Sunday, September 20, 2009

Floyd Rose

Many of us are aware the 'Floyd Rose' name refers to a (locking) guitar bridge capable of lowering & raising (vibrato) the generated pitch. Floyd Rose is itself a brand name, it is not referring to the component's technical capacity. However, we conveniently refer to 'Floyd Rose' as a bridge type instead because many of us find it a chore to explain what this hardware is capable of. The product reputation is such that the brand name itself comprehensively explains what it does.

There are many guitars out there equipped with a dual action bridge ala Floyd Rose but they are by no means a product of the brand name. Ibanez's bridges in many of their guitars feature a Floyd Rose derivative which equal the former in function & features, if not furthering the details of the original. The Edge model (pre-2003, currently discont'd except for selected models), depicted above, is a very close spin-off which allegedly exceeded the Floyd Rose version in selected attainments.

I am not trying to polarize players into believing in brand name superiority, but let's be careful when we tell others we are off-loading a guitar with a Floyd Rose bridge when what's in store is a copy/ derivative unit instead. This may be trivial to many of us until the situation takes a legal turn...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sub,is it true we have to make the Floyd Rose parallel to the body when tuning not angled up?

subversion.sg said...

yes, this is the recommended setting.

if it is over-projected, our picking hand would push it sharp when we rest our palms on the bridge unit itself, during play. if it's under- projected, the bridge end components would touch the cavity base when we raise our pitches.

areripe said...

what u means of very close spin-of?

subversion.sg said...

close spin-off = close variation