Floyd Rose Comparison

[CKJ]

Hopefully this has not been done yet by anybody that is dumb enough to spend $75 on just a base plate and go through all the disassembling and reassembling of an OFR tremolo.

I have two guitars with the Floyd Rose FRT-O2000 Tremolos. After reading certain threads on here about how the O2000's just didn't hold up over time, I became somewhat irritated about it. Why they would put an inferior product on their guitar just had me seeing red long enough to buy 2 replacement OFR Made In Germany base plates, new OFR studs, and a new set of OFR springs (fwiw I love their springs!).

Well after getting the factory one off of my RR24M I did a comparison and the results are interesting and may shock you to a point.

In this picture, the new OFR MIG base plate is on the left, while the O2000 is on the right.


I noticed 3 things right off the bat when looking at them. Keep in mind, this is off of 2009 RR24M and a Brand new OFR MIG.

1. The slots where the string locking screw on the O2000 looks as if it was been bent/crimped to achieve that shape, as compared to the OFR MIG it looks like its made like that rather than having those buckles in the very corners.

2. The holes for mounting the sustain block are bigger on the O2000.

3. The O2000's logo is smooth on the base plate while the OFR MIG has a slight texture to it.

Other things that i've noticed upon handling the two is the O2000 is a bit heavier and a hair taller than the OFR MIG. Being that the O2000 is a bit heavier wouldn't that increase the sustain of the guitar vs. the lighter OFR?

Just some food for thought. Anybody else wanna throw something into the mixing bowl?

[RobRR]

Sorry but I dont buy into the "O2000" is crap story. Ive got em on 3 guitars and theres absolutley nothing wrong with them. It cracks me up, people constantly complained about the JT580LP... so what does JC start doing? They start using a real Floyd!

But no, that "real" Floyd is not "real enough" cause its not MIG, not only do we want a real Floyd, we want it made in Germany too! Even IF IF IF by some chance the O2000 was crap, Im still MORE than happy to have a rout that a MIG Floyd will fit into!

[CKJ]

Sorry but I dont buy into the "O2000" is crap story. Ive got em on 3 guitars and theres absolutley nothing wrong with them. It cracks me up, people constantly complained about the JT580LP... so what does JC start doing? They start using a real Floyd!

But no, that "real" Floyd is not "real enough" cause its not MIG, not only do we want a real Floyd, we want it made in Germany too! Even IF IF IF by some chance the O2000 was crap, Im still MORE than happy to have a rout that a MIG Floyd will fit into!

I really don't know if its true or not, but I'd much rather go ahead and swap them out for my piece of mind. I'm notorious for building a shortblock and then doing something a little extra radical to either the heads or a bigger cam in a car and just pulling everything right down and selling the rods because the fwhp is getting to close to their rated fwhp rating. Will a rod bust..? More than likely not, but after frequent 7K pulls i'd much rather be safe than sorry.

Same case with this, i'd much rather just go ahead, bite the bullet and get it over with!

I actually like the JT580LP's.. all except the earlier model one that came on my KV4.. the threads were stripped like crazy in it when I got it.

[warlok]

Obviously I've been missing something but I haven't heard anyone say that they didn't hold up over time. Only thing I've heard is people upset that they are not MIG and Jackson put them on high end guitars. I never understood why as FR backs the 02000's the same as the MIG's. Are people really having technical problems (not philosophical, snobbish, or general angst) with them?

And BTW - thanks for the comparison.. Helps my decision to not worry about them..

[CKJ]

Obviously I've been missing something but I haven't heard anyone say that they didn't hold up over time. Only thing I've heard is people upset that they are not MIG and Jackson put them on high end guitars. I never understood why as FR backs the 02000's the same as the MIG's. Are people really having technical problems (not philosophical, snobbish, or general angst) with them?

And BTW - thanks for the comparison.. Helps my decision to not worry about them..

From what I understood that the base plate isn't made of a higher quality metal as the MIG one and the knife edges would wear out a lot sooner causing tuning issues later down the road. A heavier metal doesn't always mean better, just look at mild steel vs. chromoly. Chromoly is much stronger and lighter than your run of the mill mild steel.

The other one gets replaced tonight!

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

It's definitely a good thing that you started a thread about this, since it hasn't been discussed in a few months!

Here's the thing... From what I understand about what you understand, someone pulled some comments out of their ass about the Korean Floyd being made of inferior materials and you believed it. They didn't show you a detailed metallurgical analysis, or show you any specifics about the process, they just pulled that "inferior materials" shit out of their ass, and you believed it.

Or, did someone send a Korean Floyd base plate to a metallurgical lab for testing and post a results sheet or something? Maybe I missed that.

We don't KNOW anything about the Korean Floyd's longevity. Anyone who says that they do, is FULL OF SHIT.

Here is what I do know:

1. The base plate is slightly thicker
2. The base plate shape is not exactly the same (they don't work in a Warmoth recessed Floyd mount, for example)
3. The saddles are different
4. The bar/collar is different
5. The nut is different
6. All of the fasteners are different

Inferior? Who knows. How long would it take you to wear one out? Who knows.

If you absolutely must have the PROVEN unit then by all means, spend the $170 to replace it with a genuine, MIG Floyd, but don't believe the "FR2000 sux, lol" guys have any idea what they are actually talking about.

[markD]

my ONLY contribution to this debate is to say that i played a PRS toreo (or whatever it is) with the korean floyd. it felt great, performed incredibly as i was doing a ton of vai-like little whammy bends and note slurs, flickers, and pull-ups. the guitar stayed in tune (and this was an off the rack PRS @ GC) the whole time. i had to make no adjustments to the fine tuners, before, during, of after whammy abuse.

the ONLY thing i noticed was that the floyd LOOKED cheesier than what i am used to seeing with an OFR. it was chrome, and it lacked the smooth, mirror-like reflection of a german OFR. the logo was a little rough in appearance and feel, and i noticed items 3-6 from MakeAJazzNoiseHere's post. basically, it was cosmetic stuff. would it keep me from buying a guitar with one? probably not. i would just try to find a guitar with a blk floyd, that's all.

[Axewielder]

CKJ, clearly you are going to have to take a round file (in a controlled way) to those knife edges to address the concerns around metal hardness.

[Scooter]

Someone contact MythBusters!

[Krymson86]

I don't own either an original Floyd OR a MIK Floyd. BUT, I do know something about the variances in metals because I'm a huge cycling nerd. Back before carbon fiber was all the rage, bikes were made of steel or aluminum. There are some steels that are in fact denser than others. CroMo is not really that light, but it is just about bomb proof. Theoretically, all the metal used in guitar components is ChroMo (steel with a bit of chromium as an alloying agent). There are varying tolerances of chromium. The fact that the baseplate on the MIK Floyd is a little bit thicker than the MIG Floyd, suggests to me that the MIK version probably uses a ChroMo steel with a higher chromium to steel ratio, meaning that at the same density the MIK would probably be weaker, but since the MIK is slightly thicker, the tensile strength of the baseplates is probably the same.

Seriously, by all accounts I've seen the MIK Floyd is an upgrade from the JT580...So stop crying

[Axewielder]

I don't own either an original Floyd OR a MIK Floyd. BUT, I do know something about the variances in metals because I'm a huge cycling nerd. Back before carbon fiber was all the rage, bikes were made of steel or aluminum. There are some steels that are in fact denser than others. CroMo is not really that light, but it is just about bomb proof. Theoretically, all the metal used in guitar components is ChroMo (steel with a bit of chromium as an alloying agent). There are varying tolerances of chromium. The fact that the baseplate on the MIK Floyd is a little bit thicker than the MIG Floyd, suggests to me that the MIK version probably uses a ChroMo steel with a higher chromium to steel ratio, meaning that at the same density the MIK would probably be weaker, but since the MIK is slightly thicker, the tensile strength of the baseplates is probably the same.

Seriously, by all accounts I've seen the MIK Floyd is an upgrade from the JT580...So stop crying

Ignore that man behind the curtain! File that shit! FILE FILE

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I don't own either an original Floyd OR a MIK Floyd. BUT, I do know something about the variances in metals because I'm a huge cycling nerd. Back before carbon fiber was all the rage, bikes were made of steel or aluminum. There are some steels that are in fact denser than others. CroMo is not really that light, but it is just about bomb proof. Theoretically, all the metal used in guitar components is ChroMo (steel with a bit of chromium as an alloying agent). There are varying tolerances of chromium. The fact that the baseplate on the MIK Floyd is a little bit thicker than the MIG Floyd, suggests to me that the MIK version probably uses a ChroMo steel with a higher chromium to steel ratio, meaning that at the same density the MIK would probably be weaker, but since the MIK is slightly thicker, the tensile strength of the baseplates is probably the same.

That was a whole lot of words to say that you don't really have any idea if the Korean Floyd is stronger or not.

I know very little about metal, other than the kind you bang your head to, but I do know that tensile strength has nothing to do with the durability of knife edges. We're strictly concerned with hardness here, and the base plate thickness would have almost zero effect on the durability of the sharp edges of the fulcrum points - in either case, Korean or MIG FR, they're knife edges.

THIS kind of stuff is exactly what people read and go "Welp, that make sense... Uh... Thicker cuz it's weaker, um, tensile something or other, bike parts, yep, sounds about right, guess the FR2000 sucks." :think:

Seriously, by all accounts I've seen the MIK Floyd is an upgrade from the JT580...So stop crying

Ain't THAT the truth, man!

[CKJ]

It can easily be arranged w/ a 7/32 chain saw file!

In my own thoughts... f it I'm happy with it! Hell I actually slept better last night with the MIK out

[Krymson86]

Well, tensile strength still plays into it. Whether it's formed and filed into a knife edge or not. the "hardness" of the metal is what tensile strength is a measurement of. Mock it if you want. But the fact that the MIK is thicker suggests that it's tensile strength per unit is lower than the MIG's chromoly blend IF the knife edges are the same thickness then the MIK is probably a bit lower tensile strength at the contact point. The base plates are probably the same tensile strength. If they however compensated the knife edges and made the MIK edges a little bit thicker than the MIG ones, then it's a none issue.

MIG is probably a little better.

Seriously, learn about metallurgy instead of filing down your Floyds.

[potatohead]

I have an FRT-2000 in my Soloist and a German OFR in my Carvin. My Soloist is about five months old (sat in the case for three years before that, though) and my Carvin is about three weeks old. I notice lick all difference between them. I can hammer the shit out of both trems and they both stay in tune equally well. If I have to replace the 2000 with a German OFR in three years, which I doubt, who cares... You're talking about $200 over the course of three years. I am much more concerned with how they actually hold tune as opposed to how long they last (to a point).