The history of one of the world's most famous trem bridge systems.
One of the most widely used and copied tremolo bridge systems, the Floyd Rose has evolved from a single disgruntled guitarist’s attempt to keep his instrument in tune into a pivotal moment in the history of the electric guitar.
In 1977, a jeweller and musician by the name of Floyd Rose began designing a new tremolo system for his Fender Stratocaster, frustrated that he couldn’t replicate the wacky vibrato of Jimi Hendrix without sending his guitar wildly out of tune.
With his jeweller’s tools, Rose set out to create a locking nut to hold the strings in place, initially experimenting with a three-piece brass nut before settling on a hardened steel design with a modified bridge and six fine micro-tuners mounted above pivoting saddles that clamped the strings down.
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After several successful prototypes of the tremolo system, Rose patented the Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo in 1979. Around the turn of the decade Eddie Van Halen became one of the first high-profile players to fit one to his famous Frankenstrat, and the locking trem can be heard across Van Halen’s early-’80s records, its dives and squeals a defining part of that era’s guitar sound.
Floyd Rose guitar
Soon after, the Floyd Rose took off, with Rose striking supply and licensing deals with the likes of Kramer, Fender, Washburn, Ibanez and Yamaha to push his invention into wider mainstream consciousness. Kramer in particular built much of its early-’80s reputation on Floyd Rose-equipped guitars.
By removing the tuning pegs as a factor in the guitar going out of tune during tremolo use, Rose’s locking nut system let players lean on the tremolo arm and hold their tuning. The result was a versatile unit that could both raise and lower pitch by a fifth or more, creating the pitch squeals and dive-bombing effects that became a hallmark of heavy metal guitar in the 1980s.
While Floyd Roses are highly regarded in the hard rock and metal world for their versatility, there are a few downsides to running a locking nut system, particularly when it comes to restringing. To replace a string on a Floyd Rose-equipped guitar you need an Allen key to loosen the locking nut and bridge saddle, a process many find fiddly and time-consuming, especially since the tuning of every string is affected when one breaks or drifts.
Because of the way the bridge is built, changing tunings on a Floyd Rose guitar is also difficult without resetting the tremolo. That construction has led some to complain that Floyd Rose guitars have less sustain and a thinner tone, which in turn drove the development of brass sustain blocks that can be fitted to any Floyd Rose-equipped instrument.
Nearly 50 years on from that first prototype, the Floyd Rose is still a fixture of modern rock and metal, from djent and prog to shred, with players like Steve Vai and Tom Morello still pushing it to its limits and a new generation keeping the dive-bomb alive.
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