Originally Posted by
Koreth
In a guitar that is properly set up with good quality parts (including, nut, saddles, bridge, tuners, etc.) light tremolo use shouldn't send the guitar out of tune. However, in my experience, the more frequent and more aggressive the trem use, the more likely it is that you will go out of tune.
I've played on guitars with a vintage Fender 6 point tremolo, two point non-locking tremolo's such as Fenders, FR-like double-locking setups and hardtails. My experiences are thus:
A Fender six point temolo sits flat against the body of a guitar, much like a hardtail, except the underside of it facing the neck has been knife-edged. Thus, you can do pitch shifts down, but not up. This works finde for light trem use, such as the occasional pitch shift down a half or quarter step to add something interesting to your playing. Every time I got too aggressive with a six point Fender trem (i.e. frequent dive bombs, bending pitch down till the strings went slack), the guitar would go out of tune. I speculate this is because the strings are not locked at either the nut or the saddles and thus can slide through on either end during the bend, then get bound or stuck when returning from the bend, messing with the tension on the string and thus sending your turning out of whack.
I haven't played a Fender two point trem. I have played similar looking two point trems that could be set up to be floating above the body slightly, allowing one to pitch bends both up as well as down. However, again these setups did not lock at either the nut or the saddles, and I would imagine they could suffer the same tuning instability on heavy use as the 6-point trem would.
The Floyd setup is quite different. In addition to being fully floating, the strings are locked at both the saddles and the nut. Thus no additional string can slide past either on a bend. If the Floyd is properly set up, including stretching the strings when installing them so they do not stretch on pitch bends, the tuning on a Floyd can be very stable. Properly set up, A floyd will stand up to more trem (ab)use than the two above will. However, they can be a bit of a pain to set up. You have to balance the overall tension of the guitars strings with the springs which anchor the tremolo to the body so it will float properly. Thus, if you change tunings or string gauges, you'll probably have to adjust the trem's springs to compensate. Initial tuning can be a pain, because tuning one string will tend to make the other strings go flat, thus you have to tune the other strings sharp by the right amount so all of the strings are in tune by the time you've turned the last string. Once you have all your initial setup done, the guitar will stay in tune, needing only little to no adjustment to stay there, despite frequent trem (ab)use, for the life of the strings. It's just getting the initial setup done that can be a PITA.
Noob Question: benefits of various tremolo Bridges
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And learn how to set it up properly...that way Every other guitar you ever deal with from then on will be a breeze to set up. Unless you plan on divebombing it all the time, then you will want a floyd rose or some other good bridge and locking tuners, maybe a rolling nut. But the mustang will make you trem arm strong like a horse, and the jaguar will make your picking hand as quick, fast and delicate as a.....jaguar....very articulate.
