ibanez floyd rose

hey everyone, I just bought an ibanez js-100, one of the joe satriani models. I tune it perfectly every time, but when I do some whammy bar stuff it goes right out of tune. I looked on the internet and I saw that some people have ahd similar problems with the ibanez lo-trs bridges (mine). I was wondering if other people have these problems, and if they'd know how to fix it, or if I should just take it back and get a new guitar all together. Thanks.

Did you lock the screws at the nut?

yeah I do everything I'm supposed to, I think. first I tune it till it's perfect, then I lock the nuts, and I tune the fine tuners till they're perfect. It stays in tune just fine when I'm playing normal, but as soon as I pull the whammy bar it goes out of tune.

Its a no brainer. No matter how good of a bridge or nut or locking system or whatever you've got, the use of the whammy bar will eventually put the guitar out of tune.
But there could be one thing. Have you changed the strings on it since you baught it? They may be dead. The guitar could have been sitting in the store a while, after all.

The gauge of the strings can effect the way a guitar fitted with a FR trem holds its tune. Changing from 9s to 10s or visa versa can sometimes solve this problem (I know it shouldn’t make any difference but hey it has worked for me in the past !).

Some floating bridges just stay in tune better than others. As for Ibanez-manufactured stuff, the lo-pro edge model seems to keep a guitar in tune better than the lo-trs.

You can have a "Backstop" or something(not sure of it's name) installed in the back where the springs are, which will keep your guitar in tune better, but it will also limit the movement of the bridge.(only when pulling it up)

Check out the springs when you pull very far when the guitar's back is looking at the floor (the pickups looking at the sky).

They may tend to slip a little bit from their normal places, causing you're guitar to go out of tune.

I had the same problem, and to get over it I used to make the pickups face the floor when I pull so far.

But I later found 2 solutions for this:

1- Lock the thing that hold the springs more into the wood by the 2 screws at the back of the guitar... you'll have to either remove a spring or increase the strings gauge.

2- Wrap some kinda rope around these springs and the bridge... I'm sure you can manage to do that.


Also I saw a picture (I think on http://www.jemsite.com) , and the springs were locked to the block that hold them to the bridge by a small bar or something, does anybody knows what is this thing called?!...

As you can see, I'm very bad with technical terminology ... hope somebody can translate my post into english. :)

[Edited by SLY on 12-26-2002 at 10:15 AM]

I noticed that with Ibanez, the varying ability to stay in tune. I've tried two of the same model of Ibanez RG's and they seemed to slip out of tune easily. Then I tried this Jackson and I never heard it slip once.

Originally posted by Josh Redstone
I noticed that with Ibanez, the varying ability to stay in tune. I've tried two of the same model of Ibanez RG's and they seemed to slip out of tune easily. Then I tried this Jackson and I never heard it slip once.

Hmm, I'm betting those weren't RG's of the 5XX series. Which are equiped with Edge bridges. Series with a lower number are equiped with lesser quality bridges such as the lo-trs.
Also, what kind of Jackson did you try? The higher end ones come with Original Floyd Rose bridges, and the lower end ones' bridges are just as bad as the low end Ibanez ones.

Yeah, it was and RG 250 DX. And the Jackson was a JS30 Dinky, but I still found it stayed in tune better than the Ibanez.
I would like a guitar with a floyed rose, thats why I tried those two, and I really like the Ibanez's sounds, but if the tremolo system sucks than maybe I'll go for a higher model, like a JEM or something.