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Floyd Rose
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Floyd Rose
The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1976, the first of its kind, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name. The Floyd Rose gained popularity in the 1980s through guitarists like Eddie Van Halen, Neal Schon, Brad Gillis, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Alex Lifeson, who used its ability to stay in tune even with extreme changes in pitch. Its tuning stability comes through the double-locking design that has been widely regarded as revolutionary; the design has been listed on Guitar World's "10 Most Earth Shaking Guitar Innovations" and Guitar Player's "101 Greatest Moments in Guitar History 1979–1983."
Floyd D. Rose first started working on what became the Floyd Rose Tremolo in 1976. He was playing in a rock band at the time, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple. He frequently used the vibrato bar but could not make his guitars stay in tune using traditional approaches like lubricating the nut, or winding the strings as little as possible around the tuning pegs.
At the time, Rose made and sold jewelry, and so had the skills and tools to fabricate small metal parts. After noticing the strings moved freely with the regular nut design, he made a brass nut that locked the strings 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—otherwise the strings wore the clamps down too quickly—and redesigned the bridge, which also locked the strings with clamps.
Rose hand-made the first bridges and nuts, which were quickly picked up by some influential guitarists at the time, such as Eddie Van Halen. Other well-known guitarists who picked it up early were Neal Schon, who purportedly got serial number 3, Brad Gillis (serial number 4), and Steve Vai.
The first patent was awarded in 1979, with Fernandes Electric Sound Research Group Co. Ltd. contracted as the initial supplier from 1981, producing early models (FRT-1 and FRT-3) via Japanese manufacturers for supply to Kramer Guitars in the U.S. and Fernandes/Burny guitars domestically. Following suggestions from Eddie Van Halen, the bridges were modified by extending and bending the rear of the base plate, firstly vertically (prototype FRT-4) and then at an angle (final version FRT-5) to form a "whale tail" with a row of vertical finger screws for each string to allow for fine-tuning the guitar after the strings are locked at the nut.
Production shifted to Schaller GMB in Germany by the end of 1983, marking the transition to European manufacturing for subsequent Original Floyd Rose units. 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. The Floyd Rose design's popularity led to other companies making similar bridges, thus violating the patent. To combat this Floyd Rose and Kramer went on to make licensing agreements with other manufacturers, and there are now several different models available based on the double-locking design. The licensed units made by other manufacturers were stamped "Licensed Under Floyd Rose Patents" or similar. By the mid 1980s OEM units were supplied directly, made exclusively by Schaller, before being replaced by the Floyd Rose "1000 Series", made in Korea in the early 2000s.
Original supplier Fernandes Guitars went on to produce their "Headcrasher" and subsequent "FRT"-series versions for their own brand of guitars until 1997. Takeuchi produced licensed tremolos for Japanese-built Ibanez, Jackson, Charvel, Yamaha, Fernandes, Aria Guitars, and Washburn guitars, among others, until the mid 2000s. They also made lower-cost units for Ibanez's entry-level guitars up to 2010. Gotoh made their own licensed tremolo as a direct replacement for an Original Floyd Rose and also supplied theirs as an OEM unit to Aria Guitars, B.C. Rich, Peavey, and Fernandes. In collaboration with Ibanez, Gotoh also developed and produced the "Edge" series for Ibanez guitars. ESP made their "ESP Synclear Tremolo" for their Japanese-made guitars during the 1980s. Yamaha made their "Rocking Magic" series of tremolos until the mid 2000s. Kahler produced the renowned "Steeler," "Killer," and "Spyder" variants during the 1980s while developing their own cam-based Kahler Tremolo System for which they are best known for today. Notably, courts found that the Kahler Tremolo System infringed on Floyd Rose's patents, and awarded a judgment in excess of $100 million against Gary Kahler.
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. 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.
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Floyd Rose
The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1976, the first of its kind, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name. The Floyd Rose gained popularity in the 1980s through guitarists like Eddie Van Halen, Neal Schon, Brad Gillis, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Alex Lifeson, who used its ability to stay in tune even with extreme changes in pitch. Its tuning stability comes through the double-locking design that has been widely regarded as revolutionary; the design has been listed on Guitar World's "10 Most Earth Shaking Guitar Innovations" and Guitar Player's "101 Greatest Moments in Guitar History 1979–1983."
Floyd D. Rose first started working on what became the Floyd Rose Tremolo in 1976. He was playing in a rock band at the time, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple. He frequently used the vibrato bar but could not make his guitars stay in tune using traditional approaches like lubricating the nut, or winding the strings as little as possible around the tuning pegs.
At the time, Rose made and sold jewelry, and so had the skills and tools to fabricate small metal parts. After noticing the strings moved freely with the regular nut design, he made a brass nut that locked the strings 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—otherwise the strings wore the clamps down too quickly—and redesigned the bridge, which also locked the strings with clamps.
Rose hand-made the first bridges and nuts, which were quickly picked up by some influential guitarists at the time, such as Eddie Van Halen. Other well-known guitarists who picked it up early were Neal Schon, who purportedly got serial number 3, Brad Gillis (serial number 4), and Steve Vai.
The first patent was awarded in 1979, with Fernandes Electric Sound Research Group Co. Ltd. contracted as the initial supplier from 1981, producing early models (FRT-1 and FRT-3) via Japanese manufacturers for supply to Kramer Guitars in the U.S. and Fernandes/Burny guitars domestically. Following suggestions from Eddie Van Halen, the bridges were modified by extending and bending the rear of the base plate, firstly vertically (prototype FRT-4) and then at an angle (final version FRT-5) to form a "whale tail" with a row of vertical finger screws for each string to allow for fine-tuning the guitar after the strings are locked at the nut.
Production shifted to Schaller GMB in Germany by the end of 1983, marking the transition to European manufacturing for subsequent Original Floyd Rose units. 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. The Floyd Rose design's popularity led to other companies making similar bridges, thus violating the patent. To combat this Floyd Rose and Kramer went on to make licensing agreements with other manufacturers, and there are now several different models available based on the double-locking design. The licensed units made by other manufacturers were stamped "Licensed Under Floyd Rose Patents" or similar. By the mid 1980s OEM units were supplied directly, made exclusively by Schaller, before being replaced by the Floyd Rose "1000 Series", made in Korea in the early 2000s.
Original supplier Fernandes Guitars went on to produce their "Headcrasher" and subsequent "FRT"-series versions for their own brand of guitars until 1997. Takeuchi produced licensed tremolos for Japanese-built Ibanez, Jackson, Charvel, Yamaha, Fernandes, Aria Guitars, and Washburn guitars, among others, until the mid 2000s. They also made lower-cost units for Ibanez's entry-level guitars up to 2010. Gotoh made their own licensed tremolo as a direct replacement for an Original Floyd Rose and also supplied theirs as an OEM unit to Aria Guitars, B.C. Rich, Peavey, and Fernandes. In collaboration with Ibanez, Gotoh also developed and produced the "Edge" series for Ibanez guitars. ESP made their "ESP Synclear Tremolo" for their Japanese-made guitars during the 1980s. Yamaha made their "Rocking Magic" series of tremolos until the mid 2000s. Kahler produced the renowned "Steeler," "Killer," and "Spyder" variants during the 1980s while developing their own cam-based Kahler Tremolo System for which they are best known for today. Notably, courts found that the Kahler Tremolo System infringed on Floyd Rose's patents, and awarded a judgment in excess of $100 million against Gary Kahler.
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. 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.
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