Let’s face it, setting intonation on a floating bridge can become a headache really fast. Luckily, the wonderful people at Floyd Rose have designed a tremolo system that makes this way easier. It’s called the Original Tremolo System w/ Hollow Points. We went over these in our Original Floyd Rose guide.

Basically they have implemented a feature into these tremolos that make the intonation process a little less stressful.

Before starting, if you want to do a full setup and restring on your guitar, be sure to check out our guide: “How to Set Up a Guitar With a Floyd Rose“. It covers everything you need to know, as a beginner, except for the actual intonation process.

Now, this process of intonation has become known as the B.L.I.T.Z. method. That stands for Bomb, Loosen, Intonate, Tighten, Zero.

All you need for this is an allen wrench!

How to Intonate :

1. Bomb.

First, make sure your locking nut clamps are loosened so that the strings are free to move. Assuming you are right handed, use your left hand to “Bomb” the tremolo arm all the way down so that strings are completely loose. It’s important that you do not let go with your left hand and and you keep the tremolo arm down.

2. Loosen.

Next, with an allen wrench, loosen the saddle mounting screw just enough so the saddle can move freely without much force. The mounting screw is located on the front side of the bridge, towards the pickup.

3. Intonate.

Now, use your right hand to set the intonation using the hollow points. Remember not to let go of the tremolo arm! To move the saddle towards the headstock, rotate the hollow point counter-clockwise. To move the saddle away from the headstock and towards the bridge, rotate the hollow point clockwise.

I covered how to properly intonate a guitar with a fixed bridge in an older article. If you don’t know how to do that, i’d suggest you read that one at this point! Setting the intonation on a floyd rose is similar, there’s just a lot more time in between each trial and error.

4. Tighten

Once the adjustments are complete, tighten to saddle screw to lock it back in place.

5. Zero

Finally, rotate the hollow point accordingly so that the fine tuner is centered in the groove. This is important so that the fine tuner does not get stuck on the edge of the hollow point once you lower the bridge.

Now you can release the tremolo arm slowly, tune your strings, and check to see if you are satisfied with the intonation. If you aren’t satisfied, repeat the steps above. If you are satisfied, do this for each string. Once all the strings are intonated, go ahead and lock your nut and get to shredding!

We hope you enjoyed this article! If you did, make sure to check out more, because we upload new reviews, technical articles, lessons, and more daily!

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This article was written by Zac Buras, our editor located in Louisiana.

 

 

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