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|date=May 2010
|date=May 2010
|journal=[[Guitar World]]
|journal=[[Guitar World]]
|url=http://www.guitarworld.com/article/floydupgradescom_brass_%E2%80%9Cbig_block%E2%80%9D_and_titanium_sustain_blocks
|accessdate=2010-10-07}}</ref> According to the reviews this modification might lead to a preferable change in the tonal quality of the guitar.<ref name="premierguitar_bigblock" /><ref name="guitarworld_floydupgrade" />


==Models and varieties==
==Models and varieties==

Revision as of 16:28, 20 January 2012

Floyd Rose Original

The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. The first of its kind, Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1977, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name. The Floyd Rose gained popularity in the 1980s through influential guitarists like Eddie Van Halen, Neal Schon, Brad Gillis, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai, who used its ability to stay in tune even with extreme changes in pitch to invent new guitar licks. Its tuning stability comes through the double-locking design that has been widely regarded as revolutionary; the design has been listed on both Guitar World magazine's "10 Most Earth Shaking Guitar Innovations"[1] as well as Guitar Player's "101 Greatest Moments in Guitar History 1979-1983".[2]

History

Floyd D. Rose first started working on what would later become the Floyd Rose Tremolo in 1976.[3] He was playing in a rock band at the time, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple, where he used the vibrato bar a lot but failed to be able to keep his guitars in tune using traditional approaches like lubricating the nut, or winding the strings as little as possible around the tuning pegs.

Rose's profession at the time was making jewelry, and after noticing one of the issues with the regular nut design is the string moves freely, he used his tools to create a brass nut where the strings were locked in place with three U-shaped clamps. He installed this nut in his 1957 Fender Stratocaster. Later he improved this design by using hardened steel, as otherwise the strings would wear the clamps down too quickly, and a redesigned bridge which also locked the strings using clamps.

The first bridges and nuts were all hand-made by Rose, and were quickly picked up by some of the more influential guitarists at the time, perhaps most notably Eddie Van Halen.[4] Other well-known guitarists who picked it up early were Neal Schon, who purportedly got serial number 3,[5] Brad Gillis (serial number 4),[5] and Steve Vai.[6]

The first patent was awarded in 1979,[7] and shortly afterward, Rose made an agreement with Kramer Guitars because he could no longer keep up with demand manufacturing the bridges by hand. Kramer's guitar models with the Floyd Rose bridge became very popular, leading them to drop the earlier Rockinger vibrato in favor of the Floyd Rose between June 1982 and January 1983.[8] Due to the popularity, other companies started making similar bridges, thus violating the patent. This led Rose and Kramer to make licensing agreements with other manufacturers, and there are now several different models available based on the double-locking design. Because the bridges and nuts were no longer hand-made it was necessary to update the design, and the bridges were changed to add a set of tuners that allow for fine-tuning the guitar after the strings are locked at the nut.[9][10]

In January 1991, Kramer's exclusive distribution agreement with Rose ended when Fender announced they would be the new exclusive distributor of Floyd Rose products. While Fender used Floyd Rose-licensed vibrato systems previously, this move allowed Fender to offer a few models with the original Floyd Rose Tremolo, such as the Richie Sambora Signature Strat in 1991, the Floyd Rose Classic Stratocaster in 1992 and the Set-Neck Floyd Rose Strat in 1993.[11] Floyd Rose collaborated with Fender to design a Fender Deluxe Locking Tremolo, introduced in 1991 on the Strat Plus Deluxe, the USA Contemporary Stratocaster, and the Strat Ultra. Fender used the Floyd Rose-designed locking vibrato system on certain humbucker-equipped American Deluxe and Showmaster models until 2007.[12]

In 2005, distribution of the Floyd Rose Original reverted to Floyd Rose, whereas the patented designs were licensed to other manufacturers to use.

Principles

The basic principles of the action of a double-locking floating bridge are shown. Its proportions are exaggerated to demonstrate the effect.

Position I illustrates the normal position of an ideally tuned Floyd Rose bridge. The bridge (orange) balances on a pivot point, being pulled counter-clockwise by the strings' tension and clockwise by one or several (usually up to five) springs. Controlled by special tuning screws (turquoise), 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 (green) as well as at the bridge, hence "double-locking".

Position II illustrates the position of the bridge when the vibrato 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. While the tension of the strings decreases, the tension of the springs increases. It is the balance between string-tension and spring-tension, as well as the fact that the strings end at the bridge saddles and nut (eliminating "play" in the string, which would negatively affect tuning), that brings the strings reliably back into tune.

Position III illustrates the position of the bridge when the vibrato 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 when using the vibrato string action is affected, and this can cause the strings to unintentionally touch the frets and create unwanted sounds on instruments set up with extremely low action and heavily recessed vibrato installations.

Advantages and disadvantages

The main advantage of the Floyd Rose Tremolo system is the double-locking design which allows the guitar to stay in tune even through extremely large pitch changes, e.g. like forcing the vibrato bar all the way down to the guitar body, or pulling up on the bar to raise the tone as much as a fifth or a seventh.[13] Some examples of this type of usage is described in the popular use section.

A typical set-up of the bridge has it floating, allowing for both raising and dropping the pitch of notes using the vibrato bar. In this case, if a string breaks the balance of the bridge is disrupted, rendering the guitar out of tune.[13] If this happens in the middle of a performance, the guitar is not going to be of much use to a guitarist who would like to sound "in-tune," which is perhaps most users of the Floyd-Rose (since the main advantage of the system is to achieve pitch-bends without losing intonation when the whammy bar returns to its stationary position). Moreover, since the tension of one string affects the tension of all the others, it can take several iterations through the tuning process before the instrument is tuned. Some players prefer to instead have the bridge flush with the body, one example is Eddie Van Halen,[14] and in this set-up a broken string will have no effect on the pitch of the other strings. This also allows fitting a device to the bridge that can drop the low E-string down to D to extend the tonal variety of the guitar, even during live performance.[15] Bending, however, still affects the rest of the strings, which makes some double-stop techniques more difficult to achieve.

The bridge's effect on the tone of the guitar is a topic of much disagreement, some players find that the Floyd Rose bridge has a "thin tone",[16] which has led to the development of replacement sustain blocks. This block is larger in size than the standard block,[16] and can be made of a metal alloy with larger mass.[17] According to the reviews this modification might lead to a preferable change in the tonal quality of the guitar.[16][17]

Models and varieties

Floyd Rose Pro
Licensed Ibanez Floyd Rose variant
Floyd Rose SpeedLoader
  • Floyd Rose Original is the oldest model still in production. Since 1977, production models bearing this name are mostly the same as the first model, with only minor changes. Note that the name "Floyd Rose Original" is used to differentiate this system from "Floyd Rose Licensed". The first Original Floyds were double locking but did not have fine tuners, requiring the nut to be unclamped any time string tuning changes needed to be made.
  • Floyd Rose II is a lower end version of the Original Floyd used mostly on import and mid-range instruments. Originally, Floyd IIs were single locking, locking only at the nut. Later versions were made double locking, but used weaker materials than the Original Floyd Rose, making them less dependable.
  • Floyd Rose Licensed Previously, all similar double locking vibrato systems were produced under license from Floyd Rose, and marked as such. As of 2003, the relevant Patents have expired (However the low profile Floyd Rose patents have not), and as such, any manufacturer can produce Floyd Rose derived vibrato systems. These vibratos may bear markings of being licensed from floyd rose, however no such marking is necessary, and as such since 2003 these markings appearing on vibratos have been a mark of unchanged production processes, rather than any actual licensing agreement. The term "Licensed Floyd Rose" has remained in use with guitarists to denote any Floyd Rose type system not manufactured by Floyd Rose. These bridges generally follow the designs of the Floyd Rose Original, but tend to deviate slightly from the original for the manufacturing process to be more cost-efficient. The bridges of such systems are often engraved "Licensed under Floyd Rose Patents" and Floyd Rose does not offer any customer support for them. Construction quality of Floyd Rose Licensed vibratos ranges from being sub-par to excellent, and price is no guarantee of quality, however three well-known manufacturers of Floyd Rose Licensed vibratos are Schaller, Gotoh. and more recently, Graphtech, whose LB63 bridge was released in 2008.
    • Yamaha Finger Clamp is a variety of Floyd Rose that have built in levers, and thus when tuning, no allen keys are needed. Currently only available on the CV820 Wes Borland signature model.
  • Floyd Rose Derived In order to reduce licensing cost from Floyd Rose, some manufacturers further improved their double locking trems that, despite being double locking, they were no longer considered a licensed product, but are distinct relatives derived from it.
    • Ibanez Edge is Ibanez's Floyd Rose variant. There are 4 primary versions: Edge, LoPro Edge, EdgePro, and EdgeZero. with numbered variants denoting budget models of the main lines, and also "Double" variants of many of these, the moniker denoting the inclusion of Piezo pickups. The Edge and LoPro Edge were discontinued in 2003 but were subsequently reintroduced on the signature models of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. (Some special edition guitars used these trems prior to their reintroduction, however the vibratos used were NOS, rather than production runs) These two vibratos, whether old or new, bear a mark of Floyd Rose Licensing, as they are produced using the same tooling, by Japanese guitar parts manufacturer Gotoh.
    • Ibanez Zero Resistance is another of Ibanez's Floyd Rose variants. It uses a ball-bearing mechanic instead of knife-edge as the joint, which gives the vibrato more consistency after use, and a stop-bar to help the guitar stay in tune after diving the vibrato, and which is claimed to improve tuning stability after breaking a string. This last claim however is verifiably false, as the extra springs that give the system its improved stability and stiffer feel during dives, are oriented in the wrong direction to counter the sudden loss of tension that occurs when a string breaks. These springs, including their orientation, are referred to as the ZPS system, with variants numbered 1 to 3, and are also present as part of the EdgeZero design.
    • Ibanez Fixed Edge. While it still uses the locking nut and locking bridge, it was mounted on top of the body, and was used not as a vibrato system, but to provide a familiar feel to vibrato users, and even more tuning stability on a hardtailed guitar. In terms of design, it uses two large bolts attached to the sides of a modified Edge-III baseplate, with a hidden bolt underneath the tail of the bridge under the fine tuners, that anchors the bridge to the body and provides stability.
  • Fender Deluxe Locking Tremolo. A specially designed system that was made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in 1991 in conjunction with Floyd Rose himself, utilizing locking tuners, a modified Fender 2-point synchronized vibrato with locking bridge saddles and a special low-friction LSR Roller Nut which allows strings to slide during vibrato use. This is a double locking system, except the other locking point is at the tuner instead of nut. Its main advantage is the unneeded requirement to perform any major alteration on a solid-body electric guitar, due notably to its similarity (in size and feel) to a normal Fender 2-point vibrato system. Fender discontinued this product in 2007.
  • Floyd Rose 7-String is a redesign of Floyd Rose Original for 7-string guitars. The design and working principles are otherwise the same.
  • Floyd Rose Pro is a low-profile version of Floyd Rose Original. The bridge and arm design is changed in such a way that the guitarist's hand will be generally closer to the strings while holding the vibrato arm. The bridge has a narrower string spacing (0.400 inches or 10.16 mm in this design versus 0.420 inches or 10.66 mm of the Floyd Rose Original). Fine tuners are slightly angled for more comfortable play.
  • Floyd Rose SpeedLoader Tremolo (see pic) is a redesign Developed in 1995-1999 and introduced around 2003 that combines Floyd Rose Original with the SpeedLoader system to produce a new design that overcame many disadvantages of the original Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo design, but requires special strings. This vibrato was developed in San Diego CA at AJ manufacturing by tool makers Jerry Morhman, Richard J Price, Steve lamms, and Kerry L Stottlemyer under the direct guidance of Floyd Rose himself. With Richard J Price doing the majority of the design work and machining of the prototypes. Over 3000 hours and $150,000 were spent in developing this new ground breaking vibrato system and the first working unit on a guitar body.
  • Floyd Rose Ultimate Titanium is basically an Original Floyd Rose made of titanium. Its availability is very limited, and it costs over double the price of an Original Floyd Rose.[citation needed]
Alex Lifeson of Rush playing a Gibson Les Paul with a Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo

The Floyd Rose Tremolo rose to popularity in the early 1980s. Many popular artists quickly adopted the device, making it difficult to measure how much each individual artist contributed to that popularity. Most sources consider Eddie Van Halen to be a pioneer of Floyd Rose usage.[3][18] Other players frequently cited to be influential in the area of Floyd Rose usage are Steve Vai,[6][18][19][20][21] Joe Satriani,[19][21] Kirk Hammett,[19] Brad Gillis,[18] Tom Morello,[22] Allan Holdsworth,[20] Nuno Bettencourt and Frank Zappa.

Many guitarists use this system to create new sounds that were not practical to achieve with traditional vibrato systems:

  • Synyster Gates from the California rock Band Avenged Sevenfold has an Original Floyd Rose on his signature Schecter guitar, and in many songs his uses the Floyd Rose to achieve extreme 'squeals' and two or three string bar dives.
  • Joe Satriani uses his whammy bar to raise the pitch of a pinch harmonic, usually on the open G string, in order to do his signature "Satch Scream".[23] He also uses the whammy bar to make his "lizard down the throat" sound, where the bar is used to keep the pitch of a note approximately constant while simultaneously sliding the same note, as heard in the song "Ice Nine" on the album Dreaming #11.[24]
  • Alexi Laiho Lead Guitarist for the melodic death metal band Children of Bodom utilizes a Floyd Rose Tremolo to create slow, but steady rises and drops in pitch to give, what he calls, 'An extra punch' to his playing style.
  • "Dimebag" Darrel Abbott of Pantera was known for using the whammy bar to release the tension on the strings and flick the g string and catch the string in a spot that creates a natural harmonic and play with the bar to raise and lower the pitch ex. in the end of "Cemetery Gates" This has become known as the 'Dimesqueal' [25] [26]
  • Herman Li and Sam Totman of DragonForce use the system to create video game-esque noises.[27]
  • Neal Schon of Journey is one of the earliest users of the Floyd Rose Tremolo and used the vibrato to simultaneously play rhythm and lead guitar parts, playing short leads with the vibrato and using the "hang over time" (where the various pitches eclipse each other as they fade) to create the intervals and/or leads for rhythm parts and consequently the illusion of two guitars playing at once.[citation needed]

Due to the popularity of the Floyd Rose system and the licensing to other manufacturers, a variety of other players also regularly use guitars equipped with this system, including Adrian Smith and Dave Murray of Iron Maiden, Criss Oliva of Savatage, Alex Lifeson of Rush, Bruce Kulick of Kiss, Living Colour's Vernon Reid, and Kirk Hammett of Metallica.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Gill, Chris (December 2006). "10 Most Earth Shaking Guitar Innovations". Guitar World. Retrieved 2010-10-02.
  2. ^ Blackett, Matt. "101 Greatest Moments in Guitar History 1979 - 1983". Guitar Player. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  3. ^ a b Bradley, Simon (August 2010). "Floyd Rose: New Interview". Guitarist (magazine). Retrieved 2010-10-02.
  4. ^ Vinnicombe, Chris; Leonard, Michael (2009-04-09). "The 10 guitars that changed music": 3. Retrieved 2010-10-02. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ a b Gold, Jude. "Whammy Bar Pyrotechnics". Retrieved 2010-10-02. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ a b di Perna, Alan. "Steve Vai: Flex Appeal": 4. Retrieved 2010-10-02. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ^ US patent 4171661, Floyd D. Rose, "Guitar tremolo method and apparatus", issued 1979-10-23  — bridge mechanism patent;
  8. ^ Christe, Ian (2007). Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga. John Wiley & Sons. p. 82. ISBN 9780470039106.
  9. ^ US patent 4497236, Floyd D. Rose, "Apparatus for restraining and fine tuning the strings of a musical instrument, particularly guitars", issued 1985-02-05  — first fine tuners and saddle patent;
  10. ^ US patent 4549461, Floyd D. Rose, "Apparatus for restraining and fine tuning the strings of a musical instrument, particularly guitars", issued 1985-10-29  — second fine tuners and saddle patent;
  11. ^ A. R. Duchossoir (1994). The Fender Stratocaster: A Complete Guide to the History and Evolution of the World's Most Famous Guitar. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 40. ISBN 9780793547357.
  12. ^ Gruhn, George (1999). Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars: An Identification Guide for American Fretted Instruments. Backbeat Books. p. 91. ISBN 9780879304225. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ a b Ganaden, Gerry (April 2009). "Trem Wars: The Whammy Arms Race". Premier Guitar: 4. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  14. ^ Bradley, Simon (2009-09-04). "EVH Wolfgang". Guitarist (magazine): 3. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  15. ^ Gill, Chris (2009-06-30). "Eddie Van Halen: Of Wolf and Man". Guitar World: 6. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  16. ^ a b c Ganaden, Gerry (February 2009). "Big Block Floyd Rose Tremolo Review". Premier Guitar. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  17. ^ a b Kirkland, Eric (May 2010). "FloydUpgrades.com Brass "Big Block" and Titanium Sustain Blocks". Guitar World. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  18. ^ a b c Carruthers, John (2005). Alfred's Teach Yourself Guitar Repair & Maintenance: Everything You Need to Know to Start Working on Your Guitar. Alfred Publishing. p. 57. ISBN 9780739036013.
  19. ^ a b c "History of Floyd Rose, the inventor of Floyd Rose Tremolo system".
  20. ^ a b Schonbrun, Marc (2003). The Everything Rock & Blues Guitar Book: From Chords to Scales and Licks to Tricks, All You Need to Play Like the Greats (2nd ed.). Everything Books. p. 48. ISBN 9781580628839.
  21. ^ a b Phillips, Mark (2005). Guitar For Dummies (2nd ed.). For Dummies. p. 306. ISBN 9780764599040. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ Marshall, Wolf (2008). Stuff! Good Guitar Players Should Know. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 63. ISBN 9781423430087.
  23. ^ Whammy Bar Tricks 101: A guide to some dramatic whammy bar effects
  24. ^ Gress, Jesse. "10 Things You Gotta Do to Play Like Joe Satriani". Retrieved 2010-09-22.
  25. ^ Reinventing The Squeal
  26. ^ Dimebag Explains His Technique 'Dimesqueal'
  27. ^ Mike Errico, Stan Horaczek (2006). "DragonForce: Video Article". Blender. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Video is also available as YouTube video.

Patents

Floyd Rose holds a number of patents on floating bridge design:

  • US patent 4171661, Floyd D. Rose, "Guitar tremolo method and apparatus", issued 1979-10-23  — bridge mechanism patent;
  • US patent 4497236, Floyd D. Rose, "Apparatus for restraining and fine tuning the strings of a musical instrument, particularly guitars", issued 1985-02-05  — first fine tuners and saddle patent;
  • US patent 4549461, Floyd D. Rose, "Apparatus for restraining and fine tuning the strings of a musical instrument, particularly guitars", issued 1985-10-29  — second fine tuners and saddle patent;
  • US patent 4555970, Floyd D. Rose, "Tremolo apparatus capable of increasing tension on the strings of a musical instrument", issued 1985-12-03  — spring and claw mechanism;
  • US patent 4882967, Floyd D. Rose, "Tremolo apparatus having broken string compensation feature", issued 1989-11-28  — early patent for a tremstopper device;
  • US patent 4967631, Floyd D. Rose, "Tremolo and tuning apparatus", issued 1990-11-06  — patent for Floyd Rose Pro, low-profile version;
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