GuitarBizarre

WRONG!!!
Right lets get this over with once and for all. Heres a list of All the various floating bridges and floyd patents and licensing whatnot. I haven't included Kahler bridges purely because they're VERY rare and information regarding them is scarce.

Firstly, Floyd Rose themselves do not manufacture ANYTHING to do with their bridges. All Original/Official Floyd Rose Tremolo Bridges are made by Schaller. There are a few made by a company called Ping, but those are NOS and no longer made.

There are however hundred of companies making bridges using floyd rose patents. These companies must pay a license to FR to make those bridges. This encompasses almost every other Floating double locking tremolo in the world, but not quite all.

As a general rule, Licensed tremolos are of inferior quality to the OFR for reasons of cost, but this is not always the case. Gotoh and Schaller both make their own customized versions of the OFR which are arguably even better than the original floyd rose. They generally have a flatter radius, Redesigned saddles for comfort, and a heavier tone block, although details vary from bridge to bridge.

Gotoh are also the sole manufacturer of Ibanez Tremolo Bridges, however Ibanez do not currently pay a licensing fee to floyd rose for the reason that they have redesigned the bridges to avoid the patents.

Ibanez bridges that were licensed under Floyd Rose were the Ibanez Edge, The Ibanez Double Edge (A peizo version of the original Edge), the Ibanez Low Profile Edge, and the Edge II. Of these the Edge II was very shortlived and was a cheaper alternative to the Edge and Low Pro Edge bridges, both of which are considered by many to be the best Floating Tremolos ever made.

Ibanez have since redesigned their many different floating bridges and thus no longer pay the licensing fee. The bridges in this category are the ZR, ZR2, Edge III, Edge Pro, SyncroniZR, and the new Edge Zero. All of these bridges are of very high quality, with the exception of the budget model Edge III.

Despite this, some design or manufacturing issues have prevented these bridges from truly surpassing the original Ibanez tremolos, at least in the eyes of the fans. Firstly, since the introduction of unlicensed bridges, Ibanez have ceased to use a locking Stud on their knife edge tremolos. This means the stud doesnt lock down as firmly and has a little play. Not a problem under tension but not a good thing for tuning stability when you dive and thus slacken the strings.

Secondly, the Arm holder on the original ZR tremolo has a tendency to work loose over time and break. The ZR2 has replaced this arm holder and thus no longer has this problem.

There are other flaws but I will simply direct you to "IBANEZ RULES!!" - Ibanez Guitars - New and Used to view them. You will find the vast majority of his coverage on those issues is in his Tech section, and his NAMM sections, organized by year.

Below is pictures of EVERY tremolo discussed above, with a brief note. I've highlighted in RED the licensed designs that use floyd rose patents, and ORANGE those that are not licensed designs.


Floyd Rose home - The official Floyd Rose site. Every bridge on it is made by Schaller. Floyd rose licensed, Obviously. Very High Quality.

Gotoh FLOYD ROSE LIC. BRIDGE BLACK CHROME - GE1996TB - This is Gotohs modification of the Floyd Rose Design. Bevelled Saddles, improved arm retention, heavier block and flattrer Radius. My favourite from OFR or Schaller designs.
Schaller Electronic | Tremolos - The first two bridges on this page are Schallers own version of the floyd rose. All the differences are listed on the site. Floyd Rose licensed, VERY high quality.
Original Edge Original Edge- Same as the low Profile in terms of use, but a bit higher off the body, and the locking screws are slightly harder to get to. Excellent trems but becoming hard to find. Floyd Rose Licensed.
Low Profile Edge/LoPro Edge - Low Profile Edge - Excellent bridges, held as the best by many Ibanez Fans. Floyd Rose Licensed.
Double Edge - Double Edge. Picture is a 7 string version of the Double Edge pro, as I couldn't find an original double edge. You can see the piezo elements in the bridge. Excellent bridges. Floyd Rose Licensed.
Edge Pro II - Edge Pro II - Visually not much different from a Lo-Profile Edge, but a slightly cheaper version and thus not quite as well made. Floyd Rose Licensed.
ZR Tremolo - ZR Tremolo. Excellent bridges, uses ball bearings instead of a knife edge for the pivot. The tremolo arm holder is prone to breaking, and the adjustment screw in the back can come off after time. A revision was made which solved the adjustment screw but not the arm holder. NOT a Licensed design.
SyncroniZR - SyncroniZR bridge. A traditional tremolo version of the ZR, incorporating many improvements for player who want a more traditional look and feel. I haven't played one of these, but they're said to be excellent.
ZR2 - ZR2. Visually the same as the original ZR, but with a redesigned arm holder taken from the Edge Pro. That should be the last stumbling block to making this an almost perfect bridge. I reccomend. NOT Floyd Rose licensed.
Edge Pro - Edge Pro. Current king of the hill for the ibanez trem lineup, Very high quality tremolo which suffers from non-locking studs and slightly inconsistent placement of the saddle inserts which leads to sub-optimal action in some cases. NOT floyd rose licensed.

Please note that the Ibanez bridges listed here are ALL 6 string designs. Many of them come in 7 string designs or 8 string designs. The tremolos are EXACTLY the same design when that happens, just a little wider to accomodate the extra saddle.

As for Azothoth and his string breaking wierdness, I can only assume you were trying to tighten it down far too much. I've used a hell of a lot of different floating bridges and never broken a string while stringing ONCE. You're trying to lock the string down, not crush it.

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