Warmoth's "Original Floyd Rose".

[Steve St.Laurent]

So you guys that have used both - which do you prefer?  The original or the newer one?  Considering another build with an FR.

 

[Cagey]

Neither. They're unnecessarily complex, expensive and difficult to live with. With today's better nuts and tuners, there's no reason to tolerate them. Any two point fulcrum vibrato bridge will work just as well.

 

[vikingred]

Neither. They're unnecessarily complex, expensive and difficult to live with. With today's better nuts and tuners, there's no reason to tolerate them. Any two point fulcrum vibrato bridge will work just as well.

I disagree.  I've used Floyd Rose's since 1987 (and some vintage strat tremolos), and when set up properly the FRs are incredible.  They feel right in my hand.  "Work just as well" is a subjective term.  Sure, anything will get the job done.  In my experience a Wilkinson VS100 is nothing at all like the FR.  It feels "sterile" to me.  I have a black one, and now a "Gold" one that is flat gold and looks like garbage, replacing it with a VS300.  I do like the TUSQ XL nuts on non-FR guitars.  Again, I don't find the FR difficult to live with at all, in fact, the one I used in my latest Canary Strat build is absolutely fantastic.  Very subjective topic but I wanted to weigh in on this since I'm a FR person.  They'll always feel like home to me.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

I once went cheap with a chinese-made no-name floyd from ebay.  NEVER AGAIN. it was close, but kept scraping the sides.  It even came with a diagram of the dimensions, and the numbers matched up, but the actual product didn't.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Neither. They're unnecessarily complex, expensive and difficult to live with. With today's better nuts and tuners, there's no reason to tolerate them. Any two point fulcrum vibrato bridge will work just as well.

I disagree.  I've used Floyd Rose's since 1987 (and some vintage strat tremolos), and when set up properly the FRs are incredible.  They feel right in my hand.  "Work just as well" is a subjective term.  Sure, anything will get the job done.  In my experience a Wilkinson VS100 is nothing at all like the FR.  It feels "sterile" to me.  I have a black one, and now a "Gold" one that is flat gold and looks like garbage, replacing it with a VS300.  I do like the TUSQ XL nuts on non-FR guitars.  Again, I don't find the FR difficult to live with at all, in fact, the one I used in my latest Canary Strat build is absolutely fantastic.  Very subjective topic but I wanted to weigh in on this since I'm a FR person.  They'll always feel like home to me.  :icon_thumright:

I'm right in between both of you, opting more for the way Carvin used them, ie; Floyd bridge + locking tuners + well prepared lubricated nut, with the following caveat.  "It can only stay in tune exceptionally if the string path from the fingerboard, over the nut, to the tuner posts is as straight as possible." 

If there is any side travel on the tuner side of the nut, the wound strings will most certainly bind in the nut slot.

I like the additional "weight" of the Floyd's fine tuner assembly as it aids in doing those lil Brad Gillis "flutters", even though his didn't have fine tuners.  Since I'm doing lead vocals, the fine tuners are right there for me to access while a chord is sustaining to correct any pitch anomalies.

I had a LP Studio back in the late 80's for a bit, and had a fine tuner tail piece and that is still my preference for all guitars, but not practical for hardtail bridges like the Strat or Tele versions.

 

[dmraco]

If you are into serious dive bombs and big time whammy work, nothing beats a properly installed floyd and the Schallers are some of the best.  I have several and once they are set you RARELY have to tune again, unless the neck moves due to humidity etc.  So if you are EVH or a Steve Vai type of player...Floyd all the way.

If all you want is basic vibrato (think Jeff Beck), and fender style will do just fine as long as you have some good tuners and nut, I like the graph tech.  I do tighten the hell out of the springs to make sure they are totally locked down.

I have purchased some of the mid level floyds, they work OK but the sustain is not as good as the high end OFR.

 

[amigarobbo]

I was just looking a Schaller's diagrams, and on all the Floyd Roses, both as far as I can tell the Original, and the actual Schaller Floyd Rose all have a radius of 12 inches at the bridge,

the locking nuts seem to have an 10 inch radius

but the Warmoth Web site says 10" for both http://www.warmoth.com/Genuine-Floyd-Rosereg-Original-Tremolo-Gold-P546C693.aspx

I know it's only a bit different, and easily within wiggle differences, but which is correct?

 

[AutoBat]

I believe they're 10" and come with 12" shims already in place.

 

[stratamania]

If you are going to use a Floyd with a Warmoth compound 10" - 16" radius you need about an 18" radius at the bridge. To achieve that it's done with shims.

 

[amigarobbo]

Well, this is it, I'd prefer a more cambered straight 10" fretboard, its just I don't want to pay extra for something that would make it less suitable than the compound radius.  :icon_scratch:



For my next, next build of a Strat based mega-wango-trillomaster bar possibly with a sustainer so I can sound like that bloke, thingy, used to play with Frank Zappa? "Distinctive" hair? Absolutely great guitarist, does exciting things that were new and always looking for things never done before and not just run up and down scales very, very fast.

That's right, Adrian Belew.

 

[stratamania]

To shim it for the Warmoth compound radius is explained in this video.

[youtube]7naBd2cuIcU[/youtube]

Shims can be bought from various places for the job.