Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

[chrisgUK]

I only ever played fixed bridge import guitars until I got my Jackson fusion. But apart from the odd 'end of solo artificial harmonic dive bomb' I really dont know what to do with the floating bridge!
Can anyone reccomend a song/excersise which could teach me some more moves because id love to learn how to use it properly and build it into songs/solos. Im pretty average at solo;s so nothing obscenely hard please!
I realised i had a problem when a friend said to me "Cool, whats that bar on your guitar do, show me something"... " well errrr if u play a note and press down it does this,,,"
Anyone else been in the same situation?

[micha]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

well, what I personally like (except of the usual dive bomb) is, what for example roope latvala does a lot. try sinergys spit on your grave for example, right after the dual sweeps on 2.45 somethin, is a solo from latvala. he starts out with some chords he dives pushing his trem bar down, then does a flagolet-dive on a-string 5th (D-tuning) and ends up with an harmonic on the empty a-string.
he pushes the trem all the way down, starts his harmonic, and releases evenly and even pulls the trem a little on the end.

there's a lot of these screams you can do on a trem, and honestly I love them all. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
sounds like pure evil!! [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[sithgt6]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

You can do the Dime trick too -- the pre-dive, flick the open G and lightly touch the harm around the 3rd fret on the G and pull it up to a wicked squeal.

D>

[Soap]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

http://youtube.com/watch.php?v=5tNYI...search=pantera
Here it is.

[jjw]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

mmmmmmmmm use the bar for shaping notes and vibrato
good idea is to scoop into a note from below

[rjohnstone]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

[ QUOTE ]
mmmmmmmmm use the bar for shaping notes and vibrato
good idea is to scoop into a note from below

[/ QUOTE ]
Lynch shows this off nicely in the solo for "In my dreams".
Not real hard, but sounds cool as hell if done properly.

[chrisgUK]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

Cheers for the tips. Just had loads of fun with those dimebag style harmonic squeals. That video of the man himself is awesome. I found that to get a cleaner squeal I muted the other strings with my fretting hand (using thumb and pinky) while i was doing it to elimate the noise of the other strings returning to pitch which otherwise start to drown out the harmonic!. what do you guys think?

[VitaminG]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

check out Jeff Beck. Particularly "Where Were You" off the Guitar Shop album. He uses the bar to play melodies

[Newc]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

Try Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" - nice simple note-dive-return-note-dive-return-note-dive-return in the intro.

Remember, you don't HAVE to use it for flashy stuff like bombs and squeals. You can use it instead of bending strings by pulling up a half or whole step and then releasing quickly.

You can also use it with a chorused clean tone with heavy reverb (Large Hall/Arena type stuff) and dive whole chords or natural harmonics for that "falling into the pit" effect.

Whammies: They're not just for screeches anymore" [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

If you REALLY wanna be impressive with a whammy, hit one natural harmonic on one string and bend it up and down as a solo. Not like "mrwangwrangwrangwarang", but slowly, with feeling and style.

As much as I loathe Poison, CC Deville did a nice solo bit that way on "Every Rose..." IIRC.

[Ace]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

Just hit a chord and smack it down, let the springs return it to pitch, wobbling the whole guitar in the process. It throws you out of tune quickly, and is real hard on your guitar, but it sounds cool! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

I also cut my trem arms down so that they fit in my hand and I can pick with the bar in my hand. Learned that one from David Gilmour.

[MBreinin]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

One of the nicest things you can with a bar is add some subtle vibrato to clean chords. SRV's "Lenny" and "Riviera Paradise" are classic examples of using this technique tastefully.

Mike

[Soap]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

Sort of similar to what Mike has said, but somewhat alittle differently. I really like how you can make a note sound a wobbly warping effect. Alex Lifeson did this in a section of Rush's YYZ intrumental, very nice implementation of this particular trick. Ed is nortorious for this also.
I eat that stuff up I really dig it.
Remember, the whammy/tremolo is an expression tool. One among many ways to express yourself, to play what you hear in a song.

In all honesty, I know theres some here that don't really like him, but, Lynch really was one the eighties players who used the tremolo exclusively. I would suggest get his video "Guitar Bible". He has a section in there dedicated to using the tremolo. Today, its nothing special but could prove helful to you nonetheless.

[Deneb]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

I never realized how good Dimebag was.

[Soap]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

Dimebag is definitely good.
I worked on a former job where loud music was okay on 2nd and 3rd shifts. Pantera was played daily, took me awhile to warm up to the singer style. Nothing more difficult to get use to, than hearing someone sing and it sound like they are gargling water, awful really bad. Dimes playing was great and he was the only reason I stomached and tolerated the singer. Dime was a rare jewel and they rarely come along.
Not doubt in my mind, if would have lived, Damageplan would be a household name because of him.

[Brick]

Re: Floyd Rose tips/techniques/lessons

Just hit a natural harmonic and mess around with it thats what i did you'll figure out some cool stuff. You can just look at dime or vai to get ideas too.