Hamand, I've actually seen a photo of Floyd in his home studio holding something that looked very similar to that "Photoshop mockup".
I think the difference is that the
Floyd Rose vibrato was a refinement of an existing design - the standard fulcrum tremolo, but without the friction. Yes, some people disliked it, and some still do, but it's easy to go from using a
Strat trem to a Floyd - the technique is the same, but more sensitive.
The concept of the "vibrato plate" is not new, but from the information I've seen, this version looks just as doomed as the others. A good vibrato bridge has tiny little knife-edged contact points, for minimal friction. From the look of this plate, it seems to be a recessed plate that pivots in the middle. I just don't know how you can eradicate the friction from that setup in the same way that the FR trem does.
Plus, the useful range of movement on my Lo-Pro Edge, at the tip of the arm, is about four or five inches. This plate is likely to have less than an inch of play. That either means Bigsby-esque range, or much stiffer action to get the same pitch movement. I just can't see how this could possibly beat any of the major vibrato systems, locking or otherwise.
Still, good luck to the fellow. At least he's trying.
