What does the rubber pad do?

[Alexilaiho]

Underneath a floyd rose sometimes you see a neoprene pad, what does it do!

[FrankenSteinberger]

Granted, I'm not really knowledgable about FR systems, but your post was the first that I had heard of the pad.

The link below is the only chatter that I could find about this set-up:

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=15613.15

[ermghoti II]

It's just to keep the baseplate from "bonking" the route or top during hystrionic whammying. Primarily cosmetic.

[Dougy]

It gives a foamy edge to the toanz.

 

 

 

4 realz, brah.

[beach bum]

If you pull up on the bar too hard the underneath of the floyd can hit the top of the guitar which can cause vibrations in both the wood and the floyd itself. The vibrations in the wood aren't too noticable but lets say for example you hit a 12th fret harmonic on the high e string and pull up hard on the bar and the floyd hits the wood the floyd will then vibrate and cause the other strings to vibrate which creates unwanted noise. The foam is there to absorb the impact if the baseplate hits the wood to help stop unwanted vibration.