Floyd Rose help and tuning question

[Zodiarkangel]

Hey guys, new here; I'll try and keep this short and sweet and sorry if it is lengthy. I recieved my first 7 a few days and I love it. Issue here is understanding the FR, never dealt with one, though I've looked up articles and videos to educate myself. Guitar was factory tuned to AEADGBE; took me about 2 hours to learn how to tune it correctly. Now I'd like to drop tune it to GDCGFAD. Let's skip string gauges, etc; I understand that. I'll organize the points and issues I need help with. (strings are about a week old, I dont know how much exactly this comes into play with a FR)
1). When I down tune; do I need to get the strings to the correct pitch then adjust the fine tuners, or do i maybe tune the strings a half step lower than what I want? I ask because i noticed that when locking the nut and tune the fine tuners, the strings are at a higher cent than what I tuned to.
2) the fine tuners: do I need to adjust the fine tuners before or after unlocking the nut? and how should these tuners be beforehand; unscrewed, halfway, or screwed?
3) random tuning question: I understand tuning from standard to drop A on a 6 string and the names for them. how are 7 string tunings named? Is it the same philosophy; whatever the first tuned letter is? i.e; what would A#D#C#G#F#A#D# and GDCGFAD be called?
As of now, thats all I can think of that Im having issues with. If theres any details I left out, please let me know and Ill include them, and thanks for bearing with this. Any advice and tips are greatly appreciated guys.

 

[gogolXmogol]

Hey, here are plenty of tutorials on youtube, answering your questions:
1. If the strings are already stretched you may want to put the fine tuners in the middle position and close the top lock with the strings a tad lower than the desired pitch, because tightening the top lock will increase a pitch. You will find the correct amount by practice. Once you lock the top nut, you can use the fine tuners to adjust your strings, I got used to this tuning order: 1-5-2-6 and then 3 and 4th strings. As you have noticed on a floating bridge any individual string adjustment affects other strings. So you will have to tune several times, use a trem bar in between tunings to lower or raise a pitch.
2. after the locking nut is tightened and the tuning is close to the desired pitch. it's a good idea to get as close as possible and then do fine adjustments using fine tuners. Middle position so that they can be moved either up or down.
3. Personal preference, from high to low or backwards

 

[gogolXmogol]

Also, since floyd is a floating trem, always tune and make adjustments in the playing position, because the bridge and trem arm weight distribution also effects the pitch.

 

[Sumsar]

The questions are pretty much answered in the above.

Random FR / general tremolo tip/antinoobness: Always take of the arm when putting the guitar in a gigbag (or case). With a case you have to take it of for the guitar to fit, but I have seen people put guitars with the arm still on in a gigbag. This then cause the arm to be pressed down in a weird position wrecking the floyd rose real quick.

Sound trick: I don't know what genre you are plaing, but I guess something metal related. In that case you should be aware that the springs that hold the FR can ring just like the strings. So when you mute the strings you might hear a high-picthed ringing lasting like 0.2 seconds. This is usually unwanted as it makes palm muted riffs sound like sh!t. The solution is to dampen the springs. I do this by inserting a bit of cloth between the springs and the body of the guitar as in under in the springs if you are looking down on the backside of the guitar.
Experiment; Damping the springs too much and the guitar will sound a bit dead and lack sustain (yes the springs actually help with the sustain), too much and you don't solve the ringing problem.

 

[TelegramSam]

As a side note, something I've found with all floating trems is that it is a little more difficult to bend strings in tune exactly, even more so with a double stop bend. Mess around with it a bit and get used to the way the bridge and strings respond to finger bends, as it can take you by surprise at first.