Editing Floyd Rose (section)

==Principles==

[[File:Floyd Rose.svg|left|270px|thumb|The basic principles of the action of a double-locking floating bridge are shown. Its proportions are exaggerated to demonstrate the effect.]]

'''Position I''' illustrates the normal position of an ideally tuned Floyd Rose bridge. The bridge (orange in the diagram) balances on a pivot point, being pulled counter-clockwise by the strings' tension and clockwise by typically one to five [[spring (device)|springs]]. Controlled by special tuning [[screw]]s (purple in the diagram), these two forces are balanced such that the bridge's surface is parallel to the guitar body (olive in the diagram). The strings are locked tightly with a special mechanism at the [[Nut (instrumental)|nut]] (green in the diagram) as well as at the bridge (turquoise in the diagram), hence "double-locking".

'''Position II''' illustrates the position of the bridge when the vibrato arm is pushed down towards the guitar body. The bridge rotates around a pivot point counter-clockwise and the tension in each string decreases, lowering the [[pitch (music)|pitch]] of each string. The sound of any [[Musical note|note]]s being played becomes [[Flat (music)|flat]]. While the tension of the strings decreases, the tension of the springs increases. It is the balance between string tension and spring tension, as well as the fact that the strings' points of contact are, typically, locked, at the bridge saddles and nut (eliminating "play" in the string, which would negatively affect tuning), that brings the strings reliably back into tune when force on the bar is removed.

'''Position III''' illustrates the position of the bridge when the vibrato arm is pulled up away from the guitar body. The bridge rotates clockwise, the tension in the strings increases, the pitch of the sound increases and so notes sound [[sharp (music)|sharper]] than normal. Due to the limitations on the assembly's movement imposed by the guitar's body, the amount of available pitch change is much larger when the bar is depressed than when it is lifted.

Note that when using the vibrato bar, string action (the distance between the strings and the fretboard) is affected, and this can sometimes cause the strings to unintentionally touch the frets and create unwanted sounds on instruments set up with extremely low action and heavily recessed vibrato installations.