HOW FLOYD ROSE CHANGED THE WORLD…AND EVERYBODY ELSE TOOK CREDIT FOR IT

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Published on Monday, 09 December 2013 00:00

Written by Frank J. Pasquale

In 1978 Edward Van Halen Revolutionized the way the electric guitar was played forever. Never again would players approach the instrument the same. His techniques were new and fresh with a modern style. They had elements of early rock music as well as the classical music that was instilled in him at an early age. All of his musical and stylistic dynamics were disguised in the form of The Greatest Rock n Roll Band That Ever Lived; The Mighty Van Halen.  For the first time in history this fiery style was served up to the masses and distributed through commercial radio to a welcoming public. Edward Van Halen had arrived!

When Van Halen’s first album was released on February 10th of 1978 it contained a remake of the Kinks classic “You Really Got Me”. This was destined to be the first single from the album and would be the world’s introduction to Van Halen.  As a prelude to the song on the album the band decided to do an instrumental guitar piece that would lead into the song.  This 1:42 minute introduction would change the world as we knew it at the time.  “Eruption” as it was aptly named was a sonic barrage of new sounds and playing techniques that flowed from the speakers like molten lava spewing from the mouth of an angry volcano. It sent droves of guitarists either to their record players (because that’s all we had back then) or to the local music teacher to try to figure out how this 21 year old “wonder kid”  named Eddie could possibly make a guitar sound that way. 

 
Perhaps the most notable technique that Edward introduced was his now famous two handed tapping technique. Up to this point in history this was a technique that was used by some jazz guitarists to add extensions on complicated chord voicings but Edward took it to a new level.

Just as prevalent in his style was his ubiquitous use of the “Dive Bomb”.  He would use the tremolo bar from a standard Fender style guitar but instead of doing a subtle vibrato he would lower the pitch completely until the strings flapped against the frets and then return it to pitch as abruptly as possible.  This of course had a tremendous effect on the tuning of the guitar once it returned to pitch. As you can imagine this would often knock the guitar completely out of tune.

Nonetheless Edward had mastered the technique of “Dive Bombing” while still returning to pitch. He once stated in an article in Guitar World Magazine that he learned the technique for keeping the guitar in tune from Jeff Beck but he never shared what the technique was.

However, a new day was dawning for the modern rock guitarist and new technology would soon follow.

In 1976, while Edward Van Halen was perfecting his tremolo techniques in the L.A. club scene, a young jewelry maker named Floyd Rose was learning the woes of early Fender tremolo design while playing in a rock band inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple. Floyd learned early on that a standard fender Synchronized Tremolo will not stay in tune under heavy amounts of use.  Struck with inspiration, Floyd used his jeweler tools to create a brass nut with 3 clamps that locked the strings into place.  He then installed this nut on his 1957 Fender Stratocaster and thus in an instant the age old problems of the strings getting snagged at the nut during tremolo abuse were now history.  The “Whammy Bar” was born.

Floyd spent a year or so perfecting his design which now included an upgraded bridge to go with his locking nut concept.  He made all the Floyd Rose Tremolos by hand and by the time Van Halen released their debut album in early 1978 Floyd was ready to unleash his new invention on the world. The guitar world was now ready for change and Floyd was prepared to give it to them.

Rumor has it that Eddie Van Halen has the 2nd Floyd Rose Tremolo ever created, with the 3rd going to Neal  Schon  from Journey and the 4th going to Brad Gillis from Night Ranger.

 
As word got out of this new invention, officially known as The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo System, demand exploded and Floyd was unable to meet production demand.  Faced with an un-surmountable task Floyd decided to make a production licensing deal with Kramer Guitars who at that point were leaders in the electric guitar market.  Floyd stuck an exclusive deal and Kramer Guitars began marketing their new guitar line with the Floyd Rose as a standard feature on certain models.  Not surprisingly, Kramer’s   first offering with “The Floyd” was the Eddie Van Halen Beretta Signature Guitar.

The deal that Floyd Rose made with Kramer was for Exclusive Distribution Rights but nonetheless that did not stop other companies from trying to capitalize on Floyd’s brilliant idea and soon the ‘locking nut’ concept was being used by other companies including Kahler International, who were working on their Cam Lock Tremolo system at the time. Fortunately for Floyd he spent his time in development and managed to secure the patent for his concept .This left Kahler as well as other companies in violation of patent infringement.  The Kahler Tremolo was found to be in violation of the patent due to its unlicensed use of the “locking nut” technology.  A 100 million dollar judgment was made against them and Kahler soon moved the clamp to lock ‘behind the nut’. This was still better than the original Fender design but was still not as good as Floyd’s locking nut.  This left Floyd in sole ownership of the patent to his brilliant idea. He licensed his patent to Kramer Guitars who held exclusive distribution rights throughout the 80’s.

The 90’s however, would not be kind to Kramer Guitars. As the new decade dawned Kramer found themselves staring down the barrel of a full blown bankruptcy.  The trouble actually began in 1987 when they over-extended themselves in endorsement deals and advertising. Add to this, the tremendous royalties that were owed to Floyd Rose and the financial burdens were becoming more and more evident. 

The final death knell to the company came in the form of the now infamous, commercial disaster known as the Gorky Park Balalaika Guitar, an electric guitar designed after the traditional Russian Folk instrument.  After all every red blooded American teenager wanted to be just like their Russian Proletariat heroes from the 1800’s right?

After this brilliant idea failed miserably Kramer Guitars officially filed for bankruptcy in January of 1991

As Kramer played the dirge of a company that could no longer define itself or identify with its market Floyd Rose took his patent and his nifty little “locking nut” and once again brought it to the masses. When Floyd struck his original deal with Kramer they were a small company that became the biggest electric guitar company in the world because they held very tightly to the “exclusivity” of the Floyd Rose Tremolo.  This time Floyd took his idea to Fender Guitars (FMIC) who once again held the exclusive claim to”The Floyd”. However, Fender being the whores that they are decided that they could be the “Exclusive Distributor of The Original Floyd Rose Tremolo System” but they also decided that they could license the patent out to any and every company that would pay them for their services.

This had a two-fold effect in the guitar world. First it opened up the world of locking tremolos to major companies like Jackson, ESP , and Ibanez Guitars who at this point in time were  re vamping their guitar line up to claim a piece of the now defunct Kramer market share. This was a good thing because now every guitar company could have the latest technology at their disposal, even if it was for a price.

But this also had a very negative effect because Fender only licensed the patent and not the “Original Product”.  This meant that every company had to create their own version of the Floyd. This led to a lot of crappy Floyd copies being flooded into the market in a very short amount of time. The reason that I tell you all of this is because more than likely you have already experience the backlash of a crappy Floyd Copy.

 
At this point Fender still kept production of the “Original Floyd” in the Schaller Factory in Postbauer-Heng Germany so quality was still as good as the original. (Actually the factory is in Postbauer-Heng Bavaria which a state in Germany. If you knew that already then please forgive my American interpretation of German Geography and realize that to an American it’s all the same.) 

At this time Fender also started making the now infamous “Floyd Rose II” in various and sundry places overseas. This would prove to be as bad a product that could possibly be made. The metal was so poor that the string clamp saddles would literally snap in half. It has almost no sustain and quite honestly it just sounded terrible.

Nonetheless they were a mere fraction  of the cost of the original product to manufacture so Fender marched  on with their new campaign and made this new piece of crap “standard” on “economy” guitars while the “Pro Series” guitars featured the “Original Floyd”. What this meant was that when Little Johnny wanted a guitar just like his guitar hero, Mommy and Daddy would go out and get him the “economy” version of his hero’s guitar and he would come home with this crappy “Floyd Rose II” and he would not understand why his guitar sucked. 
While Fender was doing its little “experiment” to see how genuinely gullible the guitar buying community was, Schaller Products distributed their own version of the Original Floyd Design under their own independent Schaller name.  These were the same quality as the Original Floyd Rose Tremolos because they were made in the exact same factory to the exact same specs.  However in order to meet the requirements of the patent license Schaller used shorter clamp screws for their saddle clamps but other than that the bridges were the same.   The Schaller did have one distinct advantage over the Fender product and that was the fact that a custom guitar builder could get a top notch quality locking tremolo without having to deal with Fender.  This was definitely a big plus.

As the decade would roll on people grew tired of these “cheap Floyd knockoffs” and fascination with the idea waned.  It became harder to distinguish a good Floyd copy from a bad one because every copy was bad. At the same time Fender was making the “Original Floyd” harder to get because they wanted the buyer to have to buy a Fender guitar to get an Original Floyd.

At the same time a new style of music was evolving. The Nu- Metal revolution was beginning with its focus more on detuned 7 string guitar riffage and less on actual guitar virtuosity. The Ibanez Universe 7 string guitar that Steve Vai had designed became the chief tool of Nu-Metal players because the low B string added more low end growl to the overall sound and added a new dimension to the chord structure.  However the Ibanez Universe was designed to be used in standard tuning and a lot of Nu-Metal players would tune down to D or C tunings.  This of course would throw the 7 string Ibanez Edge Tremolo way out of balance. For this reason a lot of players would avoid the locking tremolo all together and soon players returned to the fixed bridge because there were no problems when the guitar was detuned. As the 90’s closed “The Floyd” seemed to be fading into obscurity. I remember that during that time I did very few builds with locking tremolos and I did a lot of sets ups tuned to low B.

Luckily, for the good of all mankind this Nu-Metal movement passed quickly like the grisly remains that are expelled after a bad night of eating burritos and drinking margaritas. Once again the focus on actual guitar playing and skill began to resurface.   “The Floyd” would once again rise to its preeminent spot at the top of the hill in guitar bridge design and as the new millennium dawned a renewed interest in this amazing product began with a new generation of young players.  As this renaissance took place a new demand for quality would soon follow.

In 2005 a young entrepreneur named Adam Reiver decided it was time to give the “Floyd” an upgrade. Adam had made a name for himself in the guitar industry for his invention of the now famous D-Tuna. A unique device that would replace the low E string saddle on the Floyd Rose bridge and allow the player to drop the tuning on the Low E string from standard tuning to “Dropped D” tuning with the twist of a finger. This too was an amazing invention that was made popular by none other than Edward Van Halen. Adam decided to upgrade the Floyd by adding a thicker brass block and tapering the saddles to make the original design more user friendly to the player.

 
Adam called his new design Floyd Upgrades and almost instantly the concept exploded in the industry. Soon a “Standard Floyd” was no longer the top of the line but the starting point. Adams ideas were so innovative and cutting edge that soon Fender started incorporating them on their “Original” products.  In true corporate scumbag fashion Fender then took umbrage with Adams’s use of the word “Floyd” because Fender has assumed all trademark usage of the name.  Not wanting to get tied up in legalities Adam changed the company name to FU-TONE.  It is this humble builder’s opinion that the FU –TONE locking tremolo is the apex of locking tremolo technology.

So there you have it….

The true story of how a frustrated guitar player took matters into his own hands and created a new way of thinking about guitar design that changed the world. The idea was so great that almost immediately the industry tried to steal it from him and in true Hollywood fashion he proved to be victorious.

The invention was so revolutionary that it was heralded by Guitar World magazine as one of “The 10 Most Earth Shaking Guitar Innovations”. It also made Guitar Player magazines “101 Greatest Moments in Guitar History”.

I believe that these two statements pale in comparison to the magnitude of this invention. I believe that Floyd Rose should be given the Nobel Peace prize for his genius creation. Without it the world would be forever locked into the chaos of out of tune guitars and frustrated players trying to stay in tune as they play “Eruption” for the ten thousandth time. This would eventually lead to an entire planet of angry people throwing guitars, world tensions would rise and wars of apocalyptic nature would soon follow.
Thank you Floyd Rose for your contribution to mankind and Rock On my friend …you deserve it.