Floyd Rose
Encyclopedia
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. 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
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
through influential guitarists like Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
, Neal Schon
Neal Schon
Neal George Joseph Schon is an American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist best known for his work with the band Journey. He is the only member to have recorded on all of Journey's albums...
, Brad Gillis
Brad Gillis
Brad Gillis is a guitarist most famous for playing with the band Night Ranger. He was in the band Rubicon during the 1970s before Night Ranger. He has also played for Ozzy Osbourne and Fiona, and has released solo albums....
, Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
, and Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
, 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
Guitar World
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...
magazine's "10 Most Earth Shaking Guitar Innovations" as well as Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
's "101 Greatest Moments in Guitar History 1979-1983".
History
Floyd D. Rose first started working on what would later become the Floyd Rose Tremolo in 1976. He was playing in a rock band at the time, inspired by Jimi HendrixJimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
, 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 jewellery, 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
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
. 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
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
. Other well-known guitarists who picked it up early were Neal Schon
Neal Schon
Neal George Joseph Schon is an American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist best known for his work with the band Journey. He is the only member to have recorded on all of Journey's albums...
, who purportedly got serial number 3, Brad Gillis
Brad Gillis
Brad Gillis is a guitarist most famous for playing with the band Night Ranger. He was in the band Rubicon during the 1970s before Night Ranger. He has also played for Ozzy Osbourne and Fiona, and has released solo albums....
(serial number 4), and Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
.
The first patent was awarded in 1979, and shortly afterward, Rose made an agreement with Kramer Guitars
Kramer Guitars
Kramer Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. Kramer produced aluminum-necked electric guitars and basses in the 1970s and wooden-necked guitars catering to hard rock and heavy metal musicians in the 1980s; Kramer is currently a division of Gibson Guitar Corporation...
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. 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.
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
Richie Sambora
Richard Stephen "Richie" Sambora is an American rock guitarist, producer, musician, singer, and songwriter who is the longtime lead guitarist of the rock band, Bon Jovi. He and frontman Jon Bon Jovi form the primary songwriting unit of the band...
in 1991, the Floyd Rose Classic Stratocaster in 1992 and the Set-Neck Floyd Rose Strat in 1993. Floyd Rose collaborated with Fender to design a Fender Deluxe Locking Tremolo, introduced in 1991 on the Strat Plus Deluxe
Strat Plus
The Strat Plus is a series of electric guitars made by Fender from 1987 to 1999. It is also the name of a specific guitar model made by the same company. The guitars are a variation of the Fender Stratocaster model...
, the USA Contemporary Stratocaster, and the Strat Ultra. Fender used the Floyd Rose-designed locking vibrato system on certain humbucker-equipped American Deluxe
Fender American Deluxe Series
The Fender American Deluxe Series is a line of middle-range electric guitars and basses introduced by Fender in 1998 and upgraded in 2004 and again in 2010.The American Deluxe line replaced the Plus Series models of 1987....
and Showmaster
Fender Showmaster
The Fender Showmaster is a model of electric guitar made by Fender, and is characteristic of a superstrat.-History:During the 1980s, superstrats were becoming popular amongst the many hard rock and metal guitarists, who needed the modifications to suit their individual playing styles. Soon, many...
models until 2007.
In 2005, distribution of the Floyd Rose Original reverted to Floyd Rose, whereas the patented designs were licensed to other manufacturers to use.
Principles
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) springsSpring (device)
A spring is an elastic object used to store mechanical energy. Springs are usually made out of spring steel. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealed steel and hardened after fabrication...
. Controlled by special tuning screw
Screw
A screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as an internal thread, often in the form of a nut or an object that has the...
s (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
Nut (instrumental)
The nut of a string instrument is a small piece of hard material which supports the strings at the end closest to the headstock or scroll. The nut marks one end of the speaking length of each open string, sets the spacing of the strings across the neck, and usually holds the strings at the proper...
(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
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
of each string. The sound of any note
Note
In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....
s 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
Sharp (music)
In music, sharp, dièse , or diesis means higher in pitch and the sharp symbol raises a note by a half tone. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously...
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. 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. 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, 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.
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 guitar has a "thin tone", which has led to the development of replacement sustain blocks. This block is larger in size than the standard block, and can be made of a metal alloy with larger mass. According to the reviews this modification might lead to a preferable change in the tonal quality of the guitar.
Models and varieties
- 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 SchallerSchaller GuitarenpartsSchaller Electronic GmbH, generally known as Schaller, is a high-end German manufacturer of components for musical instruments, most famous for their fully enclosed machine heads which are standard on many top-of-the-line guitars and available as an extra cost option on many others.The company was...
,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.
- IbanezIbanezis a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as well as the first brand of guitars to mass produce...
EdgeIbanez EdgeThe Ibanez Edge Tremolo is a double locking tremolo system for the electric guitar very similar in design to the original Floyd Rose. It first appeared in the Ibanez product line as of the 1986 model year, however, they have appeared on guitars with 1985 serial numbers...
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 NOSNew old stockNew old stock refers to obsolete equipment, or original parts for obsolete equipment, that have never been sold at retail.The term refers to merchandise being offered for sale which was manufactured long ago but that has never been used...
, 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 ResistanceIbanez ZRThe Ibanez ZR Tremolo is a double locking tremolo system that was derived from Ibanez Edge and Floyd Rose, but it functions closer to that of a Kahler Tremolo System. The ZR tremolo offers a number of improvements from the Original Floyd Rose; it contains a heavy sustain block, a pop-in arm and...
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 EdgeIbanez EdgeThe Ibanez Edge Tremolo is a double locking tremolo system for the electric guitar very similar in design to the original Floyd Rose. It first appeared in the Ibanez product line as of the 1986 model year, however, they have appeared on guitars with 1985 serial numbers...
. 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.
- Ibanez
- 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 TremoloFloyd Rose SpeedLoaderFloyd Rose SpeedLoader is a floating, double-locking, guitar bridge based on the Floyd Rose Original. It was in development since 1991 and was introduced to the public in 2003.This tremolo was developed in San Diego CA at AJ manufacturing by tool makers Jerry Morhman, Richard J Price, Steve lamms,...
(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.
Popular use
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
to be a pioneer of Floyd Rose usage. Other players frequently cited to be influential in the area of Floyd Rose usage are Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
, Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
, Kirk Hammett
Kirk Hammett
Kirk Lee Hammett is the lead guitarist and a songwriter in the heavy metal band Metallica and has been a member of the band since 1983. Before joining Metallica he formed and named the band Exodus. In 2003, Hammett was ranked 11th on Rolling Stones list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
, Brad Gillis
Brad Gillis
Brad Gillis is a guitarist most famous for playing with the band Night Ranger. He was in the band Rubicon during the 1970s before Night Ranger. He has also played for Ozzy Osbourne and Fiona, and has released solo albums....
, Tom Morello
Tom Morello
Thomas Baptiste "Tom" Morello is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, his acoustic solo act The Nightwatchman, and his newest group, Street Sweeper Social Club...
, Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
, Nuno Bettencourt
Nuno Bettencourt
Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt is a Portuguese guitarist and singer-songwriter best known for his role as the lead guitarist of the Boston rock band Extreme whose hits include the acoustic ballads "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted"...
and Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
.
Many guitarists use this system to create new sounds that were not practical to achieve with traditional vibrato systems:
- Synyster GatesSynyster GatesBrian Elwin Haner, Jr. , better known by his stage name Synyster Gates or simply Syn, is an American musician, best known for being the lead guitarist of the American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold.-Early life:...
from the California rock Band Avenged SevenfoldAvenged SevenfoldAvenged Sevenfold is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California. Formed in 1999, the group consists of vocalist M. Shadows, lead guitarist Synyster Gates, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ....
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 SatrianiJoe SatrianiJoseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
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". 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 #11Dreaming No. 11Dreaming #11 is an EP by Joe Satriani released in 1988 with three live tracks and one new studio track, The Crush of Love. Live tracks, taken from the Surfing With the Alien tour were recorded At The California Theater, San Diego, CA On June 11, 1988....
. - Alexi LaihoAlexi LaihoAlexi "Wildchild" Laiho is a Finnish singer, composer, and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead guitarist as well as lead vocalist for melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, and he is also the guitarist for Sinergy and Kylähullut...
Lead Guitarist for the melodic death metal band Children of BodomChildren of BodomChildren of Bodom is a Finnish heavy metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993, the group currently consists of Alexi Laiho , Roope Latvala , Janne Wirman , Henkka Seppälä , and Jaska Raatikainen...
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'
- Herman LiHerman LiHerman Li is a British Chinese musician, best known as a guitarist for the power metal band DragonForce.-Playing style:Li draws influences from rock, all sub-genres of metal as well as video game music and often mimics sounds from popular retro games from the late 80s, early-90s arcade, and PC games...
and Sam TotmanSam TotmanIan Samuel "Sam" Totman is a guitarist and main songwriter for the power metal band DragonForce. Totman was born in England, but moved to New Zealand at an early age...
of DragonForceDragonForceDragonForce are an English power metal band from London. Formed in 1999, the group is known for its long and fast guitar solos, fantasy-based lyrics, and electronic sounds in their music to add to their retro video game-influenced sound. Guitarists Herman Li and Sam Totman are the only two...
use the system to create video game-esque noises. - Neal SchonNeal SchonNeal George Joseph Schon is an American rock guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist best known for his work with the band Journey. He is the only member to have recorded on all of Journey's albums...
of JourneyJourney (band)Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
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.
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
Adrian Smith
Adrian Frederick "H" Smith is an English musician and one of three guitarists in the heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. He is also one of the band's regular songwriters and, along with bassist Steve Harris, performs backing vocals on some songs.-Biography:While at school, Smith purchased his first...
and Dave Murray
Dave Murray (musician)
David Michael Murray is an English guitarist and songwriter best known as one of the earliest members of the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden.-Biography:...
of Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
, Criss Oliva
Criss Oliva
Christopher "Criss" Michael Oliva was born in Pompton Plains, NJ. He was the lead guitarist in, and co-founder of, the band Savatage...
of Savatage
Savatage
Savatage is an American heavy metal band founded by the brothers Jon and Criss Oliva in 1978 at Astro Skate in Tarpon Springs, Florida.-Early days :...
, Alex Lifeson
Alex Lifeson
Aleksandar Živojinović, OC, better known by his stage name Alex Lifeson, is a second generation Serbian-Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist of the Canadian rock band Rush. In the summer of 1968, Lifeson founded the band that would become Rush with friend, drummer John Rutsey...
of Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
, Bruce Kulick
Bruce Kulick
Bruce Howard Kulick is an American guitarist, musician and a member of the band Grand Funk Railroad. Previously, Kulick had been a longtime member of the band Kiss....
of Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
, Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. Stylistically, the band's music is a creative fusion influenced by free jazz, funk, neo-psychedelia, hard rock, and heavy metal...
's Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid
Vernon Reid is an English-born American guitarist, songwriter, composer, and bandleader. Best known as the founder and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Living Colour, Reid was named #66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Critic Steve Huey writes, "[Reid's]...
, and Kirk Hammett
Kirk Hammett
Kirk Lee Hammett is the lead guitarist and a songwriter in the heavy metal band Metallica and has been a member of the band since 1983. Before joining Metallica he formed and named the band Exodus. In 2003, Hammett was ranked 11th on Rolling Stones list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
of Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
.
Patents
Floyd Rose holds a number of patents on floating bridge design: — bridge mechanism patent; — first fine tuners and saddle patent; — second fine tuners and saddle patent; — spring and claw mechanism; — early patent for a tremstopperTremstopper
The tremstopper device allows the user to lock the whammy bar by the simple twist of a knob, hence turning the Floyd Rose bridge into a fixed bridge system. Example of a fixed bridge system would be the Tune-o-matic bridge....
device; — patent for Floyd Rose Pro, low-profile version;