WARNING: Stupid Floyd Question Ahead!

[Ugoyin]

DISCLAIMER: The following question is coming from a floating bridge newbie. It is a dumb and demeaning question, but said newbie has no idea what to do. This question may not be suitable for players of thirteen years or more. Parental Discretion is advised.



Well, I was driving through Wichita the other day when I came across a pawn shop I wasn't familiar with. I could not resist. I had to drop in to see their guitar stuff. I did see one that caught my eye. It had a very nice price tag (to my frugal eyes) AND it was equipped with a non-recessed floyd rose bridge. "Hmm..." I thought. My eyes traveled up the neck and noticed something wierd...the lack of a locking nut. I don't mean something like a graphite nut was in it's place or something weird like that, I mean the locking nut was MISSING from where it was supposed to be. I was going to try it out, but one of the clerks informed me that it was close to closing time.

Well, tommorow I'm going back to that pawn shop to try it out, but here's where the dumb question comes in. What effect would the lack of a locking nut have on a floyd rose trem? Keep in mind I know nothing about FRs and have never been within a few feet of one but once. Any help you could give me on this thing would be appreciated. It would also be nice to know what else to look for, as I've never really shopped for guitars at pawn shops before.

Thanks for giving your time to a grateful newbie :P

[hexa-db]

What was in the place where the nut would have been? Did it have an ordinary plastic nut, or was it just that the pressure pads & allen bolts were missing?

[Ugoyin]

Uhh, the second one. There was just an empty slot up there. That's about all I saw...like I said, I wasn't in there for very long before leaving. I didn't even catch the name on the headstock.

[dex]

In that case if you want to use the Floyd even a little bit you'll have to buy some pressure pads and allen bolts (called string clamps and string clamp screws at Stew-Mac) and you'll be back in buisness.
If on the other hand you don't care for the Floyd, you can set it up flush to the body (as it is not recessed) and use it as you would any Fender.

ilia

[mike2nyc]

your strings wouldnt return to their slots at full depression!

[The Madness Here]

Im not entirely sure on your nut situation. If you do have a locking nut, but are missing the pressure pads and screws, thats not a big problem

Another situation might be a regular graphite nut. Carvin does this alot, locking tuners and a good low friction nut will preform as well as a locking nut

heres a carvin with a floyd bridge and non-locking nut

[Ice]

you sure it wasnt a wilkinson and thats why he said it's a non recessed floyd w/ no lockin nut?

[Ugoyin]

Update: The bridge was NOT a Floyd. It just looked like one from afar. The guitar was a Westone Bendmaster Deluxe. It is a single locking guitar, but the nut locks, not the bridge. The bridge just looks like a floyd rose, but doesn't actually lock the strings or anything. I tried the guitar out, and it wasn't too bad. It just didn't stay in tune to well (may have been able to fix with adding pressure pads and screws to the locking nut)and the electronics were barely working. But other than that, the whole thing was pretty solid. I was actually considering purchasing it since it was only 100 bucks, but as I was about to walk away from the amp, I gave the guitar one more strum, and the humbucker crapped out and stopped working. I guess it was better for it to happen there than when I plugged it in at home

[nickcoumbe]

It is irrelevantn since you didn't buy it anyway but I built a custom strat with floyd rose, graphite nut (non-locking), and locking tuners (which don't actually lock the tuning element, just keep the string clamped.

I have had absolutely no probs with tuning, string displacement, stability or anything. In fact it probably stays in tune (a little) better than my rg570.

And it is flourescent pink, this doesn't affect the stability either, but it is alwats worth saying.