Floyd Rose Special?

[jmh151]

Re: Floyd Rose Special?

Its is good. I'd rather use the Schaller Licensed Floyd Rose or the GFS Heavy Duty Floyd Rose if you are on a smaller budget. But if you are rich and want the absolute indestructible floyd that WILL NOT go out of tune, there is the Titanium OFR for nearly $1000. Or there is the Floyd Rose 1000 which is the next closest thing to the Gotoh OFR and is just as good, just made in Korea instead of Germany, more pricey than the Schaller though and a bit harder to find.

You can usually find Floyd Rose 1000's (the Korean Floyd) on Ebay from people upgrading from the Korean to German made Floyd Rose- I bought a few for $100.

The Korean Floyd Rose 1000 is so close in quality to the German (Schaller made) Floyd Rose that IMO it's not worth the money to upgrade.

I recently disassembled the Gotoh Floyd on my EBMM Axis to install a Big Block, and it was clearly a better made, engineered and manufactured unit than any Original Floyd- German or Korean- so if I was in the market for a Floyd and didn't care about cost, that would be the one I'd buy.

The Schaller licensed Floyd is good but IMO overpriced. They have a case plate with hardened steel saddles. However, Schaller just released the Lockmeister trem, which is all hardened steel throughout, and may be the best on the market.

The Floyd Special is a good unit, so long as you change the Block out- so factor in another $50

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Floyd Rose Special?

IMO, those zinc saddles on the FR Special are crap. The alloy is SO soft compared to the steel on the OFR/Schaller made units. If you use heavy gauge strings they can really eat into the saddle material. Ditto for the saddle inserts that lock the string in place. Terribly soft.

I had to replace all the saddles and inserts on a friend's Schecter equipped with an FR Special some time back. Even after filing away the burrs and smoothing out the grooves made by strings in the FR Special saddles and inserts, it was so soft and far gone, that strings kept slipping out after being locked down.

I replaced them with steel saddles meant for the OFR (direct retrofit because the FR Special is built to the same dimensions as the OFR), and while it did add a little bit more bite and clarity to the sound, it was also much much harder than the zinc alloy and didn't get chewed up by the strings.

( those that would complain that I'm necro-replying: i disagree. the topic is still pertinent. i'd rather have all the knowledge reside in a single thread instead of spread across multiple threads. makes it easier for the next person to find and get all the info they need).

CTN, you may have just saved me money, literally. I was about to sell off 2 guitars I recently bought that have FR Specials installed, that habitually kept having the strings come unfastened from the saddles, and I couldn't figure out why this was happening and what to do about it. So it looks like I need to try replacing the saddles, with the OFR saddles.

Question about that: why i am seeing that the listings for OFR replacement saddles mention that they feature 3 height sizes, but the listings for the SFR saddles don't mention anything about that? which suggests the SFR saddles are all a uniform height??? i have reviewed the current saddles on my 2 SFR guitars, and they appear to all be at a uniform height.

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: Floyd Rose Special?

Some baseplates have the radius cast into them, meaning that they have "steps" that rise, negating saddles of different heights. Not sure if thats what you have or not, but I've seen those versions so you have to be careful when mixing and matching.

 

[philthis]

Re: Floyd Rose Special?

Here is a suggestion. Look at a company called F.U. tone. They make all kinds of stuff for Floyd upgrades. They also offer tone samples to hear the difference. I am going to use them as I think they make some good upgrades. There not cheap but the parts seem to be good quality. Just a suggestion, good luck with everything

 

[greekdude]

Re: Floyd Rose Special?

( those that would complain that I'm necro-replying: i disagree. the topic is still pertinent. i'd rather have all the knowledge reside in a single thread instead of spread across multiple threads. makes it easier for the next person to find and get all the info they need).

+1

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Floyd Rose Special?

Some baseplates have the radius cast into them, meaning that they have "steps" that rise, negating saddles of different heights. Not sure if thats what you have or not, but I've seen those versions so you have to be careful when mixing and matching.

Thanks metalchurch79. I will remove the saddles from my SFR and take a closer look.

BTW: +1 on metal church the group. Blessing in Disguise and Human Factor are great albums. I saw the band on tour last May w Vanderhood and Howe. They rocked.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Re: Floyd Rose Special?

Thanks philthis.