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→Floating Bridges
== Floating Bridges ==
If you use a floating bridge, be sure that your bridges knife edges are sharp and contact the posts at a completely perpendicular angle while the bridge is at rest. Also make sure your posts don't have notches or other imperfections that can catch or otherwise prevent the bridge from easily rotating against them. This guarantees you the greatest tuning stability. Also, make sure your locking nut is tightly locked, or if you have locking tuners, your nut is well-lubricated.
Whammy bar dive bombs are notorious for throwing guitars out of tune. If the guitar is a quality instrument with a good setup, a dive bomb shouldn't be a big issue. But if you notice you have this issue with your guitar, you may have to adjust your playing away from such harsh dive bombs in a live setting.
There are devices, such as the Trem-setter, that use a double-hinge method to try to stabilize the bridge at its desired resting position. From what I hear they work as advertised; however, they also prevent you from getting a smooth whammy movement around the rest position. For this reason, I don't like them - I find they kind of defeat the purpose of having a floating bridge.
=== Double-Stops or Unison Bends ===
When you bend a string, this increases its tension. On a floating bridge, this means the string side of the bridge has additional tension relative to the bear claw springs, causing the bridge to dip as though you were pushing down slightly on the whammy bar. This makes double-stops and unison bends more difficult, as the fretted, unbent notes are now flat.
There are two possible solutions. One is to apply a slight bend to those notes, raising them up to their normal pitch. This can be difficult to get precisely, but with a little practice with a tuner, it's not as difficult as it seems.
Unison P4 to m3 d5 to P4
E---5---------------------8----------------------8--------------------
B---8b10----5-------------8b10----8--------------7b8----8-------------
G-----------7b9----5--------------7b9----8--------------6b7----8------
D------------------8b10------------------8b10------------------7b8----
E---12--------------------15---------------------15-------------------
B---15b17---12------------15b17---15-------------14b15--15------------
G-----------14b16--12-------------14b16--15-------------13b14--15-----
D------------------15b17-----------------15b17-----------------14b15--
After making each bend, silence both notes then check each note's pitch accuracy against a tuner individually. Adjust each note by bending until both notes reach the desired pitch. Practice this exercise in additional areas of the fretboard. String tension differs across the fretboard, and the amount of bend required to be applied to each note will slightly differ as well.
The other solution is to pull up on the whammy bar slightly, raising the unbent note's pitch until it is in-tune. This is a simpler method; however, it is not useful when you have to repeatedly pick the notes - trying to hold the bar at the slightly raised position while strumming is basically impossible. However, this technique works perfectly for a sustained unison bend or double-stop. Additionally, you can use the bar to put a bit of vibrato on both notes, preventing their need to be at exactly the correct pitch.
== Tuning the G and B Strings ==