Early clients included Randy Hansen, George Lynch, Brad Gillis, Neal Schon, and of course, Edward Van-Halen. It's said that Eddie got the first one, Neal Schon got the second one, and Brad Gillis has #3 in his 62' Stratocaster he was using with Night Ranger in the 80's.

A big part of Floyd Rose's success came via Edward Van-Halen. Around 1981-1982, Kramer guitars was seeking Edward Van-Halen as an endorsee, and wanted him to promote a vibrato unit their partner "Rockinger" designed, to be sold as the "Edward Van-Halen Tremolo". Unfortunatley for Kramer, Ed did not like the vibrato, but fortunatley, Ed knew a guy with a better one - Floyd Rose. So Floyd Rose became the exclusive feature of Kramer's guitars for awhile, and Kramer flourished, signing up a roster of musicians, all playing guitars with Floyd Rose Locking vibrato units on them including: Edward Van-Halen, George Lynch, Vivian Campbell, Mick Mars, Howard Leese, Nancy Wilson, Elliot Easton, Paul Dean, Billy Squier - their roster read like a who's who of 80's rock, however, eventually the vibrato would become availiable on many other brand's guitars including Charvel, Jackson, B.C. Rich, and others by the end of the 80's, while Kramer got sloppy with endorsements and lost artists quickly, leading to demise of the company by about 1992 or so. However, Floyd Rose continued to thrive despite, and continued to be a valueable tool in the rock guitarist's quiver through the 1990's with guys like Kirk Hammett, Dimebag Darrell, Ritchie Sambora, and the guy from the Toadies still using them - not to mention all of Kramer's former endorsees still using them on other guitars from other makes.

But that's where the similarities end. The bridge itself features six saddles set by default to a 10" or 15" Fretboard radius, which can only be adjusted by "shimming" the bridge saddles to the correct curvature. Intonation is adjusted by unbolting the saddle a little bit with some hex screws, and then sliding them back using pliars or preferrably a special little intonation tool. THe strings are held in place by a "clamping" device where a metal block puts force on the string against the saddle assembly itself to hold the string in place after the ball ends have been cut off. And those clamp screws double as a actuator for the Fine Tuner mechanism in the back which allows for fine tuning the strings after "gross tuning" the guitar with the locking nut unlocked. Some less expensive designs such as one version of the Floyd Rose II, or the Speedloader, use a diffrent locking system.

The locking nut is another vital piece of a Floyd Rose locking trem unit (or licensed unit). This is a metal base that is either screwed or bolted through the neck, and it has 3 clamps that clamp 2 strings each (EA, DG, and BE - low to high), and comes in multiple sizes to fit different types of guitars, with the most popular being R2 (1-5/8" wide Stratocaster necks) nad R3 (wider Gibson Necks with deeper nut "shelfs"). This clamps the strings and removes the problem of them catching on the nut by making them immobile back to the tuners. This also means to perform the basic "gross tuning" proceedure, you have to unlock the nut, since the fine tuners at the bridge have a fairly limited range (especially on original German units).

TYPE PICTURE	DESCRIPTION
Prototype Floyd Rose	These early (and usually non-fine-tuner) trem units are the units that Floyd himself used, as well as Neal Schon, Edward Van-Halen, Brad Gillis, possibly George Lynch, and many others early on, even some nameless folks. There were mostly built by Floyd himself using his jewelry making skills and now are sought after collectables to some people.
Original German Non-Fine Tuner (NFT)	The original Non-Fine Tuner Floyd Rose units were both a short run production made for some early Kramer PRoducts, including the early Focus and later Striker series guitars. I have a feeling these might have been to use up some parts intended for the higher end Kramers.
Original German Floyd Rose	The original German Floyd Rose is the most popularly seen and sought after version found on most 1980's guitars that came with them from the factory (and even installed aftermarket) - particularly Charvel, Kramer, and Jackson. These were made in Germany of high quality materials. However, they differ from a modern "Floyd Rose Original" in a few ways. First off, the inertia block was steel and had no markings on it of manufacture in most cases. The fine tuners were painted in black paint that wore off to reveal the brass material underneath. The bridge saddles had nothing stopping the blocks from falling down into them further - preventing proper Fine Tuning in some cases. They pivoted on a pair of custom-made "wood screws" for pivot posts, with a VERY coarse thread, that were prone to collapsing into the bridge pickup cavity on some guitars - such as a the Pacer Deluxe/Focus 3000 Kramer models. The whammy bar screwed in like on a regular strat - thoguh most of these have been upgraded to a collared bar with a tension adjustment in back over the decades.
Floyd Rose II Single Locking	The Floyd Rose II Single Locking unit fed the strings through teh back of the bridge saddle assemblies, and then they went over a little "saddle" of their own. The rest of the bridge worked like a regular Floyd Rose. It was also a little different in that the "Body" of the bridge was made of a softer material, and about 1/16th" thicker than the original Floyd Rose, with walls on the sides textured to hold the saddles together in a "channel" of sorts, with steel "inserts" where the pivots go for the knife edge. Some of these were some of the first to use sleeved pivot screws vs the wood-screw type on the Original above. These were usually found on lower-end "Shredders" like NJ Series B.C. Rich, Jackson's lower end models, Charvettes, Vester guitars, and the Kramer Striker and Aerostar guitar models.
Floyd Rose II Double Locking	These were functionally the same as the Floyd Rose Original but had all the same construction techniques used on the single locking II models. Basically, strings clamped into the saddles without ball ends, unlike the previous version, and the vibrato got some better chrome plating as well. Otherwise, same boxed-in 1/16" thicker frame, steel knife edge inserts, and to compensate for the lack of the wide ball-end mounts of the previous version, the saddle lock screws are wider and thicker - which makes these, by default, incompatible with certain products such as the hollowpoint intonation feature, or the EVH D-Tuna (well, the D-Tuna will work, just will look wonky with a smaller screw on it).
Floyd Rose Special	The Floyd Rose Special is the modern official non-licensed equivalent to a Floyd Rose II. Instead of making a cheaper tremolo overall with it's own characteristics, the Floyd Rose Special is designed as an inexpensive (around $65-100) copy of the original German Floyd Rose units, but with some of the more popular modern upgrades available to it. These are made and QC'd in Korea and made using cheaper metals in some places. That said, I would not knock them at all, they actually work really really well - I have one on my Blue Kramer parts mutt guitar and it's pretty awesome. These also come in some special colored finishes to compete with botique Floyd Rose makers such as FU-Tone (more on them later).
Floyd Rose 1000 Series	The Floyd Rose 1000 is the lower-mid-tier Floyd Rose model, about the modern equivalent of the double-locking Floyd Rose II, except this version is 100% compatible with Floyd Rose Original parts, and uses nicer metals than the Floyd Rose Special. The difference is, this version is constructed and QC'd in Korea just like the Special, but costs around $99.99 to $200 depending on finish, and options.
Floyd Rose Non-Fine Tuner reissue	Likely a mix of people making their own recreations of Edward Van-Halen's early pre-fine-tuner Floyd Rose guitars, and probably Brad Gillis and the small subsection of the guitar world that likes non-fine-tuner Floyd Rose trems, FR has put out a reissue of the "NFT" (Non-Fine Tuner) whammy system. It differs from the ones we saw in the 80's, save for a limited run of those we found on some early Kramer Focus and Striker guitars from the factory in the early-mid 1980's.
Floyd Rose Original Reissue	Here's the modern day reissue of the original Floyd Rose locking trem units from the 80's as we remember them. They are pretty much the same unit though it seems most modern releases tend to have additional upgrades such as the collared, tension adjustable bar, and uses bushing-mounted pivot posts (as opposed to the wood-screw type - but more on that later). But the rest is pretty close, if not identical to what was originally seen.Up until 2022, these were marked as "Made in Germany" - as just like the originals, they were manufactured at the facility in Munich. But more recently they took that label off, likely as other countries might be getting involved in production to the speculation of hardcore Floyd Rose fans.
Floyd Rose Pro Series	These are the top of the line version of the Floyd Rose with a different string spacing, low-profile angled back fine tuners, the clamps lock from the top instead of the back, and the unit, overall, has a lower, slimmer profile. Also, the saddles are a little different as well. However, the Floyd Rose Pro series has it's fans as well.
FRX Trem System	The FRX Trem System is meant to be a non-destructive tremolo unit intended for Gibson-style guitars such as SGs, Flying V's, Explorers, and Les Pauls. It mounts directly to the original mounting points for the stoptail and Tune-O-Matic bridge, and has a locking string guide instead of a locking nut - designed to utilize the truss rod cover screw holes to avoid drilling any new holes.

So, as you can see, there are several kinds of Floyd Rose locking tremolo units produced between 1976 and present. The most popular versions are the Original trems, and the Floyd Rose II style for a lot of "Licensed" copies.

To the left we have a fairly standard, modern, Floyd Rose R2 or R3 style locking nut. The locking nut can be mounted either to the top of the neck with 2 wood screws (modern method), or in the old-school method, was bolted THROUGH the guitar neck using 2 hex bolts with lock washers (like the Kramer Focus 3000 neck visible to the right, see the two black dots roughly where the neck is - that's how the locking nut attaches to these types of guitars). In most cases, you also need a single bar string guide to push the strings FLAT around the curved inner surface of the locking nut to prevent pulling the guitar sharp when clamping the nut (this was a common problem that lead to the creation of the Fine Tuner Floyd Rose trems in part).

Some guitars with tilt headstocks don't need the bar if the tilt is enough (usually Gibson style stuff with an R3 locking nut and a deeper tilt to the headstock).

The FRX trem system designed to non-destructively fit to a Gibson instrument without permanant modifications. The locking nut, now reduced to just a "behind the nut clamp" similiar to designs used by Kahler and others, does this by mounting to the Truss Rod cover mounting position, passing the strings over the nut, and through the clamps.

Floyd Rose Locking Nut Sizes vary, and are intended for different applications depending on what kind of guitar they are being installed on. The two most common nut sizes are R2 and R3. R2 is typically used on Fender style guitars (Strats, Teles, Jaguars, Mustangs, Charvels, Kramers, EVH, etc) with a shallow shelf to sit on and a thinner nut width of around 1.650". R3 is used on Gibson style guitars which typically have a deeper drop-off from the fretboard to the headstock, and are around 1.680" wide, and about 2mm deeper than a Fender application.

Floyd Rose has made many different nut sizes and depths for a variety of different applications, all of which are typically marketed as a RX(X) Locking Nut. R2 and R3 are the most popular, but some applications include R8, which is what my Explorer uses. Some require a flatter radius, and others require a more curved radius, but typically Floyd Rose makes their nuts in 10-12" radiuses. See chart below for reference.

Inertia Block - The Floyd Rose Inertia Block comes in three lenghts - 32mm, 37mm, and 42mm. 32mm is what you'd use installing a Floyd Rose into a very thin guitar ie. SG, Mustang, or something you are heavily recessing the tremolo into with a standard depth body, such as a Floyd Rose II. 37mm is also used for FRII and other thicker block products, while 42mm is the standard size for all others including the original Floyd Rose locking tremolo unit. You need to make sure the block is the right depth because if it's not, it may drag the springs across the back of the tremolo cavity in a lot of cases.

Collard vs. Screw In Bar - sometime in the 1990's, a "design improvement" was introduced for the Floyd Rose known as the "Collared" Bar. The original bars screwed in like a Strat bar, with a crush-nut type arrangement with a nylon bushing to screw into. The new bars have a collared mount installed with a mix of a press-fit threaded insert, and then a hex-bolt attached "cup" bit at the bottom designed to allow adjustment of trem arm tension. The bar screws on with a collared nut that goes around the bar and attaches it to the tailpiece.

Lovers - most of the love-it crowd are metalheads of all stripes, and a lot of hard-rock people who actually like using the vibrato bar, and like the idea of a system that stays in tune no matter how crazy they get. They are the ones who "get it" because, likely, their influences used one of these trem units to make sounds they like, or they are like me and see the sonic applications of such a device in rock/metal generes of music, and if you're me, you can see beyond that because there's some pretty good sound-effect type things you can do with a Floyd that you can't (easily) do with a more conventional trem unit.

Haters - Most haters are either staunch traditionalists who either see of it as an un-necessary function, needless complication, or don't like the tonal effects that a Floyd Rose has on the instrument. The biggest complaint is the complication of restringing and setting up such a device.

So here's my brutally honest assessment of the Floyd Rose Locking Trem system (and it's licensed versions).

First off, when it's well setup, and working right, it can do some pretty insane stuff. You can pull up the bar a 5th, or run the strings entirely slack to the point the loose strings are just flapping all over the top of the guitar. No other Trem, not even a Strat, does that. It's one of the reason I have several of these in my artillery. It is very much a second musical instrument to learn and master attached to the guitar, and therefore, will require some practice and screwing around to master it. But if you do, it is capable of some things nobody else's products can do.

However, this comes at a cost of a more involved restringing process than usual. Instead of just sliding the strings through 2 holes, and then tightening the tuners, now we have to cut off the ball ends (except FR II Single Locking), clamp one end and make sure you clamped enough string to hold it in place if you plan to be hard on it like I am, then run the other end up through a clamp and a string bar to a machine head, do the usual restringing thing. Like a Fender Mustang or Jaguar, it can take longer to tune up to pitch because of the floating nature of some of these setups, because once you got the high E up to pitch, the low E now has to be pulled back up to pitch as the whammy hits it's center-point. Of course, a lot of us do things like jam a 9 volt battery in a sock (or in my case, I have a hex wrench that's great for proping the trem up).

That said, I do find that the build quality/installation of such trem units can be questionable in some work. For example, most of the older setups I've seen without enough meat on the treble side between the bridge pickup and the trem have cave-in issues. I've seen this on multiple Kramer Focus 3000s, several Washburn guitars (including the 90's MG45), and a lot of older import builds. Even my ST300 body needed some help in this area.

Another common issue is if you want it to float and do the whole "Flutter"/"gargle" thingy my Striker 300ST does (something Brad Gillis of Night Ranger is known for), it's a trade off. First off, this setup will wear out import and licensed pivots and knife edges like gang-busters. But on the flip side, this setup is also the reason things like the Evertune bridge were invented....because the bridge is being pulled out of tune by string bends, making things like Double-Stop bends not quite possible (unless you're me and training yourself how to hold the bridge steady enough while doing a double stop bend to make the pitch drop less/not noticeable).

You have to realize, this tremolo has a VERY tough job - hold a solidbody electric guitar in tune, perfect tune at that, while holding onto six metal wires trying to pull the headstock and locking nut and the bridge together with up to 200LBS of tension - all the while some maniac is yanking a metal bar around, putting all that stress on two tiny little pivot posts with 2 knife edges that are going to eventually heat up and start getting as dull as grandma's 100 year old butter knife, like they are trying to strangle a squirrel or cut some camembert cheese with their High E string. This is why it's so impressive to some that I'm doing things I do with this with a Mustang or Jaguar tremolo quite a bit more often.

And Floyd Rose stuff is EXPENSIVE! I mean, the cheapest OFFICIAL unit you can buy, is at least $67 retail, and it's a VERY Good unit and well worth the cost. But it costs that much for a reason, because it's constructed to a much higher degree of quality - especially when compared with your average "Overlord of Music" Chinese knockoff unit that's made of pot metal, wears the knife edges easily, doesn't gargle, and comes with some pretty questionable hardware. My Mustang trems last a lot longer, require less work overall in 10 years, and cost a whole lot less (an official Fender Dynamic Whammy costs about the same as a Floyd Rose Special, but wears out a lot less as often). But it won't do the slack string thing and it won't do other stuff (but it has it's own unique traits, hence owning both).