FLoyd Rose Question?

[JBLesPaul107]

I have been working a frankenstrat and in a moment of brilliance I may have f*ed up the body. I have the Chinese strat that I paid 80 bucks for at a trade show. Should have known better because the pickups and hardware were god awful. ANYWHO... I stripped the body and wanted to install an original Floyd Rose. I thought I needed a recessed area that would allow the tremolo to move freely, but after looking at other Frankstrats online I think it was unnecessary. I posted some picks below. Hopefully the body is not too jacked up...

[Dino]

Yep, you f'd up the body ... pretty bad I might add.

The Floyd needed to be surface mounted and the neck shimmed.
Man, I wish you would have asked questions before firing up that router.

[captain tightpants]

It's pretty f'd, but maybe not un savable. The Floyd might just cover that up. Failing that, you could inlay a plug in the f'd spot and go from there. That trem cavity will still need to be routed for the Floyd, you might just want to take it to a good tech, or research the hell out of it before proceeding any further. Good luck!!

[Dino]

Originally Posted by captain tightpants

It's pretty f'd, but maybe not un savable. The Floyd might just cover that up. Failing that, you could inlay a plug in the f'd spot and go from there. That trem cavity will still need to be routed for the Floyd, you might just want to take it to a good tech, or research the hell out of it before proceeding any further. Good luck!!

You don't need to route a trem cavity ... it's already there.
If you want to salvage that body, you'll have to brush up on your routing skills, route a nice even route, make yourself a template of what you routed out and add wood and fill that hole.

Then, assuming your guitar is 25-1/2" scale, measure 25" from the front edge of the locking nut and drill your holes for the pivot posts.

If you don't have the the shelf for the locking nut routed ... just take it to a pro and have him do the total install (if he's willing).

Fixing that body will require some wood working skills.
By the looks of that route, I'd say you're probably better off just buying a new body or better yet ... a new guitar.
Fixing it will probably cost more than replacing the whole guitar.
I'm pretty sure your average repairman will try to deter you from having it fixed.

JMO

[captain tightpants]

Don't you have to clearance the vintage strat trem route for a Floyd, tho? I always thought the Floyd routes were a little bigger, but I could be wrong. And no, I don't mean the recess routes.

Aside from that, if what you are saying is true, he could in theory just leave it f'd up the way it is, or at least clean it up a little, and drill for Floyd posts. A Floyd should cover most of that I would think. It's going to contact towards the front and sides mostly anyways, right? A Floyd is wider and longer than a Vintage strat trem, it ought to work.

I'm not saying you are wrong, just throwing Ideas out there. If he has the Floyd on hand, I'd just place it on there quick like and see if it will cover the nasty spot. If it does, he should be good to go. Might save a him little trouble

[Dino]

Originally Posted by captain tightpants

Don't you have to clearance the vintage strat trem route for a Floyd, tho? I always thought the Floyd routes were a little bigger, but I could be wrong. And no, I don't mean the recess routes.

In some cases, you may have to cut a "notch" to allow clearance for the arm bushing like so ... other times not.
It all depends on how the route was originally done.
This can be easily accomplished with a Dremel if need be.

Originally Posted by captain tightpants

Aside from that, if what you are saying is true, he could in theory just leave it f'd up the way it is, or at least clean it up a little, and drill for Floyd posts. A Floyd should cover most of that I would think. It's going to contact towards the front and sides mostly anyways, right? A Floyd is wider and longer than a Vintage strat trem, it ought to work.

I'm not saying you are wrong, just throwing Ideas out there. If he has the Floyd on hand, I'd just place it on there quick like and see if it will cover the nasty spot. If it does, he should be good to go. Might save a him little trouble

Yes, you're correct ... he could most likely leave the damage and hope the baseplate of the trem covers it, but ... well ... that's really not repairing anything.

[captain tightpants]

Originally Posted by Dino

In some cases, you may have to cut a "notch" to allow clearance for the arm bushing like so ... other times not.
It all depends on how the route was originally done.
This can be easily accomplished with a Dremel if need be.

OK, cool, that I didn't know.

Originally Posted by Dino

Yes, you're correct ... he could most likely leave the damage and hope the baseplate of the trem covers it, but ... well ... that's really not repairing anything.

Yeah, I gotcha, but if the Floyd will cover it, repairing it isn't a huge deal. I can think of a dozen ways to clean that mess up with a rasp and sandpaper. Might even be able to make it look kinda cool. He's already got a bevel carved into it, just square that off and smooth it up, I'd bet real money you'd only see it during a dive bomb, or at the very least right under the locking screws.

If he was going for perfect, he'd would have bought a Warmoth or USA Custom body in the first place.

[Dino]

ANYTHING can be repaired.
But rather than using a "rasp and sandpaper" as you suggest, or trying to make an ugly hole look "pretty", why not just replace the whole section of wood?

I did something similar for busted pivot holes.
Dino's Guitar Works

I'm not saying this guitar is worth the time or trouble, but if you were to try to repair it, I honestly think replacing that section of wood is your best bet.

JMO

[captain tightpants]

Wasn't that what I said in my first post?

[Dino]

Originally Posted by captain tightpants

Wasn't that what I said in my first post?

Yeah ... you also said "the trem cavity would have to be routed for a Floyd".
I'm guessing that comment sorta distracted me.
My bad.

[captain tightpants]

No worries.

Like I said, I always assumed the Floyd had a bigger route than a vintage Fender, I think because of the Stew-Mac Floyd routing templates. Frankly, if it were my project, I'd stick with the vintage trem in the first place, but that's just my preference.

To be honest, I was just trying to give JBlespaul an easy way out of the original problem, because, I don't think he owns a router . NO OFFENCE, JB!! I think in the long run he'd be better off just prettying that up, or getting another body as you suggest. Who know, tho, he may just pull it off and show us how it's done!

[coldsteal2]

I had to rout my warmoth body like you did
for my Floyd Rose Pro, which sets in different than
the regular floyd rose, and wider and deeper, i used a drill and wood carving
tools, its all fixable, kind of looks like you routed yours for a FR Pro

[JBLesPaul107]

Hey guys thanks for the input... I decided to proceed and paint the jacked up body EVH style and if the paint turns out ok... I am going to warmoth.com for body, neck, FR trem the works. This was my first attempt in to doing mods, painting or anything for that matter...

[captain tightpants]

Will the Floyd cover the jacked up area?

[dennistruckdriver]

I think you should have angled the recess the other way.

[JBLesPaul107]

OK... Here is the practice paint run.... Used a wider painters tape than most EVH's but Oh well....
Not perfect but allot of fun!!!

[Dino]

Why didn't you drill the holes for your pivot posts and mount your Floyd?

[Roman Rist]

Cool, hell it isn't any worse than what EVH did to his guitar!

[JBLesPaul107]

Originally Posted by Dino

Why didn't you drill the holes for your pivot posts and mount your Floyd?

I pretty much decide to get the warmoth body with the single humbucker router and Floyd route. Like the one posted above... Before I made the investment I wanted to make that i would be happy with paint job. Plus I don’t have the Floyd yet...