First of all, great guitar!!!! It's a Dean Vendetta 4.0F, I love Dean guitars!!! It's got a neck-thru construction, Maple/Walnut neck, Mahogany wings(body), licensed Floyd rose trem, 24 frets, Grover tuners, and Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups. And the thing plays awesome, the seemless neck joint means playing on the high frets is no problem, the neck is thin and fast, with smooth sustain, and mahogany body means thick, articulate tone.
Witch leads to the question, yes a floating trem question , I got the intonation good, the trem is level with the body, but the gauge I usually use is 10's to 52's, now that's kinda much for a floating trem, so I was thinking I should go thin and use 9-42 or 9.5-44. So my question is this: Is it easier on the trem if I use smaller strings? Like, is the trem more stable?
Thanks

The guitar looks great!

I really dont know to much about tremolos but I believe you can adapt the springs that hold the tremolo to your string gauge.

Hopefully someone who knows more about this can fill me out...

I switched from 9's to 10's earlier this year. I've got an Ibanez RG2620 which has 10-52's on. It's more stable with a thicker string, as you have more tension on the springs to compensate. Moving to a lighter guage, you'll have to slacken off the springs, and the trem will be more loose, therefore tuning will be slightly less stable.

So it is easier on the trem, but that means that it is less stable.


Enjoy your new guitar by the way, looks like a nice beastie.

I've had a new guitar this week too. I'll see if I can get any pics of it up

/T

Ahh, ok, that makes sense, what if you use a gauge with a light top and regular bottom(9-46's), would I have to configure the springs in an offset sorta way?

Probably not. If you look at your trem, at the hinge (the bit where the bridge is attached to your guitar), you'll notice that it's not actually connected to the guitar, in fact it's just held by the springs underneath, and your strings from above, and it's wedged up against two posts. These posts should be adjustable, so you can raise them slightly. If you find that you need to get more clearance for the regular bottom strings, raise the post closest to the bottom strings.

Thanks for helping a trem noob

I learn something every day----I don't think I ever heard of 9.5 gauge strings...who makes them?

Awesome guitar, look at how easy it looks to reach up to fret 24!

I'm not knowledgable on trems either...sorry.

Yeah the fret access is crazy!! I could easily fret the e string on the pickup if I wanted !

Yup 9.5(cool yea!), I wanna try it cuz it's so different, D'Addario makes em http://daddario.com/DADProdDetail.aspx?Cod...&Class=AABA

I'm sorry, I don't get it... What's different with these strings except the upper strings having tension/thickness just between a .009 and a .010?

I never said there was a difference besides string tension and thickness.
But just those 2 factors can entirely change how a guitar feels and plays!