Originally Posted by: HjorvardI am mainly a metal guitarist and I was just curious as to what is the advantages/disadvantages of both a fixed and a floating bridge

A fixed bridge would, in most all likelyhood, give you less tuning problems. As long as the guitar (truss, intonation etc) is set up, you'd almost never have tuning problems in an environment/temperature that is stable. No real disadvantage other than you can't do divebombs.

However, even though floating (Floyd Rose style) bridges are technically more unstable, in that the stability comes from the spring tension vs. the string tension, if you have a pro set up on your guitar you should almost never have a tuning issue. I was lucky that the store I went to for years had a very gifted tech on staff. His set ups were just amazing and for a lowely $20. That said, if you have th right set up, having a floating trem is no big deal. Just gotta get used to the pressure you place but that isn't too much of an issue and pretty easy to adapt too.


I don't think there is negative to either and I have guitars with both....well, I should say that they are on different guitars ;) . I like having those options. As life does for musicians, you have to decide whether it's one or the other and you can't have both, I probably lean towards a good guitar with a floating...that way I can have that option as needed. Just be sure to bring it in every few months and be sure that you keep newer strings on most of the time...helps intonation versus old strings that have stretched and are not providing the same back pressure to the springs. I usually brought my guitar in for a set up every 2-3 months.