Floyd Rose/Locking Tremelo

The Floyd Rose was designed in 1977 and is a double locking tremolo system. The strings are clamped down at the nut as shown in the picture above. These locking nuts make the tuning peg/machine heads unavailable for tuning whilst the nuts are locked down so fine tuners located on the bridge are used to tune the guitar. The ball end of the strings are locked in place via the saddle blocks. This kind of bridge is a floating tremelo with the ‘whammy bar’ capable of large changes of pitch with the bar moved either upwards or downwards. The Floyd Rose like all bridges has various pros and cons. One of the main benefits is the double locking system helps with the guitar tuning stability and as mentioned the large changes of pitch available when using the tremolo arm. As the Floyd Rose is a full floating unit with springs keeping the tension of the strings in place a string break changes the balance of the bridge and therefore makes the guitar out of tune. Floating tremolo bridges also make alternate tunings very difficult. These are obviously a few negative characteristics but for many players the pros out weigh the cons.