Floyd Rose

From GuitarWiki

Floyd Rose is the organization that licenses, distributes and manufactures the Floyd Rose locking tremolo invented by Floyd D. Rose. They also produce some complete guitars using the system. Floyd Rose owns the patents on the design, and licenses these patents to several original equipment manufacturers.

The Floyd Rose system consists of:

• a lock at nut of the guitar, which prevents the tuning ("machine") heads from being used and holds the strings taut,
• a "floating bridge", where the other ends of the strings are also vise-locked (hence, "double-locking").

The locking system helps to keep the strings in tune while the strings are slackened to a degree which wasn't possible with older tremolo systems, such as those found on Fender Stratocaster, allowing "dive bombs" (i.e. rapid lowering of the pitch of a note). Since the tuning heads are ineffectual with the lock in place, the Floyd Rose bridge has heads for fine tuning; the guitar is tuned before the lock is put on, then fine tuned afterwards.

Contents 1 Basic principles 2 Models and varietes 3 Parts 4 Advantages 5 Disadvantages 6 Music impact and history 7 External links

Basic principles

The basic principles of the action of a double-locking floating bridge are shown in this simple illustration (whose proportions are exaggerated to better demonstrate the effect).

Position I illustrates the normal position of an ideally tuned Floyd Rose bridge. The bridge (green) balances on a pivot point, being pulled counter-clockwise by the strings' (red) tension and clockwise by one or several (usually up to five) springs (light blue). Controlled by special tuning screws (sky blue), these two forces are balanced such that the bridge's surface is parallel to the guitar body (olive). The strings are locked tightly with a special mechanism at the nut (also green, as it is a part of the Floyd Rose bridge) as well as at the bridge, hence "double-locking".

Position II illustrates the position of the bridge when the tremolo arm is pushed down towards the guitar body. The bridge rotates around a pivot point counter-clockwise and the tension in each string decreases, lowering the pitch of each string. The sound of any notes being played becomes flat.

Position III illustrates the position of the bridge when the tremolo arm is pulled up away from the guitar body. The bridge rotates clockwise, tension in the strings increases, the pitch of the sound increases and so notes sound sharper than normal.

Note that:

• All strings are affected simultaneously (compare with the B-Bender, where only one string is affected) but, due to different physical properties of each string, pitch shift is usually different on every string so the tremolo arm is commonly used on single strings or small group of strings (2-3).
• If the tremolo arm is pushed down, action increases and, generally, strings with lowered tension are less comfortable to play.
• If the tremolo arm is pulled up, action decreases and strings may hit frets, making unwanted sounds. Also, excess tension applied to strings makes them more fragile and increases the chance of string breakage.

Models and varietes

• Floyd Rose Original is the oldest and most common design. It's left untouched, with only minor changes - it is the original design that first saw use in 1977 and was patented in 1979. Note that the name "Floyd Rose Original" is used to designate this system from so-called "Floyd Rose Licensed" tremolos.

• Floyd Rose Licensed are made by other manufacturers that purchase a license from Floyd Rose. They usually copy the design of the Floyd Rose Original, but tend to deviate slightly from the original ways that ease the manufacturing process for a particular guitar maker. Most licensed systems use the same design (same deviation from original) that makes their parts inter-changeable throughout all the licensed tremolos, but not the Floyd Rose Original. The bridges of such systems are clearly titled "Licensed under Floyd Rose Patents" and Floyd Rose doesn't offer any support for them. Construction quality of Floyd Rose Licensed tremolos is arguably questionable, but generally, for licensed models that match the price of original, quality and durability is high and lower-end, cheaper tremolos make-trade offs in quality to lower the price. The best-known manufacturers of "Floyd Rose Licensed" tremolos are Schaller and Gotoh.

• Floyd Rose 7-String is a redesign of Floyd Rose Original for 7-string guitars - in all other aspects it's just the same.

• Floyd Rose Pro is a low-profile version of Floyd Rose Original. The bridge and arm design was changed in a way that guitarist's hand would be generally closer of strings while holding bar handle. The bridge has narrower string spacing (0.400 inc]es or 10.16 mm] versus 0.420 inches or 10.66 mm at Floyd Rose Original). Fine tuners are slightly angled for more comfortable play.

• Floyd Rose SpeedLoader is a newer design introduced around 2003 that combines Floyd Rose Original with SpeedLoader system.

Parts

Floyd Rose tremolos are known for their excellent serviceability: the mechanism is well-documented and spare parts can be purchased directly from manufacturer or via dealers. Usually, Floyd Rose device (as Floyd Rose Pro Tremolo on the image) consists of these parts:

1. Saddles — basically, it's a box the string is locked in. There are usually six saddles, one for each string (seven for 7-string version of tremolo). Each saddle contains a long screw that fixes the string holder block inside it. Allen wrench is required to loosen or tighten these.
2. String Holder Block or Saddle Block — cube-shaped metal block that presses the string end into the saddle wall thus locking it tight.
3. Intonation Screws — screws that hold saddles on the base plate; when loose, saddles can be moved forward and backward, effectively changing intonation of a string. Allen wrench is required to loosen or tighten these.
4. Fine Tuners — screws that could be used to fine-tune strings (instead of machine heads) after nut lock is clamped tight; can be rotated with bare hands.
5. Tremolo Arm — the most visible part of mechanism, a handle that can be used to change played notes pitch up and down during play.
6. Nut — string clamp, installed as "zero fret" at the neck; has screws and braces called "locks" to hold strings that go through it. Allen wrench required to loosen or tighten these.
7. String Retainer — metal bar installed at headstock to retain strings that go to the machine heads.
8. Springs — springs that pull bridge clockwise around the pivot point. They are installed into tremolo cavity that is usually accessible from behind the guitar body and is hidden under plastic cover. There are usually 3 springs, however, to change the resistance of arm to more comfortable one, some guitarists use from 1 to 5 springs.
9. Spring Claw Hook — a connector between guitar body wall and springs; has special "claws" to attach the springs to. This part is usually mounted on a wall of guitar body using loose long screws that could be used to change the tension of springs and thus re-balance the whole tremolo system.
10. Allen wrenches — 3 sizes are usually supplied with tremolo. Small one is used for intonation screws, medium one is used for saddle block fixing screws and the large one is for nut screws. Floyd Rose Licensed systems usually use only 2 sizes of wrenches: they use the same size for saddle blocks' and nut's screws.

Advantages

• Most visible advantage in comparison to vintage tremolo system is a possibility to bend notes not only down, but also up.

• Floyd Rose usually offer extraordinarily wide range in vibratos: normal floating bridge may bend notes 3-4 semitones down and 2-3 semitones up. Extreme custom variants of Floyd Rose-like systems are able to bend notes up to 7-8 semitones down and 4-5 semitones up.

• Strings always stay in tune. Properly tuned Floyd Rose system (with a tight locking nut) are known to hold strings in tune for months.

• Floyd Rose could be used to create a whole new range of sounds.

Disadvantages

Generally, most widely criticized disadvantage of floating bridge is that it's hard to tune (i.e. balance) properly in first place and acclaimed balance is very sensitive to external factors. For example:

• Moving the guitar can cause the bridge to move, changing the tuning;

• Heavy palm muting moves the bridge (unless it is set up "Eddie Van Halen style" = the bridge lays flat on the surface of the guitar, with the inner springs tightened all the way, allowing only forward motion of the arm and bridgeplate, i.e., detuned notes);

• Unstable ambiance temperatures (that are not uncommon at gigs, where ambient temperature usually increases while the act progresses) can cause strings to go out of tune;

• A broken string ruins the balance of the bridge, thus ruining the tuning of all the other strings; even worse, a single broken string rapidly increases the tension applied to the other strings (the tension redistributes), which may cause breakage of other strings, i.e. the process goes on as a chain reaction; the single broken string could mean breakage of several others;

• Resetting the guitar takes longer: if overall string tension changes (for example, because other brand or caliber of strings is used, or ambient conditions changes, as above), the bridge would require rebalancing (which usually involves adjusting screws inside the tremolo cavity); changing string gauge is often time-consuming.

• Adjusting (bridge) intonation requires intensive work, as the saddles are held fast to the bridgeplate by bolts; this, in conjunction with the unique process of restringing and rebalancing a Floyd requires considerable patience and diligence.

• Compared to the original Floyd Rose, the Liscensed Floyd Rose cannot be depended upon when playing live due to the near 80% possibility of it putting a guitar's strings out of tune.

Most disadvantages could be eliminated or at least eased by using a tremstopper.

Despite all these cons, lots of guitarists choose Floyd Rose because of several unbeatable pros. Playing big gigs with a Floyd Rose usually makes a guitarist have several backup guitars to change instrument quickly in case of string breakage or some other problems. Backup guitars are usually maintained back-stage by a guitar technician.

Music impact and history

In the early 1980s, Floyd D. Rose cemented an agreement with the upstart Kramer Guitars, whereby Kramer became the exclusive distributor of Floyd Rose tremolos, even those that were not attached to guitars.The Floyd Rose Tremolo.The agreement stipulated a royalty paid out to Floyd for every unit sold; Kramer eventually defaulted on the agreement, which resulted in a lawsuit between the two parties. Kramer saw a great potential in the new double-locking tremolo, and with the endorsement of Eddie Van Halen playing a guitar with the Floyd, they dropped the earlier Rockinger tremolo design in favor of the new Floyd Rose unit between June of 1982 and January 1983.

The use of the Floyd Rose was popularised by Eddie Van Halen Many modern electric guitar players (Jason Becker, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Brad Gillis, Mattias Eklundh et al.) make heavy use of the whammy bar to generate new sounds that were not practical to achieve with traditional tremolo systems, while most thrash metal lead guitarists made heavy use of the bar merely to create unsettling sounds: Slayer's "Raining Blood" features a solo consisting entirely of whammy bar noises (although the guitarists of Slayer actually used the cam based Kahler Tremolo System).

Many guitarists have continued to use these systems to create new sounds: the late Dimebag Darrell, made use of the bar to access natural harmonics not otherwise available; Tom Morello uses the whammy bar in conjunction with his pickup toggle switch and Digitech's Whammy pedal to create sounds reminiscent of hip hop; Karl Logan of Manowar is known for simulating sounds of motorcycle engine burn-in - this "guitar vs bike" duelling effect is particularly used on Return of the Warlord track. Isaac Brock of the indie band Modest Mouse makes liberal use of the Floyd Rose tremolo, especially on the band's earlier records.

External links

• Floyd Rose website.