Originally Posted by: MjrTomThanks for the advice :)

I have been practicing my rhythm in Drop-D and the tuning seems to remain pretty consistant without muddying up too much. It seems to have little effect on the trem system although the intonation needed some tweaking.

Playing on clean has helped my technique, some of my smaller mistakes were covered by the distortion so that has helped no end.

I personally have got used to using the small hard picks (1mm Dunlop stubbys) , they seem to accentuate the tone much better than others i have tried. It also seems to have improved the picking accuracy and timing.

I found an excellet video tutorial for setting up a Floyd here:http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=10892

You have to be a full access member to see it. A professional tech showed me how to do a setup on a Floyd, but once it's set up properly, My RG stays in tune.

Ibanez has a guitar that has some kind of gizmo in the bridge where you can go from standard to a drop D- can't remember which model though, but saw it somewhere.

I use either the Fender or Gibson teardrop "jazz" picks- medium to hard, and I feel it increases my picking accuracy also. Yes, I agree playing clean will force you to play more accurately; you'll hear every mistake.

You don't have any string rattle using super slinky 9's, and the intonation is intact? I'd consider that a minor miracle on my RG.

I still don't know what/who Slipknot is- too lazy to google it. Glad to hear you were able to change the tuning without any ill effects. If you're not a full access member, google "how to setup a Floyd Rose"- I think Ibanez has instructions how to set up their bridges- or maybe go straight to the Ibanez site. They have explicit instructions on how to setup their various bridges.