Let's Talk OFR's

[Greg Crowe]

These things are getting more confusing by the day. Ol' Floyd has been licensing out his OFR title like crazy lately. It's getting hard to know what's what now.

1st we have the Original German made OFR, made by Schaller in Germany
2nd we have the Korean made FR1000/2000 trems found on the Charvel ProMods
3rd we have Chinese made OFR's beginning to be found as OEM trems.
4th we have these Floyd Rose Specials found at GuitarPartsDepot.com and on some of the new ESP guitars.

The FR Specials on these ESP's are pretty crappy from what I've seen at Guitar Center, very cheap metal. They are listed as having "steel" plates instead of "hardened steel" plates and they have zinc saddles and trem block.

What else do we need to know about these trems ???

[wilkinsi]

Better safe than sorry, just get the real deal.

[Grandturk]

3rd we have Chinese made OFR's beginning to be found as OEM trems.

Which ones are these? Are these the "PING" ones that still have the "Licensed under Floyd Rose Patents" on them? Those are pretty easy to tell apart.

Better safe than sorry - make sure its got the German Floyd.

2nd place is definately the MIK ProMod Floyd. Kick ass trem. I wouldn't play anything other than those two... not counting the Ibanez Edge trems.

[Greg Crowe]

Which ones are these? Are these the "PING" ones that still have the "Licensed under Floyd Rose Patents" on them? Those are pretty easy to tell apart.

Nope, the Chinese ones look exactly like a German Original Floyd Rose. The new DBZ guitars have these trems. No "licensed under" stuff on the trem just "Floyd Rose".

Here's a pic of one of the Chinese ones:

[dg]

Better safe than sorry - make sure its got the German Floyd.

2nd place is definately the MIK ProMod Floyd. Kick ass trem. I wouldn't play anything other than those two... not counting the Ibanez Edge trems.

Gotoh trems are pretty awesome as well.

[Grandturk]

At least the Gotoh you can tell apart easily, obviously, because its branded "Gotoh." The Floyds...

Just wait till someone buys up cheap MIK baseplates and starts putting German saddles on them and selling them off.

[shreddermon]

The Chinese-made Floyds have been around for several years. IIRC, they were originally used as OEM on Floyd's own (import) guitar line. Or maybe I've got that confused with the Chinese version of the Speedloader trem? Hmmm, not sure about that.

[Newc]

Everyone knows the Chinese are famous for selling unlicensed copies with the real logos on them, so has anyone checked directly with Floyd Rose to make sure these are legit?

And I've said it before, and I'll say it again - not enough time has passed for the trems on the Production Charvels to judge whether they're worse than or as good as the Schallers. I've had old 80s OFRs that were still in great shape and still functional, but these trems have not been through the same 20 years' worth of use, so no one - absolutely no one - can claim Schaller are the best. By the same token, no one can claim the FRTs are equal to the Schallers.

[rjohnstone]

The Chinese ones are legit. They're actually considered real Floyd's and not "Licensed" since they were manufactured for Floyd Rose.

They were first used on the cheap Floyd Rose Discovery series guitars.

[mustaine-who?]

Y

You can't go wrong with a PING...Gotoh...or Schaller Floyd. Or an old OE off ebay...

[warlok]

Unless my memory is off on this (possible.. LOTS of beer in the last week!!), that pic of the chinese one doesn't seem to have bevels on the back of the saddles. Neither do the real German/Schaller. But the Koreans do, as well as the specials and most of the licensed ones. Would be a way to tell the Korean from the chinese.
OFR/German/Schaller = "Floyd Rose", "Made in Germany", No beveled saddles.
Korean/Promod = "Floyd Rose", No country stamp, Beveled saddles.
Chinese = "Floyd Rose", No country stamp, No beveled saddles.
FR Special - "Floyd Rose Special", No country stamp, Beveled saddles.

[Greg Crowe]

So where is the Ping Floyd Rose made ?? Here's a pic, no bevels on the back of the saddles:



Good catch Warlok, those Floyd Rose Specials DO have the bevels unlike the Chinese OFR. Here's a pic:

[shreddermon]

I think the Pings are made in Taiwan. That's probably been internet-rumor-translated into Made in China.

Here's an interesting interview with Floyd himself from a few years ago...

http://www.musicianshotline.com/archive/builder_profiles/floyd_rose.htm

[Grandturk]

So where is the Ping Floyd Rose made ?? Here's a pic, no bevels on the back of the saddles:

Well those are easy to identify from the different style "etched" logo and the Ping logo by the bar.

[warlok]

Ping also has ones that are etched on the bottom of the plate. I think I saw that on a peavey branded one.