Ibanez GIO Gets a Floyd | Part Two

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Howdy folks. Nice seeing you again :) In Part One, we saw how the locking nut was installed on the neck of this Ibanez GIO. Now let's see how I got the Floyd Rose into the body. Yes, like I'm fond of saying, you have to measure everything twice before even bringing out your chisels and what-have-you.

Now, the original trem was of the two-point variety; so the bushings for the bridge mounting studs were already in place. The fit was so good that I would not have to relocate them. Problem was, the new bridge mounting studs could not fit into the original bushings; and I could not reuse the original studs because they were missing. Yes, I'd have to remove the old bushings and replace them with the ones provided.

Using a pair of compatible studs that I found in my spare parts box, I was able to position the Floyd Rose exactly where I wanted it to be. Following this, all cut lines were carefully drawn; and the bushings could be removed.

The process I employ to remove bushings, be it for a Floyd Rose or tune-o-matic stop bar; involves four basic steps. The first is to unscrew the bridge mounting studs with a suitable hex wrench, and then insert a small solid brass rod into the bushing. This rod should be short enough to allow the stud to be screwed back on; but long enough to push back against the stud.

The third step is to gently screw in the stud; not force it in. As soon as the bottom of the stud starts to push down on the brass rod, the bushing will slowly start to rise out of the wood. Eventually, it will rise out far enough to be easily pulled out. Sometimes, if the Moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars; the bushing will pop out just like that!

Once the bushings were out, it was time to do some preliminary cutting and gouging with chisels of various sizes. I keep my chisels sharp, so this part didn't take all that long. This was followed by clean-up with my trusty Pro's Kit rotary tool and a Dremel mini-router bit; plus lots of sanding.

The routed area was then sprayed with flat black, followed by a top coats of flat clear. Once everything had dried and cured, a carefully-cut piece of black EVA foam was glued to the bottom of the route to protect the wood from the fine tuners during up-trem use.

Next, the Floyd Rose was installed with a set of cheap "dummy" strings, probably Orphees. Did you think I would trash a set of Ernie Balls? Nah, no way, man! So, the strings were on and tuned to pitch; and then I discovered that while the fretboard radius was 14 inches, the saddles were sitting at a much-flatter radius of 16 inches.

To correct this imbalance, several brass saddle shims of various thicknesses were utilized to raise the B, G, D and A string saddles until a radius of 14 inches was achieved. The final results filled me with joy, but not so much the journey there. Stringing, unstringing, clamping, unclamping, tuning, detuning, fiddling with hex keys, removing the saddles, reinstalling the saddles; repeat ad infinitum .... you get the idea.

Thus ends this post. In Part Three, we'll look at rewiring; and enjoy a little photoshoot of sorts. Thanks for visiting, and I'll see you in the next post :)