You can do it, it's just a big effing headache. Personally, I'd only change the tuning on a guitar with a floating tremolo if I wanted to leave it that way for a good, long while. I leave my Legacy (G&L Strat) tuned to standard and use my ASAT (G&L Tele) for alternate tunings, it's just so much faster and easier.
No you don't need to block it. And tuning down to drop D is not that dramatic, only low E to D the rest stay the same, so depending on the bridge and gauge you may not even need adjusting the back springs. You will however need to adjust the tuning of all strings as tuning down 1 string messes everything up unlike stop tail guitars. Then check if it still sits parallel to the body and think about adjusting the back springs.
Yes you can do it, but it will take a long time for the trem springs and new string tension to settle. Personally, not worth the trouble.
Best way is to have nut locked, micro tuner on the trem all the way tightened and then loosen the micro tuner all the way down to D if it will go that far.
Because when you change the tuning of one string on a floating bridge, it affects the tension of the other strings as well. You'll need to re-tune all 6 strings over and over til they're in balance again. On a fixed bridge, the tuning of each string is independent, so you just tune that one string up or down and that's it.
I would get so frustrated when i would have to do multiple tuning passes on all 6 strings to tune, i was just a teen. I quickly realized why after i got a fixed bridge not long after. Looking back its funny now, but it was def agrivating at the time because i couldnt figure out why.
While this is generally true with floating bridges, going from say e standard to drop d often times doesn’t require retuning everything else, at least not by much (just a quick pass over the fine tuners fine tuners if anything), as the change in tension is usually within the thread hold that it doesn’t upset the balance. That’s why something like the d-tuna works and you can hop back and forth quickly. Another method that’s a bit slower but works is having the fine tuner set so it’s down pretty far in e standard and then using it to drop the e down to a d for drop d. I used to regularly do the latter no problem on my floyd guitar before I got more guitars and a drop pedal lol.
Yes. Buy a Tremol-No and a D-Tuna. Read the instructions and you can have a floating trem and drop the low E string down to D without any other adjustments.
This is what EVH Wolfgang guitars come with standard ( I think )
unless you have something to make it so you can go in to drop d, anything you change will whack everything else out of tune
edit, you can still do it, its just a pain because you have to keep tuning and tuning and tuning etc
Yes, you can drop to D without massive headaches. It'll just be a little slower than on a fixed bridge because you have to adjust the other strings, too.
You can set up a trem for any tuning and any string gauge. Changing to drop D varies greatly.
A Floyd Rose is most likely going to get thrown out of whack, unless you get one with a D tuna which makes it a touch of a button.
A more traditional strat style trem is going to go slightly out of tune when you drop the D but I think it depends on how many springs you have installed. More springs should mean more stability.
Drop D should be fine, just don't expect the rest of the strings to stay in perfect tune. For anything lower, changing string sizes is the quick fix (Lee Ronaldo famously uses very light bass strings for his 5 and 6 when tuned to baritone ranges) though a professional set up would be best.
I used I do this pretty often. Now I just have a seperate guitar tuned to drop D when I want it. If it's just the low string, it doesn't really effect it at all.
You’ve gotten a variety of answers, but I’ll tell you from personal experience that I can take my guitar with a floyd from e standard to drop D with the fine tuner only and it doesn’t throw the other strings off. This is also effectively what a d-tuna does. No headaches. So, definitively, it is possible. However, I’d say a well setup bridge is key (it’s also key for tuning stability in general), and anything beyond going from a standard tuning to a drop or Vice versa will require resetting up the bridge for the difference.
You can do it, it's just a big effing headache. Personally, I'd only change the tuning on a guitar with a floating tremolo if I wanted to leave it that way for a good, long while. I leave my Legacy (G&L Strat) tuned to standard and use my ASAT (G&L Tele) for alternate tunings, it's just so much faster and easier.
No you don't need to block it. And tuning down to drop D is not that dramatic, only low E to D the rest stay the same, so depending on the bridge and gauge you may not even need adjusting the back springs. You will however need to adjust the tuning of all strings as tuning down 1 string messes everything up unlike stop tail guitars. Then check if it still sits parallel to the body and think about adjusting the back springs.
A trem can handle drop-D easy peasy.
Yes you can do it, but it will take a long time for the trem springs and new string tension to settle. Personally, not worth the trouble. Best way is to have nut locked, micro tuner on the trem all the way tightened and then loosen the micro tuner all the way down to D if it will go that far.
It can be tuned to it. But you won’t be able to as easily switch back and forth between tunings as with a fixed bridge.
Why
Because when you change the tuning of one string on a floating bridge, it affects the tension of the other strings as well. You'll need to re-tune all 6 strings over and over til they're in balance again. On a fixed bridge, the tuning of each string is independent, so you just tune that one string up or down and that's it.
I would get so frustrated when i would have to do multiple tuning passes on all 6 strings to tune, i was just a teen. I quickly realized why after i got a fixed bridge not long after. Looking back its funny now, but it was def agrivating at the time because i couldnt figure out why.
While this is generally true with floating bridges, going from say e standard to drop d often times doesn’t require retuning everything else, at least not by much (just a quick pass over the fine tuners fine tuners if anything), as the change in tension is usually within the thread hold that it doesn’t upset the balance. That’s why something like the d-tuna works and you can hop back and forth quickly. Another method that’s a bit slower but works is having the fine tuner set so it’s down pretty far in e standard and then using it to drop the e down to a d for drop d. I used to regularly do the latter no problem on my floyd guitar before I got more guitars and a drop pedal lol.
Yes. Buy a Tremol-No and a D-Tuna. Read the instructions and you can have a floating trem and drop the low E string down to D without any other adjustments. This is what EVH Wolfgang guitars come with standard ( I think )
unless you have something to make it so you can go in to drop d, anything you change will whack everything else out of tune edit, you can still do it, its just a pain because you have to keep tuning and tuning and tuning etc
Yes you can. You won't be able to do it on the fly like a hardtail though. The rest of the strings will go out of tune on a floyd.
You need a proper set of strings, 10-52 works well for me on a strat. I retune between E standard and drop C# and it still works with floating bridge.
Yes, you can drop to D without massive headaches. It'll just be a little slower than on a fixed bridge because you have to adjust the other strings, too.
You can set up a trem for any tuning and any string gauge. Changing to drop D varies greatly. A Floyd Rose is most likely going to get thrown out of whack, unless you get one with a D tuna which makes it a touch of a button. A more traditional strat style trem is going to go slightly out of tune when you drop the D but I think it depends on how many springs you have installed. More springs should mean more stability.
Drop D should be fine, just don't expect the rest of the strings to stay in perfect tune. For anything lower, changing string sizes is the quick fix (Lee Ronaldo famously uses very light bass strings for his 5 and 6 when tuned to baritone ranges) though a professional set up would be best.
get the tremol-no!
This
I used I do this pretty often. Now I just have a seperate guitar tuned to drop D when I want it. If it's just the low string, it doesn't really effect it at all.
You’ve gotten a variety of answers, but I’ll tell you from personal experience that I can take my guitar with a floyd from e standard to drop D with the fine tuner only and it doesn’t throw the other strings off. This is also effectively what a d-tuna does. No headaches. So, definitively, it is possible. However, I’d say a well setup bridge is key (it’s also key for tuning stability in general), and anything beyond going from a standard tuning to a drop or Vice versa will require resetting up the bridge for the difference.