What Is The Correct Fretboard Radius For A Floyd Rose Tremolo System?

Hi, you're totally right about the locking nut radius mismatch, the difference is very very small. Schaller, that obviously makes FR original in germany, has just announced custom locking, R2 and R3 with customizable radius from 8" to 16" and the orders are skyrocketing. So many guitarists were waiting for it. I guess i'll change my job to therapist for guitar players, big money ....

It might not be to everyone’s taste looks wise, but I have used a zero fret to set the radius on a couple of Floyd Rose equipped guitar. I put a zero fret a few mm in front of the Nut and put the nut on a little lower shelf in front of the fret board. It worked well over a 16 inch radius and both guitars have great actions. I used a couple of very thin small washers under the outer saddles to compensate at the bridge but I found that was not making a large difference to how the guitars performed.

Floyd Originals are very constrained, but you get a lot of 12" options with the Floyd 1000/Special series. The metal quality and finish aren't as refined as the Original, but they're still serviceable. Gotoh also makes much flatter radius nuts as their ge-1996t "Floyd" tremolo system has a flat radius (15" IIRC).

From Schaller in Germany you can order floyds, saddles and nuts in different radius.

I can agree; that the difference between the "10 and "12 -radius is small. How ever: The diffrence between choking out and buzzing on a fretboard -is also very, very small. I my opinion: Feeling theese differences comes down to how 'snug' the preferd set up is. About the nut: Your biggest choice would be: -How close to the first fret do You want Your strings to be? Many neglect to mention this. This is accually a pretty important set up choise. In short: The lowere/closer to the frets You are able to set Your string (with out buzz etc, etc) = The better it works, feels and sounds. You might not feel the difference between having a R2/L2 nut on a 12-inch fretboard -with a slightly higher (non-slick low) nut set up. But when both the outer E-strings have the perfect heght aggainst the first fret; the middle D and G strings definetly has a little mor air between them and the fret. Depending on the personal playing style -this always makes the notes on the first frets -on middle strings a little sharp. Yes: You can compensate this -by playing more lightly. But in most live situations -beeing 'in the zone' = It will get a little sharp. Is this a problem? Not if You don't hear it. In comparison: Put an R3/L3 nut on a 12-inch board = You will not have this problem: ALL the string will have the same distance to the first fret -if the nut mounted correctly to the neck. And: -Yes,,,: -You have the choise to mount Your nut even more snug -without buzzing off on the outer strings -or beeing sharp in the middle. How close -or low is it possible to have the string to the first fret? Basicly what You need is a straight and steady neck. Preferably with a double expanding truss rod. This som You won't suffer the 'back bow' of the neck -when diving away all the stringtension with the FR. (This chokes out the srings against the frets.) Extra support rods in the neck is also good to prevent this. Theese are choise examples -You make when choosing specs for Your custom string instrument.

Thank you.

10-16" compound is my personal favorite. The Original Floyd Rose nuts still have a 10" radius after all these years. If you use one with a flatter fretboard radius, your D and G strings will have higher action at the first fret.

Well, some of us are OCD and I don't think there's a lot of "help" we can get for that aside from the guy building our guitars build it the way we want it. I prefer compound radii on any guitar with a trem for a variety of reasons but mathemetically, if you use a "conical" radius, you'd want the strings to naturally conform to the gradual flattening if you care about the high E and low E being the same distance from the frets as the middle strings. But then again, Yngwie has no trouble shredding on 7.5" necks with the highest action possible. It's just not my style. :)

Why Floyd still doesn't offer a 42mm nut is mindboggling. There are so many headaches with Floyd, and so little adjustability especially regarding nuts. I tend towards hand cut nut with locking tuners, 10 degree headpitch to give more manual adjustability... FWIW

I am one of those who need help.....a 10" nut a 12" fret and a 14" bridge without compound is just insane...Same goes for the bolt on rounded neck heels and pockets that allow the neck to point to the sky or ground when it desires to. I would guess that at the nut width portion of the radius to the heel fret board width radius to the bridge width radius points MAY make it so it does not matter ? Still drives me crazy.....Always wanted to build a "Math" guitar myself....

Maybe mixing and matching is an option for those who want things closest to "correct". So maybe using some of the Gotoh options (or whoever else) for the locking nut would get closer spec wise.

The biggest issue of the Original Floyd Rose tremolo is an inability of using it on the guitars with bigger-than-12"-radius fingerboards, especially with compound radius ones. Schaller now offers the Lockmeister tremolo bridges with bigger radius (up to 16"), which are much more versatile than OFR.

very interesting info, thanks!... don´t know but i love Ibanez style 16" radius, just turn a Squier that way w/jumbo stainless steel frets, feels so good...

Great video. Well said

If I'm doing a floyd it's because it will be more of "shred" metal guitar. So then go with a 16" radius and use a gotoh 43mm nut that is 400mm/15.75" radius and shim the floyd saddles to match.

My favorite guitar came with Fernandes HeadCrasher (lol) system. Neck - 12" up and down the neck. Nut radius? Saddles radius? Who the hell knows? But I love it.

Have you ever built a guitar with a Kahler tremolo or a Kahler fixed bridge? You can set the height of the individual saddles on a Kahler and on the tremolo there's a screw which can be turned to convert a floating bridge to a fixed bridge instantly.

Considering the small difference between the 10" and 12" radius as shown in your drawing, wouldn't the fact that the fretboard ends well before reaching the bridge make the difference even more negligible? In other words, with a 12" bridge radius, at the last fret the string radius would be more than 10" but less than 12".

I never understand why Floyd rose didn't work on a radius version of his system, or something to raise the saddles.

Interesting. I'm glad I never adopted a playing style that required a Floyd Rose!