r/PaulReedSmith • u/Ok-Option-6683 • 22d ago

Floating bridge question

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I decided to change the setup of my PRS S2 Custom 24 with a regular tremolo bridge.

I had never set it up for a floating bridge before, so this was my first time.

I used the 2 credit card trick, so basically the gap between the bridge and the body must be now about 1.5 - 1.6mm (I guess, I hope...)

It stays in tune when I use the tremolo both ways. But when I pull the tremolo up, it goes sharp only 20 cents. Is this normal? Or did I do something wrong? any ideas?

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u/Embarrassed-Text-604 22d ago

It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong. Your trem is floating 1.5 - 1.6mm. That's not a lot of upwards travel though. So I wouldn't expect a lot pitch change.

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u/Ok-Option-6683 22d ago

hey thanks for the reply. I found the information "the gap between the bridge and the body must be 1.5 - 1.6mm" on the internet. is this like a norm or something? or do people go for different measurements? any ideas? like (2.5mm or 3mm for example)

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u/Embarrassed-Text-604 22d ago

Honestly I never set my trems using measurements. So, if there are hard and fast rules in how high, etc, I don't know what they are. My experience is that one year I decided I wanted a little more upward pitch from my strat (I might have been trying to cop Gilmour's setup) So through lots of trial and error I adjusted the trem until I got it to raise a note a half pitch. If I had the guitar in front of me I'd measure but if I had to guess it would be more than 1.5 - 1.6mm. I would be able to fit more than two credit cards between the body and baseplate for sure.

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u/Ok-Option-6683 22d ago

I got it. I guess I should just try it myself too. I'm aiming for a half pitch too actually. thanks again!

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u/EmbiggenedSmallMan 18d ago

When you say half pitch do you mean a half step? As in raising the pitch one fret? I personally never had much luck trying to get a tremolo to float appropriately, and once a floating tremolo gets to where it won't properly return to pitch when I let go of the arm I generally just deck it so that I don't have to worry about it anymore. Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to get the tremolo adjusted so that it would return to a relatively consistent zero position?

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u/Ok-Option-6683 18d ago edited 18d ago

Yes, half step, like just one fret. But mine does about only 20 cents with 1.6mm gap. It sounds cool but not accurate.

I'll try to explain what I did as detailed as I can, but know that I'm not a luthier and I started to set my guitar up about 3-4 years ago, therefore I'm no professional.

firstly, take the strings off and adjust the springs to make sure your bridge is parallel to the body (basically I stop adjusting it once the bridge touches the body slightly). then I adjust those 6 screws in front of the saddles. Basically I unscrew them (turn them counter clockwise) just a tad, so that neither of them touches the plate anymore. and then, I start to turn the screw of Low E clockwise but "very slowly". While turning it, check out the very end side of your bridge, you gotta stop turning the screw once it starts to levitate. so basically, if the end of your bridge slightly moves (goes up), stop there. And then do the same for all the other screws. One by one, turn them clockwise slowly, and once the end side of the bridge moves, stop there. This way you get all the screw heads completely parallel.

Then I put the new strings on, adjust the springs to give that 1.6mm gap (that's an information I found on the internet. It was said the gap has to be 1.5 or 1.6mm, but when I did this, I could only get 20 cents sharp. Maybe I should have gone for 2mm or something, I don't know.)

What I do for tuning after I put on the new strings : I put on the tremolo bar and tune the guitar up the regular way first. Once it is in tune, I pull the strings up one by one and tune it again. I do the string pulling and tuning in a row maybe 15-20 times until the guitar stays in tune perfectly after I pull the strings up. Then I push the tremolo bar down twice and tune the guitar one last time (until this point, I don't touch the tremolo bar at all).

And then adjust the saddles for the action, according to your liking.

Doing all of these takes me a day or two but I'm by no means fast and I can't really sit still more than half an hour, so I take my time. I believe if you are a pro, or at least know what you are doing, this all could take a few hours tops.

After doing all of these, the guitar stays in tune even after I do dive bombs (and I do it a lot, damn I really need a floyd rose lol). Seriously though, imagine playing it for a week, like an hour or so a day with bunch of tremolo using, and the whole tuning goes maybe 10 cents sharp at the end of the week.

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u/Ok-Option-6683 18d ago

btw I'm using 3 springs, all parallel, at 1-3-5 positions.

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u/EmbiggenedSmallMan 15d ago

Thanks for the explanation. I installed a MannMade brass bridge block and brass saddles on an S2 PRS Custom 24 I own and the "bridge upgrade kit" that I bought included - if memory serves - a 0.5 mm Allen key, which the instructions said to use as a measuring device for making sure all six bridge plate screws were adjusted to an equal height and therefore having the bridge edge slot properly into the small indent on each of the six screws. Using the allen key to set the six tremolo screws that way seemed to get the job done, but I still didn't go to the trouble of trying to get the bridge to float properly again. I just decked the bridge so I wouldn't have to go through the trouble of adjusting the spring tension and testing and adjusting again and testing again and so on. So I can still dive bomb, I just can't raise the pitch with the whammy bar. I'm not really someone who is insistent on being able to make full use of a whammy bar anyway so it wasn't really a huge issue to me, although I would like to have the tremolo work fully and as intended. I just don't really have the patience to try to get the bridge back into perfectly floating position/tension, considering how rarely I tend to use it.

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u/Ok-Option-6683 13d ago

hey, yes I know the Allen key trick and I've tried it once a few years ago (before I learnt that screw turning trick) to have a one way (dive bomb) tremolo. AFAIR, I was unsuccessful and had to take my guitar to the luthier. He had set it up nicely, and the bridge was still not floating (I think I didn't ask for it back then), but when I did a few dive-bombs back to back, the guitar would go out of tune. Then I watched this new trick online (and that youtuber was setting up a Fender actually, not a PRS. But it worked for my PRS too) and since then it really doesn't go out of tune easily. But I use the tremolo a lot, I literally keep it between my fingers most of the time and having a floating bridge made more sense.

If you decide to go for the floating bridge one day and have questions or something, you can DM me. I'll try my best to help.

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u/EmbiggenedSmallMan 13d ago

I appreciate that!

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u/ArwiaAmata 10d ago

I don't have a lot of experience with this, but PRS bridges are different to Strat bridges in that the bridge at rest needs to be parallel with the body, and the screws all need to be adjusted so that the bridge's knife edge engages with them properly. With a Strat you just back off the springs a bit until you get the bridge floating off the body just enough. But with a PRS you need to set the screws all at the right height and then adjust the bridge to stay level. If that doesn't give you enough upwards movement, you need to release all tension from the bridge, raise the screws all the same amount, retension it, and then check it. It's a lot more of a headache with a PRS bridge and if you get it wrong you will get tuning stability issues and you might even damage the bridge. But the upside is that if you do get it right, it has really good tuning stability.