While I agree with what you are saying, in principle, I've had a different experience. I have a 1970 Les Paul routed and modified for a Floyd Rose. It was a challenge, but my spring route does not go through into the pickup cavities. The trem does sit above the guitar maybe 3/16" of an inch or so, to accommodate for the steep neck angle. I don't mind this, it give me plenty of room between the strings, pickups and the body, for picking and strumming. Some players don't like this, and want the Floyd to be flush mount, with minimal room between the strings and body in the pickup area. Last thing, I have been playing this guitar for 20+ years and I can assure you that there is nothing 'off' about it, in both playing it and how it sounds. It's amazing. I had a lifetime professional guitar player put it through its paces, right after the conversion, and he concurred, saying that it "rocked hard!" lol. I also have a 1989 Burny Les Paul that came with a Factory Fernandes Floyd Rose. That guitar has a shallower neck angle to accommodate the Floyd, and shallow pickup routes as well. It is Killer.
I only purchase Floyd equipped guitars that have the Floyd top mounted. Jackson/Charvel and Kramer guitars offer this, allows for that nice neck break angle like a Gibson. I can't stand way recessed Floyd guitars feel. Even conventional Strats bother me with the neutral neck angle feel.
Dude, I've always wanted to floyd my V. But I was cautious cuz body seemed too thin. Now that I've seen your vid, everything just makes perfect sense. Thank you!
😂 what !? This video is only a day old and your comment is 19 hours old and you are telling me that you are already reminiscing about this video and you have seen tons of things 😂 to remind you !?
I love a Floyd. I love Gibson. Its the neck angle of course. I have a Kahler on my 84 Explorer and it has been perfect through so many gigs from the 80s till early 00s. I always wanted a Floyd on one and it is possible of course, its just how Gibson angles the necks and body thickness. A tad thin. But my Kahler works just fine.
I have an FRX on my Tokai Les paul and it's outstanding. Smoothest trem I've ever used...smoother than my Gotoh 1996T's or Edge Pro I had on my Prestige RG or the trem on my Strandberg. Only real complaint is that I use it in dive only so I can go to drop D and the thumb wheel that adjusts up to stop the FRX from going back was moving around and causing the guitar to go out of tune. Some blue lock tite solved that. Other than that, I wish the fine tuners had more range like my other trems but it's a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things considering how well it actually works.
Hey man, I just discovered your channel. I like the way you explained that whole situation cause a lot of people don’t understand all of that that was quite informative for the average Joe who does not know anything about that. I appreciate it. I just subscribed so I’ll check out more of your videos thanks.
I wish Gibson would re-release the SG Diablo FR, I almost bought a SG diablo FR, I wish I did ! that was a great guitar but I bought a dean instead (also limited run) but obviosly the limited run gibsons hold their value better than dean. The Diablo as you know is a much chunkier guitar than the standard and it had 24 frets, pick ups were in different positions, neck angle must have been different too as the trem was not in a strange position or anyhing. In other words the FR was not just shoved in there, it was designed properly first. Great Video, subbed !
Good vid. I suppose if someone wanted to, they could route the back shallow, as a strat trem spring install might be, then custom fabricate a Floyd Rose trem block that's 1/4 " or 3/8" taller than a stock Floyd trem block. Such an install would allow clearance for pickup routes. The movement of the Floyd would not be as extreme as strat install.
Interesting. I have an explorer that came with a Floyd from the factory. The body is thicker than a standard explorer body and the waist is slightly wider too. The neck is different too.
Certain bridges go with certain neck angles/styles. Fender necks are flat & straight where Gibsons are angled not only in the headstock, but also in the neck pocket they are glued into. This makes the string height over the body much higher but that is needed for the much taller Gibson style bridges. If you took one & put it on a strat, it's going to make the string action so high that it will be unplayable. So when trying to put a fende style bridge on a gibson, the neck angle will make it thay you'd need to raise the gridge greatly to even touch the strings. The work around would be to eliminate the neck angle but that's a lot of work and generally an undesirable modification for a gibson just to get a trem. As somebody else mentioned, just get an ibanez instead of butchering the gibson.
Gibson might not gel with Floyd Rose systems, but I'm absolutely thrilled with my Epiphone Les Paul Alex Lifeson signature!!! With a Floyd, great pickups, (FINALLY) a shaved neck heel, lovely neck profile, and no weight relief - it's heavy but it sounds and plays great. Gibson will be gone once them good ol' buys (not to mention RICH) that still buy them, are gone.
Those pickups in mine sound so 4d it’s crazy!! I hope the do an Epiphone version of Aldo Nova’s hockey stick headstock /Floyd LesPaul ! Do they have a custom shop where I could preorder that?!? Chi sons seem to be being confiscated or I’d go that route!!
I got an Explorer built by a luthier and added a Floyd Rose. It's a weird mix. I feel the Explorer is too big and heavy for a Floyd Rose. I had an Ibanez RG with a Floyd when I was a teenager, and it was a great combo-light and with a fast neck, so the floyd rose felt right in place. Also the pickups on my Explorer are too low compared to a regular explorer, as you say.
The problem isn't the guitar, it's Gibson's pickup design. The EVH Wolfgangs, peavey HP2, ESP eclipse, and Jackson Kelly which is basically an explorer all have production floyd models.
they make a floyd rose for gibsons called the floyd rose extreme, its kind of like a bigsby, you dont need a back rout. i havent tried it but it looks pretty cool
There are solutions for having a double locking tremolo system on most Gibson guitars, like for instance the Floyd Rose FRX, but none of the quality ones are inexpensive. Now, a good original Floyd Rose like we all know, made of quality metal (not one of these Floyd 3rd party units like the Floyd Rose Special which isn't a good unit at all), is never an inexpensive piece of equipment to add to a guitar anyway. Most other most common non locking tremolo units, like Bigsby or Duesenberg, will inevitably result in more or less tuning instability. But it's a choice: you want this, OK, great, but you need to know that you're going to have that issue too.
there are original floyd rose systems that are specifically made to hook into the tune-o-matic posts, and don't require any woodwork done to the body. just swap out, no problem. it's called FRX, and the chrome variant is a crisp 360€ at thomann. no routing, no nothin.
Gibson/Epiphone needs to use Kramer to make souped up Explorers and Firebirds with Floyds. Kramer does have a les paul with a floyd but it doesn't really vibe with kramers 80s pointy guitar vibe.
Cat replacing the lion was funny, and then he just destroys Jazz as a serious musical form. I put a trem in a BCRich Eagle, and it was a standard Strat style that rested on the body and had the six screws at the front, had to shim the neck and raise the saddles right to the top. It was a mistake to do it. And I never did use it. A Lifeson LP would be a dream Guitar, but it would need to be Semi Hollow as well.
I think that if you really do want a Floyd Rose on a Les Paul, Explorer, SG etc style body, you can get an FRX which I'm pretty sure is just a drop in tremolo replacement for a bridge and tail piece
Hmmmm, perhaps you should try explaining this to my 3 Gibson M-III's with a stock Schaller Floyd Rose... Oh and I have seen plenty of surface mounted retro fit Floyd Rose kits for Gibsons with the stop bar tailpiece back in the day. Even one of my favorite guitarists, Steve Clark of Def Leppard (God rest his soul) rocked relatively stock Les Pauls with a Floyd. People are gonna do what they want to with their own guitars mannnnnn... Don't hate, celebrate! Variety is the spice of life. 🤣😁😎
Could you provide a link to a photo of Steve Clark using a Floyd Rose. I looked at many and only see Kahlers. Still have my 1981 High and Dry tour shirt.
I played an early 80’s LP Custom with a Floyd Rose in it once at a music store. Now, I play a LP for three hours every gig. I’m in my mid 50’s and in pretty good shape. So the weight of a LP does not bother me in the least. This early 80’s with the Floyd weighed a TON!!!! I could not imagine trying to play a full night with what felt like an anchor hanging on my shoulder. No thanks.
The bridge and tailpiece on that explorer look like they sit up pretty high, ideally wouldn’t they sit lower on the body with shorter posts? That’d require less neck angle. I remember a Joe Walsh video where he said he can’t get Gibson to do that (I believe like they were on vintage Gibsons).
I installe Dusenburg Les Trem on my les paul and just installed on my SG, no probelms, no routing it surface mount, also bebds down whole step, bends up half step, also feels like not workung as hard playing. Please add roller bridge
I have a few TOM ax's with Floyds, Gib V, ML 3 custom V's. In general ur looking at about 3/16s of gap between top of body/bottom of Floyd. No probs ever in fact id say it destroys flush mount. IMHO the floyds with titanium sound brilliant, Kahler's dont
it's a travesty! 😋 if you insist on a trem for your Gibson, get a bigsby. if you want a floyd, get a Jackson or Charvel or some superstrat. i mean one of traits of a Gibson is all that wonderful wood, why hack it off?
Isn’t Floyd rose the exact opposite of going out of tune? I mean after initial string stretching it’s waaaaaay more stable than almost any other vibrato
I don't understand why anyone likes Floyd Rose anyway. Literally every guitar I've played with one goes completely out of tune if you touch it. & there are other companies make guitars shaped like Les Pauls, explorers, etc that come with Floyd Rose tremolos if you really want a guitar you have to tune each time you do a dive, or pull up...& the best part is, they're not Gibsons!!!
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
First time viewer. Good talk. Makes sense why they went with Kahler. Also props on Dethklok shirt….Cheers!
No one has noticed my Zazz Blammymatazz shirt.
While I agree with what you are saying, in principle, I've had a different experience. I have a 1970 Les Paul routed and modified for a Floyd Rose. It was a challenge, but my spring route does not go through into the pickup cavities. The trem does sit above the guitar maybe 3/16" of an inch or so, to accommodate for the steep neck angle. I don't mind this, it give me plenty of room between the strings, pickups and the body, for picking and strumming. Some players don't like this, and want the Floyd to be flush mount, with minimal room between the strings and body in the pickup area. Last thing, I have been playing this guitar for 20+ years and I can assure you that there is nothing 'off' about it, in both playing it and how it sounds. It's amazing. I had a lifetime professional guitar player put it through its paces, right after the conversion, and he concurred, saying that it "rocked hard!" lol.
I also have a 1989 Burny Les Paul that came with a Factory Fernandes Floyd Rose. That guitar has a shallower neck angle to accommodate the Floyd, and shallow pickup routes as well. It is Killer.
I only purchase Floyd equipped guitars that have the Floyd top mounted. Jackson/Charvel and Kramer guitars offer this, allows for that nice neck break angle like a Gibson. I can't stand way recessed Floyd guitars feel. Even conventional Strats bother me with the neutral neck angle feel.
The lack of trem is what I love most about gibsons
😂 OH but you love vibrols? You are a Gibson cultist
@ no, i said lack of. I would never buy anything with vibrolas
@@l5e2n9 Don't need it. Don't use it.
Dude, I've always wanted to floyd my V. But I was cautious cuz body seemed too thin. Now that I've seen your vid, everything just makes perfect sense. Thank you!
Les Pauls are possible, but a V,? Yeah that's not happening.
Take a look at the Floyd Rose FRX tremolo. No routes needed.
I remember when Brad Gillis played with a black Les Paul Custom with a Floyd Rose, it looked badass!
Great topic Adam. I have always wondered about the Lifeson neck angle.
Every time I see an Explorer style with a Floyd Rose I will remember this video. thx
😂 what !? This video is only a day old and your comment is 19 hours old and you are telling me that you are already reminiscing about this video and you have seen tons of things 😂 to remind you !?
I love a Floyd. I love Gibson. Its the neck angle of course. I have a Kahler on my 84 Explorer and it has been perfect through so many gigs from the 80s till early 00s.
I always wanted a Floyd on one and it is possible of course, its just how Gibson angles the necks and body thickness. A tad thin.
But my Kahler works just fine.
I have an FRX on my Tokai Les paul and it's outstanding. Smoothest trem I've ever used...smoother than my Gotoh 1996T's or Edge Pro I had on my Prestige RG or the trem on my Strandberg.
Only real complaint is that I use it in dive only so I can go to drop D and the thumb wheel that adjusts up to stop the FRX from going back was moving around and causing the guitar to go out of tune. Some blue lock tite solved that.
Other than that, I wish the fine tuners had more range like my other trems but it's a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things considering how well it actually works.
Lots of Gibsons ruined with added Kahlers too, just stop folks. Get an Ibanez already.
BTW, great shirt Adam !
You should see the 1983 Kansas Drastic Measures Tour t-shirt.
Hey man, I just discovered your channel. I like the way you explained that whole situation cause a lot of people don’t understand all of that that was quite informative for the average Joe who does not know anything about that. I appreciate it. I just subscribed so I’ll check out more of your videos thanks.
Got my sub from the tux alone!
I wish Gibson would re-release the SG Diablo FR, I almost bought a SG diablo FR, I wish I did ! that was a great guitar but I bought a dean instead (also limited run) but obviosly the limited run gibsons hold their value better than dean. The Diablo as you know is a much chunkier guitar than the standard and it had 24 frets, pick ups were in different positions, neck angle must have been different too as the trem was not in a strange position or anyhing. In other words the FR was not just shoved in there, it was designed properly first. Great Video, subbed !
Never fear , There's a floyd frx surface mount made for stop bar guitars .
Good vid. I suppose if someone wanted to, they could route the back shallow, as a strat trem spring install might be, then custom fabricate a Floyd Rose trem block that's 1/4 " or 3/8" taller than a stock Floyd trem block. Such an install would allow clearance for pickup routes. The movement of the Floyd would not be as extreme as strat install.
Interesting. I have an explorer that came with a Floyd from the factory. The body is thicker than a standard explorer body and the waist is slightly wider too.
The neck is different too.
I just put a bigsby on my explorer. I used the vibramate adapter so no holes and easy to change back. Looks great.
Certain bridges go with certain neck angles/styles.
Fender necks are flat & straight where Gibsons are angled not only in the headstock, but also in the neck pocket they are glued into.
This makes the string height over the body much higher but that is needed for the much taller Gibson style bridges.
If you took one & put it on a strat, it's going to make the string action so high that it will be unplayable.
So when trying to put a fende style bridge on a gibson, the neck angle will make it thay you'd need to raise the gridge greatly to even touch the strings. The work around would be to eliminate the neck angle but that's a lot of work and generally an undesirable modification for a gibson just to get a trem. As somebody else mentioned, just get an ibanez instead of butchering the gibson.
You can always get the Floyd rose that mount on the existing studs without routing the body
Gibson might not gel with Floyd Rose systems, but I'm absolutely thrilled with my Epiphone Les Paul Alex Lifeson signature!!!
With a Floyd, great pickups, (FINALLY) a shaved neck heel, lovely neck profile, and no weight relief - it's heavy but it sounds and plays great.
Gibson will be gone once them good ol' buys (not to mention RICH) that still buy them, are gone.
Those pickups in mine sound so 4d it’s crazy!! I hope the do an Epiphone version of Aldo Nova’s hockey stick headstock /Floyd LesPaul ! Do they have a custom shop where I could preorder that?!? Chi sons seem to be being confiscated or I’d go that route!!
I got an Explorer built by a luthier and added a Floyd Rose. It's a weird mix. I feel the Explorer is too big and heavy for a Floyd Rose. I had an Ibanez RG with a Floyd when I was a teenager, and it was a great combo-light and with a fast neck, so the floyd rose felt right in place.
Also the pickups on my Explorer are too low compared to a regular explorer, as you say.
The problem isn't the guitar, it's Gibson's pickup design. The EVH Wolfgangs, peavey HP2, ESP eclipse, and Jackson Kelly which is basically an explorer all have production floyd models.
Those are built with a 0° neck angle. Gibsons are made with a 4° angle. It is the guitar.
they make a floyd rose for gibsons called the floyd rose extreme, its kind of like a bigsby, you dont need a back rout. i havent tried it but it looks pretty cool
There are solutions for having a double locking tremolo system on most Gibson guitars, like for instance the Floyd Rose FRX, but none of the quality ones are inexpensive.
Now, a good original Floyd Rose like we all know, made of quality metal (not one of these Floyd 3rd party units like the Floyd Rose Special which isn't a good unit at all), is never an inexpensive piece of equipment to add to a guitar anyway.
Most other most common non locking tremolo units, like Bigsby or Duesenberg, will inevitably result in more or less tuning instability. But it's a choice: you want this, OK, great, but you need to know that you're going to have that issue too.
Dean has made thousands of Explorer shapes with Floyd Rose trems and they are great !
there are original floyd rose systems that are specifically made to hook into the tune-o-matic posts, and don't require any woodwork done to the body. just swap out, no problem.
it's called FRX, and the chrome variant is a crisp 360€ at thomann.
no routing, no nothin.
I mention the FRX in the video and video description.
Gibson/Epiphone needs to use Kramer to make souped up Explorers and Firebirds with Floyds. Kramer does have a les paul with a floyd but it doesn't really vibe with kramers 80s pointy guitar vibe.
Cat replacing the lion was funny, and then he just destroys Jazz as a serious musical form.
I put a trem in a BCRich Eagle, and it was a standard Strat style that rested on the body and had the six screws at the front, had to shim the neck and raise the saddles right to the top. It was a mistake to do it. And I never did use it. A Lifeson LP would be a dream Guitar, but it would need to be Semi Hollow as well.
I think that if you really do want a Floyd Rose on a Les Paul, Explorer, SG etc style body, you can get an FRX which I'm pretty sure is just a drop in tremolo replacement for a bridge and tail piece
Mentioned in the video.
Brilliant video
Hmmmm, perhaps you should try explaining this to my 3 Gibson M-III's with a stock Schaller Floyd Rose... Oh and I have seen plenty of surface mounted retro fit Floyd Rose kits for Gibsons with the stop bar tailpiece back in the day. Even one of my favorite guitarists, Steve Clark of Def Leppard (God rest his soul) rocked relatively stock Les Pauls with a Floyd. People are gonna do what they want to with their own guitars mannnnnn... Don't hate, celebrate! Variety is the spice of life. 🤣😁😎
This video is about retro fitting, not OEM. Explorers and SGs more then Les Pauls as well.
Could you provide a link to a photo of Steve Clark using a Floyd Rose. I looked at many and only see Kahlers. Still have my 1981 High and Dry tour shirt.
I played an early 80’s LP Custom with a Floyd Rose in it once at a music store. Now, I play a LP for three hours every gig. I’m in my mid 50’s and in pretty good shape. So the weight of a LP does not bother me in the least. This early 80’s with the Floyd weighed a TON!!!! I could not imagine trying to play a full night with what felt like an anchor hanging on my shoulder. No thanks.
🐈⬛👍 Great video! Great cat!
The bridge and tailpiece on that explorer look like they sit up pretty high, ideally wouldn’t they sit lower on the body with shorter posts? That’d require less neck angle.
I remember a Joe Walsh video where he said he can’t get Gibson to do that (I believe like they were on vintage Gibsons).
Steep neck angle means the bridge is high off the body. The strings will be resting on the frets if the bridge was lower
@ What I don’t understand is, why Gibson can put less of a neck angle in their guitars.
I have 2 Les Paul's with factory fr. One was made in 2011 the other 22. My #1 and 2 out of 14 others.
Ask Neal schon. He was the first les Paul with a Floyd.
Instant ‘like’ for the cat 🐈. And if you have to go with a metal trem on a Gibson go Kahler. Or a Bigsby if you don’t need all that.
Kahler, flat mount really works on my strat
Makes sense!
Ive hacked those pole piece threads off before it sounded maybe a bit brighter but i needed the real estate 😂
I've got am Alex lifeson that begs to differ.. .
Phil Collen has a Jackson Explorer with a FR. How are the Gibson, and Jackson different?
Different geometry regarding neck angle, body thickness.
I installe Dusenburg Les Trem on my les paul and just installed on my SG, no probelms, no routing it surface mount, also bebds down whole step, bends up half step, also feels like not workung as hard playing. Please add roller bridge
Frx is exactly like most floating trems if not better
That's one cool cat.
Floyd was built specifically for a strat style EVH type guitar
You do know that the Floyd Rose FRX exhist, right?
Yes, that's why I talk about it in the video.
Keety!
Love the cat !!!!!!!
By the way, I dig the cat go go rocks
Khaler would be the correct one for Les Pauls. 👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣
I have a few TOM ax's with Floyds, Gib V, ML 3 custom V's. In general ur looking at about 3/16s of gap between top of body/bottom of Floyd. No probs ever in fact id say it destroys flush mount. IMHO the floyds with titanium sound brilliant, Kahler's dont
@3:55 - that is either the largest pickup ever, or you have some tiny hands 😂
Alex likeston didn't get the memo.😂
He got it, but was drinking and painting art that day!
Just get a dusenberg Les Trem.
Les paul stuido shred !
Les paul bodies are much more fat than that guitar.
Didn’t get past the cat intro. Hope your article was good! Folks seemed to like it! Good luck to you.
it's a travesty! 😋 if you insist on a trem for your Gibson, get a bigsby. if you want a floyd, get a Jackson or Charvel or some superstrat. i mean one of traits of a Gibson is all that wonderful wood, why hack it off?
A floyd rose on a gibson is an abomination-we like our gibsons to stay in tune
Isn’t Floyd rose the exact opposite of going out of tune? I mean after initial string stretching it’s waaaaaay more stable than almost any other vibrato
Gibsons are so well renowned for tuning stability already... 🙄
I think Floyd is also not a good match with Fender. It just doesn't look right.
I don't understand why anyone likes Floyd Rose anyway. Literally every guitar I've played with one goes completely out of tune if you touch it. & there are other companies make guitars shaped like Les Pauls, explorers, etc that come with Floyd Rose tremolos if you really want a guitar you have to tune each time you do a dive, or pull up...& the best part is, they're not Gibsons!!!
Floyd rose don't mix with any guitar in my opinion
Whammy bars are gay
If you know how to properly setup your guitar you don't need a shitty Floyd. Floyd are for the lazy or uneducated player.
Bullshit.
@jaycareaga9929 Batshit.
😂🤡