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, Mick Mars, 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 Worlds "10 Most Earth Shaking Guitar Innovations" and Guitar Players "101 Greatest Moments in Guitar History 1979–1983."
History
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, — bridge mechanism patent; 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. — first fine tuners and saddle patent; — second fine tuners and saddle patent;
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.Fernandes 1985+ Licensed (Post Floyd Rose Contract) | URL = https://vintagefloydrose.com/fernandes-1985-licensed/ | Vintage Floyd Rose 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.GE1996T | URL=https://g-gotoh.com/product/ge1996t/?lang=en | Gotoh (Japan) 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.Yamaha Rockin' Magic II Floyd Rose Tremolo Vintage Made in Japan 80's Black | URL=https://reverb.com/au/item/44134853-yamaha-rockin-magic-ii-floyd-rose-tremolo-vintage-made-in-japan-80-s-black | Reverb 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.Floyd Rose Tremolos For Left Handed Guitars | URL=https://www.lefthandguitars.net/floyd-rose-tremolos-for-lefties | Gaskell Left Handed Guitars
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.
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 in the diagram) balances on a pivot point, being pulled counter-clockwise by the strings' tension and clockwise by typically one to five springs. Controlled by special tuning screws (purple in the diagram), these two forces are balanced such that the bridge's surface is parallel to the guitar body (olive in the diagram). The strings are locked tightly with a special mechanism at the nut (green in the diagram) as well as at the bridge (turquoise in the diagram), 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 of each string. The sound of any notes 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' points of contact are, typically, locked, at the bridge saddles and nut (eliminating "play" in the string, which would negatively affect tuning), that brings the strings reliably back into tune when force on the bar is removed.
Position III illustrates the position of the bridge when the vibrato arm is pulled up away from the guitar body. The bridge rotates clockwise, the tension in the strings increases, the pitch of the sound increases and so notes sound sharper than normal. Due to the limitations on the assembly's movement imposed by the guitar's body, the amount of available pitch change is much larger when the bar is depressed than when it is lifted.
Note that when using the vibrato bar, string action (the distance between the strings and the fretboard) is affected, and this can sometimes 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 vibrato system is its double-locking design. This makes the guitar stay in tune through large pitch changes, e.g., forcing the vibrato bar all the way down to the guitar body, or pulling up on the bar to raise the tone by as much as a fifth or a seventh.
A typical bridge set-up has it "float"—so the player can both raise and lower the pitch with the vibrato bar. However, if a string breaks, the balance of tensions on the bridge is disrupted, leaving the bridge out of position and therefore the guitar out of tune. 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, including Eddie Van Halen, prefer to instead have a "half-floating", or, "flush-mounted", bridge, which allows only downwards motion. This means the cavity of the tremolo pocket is not fully milled away underneath—and if the tension of the rear springs is slightly stronger than the tension of the strings, the tremolo always rests flush with the body. In this set-up, a broken string has no effect on the pitch of the other strings, as the reduced overall string tension from the broken string doesn't make the bridge move, since it already presses against the body of the guitar. 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 ('diad'), 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 Floyd Rose bridge has a "thin" tone, which has led to the development of replacement sustain blocks. These blocks are generally larger in size than the standard block and may be constructed from a similar brass alloy or an alternative like titanium or copper. According to reviews this modification might lead to a preferable change in the tonal quality of the guitar.
Genuine models and varieties
Floyd Rose Original is the double-locking tremolo system with fine tuners. It became the flagship model which has been in constant production since 1983 and is referred to as the 100-Series. It has remained largely consistent with the original design, featuring only minor updates such as improved alloys and manufacturing tolerances. The name "Floyd Rose Original" distinguishes this system from licensed versions produced under patent. Early production Floyd Rose Originals were double-locking at the bridge and nut but initially lacked fine tuners on some units, requiring players to unclamp the nut for retuning. The non-fine tuner version was reintroduced in 2015 after some modern players, including Guthrie Govan and Brad Gillis, advocated the model as a matter of preference. Originally manufactured by Schaller in Germany from 1983 to 2024, the Floyd Rose Original is now produced by Floyd Rose in the United States.