In addition, Randy was used to playing a Les Paul. Anyone who plays a guitar without a trem knows it takes some getting used to. Randy was well known for not doing things he didn't have time to get comfortable with. He had played a certain way for ages, so adding the trem would have required thinking of ways to incorporate it into his playing. Randy liked players who used finger vibrato, so he worked at being good at that.
Finally, Randy was trying to make a name for himself, right? Ed Van Halen had already made a name for himself and relied heavily on the bar. Randy tried to do things differently so as not to be seen as a clone of Ed... not using the bar was probably part of that.Randy Rhoads wrote:...I also like Ronnie Montrose, especially with Edgar Winter. I like the way he bends; I could never bend like that. I liked all the English players in the '70s who used a lot of vibrato.
Both Jake and Zakk intentionally used guitars without trems because they'd become a crutch for so many players. Zakk even went as far as relying on the pentatonic minor scale rather than applying modes so he wouldn't look like a Randy clone.
So, did RR use a bar on occasion? Sure. But the original question was why didn't he use a Floyd on Karl Sandoval's V?
I'm assuming that's a quote from Mr. Sandoval? There's your answer...blues_n_cues wrote:in that period of '79 the Floyd was still a garage thing w/out a lock nut... we all knew the limitations of the fender bar back then & played accordingly... that's it...
All this bickering about pulling up on a floating Floyd (rarely used prior to Vai who was also trying to distance himself from Ed) and blocking a Floyd (only done if you buy a guitar with a floating Floyd and don't want it to float) is just off the original topic - which is fine if that's where you want the discussion to go.