Cool video. I live in Seattle and have one of Floyd's first hand machined FR from when he lived here. Someone on ebay claims they have the first, but mine is definitely older than theirs. I also have a Non Fine Tuner Floyd Rose on a Pre Warmoth 7/8 Lynn Ellsworth guitar.
I had one of the original stud mount Floyds. The springs were so weak, it could only take .008s all springs (a bunch of tiny ones) fully tightened, and it sounded like shit because the bridge plate was way thinner than a normal one.
I thought the Headcrasher was made by Fernandes? They were both Japanese based companies, so not sure who supplied who. Fernandes also made some of the earlier Floyd versions, including the FRT-7.
Trying to put together the tremolo that was fully in bits and the little adjusting internation blocks that the strings clamp to have numbers under them, two have a number 1 on them ,two have a number 2 on them and two with a number 3, and i don't know what order they go on ??? Set it up twice now to what I thought and can't get it right, was a good guitar now it's feeling like a can of worms
Different ways; none are perfect. Let’s say your Floyd is decked and action is too high. On a set neck or neck thru you’re out of luck unless you’re willing to do major surgery. A bolt on you can shim the back of the neck, making the string angle less extreme and hopefully getting the action where you want it. It’s trial and error for me. If you have a set neck guitar that was purpose built for a floating setup, all you can do is block it so it can only go down, or put in a trem stop. Ask around on some forums, there are tons of people out there way smarter than me 😂
the Bendmaster was basically a clone of a Floyd Rose II. The strings feed through the saddles rather than being locked. they came on lower end guitars like Westone and other brands. Fernandes also had a version called the Headcrasher. They aren't rare. Like other single locking designs they work fine if set up correctly
@@mrtwistyneck I wonder if one of those brands you mentioned is what the guitar I got with it was. The neck came off an Epiphone Explorer but the body was built like a HSS strat without a pickguard
I’ve a question for you. The internet seems divided in opinion, I’ve got a warmoth body drilled for the original non fine tuner floyd rose which I hate and want to change. are the base plate knife edges the exact same measurement on the standard version? I know on the FR website they’re saying the non fine tuner floyd rose edges are 74.0 and the standard ones are 74.3 but it seems everyone thinks they’re are all interchangeable? Can you clarify?
Check out th-cam.com/video/ZJHHE2DKmZc/w-d-xo.html, around the 3:54 minute mark. I bought that for less than 20 bucks out of Japan. It is unbranded as well. Are you talking about the gold one listed as Gotoh?
@@mrtwistyneck no no mine is the prototype floyd rose on eBay. Definitely this is the real deal as I have been told this several times and all the call signs match up. What to you think.
I haven't seen one of those since the late 80s. They were like a cheap Kahler copy, and usually came on low to mid priced guitars. If you stretched your strings carefully and spent a little time setting them up they would stay in tune okay.
In general it is the same in terms of what it does. But there are many differences design wise. The fine tuners have a different thread. The arm has a newer style collar. The saddles are a modern design. The block is made of brass rather than steel. There is no leafspring under the long saddle bolts to keep them pushed against the fine tuner. I don’t think any of these are deal breakers. Both the old and newer designs do the exact same thing when set up appropriately: Keep the guitar in tune. The rest is just bragging rights.
The black bridge you're holding that you refer to as a "uber cheap fr t4v" is actually a "Double Eagle" locking tremolo bridge, I have one just like it in chrome, this one has the original block which is very similar and not a Fender style "string thru" block, I bought it at a music store in Neptune, NJ back in 1982
Eric Polo yep, i've learned a lot about those since i posted the vid. and the Fernandes FRT4V models weren't prototypes - they were production models offered as upgrades. my friend Darren has put together a dedicated website www.vintagegloydrose.com -great site. I also put up facebook.com/oldfloyds which is a good place to geek out
The Schaller is rare? That's the only thing my local guitar store could get, since Floyd Rose seems to have some trouble shipping stuff to Europe. It works great though, nothing wrong with it at all.
@@mrtwistyneck Ha! I took some dramamine and made it through the video. Really good stuff! I have a Fernandes one, branded "Head Crasher" - I am not sure how good it technically is, but I suspect it (or the posts) need some work because it doesn't always return to 0. I tried the Trem-Setter and was unhappy with that in every way.
@@PhpGtr cool! Get on Facebook and come visit the early Floyd Rose Trems group. I think what a lot of people do with head crashers is they take off the nonlocking saddles and replace them with actual locking saddles. That would definitely help tuning stability. Also, if you are floating your trem Then it will always be somewhat of a struggle to keep it in tune. So if you are OK with Eddie Van Halen type bridge trickery then make sure your bridge is against the wood. If you need to get into Steve Vai or dime bag Darrell territory then yes you will definitely need to float the bridge. The posts might be part of the issue but there are some other factors to consider
I think it is good because you know the saddle blocks will never fall out accidentally. Also because they don’t have a hole drilled into them and they are completely solid, they are probably more robust than the Schaller design. The only weak spot in the design is that there is no way to stop the string from extending beyond the bottom of the saddle. This is what happens when the little brass insert falls out of a shalllle saddle too. If your string is a little past the bottom then as you tighten the fine tuner to raise the pitch, your saddle will start squashing the end of the string that is protruding. That can put stress on the saddle but it can also limit the range of fine-tuning because it will stop the saddle from being able to lay completely flat against the base plate. There are pros and cons either way. I still think the old T block design wins the cool factor
@@mrtwistyneck it would be really cool to see Floyd Rose bring back some of these old designs in a modern adaptation. I would love to see a bridge design that doesn't need to be adjusted for drop tuning as well as dive and pull up
@@brandonharris9160 I agree with you. There are a lot of reasons why that doesn’t happen. As it turns out, the world of Whammy bars is filled with patent trolls and litigious lawyers. They are great ideas out there that will never see the light of day because they are so tied up in legal proceedings. And even if the patent is free and clear it becomes a question of how much return on investment would they get reproducing old designs that haven’t existed for nearly 40 years. When it comes to mass production I would make an an educated guess that a 50,000 unit commit would be required. That is a lot of money at risk. Not every person who uses a whammy bar is in the weeds about this version or that version of a floyd Rose. But to reiterate, I agree with you 100%. I just don’t really see it happening. You can purchase small run re-creations. But you have to hang around FB groups that are dedicated to older model floyds.
I had one of the original Les Paul floyds that you have here. They worked great and there was nothing wrong with the design. They are also a million times better looking than Floyd's new design. I am guessing they didn't sell and that is why they were discontinued.
Thank you for commenting, you're the first person I've heard say they played one. I have a guitar being built right now with one and will review soon. And I agree that the old design is better looking. Be sure to check out my ESP Might Vise vid
They probably didn't sell because they were stupidly expensive, about 3 times the standard one. Really they should make the baseplate again, because the actual floyd from what I can see is the same without the actual sustain block. Hate the look of the FRX! Maybe it works well, but it's unnecessarily ugly!!!
I gave one gold tha says "Floyd rose original" and a about 5 more that says just floyd rose and on the back all says made in germany they all was in kramers guitar except the gold one
Cool vid. to add to it, there were many differences in certain early "garage made" Floyds as well. And it may be noted the FRT-5 was made by Kahler who incidentally manufactured the Floyd Rose Pro for Kramer in the late 80s. Cheers!! - Dave vintagekramer.com
DinoNardelli Excellent! I so wish that I could sit down with Floyd and ask him geeky questions about the early stuff. But he would have to come to Nashville to do that LOL
I've tried emailing him to do the very same thing over the last ten years or so. I don't think he has any interest. I haven't seen him in person since 2004 Kramer Expo. I have a lot of info gathered on an old hard drive with pics and was going to do an exclusive and put it on Vintage Kramer and Reverb but I got lazy and never did. Lol. Oh well..
DinoNardelli we need to keep trying, because he isn't getting any younger and this stuff is his legacy. Shoot me a private message on Facebook I really want to track him down and ask as nicely and non-intrusively as possible.
I have an older Floyd circa 1988. Made in Germany. Instead of just 'Floyd Rose' it is inscribed with 'Floyd Rose Original'. It's a black one. I did not see it among your collection. Do you know anything more about this?
Can’t believe I haven’t seen this video until now. Cool video! Thanks!
TheAxe4Ever thanks!
Cool video. I live in Seattle and have one of Floyd's first hand machined FR from when he lived here. Someone on ebay claims they have the first, but mine is definitely older than theirs. I also have a Non Fine Tuner Floyd Rose on a Pre Warmoth 7/8 Lynn Ellsworth guitar.
Mat Korade cool! Take pics and post them at facebook.com/oldfloyds
Wow, more variants than I knew of and I was playing when this stuff came out.
Awesome thanks!
I had one of the original stud mount Floyds. The springs were so weak, it could only take .008s all springs (a bunch of tiny ones) fully tightened, and it sounded like shit because the bridge plate was way thinner than a normal one.
This video content is gold. Thumbs up sir
Thank you!
Schaller is my favorite Floyd. Buttery smooth, and never went out of tune for me.
ESP made a Floyd Rose style tremolo called the "Headcrasher".
The one called Sinclair? They are really hard to find nowadays.
I thought the Headcrasher was made by Fernandes? They were both Japanese based companies, so not sure who supplied who. Fernandes also made some of the earlier Floyd versions, including the FRT-7.
Trying to put together the tremolo that was fully in bits and the little adjusting internation blocks that the strings clamp to have numbers under them, two have a number 1 on them ,two have a number 2 on them and two with a number 3, and i don't know what order they go on ??? Set it up twice now to what I thought and can't get it right, was a good guitar now it's feeling like a can of worms
should be like this
1= low and high E
2= A and B
3= D and G
Thank you for the help really appreciate it
How do you adjust action on a decked Floyd rose ?
Different ways; none are perfect. Let’s say your Floyd is decked and action is too high. On a set neck or neck thru you’re out of luck unless you’re willing to do major surgery. A bolt on you can shim the back of the neck, making the string angle less extreme and hopefully getting the action where you want it. It’s trial and error for me. If you have a set neck guitar that was purpose built for a floating setup, all you can do is block it so it can only go down, or put in a trem stop. Ask around on some forums, there are tons of people out there way smarter than me 😂
@@mrtwistyneck Thank you bro ,I appreciate it.
Why Don't Mr Floyd do the first model u showed in this vídeo anymore and the les paul models? I really not into the FRX model for tune-o-matic.
I had a bridge that was called a Floyd Rose Bendmaster. I cant find anything about it and it confuses me to death everytime I try to do research on it
the Bendmaster was basically a clone of a Floyd Rose II. The strings feed through the saddles rather than being locked. they came on lower end guitars like Westone and other brands. Fernandes also had a version called the Headcrasher. They aren't rare. Like other single locking designs they work fine if set up correctly
@@mrtwistyneck I wonder if one of those brands you mentioned is what the guitar I got with it was. The neck came off an Epiphone Explorer but the body was built like a HSS strat without a pickguard
I’ve a question for you. The internet seems divided in opinion, I’ve got a warmoth body drilled for the original non fine tuner floyd rose which I hate and want to change. are the base plate knife edges the exact same measurement on the standard version? I know on the FR website they’re saying the non fine tuner floyd rose edges are 74.0 and the standard ones are 74.3 but it seems everyone thinks they’re are all interchangeable? Can you clarify?
they are the same. you can drop in one with fine tuners with no issue. Just make sure it isn't one of those wacky licensed by Floyds
Mr Twisty neck. I have a prototype floyd rose. Its on Ebay. How do I know what it is exactly and how much should I sell it for?
Check out th-cam.com/video/ZJHHE2DKmZc/w-d-xo.html, around the 3:54 minute mark. I bought that for less than 20 bucks out of Japan. It is unbranded as well. Are you talking about the gold one listed as Gotoh?
Which is your trem on ebay?
@@mrtwistyneck no no mine is the prototype floyd rose on eBay. Definitely this is the real deal as I have been told this several times and all the call signs match up. What to you think.
Can you do a review on the Accutune bridge system?
I haven't seen one of those since the late 80s. They were like a cheap Kahler copy, and usually came on low to mid priced guitars. If you stretched your strings carefully and spent a little time setting them up they would stay in tune okay.
With the holy grail it looks like the Floyd Rose 1984 which is available now
In general it is the same in terms of what it does. But there are many differences design wise. The fine tuners have a different thread. The arm has a newer style collar. The saddles are a modern design. The block is made of brass rather than steel. There is no leafspring under the long saddle bolts to keep them pushed against the fine tuner. I don’t think any of these are deal breakers. Both the old and newer designs do the exact same thing when set up appropriately: Keep the guitar in tune. The rest is just bragging rights.
The black bridge you're holding that you refer to as a "uber cheap fr t4v" is actually a "Double Eagle" locking tremolo bridge, I have one just like it in chrome, this one has the original block which is very similar and not a Fender style "string thru" block, I bought it at a music store in Neptune, NJ back in 1982
Eric Polo yep, i've learned a lot about those since i posted the vid. and the Fernandes FRT4V models weren't prototypes - they were production models offered as upgrades. my friend Darren has put together a dedicated website www.vintagegloydrose.com -great site. I also put up facebook.com/oldfloyds which is a good place to geek out
Fantastic vid! What is the baseplate thickness on the whale-tail? It seems much thinner than the others.
Have you ever seen a version which is front stamped floyd rose original, and back stamped made in germany, any idea who made those ?
Schaller
The Schaller is rare? That's the only thing my local guitar store could get, since Floyd Rose seems to have some trouble shipping stuff to Europe. It works great though, nothing wrong with it at all.
I am getting motion sickness watching this.
Tremor-lo LOL
@@mrtwistyneck Ha! I took some dramamine and made it through the video. Really good stuff! I have a Fernandes one, branded "Head Crasher" - I am not sure how good it technically is, but I suspect it (or the posts) need some work because it doesn't always return to 0. I tried the Trem-Setter and was unhappy with that in every way.
@@PhpGtr cool! Get on Facebook and come visit the early Floyd Rose Trems group. I think what a lot of people do with head crashers is they take off the nonlocking saddles and replace them with actual locking saddles. That would definitely help tuning stability. Also, if you are floating your trem Then it will always be somewhat of a struggle to keep it in tune. So if you are OK with Eddie Van Halen type bridge trickery then make sure your bridge is against the wood. If you need to get into Steve Vai or dime bag Darrell territory then yes you will definitely need to float the bridge. The posts might be part of the issue but there are some other factors to consider
They should bring back the T design, never knew it existed
I think it is good because you know the saddle blocks will never fall out accidentally. Also because they don’t have a hole drilled into them and they are completely solid, they are probably more robust than the Schaller design. The only weak spot in the design is that there is no way to stop the string from extending beyond the bottom of the saddle. This is what happens when the little brass insert falls out of a shalllle saddle too. If your string is a little past the bottom then as you tighten the fine tuner to raise the pitch, your saddle will start squashing the end of the string that is protruding. That can put stress on the saddle but it can also limit the range of fine-tuning because it will stop the saddle from being able to lay completely flat against the base plate. There are pros and cons either way. I still think the old T block design wins the cool factor
@@mrtwistyneck it would be really cool to see Floyd Rose bring back some of these old designs in a modern adaptation. I would love to see a bridge design that doesn't need to be adjusted for drop tuning as well as dive and pull up
@@brandonharris9160 I agree with you. There are a lot of reasons why that doesn’t happen. As it turns out, the world of Whammy bars is filled with patent trolls and litigious lawyers. They are great ideas out there that will never see the light of day because they are so tied up in legal proceedings. And even if the patent is free and clear it becomes a question of how much return on investment would they get reproducing old designs that haven’t existed for nearly 40 years. When it comes to mass production I would make an an educated guess that a 50,000 unit commit would be required. That is a lot of money at risk. Not every person who uses a whammy bar is in the weeds about this version or that version of a floyd Rose. But to reiterate, I agree with you 100%. I just don’t really see it happening. You can purchase small run re-creations. But you have to hang around FB groups that are dedicated to older model floyds.
This guys got the shakes real bad.
Fred Garvin its a tremor-lo. HA HA HA HA HA
@@mrtwistyneck I shake worse, and I don't drink.
I had one of the original Les Paul floyds that you have here. They worked great and there was nothing wrong with the design. They are also a million times better looking than Floyd's new design. I am guessing they didn't sell and that is why they were discontinued.
Thank you for commenting, you're the first person I've heard say they played one. I have a guitar being built right now with one and will review soon. And I agree that the old design is better looking. Be sure to check out my ESP Might Vise vid
They probably didn't sell because they were stupidly expensive, about 3 times the standard one.
Really they should make the baseplate again, because the actual floyd from what I can see is the same without the actual sustain block.
Hate the look of the FRX! Maybe it works well, but it's unnecessarily ugly!!!
That was great!!!
cappy from boston thanks!
Your video has some kind of "Jacob's ladder" effect going on there...
it happens ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
..do you want selling any?,...Love the thought of one of those top mounted ones...💞🎸🖤
I gave one gold tha says "Floyd rose original" and a about 5 more that says just floyd rose and on the back all says made in germany they all was in kramers guitar except the gold one
Get that hand shaking thing checked out bruh
I k-know r-r-right?
Cool vid. to add to it, there were many differences in certain early "garage made" Floyds as well. And it may be noted the FRT-5 was made by Kahler who incidentally manufactured the Floyd Rose Pro for Kramer in the late 80s. Cheers!! - Dave vintagekramer.com
DinoNardelli Excellent! I so wish that I could sit down with Floyd and ask him geeky questions about the early stuff. But he would have to come to Nashville to do that LOL
I've tried emailing him to do the very same thing over the last ten years or so. I don't think he has any interest. I haven't seen him in person since 2004 Kramer Expo. I have a lot of info gathered on an old hard drive with pics and was going to do an exclusive and put it on Vintage Kramer and Reverb
but I got lazy and never did. Lol. Oh well..
DinoNardelli we need to keep trying, because he isn't getting any younger and this stuff is his legacy. Shoot me a private message on Facebook I really want to track him down and ask as nicely and non-intrusively as possible.
Oh and please search for that stuff on your hard drive I know there's got to be some rare things in there
been using floyd rose for 40 years. just fyi, the last 3 mounted type never made it to malaysia.hahahaa1
I have an older Floyd circa 1988. Made in Germany. Instead of just 'Floyd Rose' it is inscribed with 'Floyd Rose Original'. It's a black one. I did not see it among your collection. Do you know anything more about this?
I remember when those came out in the late 80s, but I don’t know why they put the word original on there.
Can you stop shaking please?
Tremor lo
Lol, too much caffeine and not enough breakfast. Or maybe it's cancer who knows?
No worries atleast the video is stable. Great collection.
Svhallers are the best!!!
I have Schaller but I don't know how good it is in comparison to the others.