Titanium Floyd Rose (2010-Present)
Floyd Rose went all-out at the 2010 NAMM show and introduced the Titanium Floyd Rose at a hefty $900. The titanium model is literally made out of 100% titanium: locking nut, bridge, saddles, sustain block, string retainer, insert blocks, etc. and is the second Floyd Rose unit to have production in the USA (the first being the 1983 short run for Kramer).
Early users of the titanium Floyd were Phil Collen of Def Leppard and other major artists at the time. In a way, you could consider the titanium Floyd the epitome of Floyd Roses. The titanium base plate will more than likely last multiple lifetimes and users claim it has a beautiful chime while retaining lows.
This model is discontinued.
Rumor has it that the titanium Floyd resulted from Tisonix creating a titanium locking nut as some NAMM show, to which Eddie Van Halen liked. This sparked the relationship between Tisonix and Floyd Rose. Lately, there is seems to have been issues with the Tisonix, and this version of the Floyd has not been in production.
In the past, titanium was very hard and difficult to process, so it was never used. However, with the development of industrial technology, high-precision processing technology was established and used as a material. Titanium has a specific gravity that is about half that of brass and other materials, and has excellent acoustic characteristics.
Floyd Rose Ultimate Titanium Tremolo is an all-titanium tremolo unit manufactured in partnership with TiSonix of the United States. The knife edge is durable enough to pass 12,000 severe operation tests. Because it has excellent corrosion resistance, all parts including the unit are not plated. It is the highest tremolo unit that can extract the original sound without any extra stress.
Phil Collen of Def Leppard has played full titanium Floyds but also has used standard Floyd base plates with titanium saddles and a brass sustain block as seen on the new claro walnut PC-1.
Here is a titanium Floyd Rose with “Phil Collen” laser etched on the base plate. Photo courtesy of Darth Phineas.
Another picture of the Claro-Walnut PC-1 with titanium saddles.
Above is a great video of Phil Collen going through many of his guitars having titanium saddles and full titanium units.
Here is a titanium Floyd Rose with “Phil Collen” Photo courtesy of Darth Phineas.
Here is Neal Schon with a titanium Floyd Rose. Photo courtesy Neal Schon.
When I said every part was made out of titanium, I really meant every part. Above you’ll see everything. Also note the insert blocks have a unique circle shape only seen on the titanium Floyd.
You can also buy these separate parts at titanium Floyd Rose.com
Hantug Titanium Floyd Rose
What would a new Floyd Rose model be without another licensed version? Hantug, a Turkish company, made their own version of the titanium Floyd. They list their version at $780, slightly undercutting the Tisonix official Floyd Rose.
Above is a video on the Hantug version of the titanium Floyd Rose.