Alright, so I'm looking into some new guitars, particularly Jacksons. I noticed that a lot of them have those Floyd Rose Licensed Tremolos but I read a lot about how they don't stay in tune and all that stuff. Well, if anyone owns a guitar that has one or a floating trem at all, could you help me decide whether a guitar with a Floyd Rose is worth it? This will be my second guitar btw, my current guitar has a fixed bridge so I'm not sure what to expect out of a guitar with a floating trem.

tl;dr - Do floyd rose licensed tremolos suck? Are they as bad as people say they are?

Ibanez ZR tremolo. Greatest tremolo I've ever used.
I've never had a problem with Ibanez's guitar tremolos staying in tune. I've had my current guitar in half step for a few months now, and I've never had to retune it. I even mess around by pushing the whammy bar all the way down just to see my strings flop, and it doesn't affect the tuning at all.

This post was edited by Mathcorey on Dec 13 2009 09:23pm

What the majority of people are complaining about is the pain in the ass it is to restring and tune the guitar, especially if they have no prior knowledge on how to use a floyd rose in conjunction with a locking nut. Also to be considered is you get what you pay for, normally with floyd roses the lower end ones tend to wear out, break, or fall out of tune, they are expensive to replace, and are not usually worth it, while the higher end versions are nice. I normally stay away from them, and unless your are really using your whammy bar alot andpulling off divebombs its usually unnecessary to even have them. I prefer locking tuners over floyd roses. But thats my opinion

Either that, or a tremol-no.

I, personally, just get a custom wooden block set in to block my tremolo. It then acts like a non-floating trem., but I don't feel like the tremolo is going to rip out of the guitar when I press down (which is the feeling I've always had with non-floating trems.).

You can still push all the way down with the block there, but you can't pull up on the tremolo, which isn't a problem for me, since I don't dive bomb and such.

Licensed Floyds can be good or bad - they are made by different manufacturers so they vary in quality. These are cheaper than Floyd Rose Originals, and thus they also tend to be used on cheaper guitars - combining a guitar and tremolo that are not top quality can amplify the problems with going out of tune, as well as a lack of sustain and other problems that you may hear about Floyds. Floyd Rose Originals are made by a single manufacturer and there is very little variation in quality - they are also more expensive, and you will not see them coming stock on lower end guitars. Guitars that come with Floyd Rose Originals are generally of great quality, and if properly set up, they don't have many problems such as going out of tune, though it is still a trade-off and you won't have the same sustain/tone as a fixed bridge (though many players have a great tone with all sorts of setups). Despite this, there are still good guitars that have Licensed Floyds - Washburn has some well-made guitars with great quality Licensed Floyds (a few pros even use these), and there are more well made guitars like these.

Some are as bad as people say they are, some are as good as people say they are - there is no way to tell without playing the guitar, find a guitar shop that has one set up properly and try it out, see if it sounds good and stays in tune. Depending on your price range, it may not be worth it to look for a good Floyd'd guitar. Obligatory Kahler mention goes here, but those are quite pricey, though amazing.

If you have a fixed bridge now and aren't looking specifically for a trem, then do not get one. I spent quite a bit of time looking for a guitar with everything I wanted, I went to a different brand and different style of guitar, but I am very happy with it (BC Rich Warlock to ESP Horizon). Check out ESP, they have a lot of different models with both Floyd and fixed as well as great stock hardware.