New Floyd Rose 6 Hole Retro.

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Looks interesting, we'll see how it does in the marketplace.

http://www.guitarworld.com/floyd-rose-releases-rail-tail-non-locking-tremolo/25998

 

[stratamania]

Yes it looks an interesting design.

I had not seen this until now. Would be interested to see how it performs. If it could be floated I would be wanting to try one.

 

[vikingred]

This is so badass looking.  Need one  :headbang:.  Check out the video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJS7gBsQhHg[/youtube]

 

[Cagey]

Can't float it, it's a dive-only design. Makes sense, as that design is bound to have a lotta friction so it's unlikely it would return to tune unless it had a hard stop.

I think it's just a way of making it easy to retrofit Floyds onto guitars equipped with the unfortunate 6 screw vibratos. Super-V has some products that do the same thing (see Bladerunner).

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Can't float it, it's a dive-only design. Makes sense, as that design is bound to have a lotta friction so it's unlikely it would return to tune unless it had a hard stop.

I think it's just a way of making it easy to retrofit Floyds onto guitars equipped with the unfortunate 6 screw vibratos. Super-V has some products that do the same thing (see Bladerunner).

I agree, I'm impressed with the Bladerunner, and if memory serves, it can float.  Anyone have experience with it?

 

[Cagey]

I thought the Bladerunner was floatable, too. But, if you look at a side view of the design...

...it appears that the body mounting flange is at the same level as the saddle mounting plate, so I would guess that it would require some tricky routing to get to where you could pull up on the thing. Not impossible, but perhaps not intended. Otherwise, I think that one is a dive-only device as well.

 

[mayfly]

the rail tail looks like a great design actually.  Almost makes me want to build another start.  Almost.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I thought the Bladerunner was floatable, too. But, if you look at a side view of the design...

...it appears that the body mounting flange is at the same level as the saddle mounting plate, so I would guess that it would require some tricky routing to get to where you could pull up on the thing. Not impossible, but perhaps not intended. Otherwise, I think that one is a dive-only device as well.

Great observation, thanks Cagey.

 

[dmraco]

Floyd looks cool.  Price??

 

[vikingred]

Floyd looks cool.  Price??

Looked real quick, can't find it on their site.  Maybe they are trying to build interest through scarcity?  :tard:

 

[stratamania]

I've got a Bladeruner and as far as I remember it's floating. Will be able to check it in a few days and update.

 

[MikeW]

Very interesting. If it works as well as designed it sure opens up a lot of possibilities I'm tempted to run out and grab a cheap MIM Strat just to give it a try.

I'm heading up to NAMM on Friday. I'll take a look when I get there and report back.

 

[stratamania]

I forgot about this thread, but my bladerunner is indeed set up to float.

 

[Logrinn]

I'm heading up to NAMM on Friday. I'll take a look when I get there and report back.

NAMM is this weekend? Oh, very cool  :cool01:

 

[Cederick]

I thought the Bladerunner was floatable, too. But, if you look at a side view of the design...

...it appears that the body mounting flange is at the same level as the saddle mounting plate, so I would guess that it would require some tricky routing to get to where you could pull up on the thing. Not impossible, but perhaps not intended. Otherwise, I think that one is a dive-only device as well.

Look closer dude it's NOT at the same height. The mounting piece goes a little lower than the bridge baseplace.
They have the same heigh of the upper surface tho, but that's not of any concern

I had a Bladerunner for a while (and liked it) and I can chime in on what stratamania said, that it IS floating. If you want it dive only against the body, the bridge will be leaning backwards a little bit.

Actually, that was one of the reasons I sold it; if it actually WAS level with the mounting piece, as a real dive-only, then I might have kept it. I liked it floating, but having it decked was annoying that the basepalte didn't have full contact with body. Not that it made any real difference but hey I get annoyed at all kinds of random stuff.

 

[MikeW]

I stopped by the Floyd Rose booth while I was at NAMM to investigate the Rail Tail bridge.

It is just what it looks like in the demo video. Solid brass block and baseplate. The saddles are nice and make good contact with the baseplate to provide better vibration transfer from the string. String spacing is the narrow spacing to pull the strings in from the edge of the fretboard. The overall feel of it is much more solid than an American Standard especially with the block saddles and the sides of the baseplate.

They had a cut-away block on display to show how the strings are locked into position. The string 'tunnels' have a kink in the middle of the block where the ball of the string will be wedged to lock it into position. The top opening is expanded to allow the string to be fixed between the kink in the block and the breakover point on the saddle. The idea is to remove any points of resistance between the locking point at the kink and the breakover point.

Setup looks like it does in the demo video. The same adjustments that you make with an American Standard bridge will apply directly here. Hex screws for saddle height adjustments and a regular old round Phillips-head screw for intonation adjustments. The difference really is that you cannot adjust the height of the bridge by adjusting the posts. It's really made to be a flushmount bridge.

The one thing that I found a bit unusual is that the rail is adjustable up and down (East-West) and I'm assuming that's to be sure that the bridge is centered. So it strikes me that to center the bridge properly you'd have to install the rail but not screw it all the way down so it still slides side to side. Then you'd need to string the bridge with both high and low E strings and set the bridge on the rail so you can move it side to side to get it centered. Once you did that, then you'd have to remove the bridge and tighten the rail down. Not that it seems like a hard process to do, but may be a bit error prone since you could wind up moving the rail as you pull the bridge off to tighten the rail. I thought that it would be better to simply add a tick or detent on the rail to indicate where the center of the rail was and then use that to center it before you tighten it down.

It's designed so the baseplate sits flush on the body instead of requiring a Tremol-no or having the trem block rest on the front of the trem cavity.

The adjustment of the baseplate is interesting too. The guy I was talking with said that it should be adjusted as far foward as possible to give the maximum range down. I'm not sure I'd use the baseplate adjustment for that as much as to move the saddles forward or backward for guitars that have intonation issues.

The arm is the same as the Original Floyd arm but the difference is that, like the Wilkinson, there are hex screws in the collar that holds the arm to keep it firmly in place. I really like this about the Wilkinson over the screw-in designs so I think that's a big plus here too.

While I was looking it over I also thought that it could be made to float in the same way a vintage bridge does. Since the anchor point is at the front of the bridge, you could simply add slack to the springs until the baseplate comes free of the body. It wouldn't have any real upward range, but it would be enough to give you a good warble for a vibrato.

The demo models they had were all chrome. They did have a black and a gold in the case but weren't using them for demos.

They are not out on the market yet; a month or two was what I was told. The only hiccup that I could find with it is the list price: $200-$250. Ouch. Hopefully we'll be able to get them through All Parts or Warmoth for actual retail ($100-$150??).

I may or may not have purchased a Standard FSR Strat as a testbed for this bridge...

[edit :teaser added]

 

[Ace Flibble]

Seems like a good design, and it's pretty, but it's a bit doomed. Every time they come out with a bridge which isn't a Steve Vai-esque whammy abuse machine, it bombs. People see the name 'Floyd Rose' and they expect it to dive quickly, pull up, flutter, and lock. It's no surprise their hardtail bridges never took off.

 

[Cagey]

Yeah. Kinda like a Lamborghini Mini-Van, eh? Just not gonna fly.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Yeah. Kinda like a Lamborghini Mini-Van, eh? Just not gonna fly.

Priceless!!! :icon_thumright:

 

[Ace Flibble]

Well Lamborghini were smart enough to never let their mini van get past the early concept stage.