CHARACTERISTICS ✅ of the Types of Bridge for Electric Guitar: Floating (Floyd Rose) and Semi-floating.
The floating and semi-floating bridges are mobile bridges that allow us to modify the tension of the guitar strings, to create a Vibrato effect when the lever is activated.
The floating bridge or Floyd Rose would be an evolution of the semi-floating or traditional bridge, in search of a more optimized performance of the system, in which the string is locked at two points: the nut and the saddle.
For this reason, this type of bridge is known as a double locking bridge. In this way, friction points are eliminated, and it is the main reason for the extreme efficiency of this type of bridge to maintain the tuning of the instrument.
How to Block Floating Guitar Bridge
If we do not intend to use our semi-floating bridge, we can fix it against the wood of the guitar body, in two different ways, or using both.
One would be to tighten the internal screws that hold the springs a little more, so that they exert more pressure. And the other would be to add more springs.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Floyd rose
As mentioned, the floating bridge, also known as the Floyd Rose, is the one that provides the best benefits in terms of tuning stability when using the tremolo lever.
But given the complexity in manufacturing and the extreme quality of the components of this type of bridge, its cost is also higher. So it doesn’t make much sense to buy a guitar with a floating bridge, if we are not going to amortize its use.
It is also deductible that if a guitar has a floating bridge, and it is very cheap, well, the bridge must not be very good. Since a quality bridge of this type would cost us between $200 and $300 if we had to buy it loose, and some even more.
The floating bridge is somewhat uncomfortable due to the adjustments that we must make when changing the strings. Not to mention when using different tunings, or when changing the gauge of strings.
In any case, it is not advisable to continually change tuning or string gauges on floating bridges, as this can cause problems over time. So for greater durability and stability of a floating bridge, it is best to leave it as calm as possible in terms of changes of this type.
EVH D-Tuna
Thinking about these difficulties, the EVH D-Tuna device was created. An accessory that we can install on Floyd rose-type bridges, which allows us to lower the tuning of the sixth string one tone (from E to D) with total ease, but it has some drawbacks. Like the impossibility of being able to use the bridge towards treble, and the adjustment is somewhat cumbersome.
In the Evh Wolfgang Special, this device is already installed as standard.
How to Block Floating Guitar Bridge: Bigsby Vibrato
On guitars with a Tune-o-matic fixed bridge, such as the SG type and ES-335, it is very common to find models with Bigsby Vibrato installed as standard. This vibrato would be installed on top of the wood, instead of the typical tailpiece of the Tune-o-matic bridge.
With the Bigsby Vibrato we can give expressiveness to our music, but its path is short. Approximately one tone towards low, and half a tone towards treble.
If we need to install a floating bridge for greater travel and performance on SG or Les Paul style guitars, one option would be to mount the Floyd Rose FRX. Its price is expensive and obviously, we would also have to install the locking nut.
