyd at all positions. If I kept it how I liked it, raising the pitch with the Floyd would cause dead notes on about all frets about the 12th (because the strings would physically hit the frets). I'm wondering if this is an isolated incident, or whether action really has to be kept higher with a floating trem. Tell me - if you have a floating trem, how low do you keep your action? Is it higher than your fixed bridge guitars? Have you had the same experience as me, and how do you get around it (hopefully more than just "don't pull the bar up")?

 

[Toshiro]

I have my Ibanezs set up with 1 to 1.5mm action at the 12th fret. I very rarely pull up really high, and actually "padded" the routs with cut up mousepad so it only goes up so far.

It's gonna be a trade off with a floyd. This is possibly the only thing I envy Kahlers, as their string height is in a fixed position.

 

[ibznorange]

on a cheaper floyd instrument yeah, thats gonna happen. the only way it doesnt, is when the action can be set really low with a slight neck angle, thus setting the trem (while level to the body correctly) at a slight angle to the neck, allowing the point of intonation to remain level to the angle of the neck during pullups

 

[Codyyy]

on a cheaper floyd instrument yeah, thats gonna happen. the only way it doesnt, is when the action can be set really low with a slight neck angle, thus setting the trem (while level to the body correctly) at a slight angle to the neck, allowing the point of intonation to remain level to the angle of the neck during pullups

Why would it matter about the cheapness of the guitar? If what you say is true, then wouldn't the setup and truss rod adjustment matter more?

 

[ibznorange]

quality control. its not impossible to get a cheap one that runs well like that. All of the makers (of any sort of respectable product) aim for that perfect angle, but the error margin varies. low quality control doesnt have to mean low quality, its simply a lack of guaranteed good quality. the cheap one might hit that perfect mark, but they arent required to, and more often than not they wont, as its just cheaper to not have to get it perfect. on a more expensive guitar, quality control is higher and significantly more likely to hit the target. its just like all of the other issues with guitar building. on cheap guitars it MIGHT work out really well, but its expected that they wont