Are There Any Good Licenesed Floyds?

[custom22]

Hey all, I have a cheap piece of crap chinese Jem copy that I've been modding and working with to make it a decent stage guitar, but the licensed floyd rose bridge has been chewed up by the post, doesnt pivot well, and is obviously a worthless POS.

So i was wondering, are there any Licenesed Floyd Roses that will function and not go wildly out of tune, or is the only solution a real one? What about the guitar fetish ones?

[Acousticraft]

Yes I have been looking at guitar fetish hardware and it looks enticing but I have no experience of their stuff. I know other members here buy gear from them.

[kiem]

from what ive HEARD, schaller makes great floyd copies.

[chennik]

Given that I have about 15 guitars with various versions of floyds, I may be able to offer some insight on this.

There are several decent Floyd copies out there, of course, the schaller ones are practically on par with the originals, some people like them better, but they are expensive. The same goes for the Ibanez Edge which is also of very good construction, but again you will have to pay for that, and those are all about on par with the price for an original floyd, if not more.

That said, there are some decent inexpensive copies out there, I have a Music Yo Kramer Striker that was only a $130 guitar, but it has a licensed floyd that is take on the schaller floyd copy (i've also heard the term "floyd II" though I've never been too sure what that means) and is of pretty good quality. I compare that to a 1980s jackson Dinky that I have that has an actual schaller, and through heavy use, the only differents I can tell is that the studs on the jackson have held up slightly better with wear and tear, but not much difference. Compared to most licensed floyds, this design has hardened semi-circular knife edge inserts. Inevitably, the hardened inserts on the bridge plate will eat into the studs some with this design. In this pic, you can see how there is an area on the bridgeplate just behind the stud that is cut out, with the insert being the part that actually makes contact with the stud. I occasionally see this type on ebay for $50 or so but i have seen some copies of this design done poorly, such as a Jay Tursner copy of an ibanez RG, but generally I've seen more consistent good quality in this general design.

http://www.blazingentertainment.com/Kramer_Baretta_06.jpg

The other, more common design is like this,

http://www.aampselectricguitarstore.com/im..._floyd_rose.jpg

This design has the base plate itself machined down to form the knife edge for the studs. These are generally not hardened, or at least not as much, and alot of times, the studs end up eating into the base plate with heavy use. I have generally found that this type and the license copies of this general design (close to the original floyd) wear much more than the schaller based ones I mentioned above. With the wear, it's important to note that worn studs can generally be replaced cheaper than a worn bridge, so I prefer those that fit into the first group I mentioned. The ones guitar fetish sells fit into this category.

Also important to note is whether or not you want a double or single lock floyd. The guitarfetish ones are single lock, which means that the ball end of the string goes through the bridge. These are generally less expensive and much easier to string up, but they dont stay in tune as well (esp under heavy use) as the ones that you have to clamp the string end into the bridge, like in both of the posted pics. The easiest way to tell is the peices that protrude under the fine tuner knobs. If they are hollow and you can run a string through them, they are the single lock type. If they are like a bolt/screw with an allen key adjustment, then it's the double lock type.

I hope that helps some.

[westhemann]

Sschaller is as good as the original,yet different.I prefer the original,but Schaller stays in tune as well.Ibanez also makes some trems that are as good,but I always get confused...I THINK the original edge is considered the best of them.

[Mattia]

Gotoh and Schaller make excellent hardware. Not used their floyds, but a good builder friend of mine swears by those two if you don't want to shell out for an OFR.

[tubab0y]

can't forget any of the older kahler fulcrum ones. they're excellent.

and about the ibanez- it's personal opinion. many of my friends swear by the ZR.

[Brandenburg]

Hi.. New to this forum....

I have used several floyds in the past and here is my .02

1)Floyd Rose II on a Kramer Striker 600..... I hated it and thought it was a poor design as It would break strings and a very frequent rate. I actually replaced this tremelo with a Floyd copy and the performance was improved

2)Floyd Rose copy on a Kramer Focus 1000.. Atleast I beleave it was a copy. I had very little trouble out of it and it stayed in tune foe the most part

These 2 guitars mentioned above I have long sence gotten rid of for a variety of reasons and am working with a faded memory..

3) Floyd Rose Licenced by "Lo Pro" on a Jackson Soloist. It has been very reliable and has never gone out of tune when the strings have been properly stretched. Im nolt as big tremelo user but I do on occasion put it through its paces

http://www.bronsteinmusic.com/product_info...544c13de6183718

The main problem I have had with the first 2 guitars mentioned wasnt that they would go out of tune ,but they had trouble finding their original pitch after you dived them.

The Lo Pro is by far my best experience with a floyd copy. It ALWAYAS stays in tune which kinda surprised me a bit. I will sware by this tremelo as it has given good performance to me so far... I have only had this guitar for a few months ,but in that time I have been impressed. Now I just need to put descent electronics in this Jackson and I will be very happy with my purchace

Edited May 1, 2007 by Brandenburg

[spazzyone]

Schaller made the OFR's and many Jackson trems. and im sure some others

the difference between them is the Floyd has a hardened steel baseplate

Schaller's have a cast base with hardened inserts

Ibanez also used hardened inserts on most of their trems (Edge/pro/pro 2) that i know of (maybe more)

and they all used hardened post's

I dont know about the Kahler's but i would hope they used them as well

i have the Mighty Might but wont use it as a trem as it never holds its tune

but its not just the inserts/post's, its the saddles they bind up on each other.

the inserts suck and it has horrible post's to boot. plus the machining is junk at best

bottom line is a you get what you pay for.......$50 dont expect much

a Trem Setter is always a plus

[Brandenburg]

Schaller made the OFR's and many Jackson trems. and im sure some others

the difference between them is the Floyd has a hardened steel baseplate

Schaller's have a cast base with hardened inserts

Ibanez also used hardened inserts on most of their trems (Edge/pro/pro 2) that i know of (maybe more)

and they all used hardened post's

I dont know about the Kahler's but i would hope they used them as well

i have the Mighty Might but wont use it as a trem as it never holds its tune

but its not just the inserts/post's, its the saddles they bind up on each other.

the inserts suck and it has horrible post's to boot. plus the machining is junk at best

bottom line is a you get what you pay for.......$50 dont expect much

a Trem Setter is always a plus

I just realized that I posted a Floyd Rose by Mighty Might.. Was not my intension to advertise one over the other.. Just to show a pic of a low pro that is very simular to my jacksons tremelo.. To get a descent tremelo such as a design based on a floyd the average going price is probably going to in the range of $110 to $200.. Overall I dont really use a tremelo that much but like it because of the fine tuners..and it is kool to user ever so often

[soapbarstrat]

I think the hardness of the steel on my WD Floyd is as good as the steel on my late 80's original Floyd distributed by Kramer. Ok, I bought the WD at a pawn shop for $15.00. If you don't like shimming floyd saddles, the WD has 2 height adustment screws on each saddle (at least that's how they used to make them).

Buying a new Floyd trem from WD, well that's another story, I guess. I saw just a locking nut on their site for something around $50.00. Emailed asking for the price I would actually have to pay ($50.00 is insane). But they replied " $50.00 is what you have to pay, or else go to StewMac and buy one of theirs for $28.00". OOOOOKAY, so I bought from StewMac. Have fun killing yourselves, WD !

[westhemann]

it's personal opinion. many of my friends swear by the ZR.

yeah,but you can't drop that into a floyd rout.

Brandenberg...change that bloated sig to 2 lines max."them's the roolz"