What is floyd rose

Again and again. Even for the most experienced of guitarists, this situation can be demoralising, to say the least. The Floyd Rose tremolo essentially invented a new genre of music, and with it a new vocabulary of sounds. It was just never intended to create more than a gentle wobble, and so more spirited use was pulling the guitars out of tune. Electric guitar pioneers like Hendrix and Ritchie Blackmore made glorious sounds with their Fender whammy bars, but even they suffered the ill fortune of tuning problems.

Floyd Rose, a gigging guitarist in Southern California and jewellery maker by trade, was similarly frustrated. An avid whammy bar user, he grew fed up with this intolerable tuning situation and, in , set about changing it once and for all. Using tools from his day job, he experimented with various systems that would solve the conundrum. Knowing that the strings moved back and forth through the nut creating friction and thus creating potential tuning problems , he thought up the notion of a nut that would lock the strings in place, thereby stopping the movement dead and providing the much-needed stability.

He got to work and soon had a prototype. This makes logical sense, given that the bridge alone is not the sole guilty party in causing tuning discrepancies. Indeed, a combination of any of the points in which the strings came into contact with another surface during their travels could be a part of the problem and indeed solution.

Therefore, the bridge, bridge saddles, nut and tuning gears were all contenders for change. This unit was made from hard steel, after experiments with brass found that it wore down too quickly. The first few units found their way into the hands of top local players like Eddie Van Halen, whose feedback proved significant in developing the Floyd Rose tremolo into the double locking monster we know today. As well as the idea to lock the strings at the bridge in addition to the nut , further feedback brought about the fine tuners at the bridge.

This was the masterstroke, given that strings would otherwise have to be perfectly in tune before being clamped down at the nut. Any tiny deviation from true pitch could not therefore be corrected without unlocking all of the strings and starting all over again. This input from the top flashy players of the day meant that Floyd was able to refine his design and release a credible and legitimate solution for whammy-frenzied players who needed stability in their lives.

The final, revised unit was a large and intricate mass of steel machinery that looked like it meant serious business. This biting action was achieved with an allen key, which had a socket at the tail of the bridge for each string. One significant factor in the design that threw people a little was the fact that you needed to remove the ball end of each string before it went into the bridge to be clamped in place. This was a simple matter of grabbing some snips and beheading the string, but some people found it an extra layer of hassle.

Regardless, once the headless string was placed in between the jaws of the saddle clamps, the jaws could be closed on the string using the allen key interface at the back. Tight, but not too tight! There are licensed versions of the Floyd Rose tremolo available, and many of them are high quality bridges. However, the budget models tend not to hold tuning perfectly, which removes the entire point of having a Floyd Rose bridge.

For people who want tot is quite possible to buy a great second hand guitar for a bargain, and to upgrade the parts, but this is probably not something to tackle on your very first instrument. Most people who are buying their first electric guitar do not have a lot of money to spend on it. But even for those of you lucky enough to have a lot of money to spend on guitars, my general advice is to buy something inexpensive for your first one, and to save the rest of your money for later, when you have a better idea of exactly what you want from an electric guitar.

The next reason I think you should avoid a Floyd Rose guitar for your very first electric guitar is because of the learning curve. Once you are used to using a floyd, basic things like tuning up, changing strings and general maintenance are pretty easy.

But when you are brand new to them, it can be a bit of a hassle at first. For someone who is still getting used to having a electric guitar, the extra learning curve involved with a Floyd Rose tremolo is probably best deferred until later. Adjusting the tuning on a Floyd Rose guitar is not very straightforward — basically, it requires a whole new setup on the guitar.

Some of these, such as the Series Floyd Rose, still offer great performance despite their lower cost. Indeed there are! More or less the same as a Floyd Rose in terms of design, Ibanez have many different iterations of the Edge tremolo. They have also produced ergonomic low-profile versions, where the fine tuners sit lower down and are less in the way of the picking hand. The quality of these tremolos is usually excellent, with many Ibanez players complementing their stability and smooth feel.

Kahler also produce double-locking tremolo bridges. However, they followed a slightly different design philosophy, and the physical differences between their systems and Floyds is quite noticeable. Nevertheless, their systems have also been popular with some guitarists. These companies have also catered for extended range players, manufacturing 7 and 8 string versions of their tremolo systems. Following the same design essentially, these bridges have extra saddles and slots in their locking nuts to accommodate the higher amount of strings.

This meant that the bar could only be used to lower the pitch. Others followed suit; most notably Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, who used the Floyd Rose to develop his signature sound.

Joe Satriani was one of the first players to employ this extreme technique. In the next part of this article, we are going to look at how to restring a Floyd Rose. Luckily for most Ibanez owners, this next part is relevant to your tremolos too! The process becomes easier after a few times, but restringing a Floyd is more technical than it is for a traditional tune-o-matic or fixed bridge.

First off, get yourself a fresh pack of strings! Start things off by grabbing a couple of allen wrenches. Most Floyd Rose-equipped guitars would have included these when you made your purchase, with the right sizes provided for your tremolo. If not, you can easily purchase a set of allen wrenches at your local DIY shop. They are necessary to loosen certain components, allowing you to release the old strings.

Make sure you also have a string winder handy, as this will speed up the process significantly. Wire cutters will be needed to cut off the string s excess, including the ball ends of each replacement string.

You may also need a Phillips-style screwdriver to remove the back-plate from your guitar, so that you can make adjustments to the tremolo springs and their tension. Start off by removing the locking nut plates. This will take pressure off the strings, meaning that they are free to unwind and remove. Next, use an allen wrench to loosen the corresponding saddle at the bridge end. Make sure to also do this carefully, as there is a small metal block that keeps the string tightened — which may fall out.

You do not want to lose one of these either! If you have a floating or routed tremolo system, you may notice that the bridge will have dipped back.

This is fine, as tension from the removed string is lost and therefore the springs are working more effectively without it. Now, you should be able to pull the string out entirely. Wind up the string into a neat coil, and dispose of safely. Take out the replacement string from the new pack. Unwrap the string, and use a pair of wire cutters to snip off the ball end, including the section where it is tightly twisted.

You can now insert the string into the saddle at the bridge, and tighten it using the correct-sized allen wrench. Do not over-tighten! Make sure that there is some slack, so that the string will wrap nicely around the post a couple of times.

Wind the string up to the pitch it needs to be, so that the tension is kept balanced like before. This is easier to notice with a floating bridge system, however if you have a non-routed guitar, you can check by gently pressing down on the bar and feeling whether the response is the same as before.

If you are changing to a thicker set of strings or a lighter gauge, things will look different. A heavier string set will generate more tension, therefore causing more strain on the springs that counter-balance the Floyd Rose.