Floyd Rose tremelo

[gilaltom3]

Hi,
What's the difference between an original Floyd Rose and a copy, besides name and price?

[TheLivingDead]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

Mainly the materials. Solid steel in most cases vs. soft weak alloys that don't resonate as well. There are decent copies out there though.

[ehdwuld]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

some copies are better designs than the original

[Coma]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

I've heard some good things about Ibanez Floyds (the ones on the more pricy guitars, that is), but that's really about it.

I know that both Gotoh and Schaller make licensedFloyds, never tried 'em though.

[IanBallard]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

some copies are better designs than the original

Like the Gotoh for example. Smoother contours, more palm comfort, better arm mechanism, better mounting design for Strat retrofits, more accurate fine-tuner design, equally good steel alloy, does NOT thin out tone like OFR's can, locking nut design does not "sharp" tuning when it's locked down, etc, etc... and the best part is it's cheaper than an OFR.

I almost bought a $25 "Floyd" from China... thank GAWD the members here talked me out of it!!

Because the Floyd patent has expired, anybody can make a similar design now...some good and some very bad. The Gotoh is actually not a "Floyd", it's a "High Stability Tremolo System".

[kramer.geetar]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

I have a German OFR from the 80's on my Kramer 5150 replica and a Gotoh Floyd on my Music Man Axis. The Gotoh is amazing quality, solid as a rock and I would choose it over a new OFR I think. My 80's Floyd is almost like brand new however and the quality is also there. Some say the new OFR's aren't what they used to be, I'm not sure but I know people such as John Suhr have ditched the current German OFR's in favour of the Gotoh's.

Slight differences like mentioned before such as the saddles having smoother contours etc. Another difference is the bar on the Gotoh angles off at a slightly different angle, it comes slightly more away from the body which gives you more leverage and makes it easier to dive bomb and use the bridge. The locking nut and retainer bar are exactly the same as on an OFR, strings go sharp when you lock down because your retainer bar isn't set low enough.

[ACE 4080]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

an OFR is about $170 while the gotoh is about $120 and much much better

[IanBallard]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

I have a German OFR from the 80's on my Kramer 5150 replica and a Gotoh Floyd on my Music Man Axis. The Gotoh is amazing quality, solid as a rock and I would choose it over a new OFR I think. My 80's Floyd is almost like brand new however and the quality is also there. Some say the new OFR's aren't what they used to be, I'm not sure but I know people such as John Suhr have ditched the current German OFR's in favour of the Gotoh's.

Slight differences like mentioned before such as the saddles having smoother contours etc. Another difference is the bar on the Gotoh angles off at a slightly different angle, it comes slightly more away from the body which gives you more leverage and makes it easier to dive bomb and use the bridge. The locking nut and retainer bar are exactly the same as on an OFR, strings go sharp when you lock down because your retainer bar isn't set low enough.

Hmmm, well. I haven't had any issues with the nut causing sharp notes on mine and I actually keep the retainer higher than usual, because I want to access the truss rod w/o removing the bar. But I also have Sperzels with the graduated posts, so it doesn't need to be that low. That might be the key. I HIGHLY recommend locking tuners with a Floyd, mostly for string-change time.

[kramer.geetar]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

IanBallard, some people like using locking tuners cause it gives them more weight at the headstock which they believe equals to better tone. I dunno about that, but there a very easy method to stringing up Floyd equipped guitars that don't have them by leaving the ball ends at the tuning pegs like this:



String it backwards down the neck, pull string tight and cut just behind your fine tuners for all strings. That'll give you the exact length you need and save you a lot of time. Restring a Floyd in no time

Edit:
Also, make sure you line up the tuner holes so they point down the neck as well

[Jakek5150]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

My Charvel Pro-Mod has a Floyd Rose licensed trem, and it is great with staying in tune and doing all the tricks I want it to do. My Ibanez RG350DX had one of the lower end Ibanez trems (again Floyd licensed, not an actual one). The RG went out of tune all the time, but the tech at my local music store told me it was because of the way the springs were put in, so he took them out and put them in a triangle shape and it works much better now.

[IanBallard]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

I use 5 Modern Vintage springs which are higher-mass/lower tension and I get the same feel as I did with 3. That might contribute to good tuning stability, having all the springs on there. I don't like "super-loose" bars anyway because I like the occasional Albert King bending which would obviously move the trem a bit if it's too loose. I just can't get into the Vai "move the bar with one finger" kind of tension.

[Ayrton]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

My Charvel Pro-Mod has a Floyd Rose licensed trem,

The Pro Mod floyds are not really "licensed" trems, as much as they are real Floyds. The only difference is the country of manufacture.

Also, as mentioned, if your strings go sharp locking down the nut, lower the retainer bar.

Once you get a OFR set up correctly, very rarely will it have issues.

[Nagash]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

Floyd Rose make a "licensed" version themselves, called the FR Special. Very decent stuff !

I wanted to create an extra thread, but I might as well post my question here : has anyone ever tried the Speedloader floyds ? Including the Speedloader fixed ?

[gilaltom3]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

Idk. I just can't justify paying 120 bucks for a bridge that I've never used before.

[Coma]

Re: Floyd Rose tremelo

Floyd Rose make a "licensed" version themselves, called the FR Special. Very decent stuff !

I wanted to create an extra thread, but I might as well post my question here : has anyone ever tried the Speedloader floyds ? Including the Speedloader fixed ?

Weren't the pretty much one big flop? Created a pretty big buzz when they came out, but since you had to use special strings for 'em, they pretty much went under the radar after that.


EDIT: Just found this on wikipedia

The most criticized disadvantage of new tremolo system is a requirement of special strings with bulleted ends. Strings should be precisely cut and should not stretch (so called "string float") non-elastically much from original length with applied tension, changing the pitch. String should be perfectly elastic in the range of Floyd Rose action. All these requirements make string manufacturing harder than normal, thus, generally, prices for such strings tend to be higher. So far, there is only one company producing such special strings: Dean Markley, though the packaging of the strings features nowhere the company name and only the "Floyd Rose SpeedLoader" logos. The other factor is string availability: it's virtually impossible to find such strings on sale in some regions, and prices for such rare imported goods may go up to 400-500%. Finally, if speedloader string breaks, it must be replaced completely - one cannot just shift and re-use the rest of string length as is sometimes possible do with other bridges. As of 2010, the strings have been discontinued.

Sucks if you've shelled out for a Speedloader axe sans machine heads. Then again, this is pretty weird, since FR still manufactured the speedloader bridges.