EVH Wolfgang Special won't stay in tune?

[80s]

Hi guys,

 

Well I bought myself a new EVH Wolfgang Special, and am very happy with it but the bloody bastard won't stay in tune! Like I mean ridicously bad. Worse than my friend's Squier. I've had it for about 4 days, I went online to look at information and I tried tighting those locking bolts on the nut, and that seemed to work, but if you tighten them fully, the string doesn't react to tuning. At first it was the G,B,E strings that would go out of tune, but I tightened the nuts and now it's the low E, A, D. Ias it because it's a floyd rose. The whammy bar is unsuable unless I want to tune up after 10seconds of use. Could you please help me out?

 

Thanks

[mnhhngbfs]

the tuners at the headstock are only for holding the strings and getting them approximately in tune. the locking nut should be tightened on all the strings after you have tuned every thing once using the headstock tuners, after that you use the fine tuning knobs on the bridge itself.

 

More details and information on Floyd Rose bridges can be found at this link:

http://www.glowingtubes.com/p/FloydTuning.htm

[the_gunslinger]

 

Hi guys, Well I bought myself a new EVH Wolfgang Special, and am very happy with it but the bloody bastard won't stay in tune! Like I mean ridicously bad. Worse than my friend's Squier. I've had it for about 4 days, I went online to look at information and I tried tighting those locking bolts on the nut, and that seemed to work, but if you tighten them fully, the string doesn't react to tuning. At first it was the G,B,E strings that would go out of tune, but I tightened the nuts and now it's the low E, A, D. Ias it because it's a floyd rose. The whammy bar is unsuable unless I want to tune up after 10seconds of use. Could you please help me out? Thanks

 

 

If your new to Floyds, I would pay for a set up at first. A properly functioning double locking trem is hard to knock out of tune, and will stay in tune for month's. The bridge should be parallel to the body, and the spring tension should be equal to the string tension if you like a floating setup. I would recommend not adjusting bridge height with tension, as it could mess up the knife edges(the fulcrum), which could result in unstable tuning: When you use the bar, the tuning may go flat. As mentioned/pictured above, once you get in tune or as close as you can, lock down the nut, and adjust with the fine tuners on the bridge. Also it's a good idea to stretch your strings a little bit, so you don't have to tune, unlock, retune etc etc. so much.

 

Also a little trick that I do is I put some chap stick on the knife edges, even with some of my more worn out floyds this little trick helps them return to perfect pitch every time, at least on my guitars. Another little trick is when your tuning, block the bridge with a stack of picks, or pennies, whatever in the back of the floyd. With the bridge in a fixed position, it helps to get it set up a little faster, and when it's done, the picks or pennies should just fall out of the back of the guitar.

[GriffontheRock]

lol, I'm not laughing at you man. I can see how this could frustrate someone with a new floyd. Go on youtube and look up how to tune a floyd rose. There is a bazillion videos on how to change strings and tune it. Make sure you watch the entire video so you don't miss anything. For some unknown reason I watched a video before I actually dove in and found it to be a very simple process. (Once you know what your doing) If I wouldn't have watched it I imagine I would have posted something very similar to your post.

Good luck and HNGD.

[phreddy]

Make sure the strings are fully stretched, if they arn't it will never stay in tune. +1 on all the above comments.

 

Scott

[jds22]

Ditto to what everybody else said. Tons of vids on the net on how to properly set up a Floyd. It might also be a good idea to take it to a luthier or guitar shop to have it set up properly and if possible, have the tech give you some tips.

 

Locking trems take a bit more work but nothing difficult. You just need to learn how they function and how to porperly set them up and maintain them.

[tiltsta]

Yeah, the advice in the first few posts is exactly what you should do. Everything needs to be set up, stretched, and then tuned to pitch, lock the strings tight at the nut, then use the fine tuners to get it perfect. It should be stable at that point. Just remember when tuning with the headstock tuners before you lock to give yourself some travel on the fine tuners, in general the guitar will go sharp when you lock the nut down tight, and you need enough travel on the fine tuners to compensate.

[cajunboy2k]

Another thing you may look at is the string retainer at the head stock(if it has one). I was having problems with stable tuning with an Ibanez JS1000. I tried everything, until someone told me to make sure the string retainer is screwed down low enough to have a proper string angle before the strings get to the tuners. It worked like a charm. I know it sounds weird, especially after the strings are locked down, but it works.

[LesPaulFetish]

Yup, it's probably not that there's anything wrong with the guitar, you just don't know how to set it up yet Plenty of good vids, or find a good tech if you can. What sucks is getting locking trems set up where I live costs like double what a Les Paul would be.

[RaVenCAD]

Here is a good Floyd Rose setup video. Watch it, learn it, live it..

 

[video=youtube;vNNAVzS3cS4]

[Thomas000]

Thank you for this.  I've struggled for years to get my EVH Wolfgang to stay in tune.  Didn't realize to play with the springs.