Musical Mysteries: Who was the first guitarist to put a Floyd Rose on a Les Paul?
Back in the mid-1970s, the sound of rock ‘n’ roll evolved a lot, and it was largely thanks to innovations in the gear we use; not least of all was the Floyd Rose vibrato system, which made its debut in 1976. The Floyd Rose floating bridge changed the landscape of the music industry by making mechanical vibrato techniques like dive bombs, squeals, and tapped harmonics a more common part of the rock and roll sound.
READ MORE: A Brief History of Floyd Rose
Many people at the time felt that the stock Fender vibrato didn’t quite have the range that they wanted. Furthermore, the extreme and animated bends that Jimi Hendrix had inspired just a few years prior would often cause existing vibrato systems to go out of tune, even if the nut was properly lubricated – the Floyd Rose solved that, but you often had to remove wood from the face of your instrument to install it.
The vibrato was quickly picked up and implemented by new shred artists like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Kirk Hammett, and of course, Eddie Van Halen. Those artists all put their Floyd Rose in place of a Fender-style vibrato on a Fender-style guitar. But there were a few early users who put them on Gibson Les Pauls as well. However, there has been a longstanding vehement debate over who was the first person to put a Floyd Rose into a Les Paul. In this article, we will try to get to the bottom of it.
Neal Schon
The first candidate is Journey guitarist Neal Schon, who fit a Floyd Rose into his 1977 Les Paul. Schon worked with Gibson on a signature model Les Paul that featured a Floyd Rose before doing it again years later with Alex Lifeson on his Axcess models (more on that later…). Schon has pleaded his case in tweets in recent years. One video from 2021 of him playing his ‘77 model reads, “It’s the first Les Paul to ever have a Floyd Rose installed on!” while a follow-up clip carries the caption, “More from the first original Floyd Rose Les Paul Pro.”
It’s Ironic that I just got back my original Les paul today that I played on “Don’t Stop Believing” and many of our albums and tours. It’s the 1st Les Paul to ever have a Floyd Rose installed on ! Wow pic.twitter.com/pFS0PSrZsV
— NEAL SCHON MUSIC (@NealSchonMusic) January 3, 2021
Floyd Rose himself seemed to back up this claim in an interview with MusicRadar, stating that Schon showed interest in the tremolo around the time Eddie Van Halen started championing it in 1977, “Neal saw it and wanted one put on his Les Paul, and he gave me one that he said he’d never liked the sound of. I brought it back to him and it became one of his favorites as I’d taken so much wood out of it the sound had changed.”
Brad Gillis
However, at least one man refutes Schon’s claim and he is a man who is known for [still] playing a Superstrat equipped with one of the very first Floyd Rose units ever made – Brad Gillis. Aside from the Floyd Rose in his Stratocaster that he calls Bubba, he also put one into an early ‘70s Les Paul Custom. He used that guitar while touring with Ozzy Osbourne in 1982, but it was likely installed much earlier as it was installed before the company began making locking nuts to accompany a Gibson neck width, which is typically a bit wider than a Fender of the same era.
In a podcast with Jeremy White in 2021, Gillis reiterated his claim to be the first, stating, “I was the first. Floyd just came out with them, and I wanted to put one on my Les Paul, and no one had ever done it before. When I took it to Stars Guitars, they said, ‘Hey Brad, we’ve never seen or done this before.’ I had to get hold of Floyd and he had to send me the right size nut. Floyd had to send me a newly finished schematic for installing in a Les Paul. I got it back and it was great, and then everybody else did it.”
Alex Lifeson
Some historians have thrown Alex Lifeson’s name into the debate as well, but Lifeson himself doubted that he was the first in an interview with me at Ultimate-Guitar.com,
“Well, I installed a Floyd Rose on a Strat – that was in ‘77 or ‘78, maybe a little later, ‘79… It was around then. That Strat was like a backup guitar for me. You know, I’m more of a humbucker guy, I always have been. Fenders are very, very useful, single-coils are very, very useful, and I’ve always had them. But I needed a backup for my 335 at the time. And I thought I would drop a humbucker in at the same time. There were limitations to the Fender – the vibrato arm’s range wasn’t that great. It was a character that I didn’t want. I wanted something that moved more. So, I remember routing it and installing that thing when we were on tour in England at the time. I think there are photos floating around with me actually working in the dressing room, putting that guitar together. So, I don’t know when Gibson actually started making them. I think there were a few models around that had them. I special ordered mine with the Floyd Rose, but yeah, I don’t know who the first was, but I’m definitely one of them.”
Alex Lifeson performing in 2012. Image: Gary Miller/FilmMagic via Getty Images
So who did it first?
So, it seems that the two most likely candidates were Neil Schon and Brad Gillis. I have scoured the internet at Getty archives for photographic evidence that might suggest a winner but wasn’t able to find anything conclusive.
Regardless of who the first one was, it goes to show the innovative spirit of the time. Within a year of a new product like the Floyd Rose coming onto the market, we already had many established players scrambling to incorporate the new gadget into their own sound and technique. It is an important thing to keep in mind as new gadgets keep popping up, if you get a chance to try them out, I encourage everyone to do it. You never know what might inspire you. Clearly, the Floyd Rose made a big difference in countless careers over the years and continues to inspire younger generations of players today.
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