Tremolo arm
Encyclopedia
A whammy bar, tremolo arm/bar, or vibrato arm/bar is a component of a guitar
, used to add vibrato
to the sound by changing the tension of the strings, typically at the bridge
or tailpiece
. The whammy bar enables the player to quickly vary the tension and sometimes the length of the strings temporarily, changing the pitch
to create a vibrato
, portamento
or pitch bend effect.
Instruments without this device are called hard-tail. The term vibrola is also used by some guitar makers to describe their particular whammy bar designs. The whammy bar began as a mechanical device for more easily producing the vibrato
effects that blues
and jazz guitar
ists had long produced on arch top guitars by manipulating the tailpiece
with their picking hand. However, it has also made many sounds possible that could not be produced by the old technique, such as the 1980s-era shred guitar
"dive bombing" effect.
Since the regular appearance of mechanical whammy bars in the 1950s, they have been used by many guitarists, ranging from the gentle inflections of Chet Atkins
to the exaggerated twang effects of early rocker Duane Eddy
to the buoyant effects of surf music
aficionados like The Ventures
, The Shadows
and Dick Dale
to art rock innovator Frank Zappa
. In the 1960s and '70s, vibrato arms were used for more pronounced effects by the psychedelic guitarist Jimi Hendrix
, Pink Floyd
guitarist David Gilmour
and Led Zeppelin
guitarist Jimmy Page
. In the 1980s, shred guitar virtuosos such as Edward Van Halen, Joe Satriani
and Steve Vai
, and metal guitarists ranging from Ritchie Blackmore
to thrashers like Kirk Hammett
used the "whammy bar" in a range of metal-influenced styles. The pitch-bending effects, whether subtle inflections or exaggerated effects, have become an important part of many styles of electric guitar.
Despite the common name tremolo arm, these devices cannot produce tremolo
in the normal sense of the word, but can be used to produce vibrato
, while the vibrato unit
s used by electric guitarists generally produce a tremolo effect, rather than vibrato. See "Vibrato or Tremolo".
including what is normally termed vibrato
, it can never produce the effect normally known as tremolo
(modulation of volume). Tremolo, on the other hand, is exactly the effect produced by the vibrato unit
s built in to many classic guitar amplifier
s.
Other widely used names for the device include vibrato bar and whammy bar, the latter named in reference to guitarist Lonnie Mack
's aggressive, rapid manipulation of the pitch-bending device in his 1963 song "Wham!
".
This reversal of terminology is generally attributed to Leo Fender
and the naming of the Fender 'Vibroverb' amplifier, which actually used tremolo (rapid volume changes) in an attempt to create a vibrato-like (rapid changes in pitch) sound. See vibrato unit
for details of the history of these terms in relation to electric guitar, and related issues. Ironically, Fender had previously introduced the 'Tremolux' amplifier in 1953, which used the correct terminology. In this article, the words are used interchangeably.
Many other designs exist in smaller numbers, notably several original designs marketed by Gibson under the Vibrola name, which was also used for some licensed Bigsby units.
Some early vib-rolas on Rickenbacker guitars were not operated by hand, but rather moved with an electrical mechanism developed by Doc Kauffman to simulate the pitch manipulation available with steel guitars. The Vib-Rola distributed as an option with Rickenbacker Electro Spanish guitars was hand operated like the earliest Epiphone vib-rolas. A later unit was created and used on Rickenbacker's Capri line of guitars in the '50's, such as John Lennon's '58 325. It was a side-to-side action vibrato unit (rather than the up-down action of later units) that was notorious for throwing the guitar out of tune, hence John's replacing it with a Bigsby B5. It was later replaced by the Ac'cent Vibrola, which used no coiled springs to change tension, giving it less chance to throw the guitar out of tune.
. The exact date of its first availability is uncertain, as Bigsby kept few records, but it was on Bigsby-built guitars photographed in 1952, in what became its standard form. In several interviews, the late Merle Travis
, for whom Bigsby designed his first vibrato, recalled the prototype as being built for him in the "late '40's". The design uses a spring-loaded arm that rotates a cylindrical bar in the tailpiece, varying the string tension to create vibrato and other pitch variations. The string tension is balanced against a single, short helical compression spring
, positioned under the arm pivot. Pioneering blues-rock
guitarist Lonnie Mack
was known for using a Bigsby on his famous 1958 Gibson Flying V. The term "whammy bar" is believed to derive from Mack's 1963 instrumental hit, "Wham!", in which Mack made liberal use of the Bigsby.
To this day, the Bigsby enjoys some popularity, especially on hollow body guitars, and is available as a factory-fitted option on top-line models both hollow and solid bodied from many makers, and as an aftermarket addition (requiring some skill to fit however). It remains the only widely used design whose mechanism is entirely above the belly of the guitar body, making it the only design particularly suitable for acoustic and semi-acoustic guitars.
After the Bigsby, the next major development was Leo Fender
's synchronized tremolo, the device that introduced the term tremolo arm. First released in 1954 on Fender's first legendary Stratocaster, the simple but effective design offers a greater range of pitch change than the Bigsby, and a better capability for up-bends.
The basis of the synchronized tremolo is a rigid assembly that incorporates both the bridge and tailpiece, which pivots on the guitar belly. In the original design, this was based on the principle of the 'knife edge' balance. A bevel on the front underside of a steel top plate formed a wide, sharp edge that rested on the top of the guitar body. A small imbalance in tension between the pull of the strings and the counterbalancing pull of the tremolo springs held the pivot edge firmly in place against the body.
Six hardened steel wood screws passing through slightly oversize holes just in front of the pivot point, stopped the bridge from being pulled towards the neck end of the guitar. The upper portion of the screws is smooth, not threaded. These six screws are often mistakenly assumed to be the pivot point rather than the hidden knife edge. This design works, in spite of the friction caused by the edges of the six holes sliding up and down the screw shafts when vibrato is applied.
The bridge is formed by six bridge saddles held against this plate by string tension, and individually adjustable both for height and intonation. The tailpiece consists of a solid block of metal, mounted behind the tremolo plate and secured to it by three machine screws, and passing right through the guitar body. In a chamber routed into the back of the guitar are up to five (normally three) long coil spring
s, which connect to the back of the tailpiece block, and whose tension balances that of the strings.
The tremolo arm also passes through the tremolo plate and tailpiece block, providing direct and rigid connection. Ignoring the bridge adjustments, this mechanism has only two moving parts, one of them the arm itself, the same as the Bigsby. But unlike the Bigsby, the synchronized tremolo moves the bridge as well as the tailpiece, varying both the length and tension of the strings.
The strings pass through the body of the guitar, in similar fashion to the Fender Telecaster
. When changing strings the new string is threaded through the body from the back. However, in the Telecaster the ferrule end is held by a collar firmly anchored to the guitar body; In the Stratocaster, it is held by the moving metal block through which the strings pass.
The Stratocaster tremolo, often just called the Strat trem, or also called the whammy bar, is the most copied tremolo unit. Similar pattern units appear on many solid-body guitars by various makers. Its design has been the basis of the premium Fender tremolo known as the two-point synchronised tremolo, and also of the Floyd Rose locking tremolo, see below. Both the original Stratocaster tremolo, sometimes called the synchronous tremolo and sometimes the vintage synchronized tremolo, and derived designs such as the two-point and Floyd Rose appear on current models as of 2007.
This preeminence of the synchronised tremolo was finally established by the use of Stratocaster guitars by Jimi Hendrix
, Pete Townshend
and others towards the end of the 1960s. Throughout the 1960s, the premium Fender guitars were the Jaguar
range, equipped with the floating tremolo. By the early 1970s, it was obvious that most guitarists preferred the cheaper Stratocaster, regardless of price and supposed quality and prestige, and particularly liked its tremolo arm design. The Jaguar and indeed all other Fender guitars using any tremolo design other than the synchronised tremolo were for a time withdrawn, to return to the catalog as classic or retro models in the 1990s.
two-point locking tremolo. The two systems are both developments of the original Stratocaster tremolo mechanism, but use the words two point to describe entirely different concepts.
The Fender two-point system uses two pivot points, one at each end of the pivot, rather than a row of six as in the original Strat trem. Conceptually, such a mechanism can be achieved by removing four of the six pivot screws from a traditional Strat trem, leaving only the two at the ends of the row, and there have been magazine articles suggesting this but it is risky. In practice, both for strength and for satisfactory performance, the pivots need to be carefully engineered. In some designs the pivots are also moved further apart than the 2.2" spacing of the outermost two screws in the original, in others they are just strengthened and more carefully shaped.
Currently, the Fender two-point system is their standard and most popular design, but they also offer models with the original classic design, as well as a few models with factory-fitted licensed Bigsby units, others with licensed locking tremolo and still others with floating bridge designs.
Featuring stainless steel block saddles since its introduction in 1986, the Fender two-point system has been redesigned with new vintage-style bent steel saddles as of 2008. The Fender two-point system is available with 2 types of tremolo bars: traditional "screw-in" type with a plastic tip at the end and deluxe "pop-in" type without the plastic tip. In the case of the deluxe 2-point bridge, the block saddles are made from polished steel. Custom Classic and Custom Pro Series Stratocasters feature a deluxe 2-point tremolo with block saddles made from milled stainless steel.
Despite its not being the most popular bridge, there are side benefits unique to guitars with this type of bridge. See 3rd bridge guitars
.
The main difference is that, while much of the mechanism of the synchronised tremolo including the springs is accessed by removing a rectangular plate in the back of the guitar body, and is mounted on the guitar body in a routed bay extending behind the pickups, the entire mechanism of the floating tremolo is mounted on a roughly triangular chromed plate in the front of the guitar body, on the opposite side of the bridge to the pickups. The string tension is balanced against a single short helical spring, in compression rather than tension
, mounted on the back of the tremolo mounting plate. The spring is adjustable by turning a screw located towards the center of this plate.
The ferrule ends of the strings are held on the top of the guitar in a tailpiece plate called the knife plate, which emerges from the mechanism, rather than the strings vanishing into the mechanism as with the synchronized tremolo. It is the knife plate that is moved when the tremolo arm is operated. Unlike the synchronized tremolo, the bridge is not moved directly by the mechanism, but only by the movement of the strings, and is allowed to tilt to accommodate this movement. This is called a floating bridge.
The Fender floating tremolo also features a knob that enables the player to lock and thus disable the tremolo mechanism, allowing quick recovery of tuning in the event of breaking one string, and providing tuning stability with the mechanism locked that was intended to be similar to that of a fixed bridge guitar. In practice, this stability was not generally achieved, leading some players to replace the mechanism with a fixed bridge and tailpiece to produce a high quality "hard-tail" solid body guitar not otherwise available at the time. The floating tremolo was greatly favored by some surf music
bands, particularly for its ability to produce a pronounced and distinctive vibrato on a sustained chord without disturbing the tuning of the guitar. To fully achieve this benefit however, correct setup, as per Fender's recommendations, was essential.
An issue with the unit was the bridge itself, which Leo Fender over-engineered. The six individual bridge saddles were multi-grooved "barrels". The individual barrels were not grooved deeply enough for secure holding of the strings in heavy pick attack, and each barrel had a tiny adjustment screw at each end. Adding the intonation adjustment screws, and the screws at each end of the bridge saddle to raise or lower the bridge as a whole, gave the bridge twenty separate adjustment possibilities. The great majority of players found this much too "fiddly", and, adding the tendency of the strings to jump out of their individual saddles in aggressive playing, the overall reception was rather lukewarm for what was essentially an excellent - but over-engineered - design. Later, many players of the Jazzmaster and Jaguar found that the bridge on these instruments could be replaced with no retrofitting by the standard bridge from the Fender Mustang (below), which eliminated several of the worst problems with the original bridge.
In addition to the Jazzmaster, the floating tremolo was used on the then top of the line Fender Jaguar
guitars, released in 1962, and also on the Fender Bass VI
, released in 1961. Jaguar and Jazzmasters share the same bridge plate and string saddles, though Jaguar bridges (and the earliest Jazzmaster bridges) have taller "legs." The two are functionally interchangeable and replacement parts for each are one and the same. The Bass VI bridge has a wider plate and longer intonation screws to allow the bass strings to be correctly intonated, and the saddles have threads cut for larger diameter strings. There have also been a small number of not very notable imitations by other makers, generally without the locking knob. Fender discontinued all floating tremolo models by 1980, but reintroduced both the Jazzmaster and Jaguar first as Japanese models in the mid 1980's, then as American made reissues in the 1990s. The tremolo-equipped Bass VI was reintroduced as a US Custom Shop model in 2006.
One of the big advantages as well as disadvantages, depending on what you like to hear is the string resonance appearing at several fret positions if they have a simple length relation with the string length behind the bridge (for instance 48:12 = 4:1). At those positions a high overtone rises in volume. This becomes more clear when the guitar sound is driven. However the overtone might sound odd, it still has a perfect harmonic relation, so is not out of tune related to the open string. For staccato playing it can be an annoying effect. Muting the string field behind the bridge with for instance a piece of felt solves this issue.
, intended as a student model. It was also notably used on the Jagstang, a custom design by Kurt Cobain
combining features of the Jaguar
and the Mustang. Some late 1960s Mustangs were fitted instead with the floating tremolo, which was promoted by Fender as their premium unit, but later Mustangs returned to the Dynamic Vibrato.
The Dynamic Vibrato is still preferred by some lead guitar
ists above all other designs. It features a floating bridge similar to that of the floating tremolo, but the bridge is integral with the tremolo unit, unlike that of the floating tremolo, which is mounted separately. The strings are controlled by a tailpiece bar to which the tremolo arm is visibly connected, similar to the Bigsby, and the mechanism is installed from the top of the instrument, similar to the floating tremolo. It combines some features of all three basic designs.
The Dynamic Vibrato is often confused with the Fender floating tremolo, which it resembles. The original production runs of the two overlap by more than a decade, but the mechanisms are quite different. The existence of a few 1960s Mustangs factory fitted with the floating tremolo has probably added to the confusion. The concealed mechanism is in a chamber of a completely different shape and position, requiring an impractical amount of woodwork to convert from one to the other, and the mounting plate is of a different shape with different mounting holes.
The string tension is balanced against two medium length helical springs under tension, mounted on the underside of the tremolo mounting plate, one attached to each of the two feet of the tailpiece bar. Dynamic Vibrato units may be recognised by the integrated floating bridge and the stamps "Fender" and "DYNAMIC VIBRATO". Many but not all units also have the words "PAT PEND" or "PAT. NO. 3,241,418" stamped under the word "Fender".The Dynamic Vibrato was the last of the floating bridge designs to be discontinued by Fender, with the Mustang in 1982, and the first to be reintroduced, again with the Mustang, in 1990.
, released mid 1967. This was simply known as the Fender vibrato tailpiece, or sometimes the Fender steel vibrato. It was again designed by Leo Fender although he had sold the company by the time it appeared. Basically a synchronized tremolo simplified to reduce cost, it had little popularity, and was the only Leo Fender tremolo arm design not available on any current Fender model.
have marketed a number of tremolo arm designs under the name Vibrola.
Vibrola tailpiece
s include a licensed version of the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece and several in-house Gibson designs. The Gibson designs did not have the impact of the Bigsby and Fender designs, and have inspired few if any copies, but they competed reasonably successfully and continue to sell.
Gibson designs tend to have the mechanism above the belly of the guitar, similar to the Bigsby, and are therefore equally suitable for use on acoustic guitars and especially archtops
. This reflects the Gibson company's history as the developer of the archtop and their continued strength and focus in this market, but carries over even to designs used only on solid body guitars, such as the Short Lyre Vibrola used on some Flying V
and SG
models. While these do require some woodwork to install them, some more so than others, there is nothing like the extensive body routing required for all of the Fender trems.
The earliest of the Gibson-designed tremolo arms was a distinctive long tailpiece
released as the Gibson Vibrato in 1962 on some SG
models. This mechanism later became known as the side vibrato because of the position of the lever, which emerged from the side of the long tailpiece. This lever had only restricted movement up and down in a plane close to that of the strings, so its action was unlike that of the Bigsby and Fender units, and remains unique. It was also described as the Gibson Vibrola Tailpiece in Gibson documents, but this name can be applied to any of the Gibson tremolo mechanisms. It was not a success and is of interest mainly to historians and collectors.
The Deluxe Gibson Vibrato, released in 1963, was another long tailpiece mechanism, and replaced the Gibson Vibrato. Its tremolo arm and all subsequent designs used the action adopted by Bigsby and Fender. As the Deluxe Gibson Vibrola a short version of it was fitted as standard to the 1967 reissue Gibson Flying V
. Two other long tailpiece designs, superficially similar to the Deluxe Gibson Vibrato, are the Lyre Vibrola, which was fitted to Gibson ES-335
s as an option by 1964 and is engraved with a lyre
motif, and the Maestro Vibrola, which was an option on the ES-335 by 1967.
Most Vibrola tailpieces, including the Bigsby, Lyre and Maestro, exist in both long and short versions. The long version replaces a trapeze-style tailpiece, such as found on most archtop guitar
s, and transmits the string tension to the guitar side. The short version replaces a string stop style tailpiece, such as found on the original Gibson Les Paul
, and transmits the string tension to the guitar belly, so short versions are generally used only on solid body guitars. Long tailpieces can be used on almost any guitar (an exception being the Gibson Flying V
where there is no room for one), and both long and short versions have been used on various models of Gibson SG
and Gibson Les Paul
guitars.
The Gibson designs were less suitable for the sounds that the Stratocaster tremolo and its derivatives made possible. They have almost always been offered as extra cost options on guitars that sold better in non-tremolo versions. As a result, some versions are rare and command high prices from restorers and collectors. Gibson encourages this trend by refusing to sell reissue units as parts, offering them only on complete guitars (a policy similar to most guitar manufacturers). Gibson was continuing to offer Vibrola units as options on many models, but also offered a few Fender-inspired tremolo arms such as the Floyd Rose on some Gibson branded guitars (Nighthawk
, M3), and a wider variety through their Kramer
and Epiphone
brands. Kramer have always fitted Floyd Rose
trems as standard and this association continues. See also rivalry between Fender and Gibson.
Tremar, The Semie Moseley
-designed Mosrite
"Vibramute", The Super-Vee BladeRunner, the Stetsbar
, the crossed-roller bearing linear tremolo and the early Rockinger from Germany. This last company was contracted by Kramer to develop a new fine-tuning tremolo with Edward Van Halen. The Rockinger designs proved problematic and Van Halen ultimately came to favor the Floyd Rose tremolo.
The original Floyd Rose system was similar to the Fender synchronized tremolo, but with a number of extra mechanisms. The first to be added and most obvious is a locking plate on the head nut, tightened with a hex key
to fix the strings at this point after tuning. This provides extra tuning stability, particularly during use of the tremolo arm, but as an unwanted side effect it also prevents further adjustment of the pitch using the machine head
s.
Fine tuners have been provided as part of the bridge mechanism on all but the earliest units to allow minor retuning without unlocking the nut. Some guitarists claim that the fine tuners add an instability to tuning, and that the original non-fine-tuning Floyd Rose bridges are far superior in this respect. It is rumored, but has never been confirmed that Eddie Van Halen
had a part in the inclusion of the fine tuning unit. In a 1982 Guitar World interview for Van Halen's "Diver Down" album, Eddie claims that he co-invented the fine tuners.
Nonetheless, a gift of a unit to Van Halen by Floyd Rose himself gave the unit instant overnight success and credibility. Still more stability was provided by the addition of a second lock on the bridge nut, making a double locking tremolo system that was more complex to set up. The double locking design is sometimes called a two-point locking tremolo, inviting confusion with the Fender two-point synchronized tremolo, which is a different concept and not a locking tremolo at all.
Most locking tremolo systems currently in production are "floating" bridges, a concept first popularized by Steve Vai
. Vai, wanting the ability to both lower and raise the pitch (by pulling on the bar) had a carved "lion's claw" cavity behind the bridge to allow the bridge to be raised further than normal. Guitar manufacturers prefer this type of configuration because mounting the bridge in this way is both easier for builders (because the neck does not need to be mounted on an angle when mounted within the body of the guitar) and because it increases functionality.
See Floyd Rose
for details. Floyd Rose or Floyd Rose licensed locking tremolo units are available factory fitted on many high and low end guitars, as well as complete aftermarket retrofit kits in many different designs. Fitting the correct kit to a guitar already fitted with a compatible tremolo may be quite straightforward; On others a high level of woodworking skill may be required, or it may not be possible at all.
The Fender Deluxe Locking Tremolo (better known as Fender/Floyd Rose) is essentially a modified American 2-point tremolo bridge with locking saddles and pop-in arm. Designed by Fender and Floyd Rose himself, this type of tremolo bridge has been introduced in the early '90s on the Deluxe Plus and Ultra series guitars. The concept is primarily intended for guitarists searching for the features of a locking tremolo system without the need to perform major surgery on their instrument. Nowadays, the Fender Deluxe tremolo is available on American Deluxe, Plus, Ultra Series and many Custom Shop guitars. The whole assembly also includes a set of locking machine heads and an LSR roller nut for optimal tuning stability. Usually available in chrome, the Fender Deluxe Locking vibrato is also featured in gold and black.
Floyd Rose also produces complete guitars featuring their tremolo systems, most notably using the Speedloader system in which the head-end tuners are eliminated entirely, and all tuning is done from the bridge end of the strings. This is accomplished without sacrificing stability by employing strings that are produced to extremely fine length tolerances, essentially having two ferrule ends and no tail. the Speedloader system is the latest Floyd Rose design, but has yet to catch on to the degree Floyd Rose's original tremolo did.
, which is similar in practical use, but not in design, to the Floyd Rose. Another system that emerged in the 1980s was the Steinberger TransTrem system (standing for Transposing Tremolo).
In 2007, the Super-Vee company developed a double locking tremolo system that requires no modifications to the body or neck of the guitar. This system, also known as a "drop-in" system, received a patent for its "Blade" technology and created what is known as frictionless action. This type of action removes the contact pivot point that all other tremolo systems rely on and eliminates any wear irregularities that cause tuning instability. The Super-Vee design also has the shortest length of non-voicing string length, creating minimal string movement, stabilizing the string set even further. In addition, Super-Vee received a patent for their side locking nut system, creating a stronger, more reliable hold without instrument modifications.
Ibanez have their own range of double locking tremolo systems on their range of guitars. In their 2009 catalogue their guitars feature different units:
Edge III tremolo on the low-mid range guitars, this is a very similar bridge to a Floyd Rose. It features a pop in/out arm and lower profile tuners. This unit is featured on the RG series and on the GRG250DX.
Edge Zero has a specially designed arm pocket for minimal unwanted movement. It also features the Zero Point System, which allows the guitars floating state to be partially locked off for tuning purposes, in this state the guitar won't lose tuning if one string snaps.
Edge Pro tremolo has a very low profile. Possibly its most notable feature is that it is designed to take strings without the removal of the ball end (of stringing backwards with the ball ends at the headstock). The RG1820X features a version of this bridge called the Double Edge Pro. This version of the bridge contains Piezos for acoustic sounds, these are isolated from the bridge to prevent noise from the players hand and are regulated by a 2 band EQ for tone control.
The transtrem, like the Floyd Rose Speedloader, requires special strings that can only be used on the TransTrem unit. However, the TransTrem had the novel design that the bar could be pushed in to "transpose" the tuning of the entire unit to various other keys. The system saw limited use (mainly due to its exorbitant price and limited string availability), although Edward Van Halen has continued to experiment with the system. Notable Van Halen songs where the TransTrem can be heard include "Get Up" and "Summer Nights", from the album 5150
.
favoured the Bigsby unit, and it can be heard - occasionally - being tastefully used by him in a number of his recordings. Generally, Atkins used the Bigsby just to "dip" chords. His recording of "It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing" with Les Paul
(another Bigsby user) is a typical example of how Atkins used the device.
Surf and early rock instrumental guitar is synonymous with vibrato use. Duane Eddy
established the "twangy guitar" sound with a Bigsby vibrato on his Gretsch guitar. Classic examples of this are his recordings of "Rebel Rouser" and "Peter Gunn". Both "Perfidia" and "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures are also typical examples. Prior to Jimi Hendrix, many guitarists used the Fender or Bigsby vibrato to approximate the pedal steel or slide guitar tones found in Hawaiian or Country music.
This early vibrato was actuated after striking chords or individual notes; lowering or modulating the pitch as the notes decayed. Hendrix completely rewrote the book on vibrato; using it while picking, hammering on, pulling off and with harmonics and feedback tones. His intense use led to problems staying in tune, which he compensated for (to some degree) by exerting tremendous right hand strength and bending individual strings within a chord back in tune. To emphasize the tonal range of the guitar, Hendrix would push down on the Wah pedal (a customised VOX wah) and play stinging high notes and then pull back on the Wah pedal and depress the vibrato to create a freight train like rumble. When fully depressing the bar to create these low notes the slack strings would often fall off the nut and have to be quickly snapped back in position.
Hendrix's studio works "Third Stone from the Sun", "Axis: Bold as Love" and "Voodoo Child" (among others) introduced the world to this new use of the Stratocaster vibrato. Live tracks such as "The Star Spangled Banner" "I Don't Live Today" and "Machine Gun" featured the vibrato being used to mimic rockets, bombs and other sound effects, all within the context of blues-based psychedelic rock. To some degree, Hendrix used stage theatrics less and less as his career progressed, but feedback and vibrato remained a tremendous emotional outlet within his music. Many rock bands of all types have used the tremolo for all sorts of effects, especially as a vibrato over chords. One guitarist especially known for his use of the bar is David Gilmour
of the rock band Pink Floyd
. This can be heard on countless songs.
A more powerful and heavy use of the tremolo bar, is the effect created by grabbing and shaking the bar violently. This style of playing is often used in the lead guitar breaks of heavy metal. Slayer would be the best example of this.
The band Slayer
makes heavy use of vibrato bars. A Slayer song titled "Raining Blood" fully illustrates this style. This is often combined with natural and artificial harmonics, to make a 'screaming' or 'squealing' sound. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman have used these harmonic squeals since 1981.
Night Ranger
guitarist Brad Gillis
has based his entire playing style around the use of the floating tremolo, more specifically the first generation Floyd Rose unit. He is widely considered a true innovator in "whammy bar" tricks and techniques. Some prime examples of this are present on the tracks Don't Tell Me You Love Me
and You Can Still Rock in America by Night Ranger
.
Pantera
guitarist Dimebag Darrell
is often said to have been one of the most influential users of the tremolo bar. His use of the tremolo bar contributed to the signature sounds and high pitched squeals that defined his playing. He extensively used the bar in all of his studio albums including Cowboys from Hell
, Vulgar Display of Power
, and New Found Power
. Kevin Shields
, the guitarist with alt rock/shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine created a new style of guitar playing known as 'glide guitar'. This is primarily characterised by extensive use of note bending
, achieved via continuous manipulation of the tremolo arm on his Fender Jazzmaster
. The best example of Shields' guitar playing is the band's album Loveless
.
On live versions of the song "In The Evening" by the band Led Zeppelin
, guitarist Jimmy Page
used a Fender Strat with a trem to create an effect where he made the pitch change with every chord, producing a wah wah sort of sound.
Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave Guitarist Tom Morello
has been known to use an Ibanez Locking Trem to create his sound on many of his solos. On the track "Sleep Now in the Fire" from The Battle of Los Angeles, he uses the tremolo bar in unison with kill-switching to raise and lower the sound of the feedback from his Amplifier to create a very rhythmic solo. On the Audioslave track Original Fire from Revelations, he depresses the bar to slack and then taps the strings against the pickups and then releases the bar to raise the pitch of the sound. This emulates the sound of monkeys laughing (solo at 2:28).
Adrian Belew
has incorporated frequent use of the tremolo arm on his Stratocaster guitars as part of his unique and easily identifiable style. The tremolo arm is often integral to his use of the guitar to produce "sound effects" such as animal voices. On the track "Twang Bar King", from the album of the same title, he deliberately overuses the "twang bar" to create a camp
parody of the technique.
Neil Young
makes extensive use of a Bigsby vibrato in most of his electric-guitar work, producing an almost constant shifting of pitch in some solos, and simple chord-vibrato in rhythm work. This effect is accomplished by keeping a grip on the arm of the unit while moving the pick. This technique is prominent on more his more hard-rock songs such as "Like a Hurricane", "Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)" and "Rockin' in the Free World".
Joe Satriani
uses the trem arm on his Ibanez Edge Trem System extremely often; most of the time to make his signature "Satriani Scream", where he plays a harmonic near the bridge on the G-string and raises the bar. It can be heard on many of songs, including "Surfing With The Alien", "The Extremist", and "Flying In A Blue Dream". This technique is also used by many similar guitarists of the genre including Steve Vai
, Paul Gilbert
, Head and Munky of Korn
and John Petrucci
of Dream Theater
. Jeff Beck
is an acknowledged master of the whammy bar. Arguably the best known example of his work, and something of a signature tune, is the track Where Were You from the 1989 album Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop
. Guitarist Kirk Hammett
from the band Metallica
uses the whammy bar in some of his songs, such as the solos for the songs "Master of Puppets
","Enter Sandman
","The Thing that Should Not Be",and his live solo from Seattle, which can be heard on Live Shit: Binge & Purge
.
Les Claypool
, the bassist and lead vocalist of Primus
, installed a Kahler bass tremolo on his main bass, a Carl Thompson fretted 4 string bass guitar (this is highly unusual for bass). He uses the tremolo to create the wobbling bass tone heard on Frizzle Fry
, Nature Boy, Too Many Puppies and John the Fisherman, alongside many other Primus songs and in solo work.
Highly influential Australian guitarist Rowland S. Howard
's near continuous use of his Fender Jaguar's Floating Tremolo system coupled with volume and overdrive/fuzz effects to create sustained shrieks, expressive bursts of noise, extreme sound effects, and washes of warped pitch bending, feedback and distortion in bands including the Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, and These Immortal Souls proved to influence bands as far reaching from Sonic Youth
to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
.
Herman Li of Power Metal band Dragonforce is another famous user of the tremolo-arm. He uses it in almost all of his guitar solos, including several unique sound effects made using a whammy bar. Some examples are "The Elephant", where he turns the volume down, plays a note, raises the pitch with the arm and turns the volume up at the same time, creating a sound similar to an elephant's trumpeting. He also removes the arm and strums it across the strings, creating the "pac-man" noise, or runs it up and down the string, creating a "Ghost noise" (Both sounding similar to their namesakes' sound effects in gameplay). In one song, he combines these, playing 4 pac-man noises, followed immediately by an Elephant noise (which would be impossible live, since he would have to remove the arm, strum the strings with it, put it back in and use it, all in a matter of seconds).
Rock isn't the only form of music to make good use of the tremolo bar. Bob Dylan
extolls what he calls "the dreamy underwater sound" of Gospel
artist Pops Staples
(The Staple Singers
) in their cover of Willie Nelson
's "Uncloudy Day." Dylan said, of the tremolo bar, "it's very hard to control, but when you use it the right way it can be a very beautiful effect."
Synchronized tremolo
Floating tremolo
Dynamic Vibrato
Vibrola and other Gibson trems
Locking tremolo
Kahler tremolo
Stetsbar
Linear Tremolo
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, used to add vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
to the sound by changing the tension of the strings, typically at the bridge
Bridge (instrument)
A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air.- Explanation :...
or tailpiece
Tailpiece
A tailpiece is a component on many stringed musical instruments that anchors one end of the strings, usually the end opposite the end with the tuning mechanism the scroll, headstock, peghead, etc.-Function and construction:...
. The whammy bar enables the player to quickly vary the tension and sometimes the length of the strings temporarily, changing the pitch
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
to create a vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
, portamento
Portamento
Portamento is a musical term originated from the Italian expression "portamento della voce" , denoting from the beginning of the 17th century a vocal slide between two pitches and its emulation by members of the violin family and certain wind instruments, and is sometimes used...
or pitch bend effect.
Instruments without this device are called hard-tail. The term vibrola is also used by some guitar makers to describe their particular whammy bar designs. The whammy bar began as a mechanical device for more easily producing the vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
effects that blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazz guitar
Jazz guitar
The term jazz guitar may refer to either a type of guitar or to the variety of guitar playing styles used in the various genres which are commonly termed "jazz"...
ists had long produced on arch top guitars by manipulating the tailpiece
Tailpiece
A tailpiece is a component on many stringed musical instruments that anchors one end of the strings, usually the end opposite the end with the tuning mechanism the scroll, headstock, peghead, etc.-Function and construction:...
with their picking hand. However, it has also made many sounds possible that could not be produced by the old technique, such as the 1980s-era shred guitar
Shred guitar
Shred guitar or shredding is lead electric guitar playing that relies heavily on fast guitar solos. While some critics argue that shred guitar is associated with "... sweep-picked arpeggios, diminished and harmonic minor scales, finger-tapping and ... whammy-bar abuse", several guitar...
"dive bombing" effect.
Since the regular appearance of mechanical whammy bars in the 1950s, they have been used by many guitarists, ranging from the gentle inflections of Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
to the exaggerated twang effects of early rocker Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
to the buoyant effects of surf music
Surf music
Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...
aficionados like The Ventures
The Ventures
The Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...
, The Shadows
The Shadows
The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...
and Dick Dale
Dick Dale
Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.-Early life:Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby...
to art rock innovator Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
. In the 1960s and '70s, vibrato arms were used for more pronounced effects by the psychedelic guitarist Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
guitarist David Gilmour
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
and Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
guitarist Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
. In the 1980s, shred guitar virtuosos such as Edward Van Halen, Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
and Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
, and metal guitarists ranging from Ritchie Blackmore
Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, who was known as one of the first guitarists to fuse Classical music elements with rock. He fronted his own band Rainbow after leaving Deep Purple where he was unhappy because his favourite musical style wasn't adequately...
to thrashers like Kirk Hammett
Kirk Hammett
Kirk Lee Hammett is the lead guitarist and a songwriter in the heavy metal band Metallica and has been a member of the band since 1983. Before joining Metallica he formed and named the band Exodus. In 2003, Hammett was ranked 11th on Rolling Stones list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
used the "whammy bar" in a range of metal-influenced styles. The pitch-bending effects, whether subtle inflections or exaggerated effects, have become an important part of many styles of electric guitar.
Despite the common name tremolo arm, these devices cannot produce tremolo
Tremolo
Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...
in the normal sense of the word, but can be used to produce vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
, while the vibrato unit
Vibrato unit
A vibrato unit is an effects unit used to add tremolo to the sound of an electric instrument, most often an electric guitar. Vibrato units may be individual stomp boxes or built in to multi-effects units, but are traditionally built in to guitar amplifiers....
s used by electric guitarists generally produce a tremolo effect, rather than vibrato. See "Vibrato or Tremolo".
Origin of name
Traditionally, electric guitarists have reversed the normal meanings of the terms vibrato and tremolo when referring to hardware devices and the effects they produce. While the tremolo arm can produce variations of pitchPitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
including what is normally termed vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
, it can never produce the effect normally known as tremolo
Tremolo
Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...
(modulation of volume). Tremolo, on the other hand, is exactly the effect produced by the vibrato unit
Vibrato unit
A vibrato unit is an effects unit used to add tremolo to the sound of an electric instrument, most often an electric guitar. Vibrato units may be individual stomp boxes or built in to multi-effects units, but are traditionally built in to guitar amplifiers....
s built in to many classic guitar amplifier
Guitar amplifier
A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric or acoustic guitar louder so that it will produce sound through a loudspeaker...
s.
Other widely used names for the device include vibrato bar and whammy bar, the latter named in reference to guitarist Lonnie Mack
Lonnie Mack
Lonnie Mack is an American rock, blues and country guitarist and vocalist....
's aggressive, rapid manipulation of the pitch-bending device in his 1963 song "Wham!
The Wham of that Memphis Man
The Wham of That Memphis Man is a 1963 album by Lonnie Mack.The album is the first collection of hits from Mack, recorded between March and November, 1963. Critic Jimmy Guterman ranked this album No...
".
This reversal of terminology is generally attributed to Leo Fender
Leo Fender
Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender was an American inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, or "Fender" for short...
and the naming of the Fender 'Vibroverb' amplifier, which actually used tremolo (rapid volume changes) in an attempt to create a vibrato-like (rapid changes in pitch) sound. See vibrato unit
Vibrato unit
A vibrato unit is an effects unit used to add tremolo to the sound of an electric instrument, most often an electric guitar. Vibrato units may be individual stomp boxes or built in to multi-effects units, but are traditionally built in to guitar amplifiers....
for details of the history of these terms in relation to electric guitar, and related issues. Ironically, Fender had previously introduced the 'Tremolux' amplifier in 1953, which used the correct terminology. In this article, the words are used interchangeably.
Designs
Most tremolo arms are based on one of four basic designs:- The Bigsby Vibrato Tailpiece, introduced in the 1940s and used in close to original form on many guitars.
- The Fender Synchronized Tremolo or strat trem, introduced on the Fender StratocasterFender StratocasterThe Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
(1954), and from which many designs developed including:- The Floyd Rose locking tremolo (developed late 1970s).
- The Fender two-point synchronised tremolo (1986).
- The Fender Floating Bridge, which has two main variants:
- The Fender Floating Tremolo or jag trem, introduced on the Fender JazzmasterFender JazzmasterThe Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar designed as an upmarket sibling to the Fender Stratocaster. First introduced at the 1958 NAMM Show, it was initially marketed at jazz guitarists, but found favor among surf rock guitarists in the early 1960s...
(1958). - The Fender Dynamic Vibrato or stang trem, introduced on the Fender MustangFender MustangThe Fender Mustang is an electric guitar by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, introduced in 1964 as the basis of a major redesign of Fender's student models then consisting of the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic. It was produced until 1982 and reissued in 1990.In the 1960s, it was used in Surf...
(1964).
- The Fender Floating Tremolo or jag trem, introduced on the Fender Jazzmaster
- Cam-driven designs based on pedal steel guitarPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
concepts, including:- The Kahler Tremolo SystemKahler Tremolo SystemThe Kahler Tremolo System is an electric guitar bridge with a cam operated vibrato arm system. It was invented in 1979 by Gary Kahler and Dave Storey...
(1979). - The StetsbarStetsbarThe Stetsbar Tremolo system is a tremolo arm/vibrato bridge system for the electric guitar developed by Eric Stets during the late ‘80s and patented in 1995...
tremolo (developed late 1980s). - The Super-Vee BladeRunner (developed 2006)
- The Kahler Tremolo System
Many other designs exist in smaller numbers, notably several original designs marketed by Gibson under the Vibrola name, which was also used for some licensed Bigsby units.
Vibrato tailpiece
One of the first mechanical tremolo/vibrato units was the Vib-rola, invented by Doc Kauffman and patented in 1935. His Vib-rola was first offered to the general public by the Epiphone guitar company as an option on some archtop guitars from 1935 to 1937. Epiphone sold the vib-rola as an aftermarket option as well. (Kohman, Peter, "Epi-Phonic Echoes, Part Five: Masterbilt Oddities", in Vintage Guitar Magazine, pp.66-70, October, 2011) This Vib-rola was also used on some Rickenbacker lap steel guitars at around the same time and was introduced on their six string electric guitars beginning about 1937.Some early vib-rolas on Rickenbacker guitars were not operated by hand, but rather moved with an electrical mechanism developed by Doc Kauffman to simulate the pitch manipulation available with steel guitars. The Vib-Rola distributed as an option with Rickenbacker Electro Spanish guitars was hand operated like the earliest Epiphone vib-rolas. A later unit was created and used on Rickenbacker's Capri line of guitars in the '50's, such as John Lennon's '58 325. It was a side-to-side action vibrato unit (rather than the up-down action of later units) that was notorious for throwing the guitar out of tune, hence John's replacing it with a Bigsby B5. It was later replaced by the Ac'cent Vibrola, which used no coiled springs to change tension, giving it less chance to throw the guitar out of tune.
Bigsby
The first commercially successful tremolo arm was the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, most often just called a Bigsby, and invented by Paul BigsbyPaul Bigsby
Paul Adelburt Bigsby was the designer of the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece and proprietor of Bigsby Guitars...
. The exact date of its first availability is uncertain, as Bigsby kept few records, but it was on Bigsby-built guitars photographed in 1952, in what became its standard form. In several interviews, the late Merle Travis
Merle Travis
Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon"...
, for whom Bigsby designed his first vibrato, recalled the prototype as being built for him in the "late '40's". The design uses a spring-loaded arm that rotates a cylindrical bar in the tailpiece, varying the string tension to create vibrato and other pitch variations. The string tension is balanced against a single, short helical compression spring
Spring (device)
A spring is an elastic object used to store mechanical energy. Springs are usually made out of spring steel. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealed steel and hardened after fabrication...
, positioned under the arm pivot. Pioneering blues-rock
Blues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
guitarist Lonnie Mack
Lonnie Mack
Lonnie Mack is an American rock, blues and country guitarist and vocalist....
was known for using a Bigsby on his famous 1958 Gibson Flying V. The term "whammy bar" is believed to derive from Mack's 1963 instrumental hit, "Wham!", in which Mack made liberal use of the Bigsby.
To this day, the Bigsby enjoys some popularity, especially on hollow body guitars, and is available as a factory-fitted option on top-line models both hollow and solid bodied from many makers, and as an aftermarket addition (requiring some skill to fit however). It remains the only widely used design whose mechanism is entirely above the belly of the guitar body, making it the only design particularly suitable for acoustic and semi-acoustic guitars.
Fender synchronized tremolo
Leo Fender
Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender was an American inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, or "Fender" for short...
's synchronized tremolo, the device that introduced the term tremolo arm. First released in 1954 on Fender's first legendary Stratocaster, the simple but effective design offers a greater range of pitch change than the Bigsby, and a better capability for up-bends.
The basis of the synchronized tremolo is a rigid assembly that incorporates both the bridge and tailpiece, which pivots on the guitar belly. In the original design, this was based on the principle of the 'knife edge' balance. A bevel on the front underside of a steel top plate formed a wide, sharp edge that rested on the top of the guitar body. A small imbalance in tension between the pull of the strings and the counterbalancing pull of the tremolo springs held the pivot edge firmly in place against the body.
Six hardened steel wood screws passing through slightly oversize holes just in front of the pivot point, stopped the bridge from being pulled towards the neck end of the guitar. The upper portion of the screws is smooth, not threaded. These six screws are often mistakenly assumed to be the pivot point rather than the hidden knife edge. This design works, in spite of the friction caused by the edges of the six holes sliding up and down the screw shafts when vibrato is applied.
The bridge is formed by six bridge saddles held against this plate by string tension, and individually adjustable both for height and intonation. The tailpiece consists of a solid block of metal, mounted behind the tremolo plate and secured to it by three machine screws, and passing right through the guitar body. In a chamber routed into the back of the guitar are up to five (normally three) long coil spring
Coil spring
A Coil spring, also known as a helical spring, is a mechanical device, which is typically used to store energy and subsequently release it, to absorb shock, or to maintain a force between contacting surfaces...
s, which connect to the back of the tailpiece block, and whose tension balances that of the strings.
The tremolo arm also passes through the tremolo plate and tailpiece block, providing direct and rigid connection. Ignoring the bridge adjustments, this mechanism has only two moving parts, one of them the arm itself, the same as the Bigsby. But unlike the Bigsby, the synchronized tremolo moves the bridge as well as the tailpiece, varying both the length and tension of the strings.
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
. When changing strings the new string is threaded through the body from the back. However, in the Telecaster the ferrule end is held by a collar firmly anchored to the guitar body; In the Stratocaster, it is held by the moving metal block through which the strings pass.
The Stratocaster tremolo, often just called the Strat trem, or also called the whammy bar, is the most copied tremolo unit. Similar pattern units appear on many solid-body guitars by various makers. Its design has been the basis of the premium Fender tremolo known as the two-point synchronised tremolo, and also of the Floyd Rose locking tremolo, see below. Both the original Stratocaster tremolo, sometimes called the synchronous tremolo and sometimes the vintage synchronized tremolo, and derived designs such as the two-point and Floyd Rose appear on current models as of 2007.
This preeminence of the synchronised tremolo was finally established by the use of Stratocaster guitars by Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
and others towards the end of the 1960s. Throughout the 1960s, the premium Fender guitars were the Jaguar
Fender Jaguar
The Fender Jaguar is an electric guitar introduced in 1962. A descendant of the Jazzmaster, the Jaguar quickly caught on in the emerging Surf music scene...
range, equipped with the floating tremolo. By the early 1970s, it was obvious that most guitarists preferred the cheaper Stratocaster, regardless of price and supposed quality and prestige, and particularly liked its tremolo arm design. The Jaguar and indeed all other Fender guitars using any tremolo design other than the synchronised tremolo were for a time withdrawn, to return to the catalog as classic or retro models in the 1990s.
Fender two-point synchronized tremolo
The synchronized tremolo has been further developed by Fender to produce the two-point synchronized tremolo. This is not a locking tremolo, but is often confused with the similarly named Floyd RoseFloyd Rose
The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. The first of its kind, Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1977, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name...
two-point locking tremolo. The two systems are both developments of the original Stratocaster tremolo mechanism, but use the words two point to describe entirely different concepts.
The Fender two-point system uses two pivot points, one at each end of the pivot, rather than a row of six as in the original Strat trem. Conceptually, such a mechanism can be achieved by removing four of the six pivot screws from a traditional Strat trem, leaving only the two at the ends of the row, and there have been magazine articles suggesting this but it is risky. In practice, both for strength and for satisfactory performance, the pivots need to be carefully engineered. In some designs the pivots are also moved further apart than the 2.2" spacing of the outermost two screws in the original, in others they are just strengthened and more carefully shaped.
Currently, the Fender two-point system is their standard and most popular design, but they also offer models with the original classic design, as well as a few models with factory-fitted licensed Bigsby units, others with licensed locking tremolo and still others with floating bridge designs.
Featuring stainless steel block saddles since its introduction in 1986, the Fender two-point system has been redesigned with new vintage-style bent steel saddles as of 2008. The Fender two-point system is available with 2 types of tremolo bars: traditional "screw-in" type with a plastic tip at the end and deluxe "pop-in" type without the plastic tip. In the case of the deluxe 2-point bridge, the block saddles are made from polished steel. Custom Classic and Custom Pro Series Stratocasters feature a deluxe 2-point tremolo with block saddles made from milled stainless steel.
Fender floating bridge
The floating bridge featured on two Fender tremolo arm designs, both developed by Leo Fender subsequently to the original synchronised tremolo but overshadowed by it.Despite its not being the most popular bridge, there are side benefits unique to guitars with this type of bridge. See 3rd bridge guitars
3rd Bridge
The 3rd bridge is an extended playing technique used on some string instruments , that allows a musician to produce distinctive timbres and overtones that are unavailable on a conventional string instrument with two bridges...
.
Floating tremolo
The floating tremolo was designed by Fender for the Fender Jazzmaster, and first appeared with the release of the Jazzmaster in 1958. A larger, heavier and more complex mechanism than the synchronised tremolo, and promoted over it by Fender as their premium tremolo arm mechanism, it never achieved the same popularity, though if properly set up according to Fender's recommendations, it held tune as well as or better than the synchronized vibrato unit.The main difference is that, while much of the mechanism of the synchronised tremolo including the springs is accessed by removing a rectangular plate in the back of the guitar body, and is mounted on the guitar body in a routed bay extending behind the pickups, the entire mechanism of the floating tremolo is mounted on a roughly triangular chromed plate in the front of the guitar body, on the opposite side of the bridge to the pickups. The string tension is balanced against a single short helical spring, in compression rather than tension
Tension (mechanics)
In physics, tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string, cable, chain, or similar object on another object. It is the opposite of compression. As tension is the magnitude of a force, it is measured in newtons and is always measured parallel to the string on which it applies...
, mounted on the back of the tremolo mounting plate. The spring is adjustable by turning a screw located towards the center of this plate.
The ferrule ends of the strings are held on the top of the guitar in a tailpiece plate called the knife plate, which emerges from the mechanism, rather than the strings vanishing into the mechanism as with the synchronized tremolo. It is the knife plate that is moved when the tremolo arm is operated. Unlike the synchronized tremolo, the bridge is not moved directly by the mechanism, but only by the movement of the strings, and is allowed to tilt to accommodate this movement. This is called a floating bridge.
The Fender floating tremolo also features a knob that enables the player to lock and thus disable the tremolo mechanism, allowing quick recovery of tuning in the event of breaking one string, and providing tuning stability with the mechanism locked that was intended to be similar to that of a fixed bridge guitar. In practice, this stability was not generally achieved, leading some players to replace the mechanism with a fixed bridge and tailpiece to produce a high quality "hard-tail" solid body guitar not otherwise available at the time. The floating tremolo was greatly favored by some surf music
Surf music
Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...
bands, particularly for its ability to produce a pronounced and distinctive vibrato on a sustained chord without disturbing the tuning of the guitar. To fully achieve this benefit however, correct setup, as per Fender's recommendations, was essential.
An issue with the unit was the bridge itself, which Leo Fender over-engineered. The six individual bridge saddles were multi-grooved "barrels". The individual barrels were not grooved deeply enough for secure holding of the strings in heavy pick attack, and each barrel had a tiny adjustment screw at each end. Adding the intonation adjustment screws, and the screws at each end of the bridge saddle to raise or lower the bridge as a whole, gave the bridge twenty separate adjustment possibilities. The great majority of players found this much too "fiddly", and, adding the tendency of the strings to jump out of their individual saddles in aggressive playing, the overall reception was rather lukewarm for what was essentially an excellent - but over-engineered - design. Later, many players of the Jazzmaster and Jaguar found that the bridge on these instruments could be replaced with no retrofitting by the standard bridge from the Fender Mustang (below), which eliminated several of the worst problems with the original bridge.
In addition to the Jazzmaster, the floating tremolo was used on the then top of the line Fender Jaguar
Fender Jaguar
The Fender Jaguar is an electric guitar introduced in 1962. A descendant of the Jazzmaster, the Jaguar quickly caught on in the emerging Surf music scene...
guitars, released in 1962, and also on the Fender Bass VI
Fender Bass VI
The Fender Bass VI, originally known as the Fender VI, is a six-string electric bass or Scale Baritone Guitar by Fender.The Fender VI was released in 1961, and followed the concept of the Danelectro 6-string bass released in 1956, having six strings tuned E-E, an octave below the Spanish guitar...
, released in 1961. Jaguar and Jazzmasters share the same bridge plate and string saddles, though Jaguar bridges (and the earliest Jazzmaster bridges) have taller "legs." The two are functionally interchangeable and replacement parts for each are one and the same. The Bass VI bridge has a wider plate and longer intonation screws to allow the bass strings to be correctly intonated, and the saddles have threads cut for larger diameter strings. There have also been a small number of not very notable imitations by other makers, generally without the locking knob. Fender discontinued all floating tremolo models by 1980, but reintroduced both the Jazzmaster and Jaguar first as Japanese models in the mid 1980's, then as American made reissues in the 1990s. The tremolo-equipped Bass VI was reintroduced as a US Custom Shop model in 2006.
One of the big advantages as well as disadvantages, depending on what you like to hear is the string resonance appearing at several fret positions if they have a simple length relation with the string length behind the bridge (for instance 48:12 = 4:1). At those positions a high overtone rises in volume. This becomes more clear when the guitar sound is driven. However the overtone might sound odd, it still has a perfect harmonic relation, so is not out of tune related to the open string. For staccato playing it can be an annoying effect. Muting the string field behind the bridge with for instance a piece of felt solves this issue.
Dynamic Vibrato
The Fender Dynamic Vibrato, also known as the Mustang tremolo or Mustang trem, was introduced in 1964 on the Fender MustangFender Mustang
The Fender Mustang is an electric guitar by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, introduced in 1964 as the basis of a major redesign of Fender's student models then consisting of the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic. It was produced until 1982 and reissued in 1990.In the 1960s, it was used in Surf...
, intended as a student model. It was also notably used on the Jagstang, a custom design by Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
combining features of the Jaguar
Fender Jaguar
The Fender Jaguar is an electric guitar introduced in 1962. A descendant of the Jazzmaster, the Jaguar quickly caught on in the emerging Surf music scene...
and the Mustang. Some late 1960s Mustangs were fitted instead with the floating tremolo, which was promoted by Fender as their premium unit, but later Mustangs returned to the Dynamic Vibrato.
The Dynamic Vibrato is still preferred by some lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
ists above all other designs. It features a floating bridge similar to that of the floating tremolo, but the bridge is integral with the tremolo unit, unlike that of the floating tremolo, which is mounted separately. The strings are controlled by a tailpiece bar to which the tremolo arm is visibly connected, similar to the Bigsby, and the mechanism is installed from the top of the instrument, similar to the floating tremolo. It combines some features of all three basic designs.
The Dynamic Vibrato is often confused with the Fender floating tremolo, which it resembles. The original production runs of the two overlap by more than a decade, but the mechanisms are quite different. The existence of a few 1960s Mustangs factory fitted with the floating tremolo has probably added to the confusion. The concealed mechanism is in a chamber of a completely different shape and position, requiring an impractical amount of woodwork to convert from one to the other, and the mounting plate is of a different shape with different mounting holes.
The string tension is balanced against two medium length helical springs under tension, mounted on the underside of the tremolo mounting plate, one attached to each of the two feet of the tailpiece bar. Dynamic Vibrato units may be recognised by the integrated floating bridge and the stamps "Fender" and "DYNAMIC VIBRATO". Many but not all units also have the words "PAT PEND" or "PAT. NO. 3,241,418" stamped under the word "Fender".The Dynamic Vibrato was the last of the floating bridge designs to be discontinued by Fender, with the Mustang in 1982, and the first to be reintroduced, again with the Mustang, in 1990.
Other Fender designs
Still another design was used on the student model Fender BroncoFender Bronco
The Fender Bronco was an electric guitar model produced by the Fender company from mid 1967 until 1981. It used the body and neck from the Fender Mustang, but had only one pickup and a different tremolo arm mechanism...
, released mid 1967. This was simply known as the Fender vibrato tailpiece, or sometimes the Fender steel vibrato. It was again designed by Leo Fender although he had sold the company by the time it appeared. Basically a synchronized tremolo simplified to reduce cost, it had little popularity, and was the only Leo Fender tremolo arm design not available on any current Fender model.
Gibson Vibrola
GibsonGibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
have marketed a number of tremolo arm designs under the name Vibrola.
Vibrola tailpiece
Tailpiece
A tailpiece is a component on many stringed musical instruments that anchors one end of the strings, usually the end opposite the end with the tuning mechanism the scroll, headstock, peghead, etc.-Function and construction:...
s include a licensed version of the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece and several in-house Gibson designs. The Gibson designs did not have the impact of the Bigsby and Fender designs, and have inspired few if any copies, but they competed reasonably successfully and continue to sell.
Gibson designs tend to have the mechanism above the belly of the guitar, similar to the Bigsby, and are therefore equally suitable for use on acoustic guitars and especially archtops
Archtop guitar
An archtop guitar is a steel-stringed acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with blues and jazz players.Typically, an archtop guitar has:* 6 strings...
. This reflects the Gibson company's history as the developer of the archtop and their continued strength and focus in this market, but carries over even to designs used only on solid body guitars, such as the Short Lyre Vibrola used on some Flying V
Gibson Flying V
-External links:*, , , , and , from the Gibson website*, a June 2001 article from Guitar Collector magazine*, a tribute site that lists all models and re-issues and most notable players**...
and SG
Gibson SG
At the launch of the SG in 1961, Gibson offered four variants of the SG; the SG Junior , the SG Special, the SG Standard, and the top-of-the-line SG Custom. However, Gibson's current core variants as of 2010 are the SG Standard and the SG Special...
models. While these do require some woodwork to install them, some more so than others, there is nothing like the extensive body routing required for all of the Fender trems.
The earliest of the Gibson-designed tremolo arms was a distinctive long tailpiece
Tailpiece
A tailpiece is a component on many stringed musical instruments that anchors one end of the strings, usually the end opposite the end with the tuning mechanism the scroll, headstock, peghead, etc.-Function and construction:...
released as the Gibson Vibrato in 1962 on some SG
Gibson SG
At the launch of the SG in 1961, Gibson offered four variants of the SG; the SG Junior , the SG Special, the SG Standard, and the top-of-the-line SG Custom. However, Gibson's current core variants as of 2010 are the SG Standard and the SG Special...
models. This mechanism later became known as the side vibrato because of the position of the lever, which emerged from the side of the long tailpiece. This lever had only restricted movement up and down in a plane close to that of the strings, so its action was unlike that of the Bigsby and Fender units, and remains unique. It was also described as the Gibson Vibrola Tailpiece in Gibson documents, but this name can be applied to any of the Gibson tremolo mechanisms. It was not a success and is of interest mainly to historians and collectors.
The Deluxe Gibson Vibrato, released in 1963, was another long tailpiece mechanism, and replaced the Gibson Vibrato. Its tremolo arm and all subsequent designs used the action adopted by Bigsby and Fender. As the Deluxe Gibson Vibrola a short version of it was fitted as standard to the 1967 reissue Gibson Flying V
Gibson Flying V
-External links:*, , , , and , from the Gibson website*, a June 2001 article from Guitar Collector magazine*, a tribute site that lists all models and re-issues and most notable players**...
. Two other long tailpiece designs, superficially similar to the Deluxe Gibson Vibrato, are the Lyre Vibrola, which was fitted to Gibson ES-335
Gibson ES-335
The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial thinline arched-top semi-acoustic electric guitar. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958, it is neither hollow nor solid; instead, a solid wood block runs through the center of its body...
s as an option by 1964 and is engraved with a lyre
Lyre
The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
motif, and the Maestro Vibrola, which was an option on the ES-335 by 1967.
Most Vibrola tailpieces, including the Bigsby, Lyre and Maestro, exist in both long and short versions. The long version replaces a trapeze-style tailpiece, such as found on most archtop guitar
Archtop guitar
An archtop guitar is a steel-stringed acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with blues and jazz players.Typically, an archtop guitar has:* 6 strings...
s, and transmits the string tension to the guitar side. The short version replaces a string stop style tailpiece, such as found on the original Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
, and transmits the string tension to the guitar belly, so short versions are generally used only on solid body guitars. Long tailpieces can be used on almost any guitar (an exception being the Gibson Flying V
Gibson Flying V
-External links:*, , , , and , from the Gibson website*, a June 2001 article from Guitar Collector magazine*, a tribute site that lists all models and re-issues and most notable players**...
where there is no room for one), and both long and short versions have been used on various models of Gibson SG
Gibson SG
At the launch of the SG in 1961, Gibson offered four variants of the SG; the SG Junior , the SG Special, the SG Standard, and the top-of-the-line SG Custom. However, Gibson's current core variants as of 2010 are the SG Standard and the SG Special...
and Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
guitars.
The Gibson designs were less suitable for the sounds that the Stratocaster tremolo and its derivatives made possible. They have almost always been offered as extra cost options on guitars that sold better in non-tremolo versions. As a result, some versions are rare and command high prices from restorers and collectors. Gibson encourages this trend by refusing to sell reissue units as parts, offering them only on complete guitars (a policy similar to most guitar manufacturers). Gibson was continuing to offer Vibrola units as options on many models, but also offered a few Fender-inspired tremolo arms such as the Floyd Rose on some Gibson branded guitars (Nighthawk
Gibson Nighthawk
The Gibson Nighthawk was a short-lived electric guitar model line, manufactured by Gibson. The Nighthawk represented a radical change from traditional Gibson designs featuring many elements more commonly associated with Fender guitars. The Nighthawk superficially resembled the Les Paul, Gibson's...
, M3), and a wider variety through their Kramer
Kramer Guitars
Kramer Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. Kramer produced aluminum-necked electric guitars and basses in the 1970s and wooden-necked guitars catering to hard rock and heavy metal musicians in the 1980s; Kramer is currently a division of Gibson Guitar Corporation...
and Epiphone
Epiphone
The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market...
brands. Kramer have always fitted Floyd Rose
Floyd Rose
The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. The first of its kind, Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1977, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name...
trems as standard and this association continues. See also rivalry between Fender and Gibson.
Other Designs
Other notable tremolo designs include the Kahler, Washburn Wonderbar, HagstromHagström
Hagström is a musical instrument manufacturer in Älvdalen, Dalecarlia, Sweden. Their original products were accordions that they initially imported from Germany and then Italy before opening their own facility in 1932. During the sixties, the company started making electric guitars and later...
Tremar, The Semie Moseley
Semie Moseley
Semie Moseley was a luthier, and the founder of Mosrite guitars.He was born in Durant, Oklahoma in 1935. His family migrated to California along a path similar to many "Bakersfield Okies", first moving to Chandler, Arizona in 1938, and two years later in Bakersfield, California...
-designed Mosrite
Mosrite
Mosrite is an American guitar manufacturing company, based in Bakersfield, California, from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Founded by Semie Moseley, Mosrite guitars were played by many rock and roll and country artists....
"Vibramute", The Super-Vee BladeRunner, the Stetsbar
Stetsbar
The Stetsbar Tremolo system is a tremolo arm/vibrato bridge system for the electric guitar developed by Eric Stets during the late ‘80s and patented in 1995...
, the crossed-roller bearing linear tremolo and the early Rockinger from Germany. This last company was contracted by Kramer to develop a new fine-tuning tremolo with Edward Van Halen. The Rockinger designs proved problematic and Van Halen ultimately came to favor the Floyd Rose tremolo.
The Mosrite Vibrato
Semie Moseley developed the vibrato unit used on his Mosrite guitars from the basic concept of the Bigsby vibrato, but with many engineering improvements. The entire vibrato unit is top mounted. The strings feed through six holes in the upright plate at the rear of the unit (somewhat similar to the Fender "Floating Trem") and the bridge is also rigidly mounted. But the string saddles are vertically mounted grooved "wheels" that roll with the string during vibrato usage, and also make palm muting very easy to achieve. Moseley advertised the unit as the "feather touch" vibrato, and the touch is exceptionally light with all but heavy gauge strings. Pitch stability is excellent. Moseley made several designs of the unit, The first being sand cast, With early versions having an attached string mute beneath the bridge (much like the Fender Jaguar) and a rather short handle. This he called the "Vibramute". Two years later, he slightly simplified the design, going to a die cast design, eliminating the mute (which more players complained about than favored) and lengthening the vibrato arm slightly. This incarnation, called the "Moseley", was used on all Mosrite guitars from that point on. The actual feel and response of the two different models is virtually identical, however. Moseley also designed a companion 12-string vibrato for the 12-string version of the instrument, and this may have been one of the only - if not the only - vibratos designed for use on a 12-string guitar.The Super-Vee BladeRunner
In 2007 Super-Vee introduced a double locking tremolo system using a patented "Blade" technology design. The Blade is a flexible, industrial grade spring steel that allows the bridge to float without any frictional impediments and without causing wear to a pivot point. This technology gave way to the Super-Vee BladeRunner, which carries the same Blade system in a non-locking form, similar in look to the traditional Fender Stratocaster tremolo. The BladeRunner bridge is screwed down tight to the body, but through the flexible connection of the Blade, is still allowed to float for up and down pitch movement with no frictional wear. This design allows for greater tuning stability as well as a stronger string to body connection for sustain and tonal advantages.The Kamel Chenaouy Gas Vibrato
In May 2005, the famous French luthier Kamel Chenaouy invented a new type of vibrato using compressed gas in a jack instead of the classical springs. He patented the invention the same year.Floyd Rose
Around 1979, the locking tremolo was invented by Floyd D. Rose. The locking trem became highly popular among 1980s heavy metal guitarists due to its extremely wide range of variation and tuning stability.The original Floyd Rose system was similar to the Fender synchronized tremolo, but with a number of extra mechanisms. The first to be added and most obvious is a locking plate on the head nut, tightened with a hex key
Hex key
A hex key, Allen key, or Allen wrench is a tool of hexagonal cross-section used to drive bolts and screws that have a hexagonal socket in the head .- Nomenclature :...
to fix the strings at this point after tuning. This provides extra tuning stability, particularly during use of the tremolo arm, but as an unwanted side effect it also prevents further adjustment of the pitch using the machine head
Machine head
A machine head is part of a string instrument ranging from guitars to double basses, a geared apparatus for applying tension and thereby tuning a string, usually located at the headstock. A headstock has several machine heads, one per string...
s.
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
had a part in the inclusion of the fine tuning unit. In a 1982 Guitar World interview for Van Halen's "Diver Down" album, Eddie claims that he co-invented the fine tuners.
Nonetheless, a gift of a unit to Van Halen by Floyd Rose himself gave the unit instant overnight success and credibility. Still more stability was provided by the addition of a second lock on the bridge nut, making a double locking tremolo system that was more complex to set up. The double locking design is sometimes called a two-point locking tremolo, inviting confusion with the Fender two-point synchronized tremolo, which is a different concept and not a locking tremolo at all.
Most locking tremolo systems currently in production are "floating" bridges, a concept first popularized by Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
. Vai, wanting the ability to both lower and raise the pitch (by pulling on the bar) had a carved "lion's claw" cavity behind the bridge to allow the bridge to be raised further than normal. Guitar manufacturers prefer this type of configuration because mounting the bridge in this way is both easier for builders (because the neck does not need to be mounted on an angle when mounted within the body of the guitar) and because it increases functionality.
See Floyd Rose
Floyd Rose
The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. The first of its kind, Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1977, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name...
for details. Floyd Rose or Floyd Rose licensed locking tremolo units are available factory fitted on many high and low end guitars, as well as complete aftermarket retrofit kits in many different designs. Fitting the correct kit to a guitar already fitted with a compatible tremolo may be quite straightforward; On others a high level of woodworking skill may be required, or it may not be possible at all.
The Fender Deluxe Locking Tremolo (better known as Fender/Floyd Rose) is essentially a modified American 2-point tremolo bridge with locking saddles and pop-in arm. Designed by Fender and Floyd Rose himself, this type of tremolo bridge has been introduced in the early '90s on the Deluxe Plus and Ultra series guitars. The concept is primarily intended for guitarists searching for the features of a locking tremolo system without the need to perform major surgery on their instrument. Nowadays, the Fender Deluxe tremolo is available on American Deluxe, Plus, Ultra Series and many Custom Shop guitars. The whole assembly also includes a set of locking machine heads and an LSR roller nut for optimal tuning stability. Usually available in chrome, the Fender Deluxe Locking vibrato is also featured in gold and black.
Floyd Rose also produces complete guitars featuring their tremolo systems, most notably using the Speedloader system in which the head-end tuners are eliminated entirely, and all tuning is done from the bridge end of the strings. This is accomplished without sacrificing stability by employing strings that are produced to extremely fine length tolerances, essentially having two ferrule ends and no tail. the Speedloader system is the latest Floyd Rose design, but has yet to catch on to the degree Floyd Rose's original tremolo did.
Locking synchronized
One of the most simplified ways to have a double locking tremolo system without making any major alteration to a solid-body electric guitar can be done by using a modified American Series 2-point synchronized bridge with locking saddles, a set of locking machine heads and a low-friction LSR Roller Nut. Fender's version of this system is also known as Fender/Floyd Rose (Fender Deluxe Locking Tremolo Assembly), as it was developed in conjunction with Floyd Rose.Other locking trems
Several other "locking" type tremolo systems have been developed, but none of these have gained the popularity that the Floyd Rose or vintage Fender tremolo systems. The most notable of these is the cam-operated Kahler Double locking tremoloKahler Tremolo System
The Kahler Tremolo System is an electric guitar bridge with a cam operated vibrato arm system. It was invented in 1979 by Gary Kahler and Dave Storey...
, which is similar in practical use, but not in design, to the Floyd Rose. Another system that emerged in the 1980s was the Steinberger TransTrem system (standing for Transposing Tremolo).
In 2007, the Super-Vee company developed a double locking tremolo system that requires no modifications to the body or neck of the guitar. This system, also known as a "drop-in" system, received a patent for its "Blade" technology and created what is known as frictionless action. This type of action removes the contact pivot point that all other tremolo systems rely on and eliminates any wear irregularities that cause tuning instability. The Super-Vee design also has the shortest length of non-voicing string length, creating minimal string movement, stabilizing the string set even further. In addition, Super-Vee received a patent for their side locking nut system, creating a stronger, more reliable hold without instrument modifications.
Ibanez have their own range of double locking tremolo systems on their range of guitars. In their 2009 catalogue their guitars feature different units:
Edge III tremolo on the low-mid range guitars, this is a very similar bridge to a Floyd Rose. It features a pop in/out arm and lower profile tuners. This unit is featured on the RG series and on the GRG250DX.
Edge Zero has a specially designed arm pocket for minimal unwanted movement. It also features the Zero Point System, which allows the guitars floating state to be partially locked off for tuning purposes, in this state the guitar won't lose tuning if one string snaps.
Edge Pro tremolo has a very low profile. Possibly its most notable feature is that it is designed to take strings without the removal of the ball end (of stringing backwards with the ball ends at the headstock). The RG1820X features a version of this bridge called the Double Edge Pro. This version of the bridge contains Piezos for acoustic sounds, these are isolated from the bridge to prevent noise from the players hand and are regulated by a 2 band EQ for tone control.
The transtrem, like the Floyd Rose Speedloader, requires special strings that can only be used on the TransTrem unit. However, the TransTrem had the novel design that the bar could be pushed in to "transpose" the tuning of the entire unit to various other keys. The system saw limited use (mainly due to its exorbitant price and limited string availability), although Edward Van Halen has continued to experiment with the system. Notable Van Halen songs where the TransTrem can be heard include "Get Up" and "Summer Nights", from the album 5150
5150 (album)
5150 is the seventh studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1986 through Warner Bros. Records. The album was the first to be recorded with new lead singer Sammy Hagar who replaced David Lee Roth....
.
Notable tracks
The electric guitar is an instrument of unique sounds. The ability to completely detune the instrument and pull it back on the fly is possible with the 'tremolo bar'. Many notable guitar players have used this effect over the years. Early in electric guitar history, Chet AtkinsChet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
favoured the Bigsby unit, and it can be heard - occasionally - being tastefully used by him in a number of his recordings. Generally, Atkins used the Bigsby just to "dip" chords. His recording of "It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing" with Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
(another Bigsby user) is a typical example of how Atkins used the device.
Surf and early rock instrumental guitar is synonymous with vibrato use. Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
established the "twangy guitar" sound with a Bigsby vibrato on his Gretsch guitar. Classic examples of this are his recordings of "Rebel Rouser" and "Peter Gunn". Both "Perfidia" and "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures are also typical examples. Prior to Jimi Hendrix, many guitarists used the Fender or Bigsby vibrato to approximate the pedal steel or slide guitar tones found in Hawaiian or Country music.
This early vibrato was actuated after striking chords or individual notes; lowering or modulating the pitch as the notes decayed. Hendrix completely rewrote the book on vibrato; using it while picking, hammering on, pulling off and with harmonics and feedback tones. His intense use led to problems staying in tune, which he compensated for (to some degree) by exerting tremendous right hand strength and bending individual strings within a chord back in tune. To emphasize the tonal range of the guitar, Hendrix would push down on the Wah pedal (a customised VOX wah) and play stinging high notes and then pull back on the Wah pedal and depress the vibrato to create a freight train like rumble. When fully depressing the bar to create these low notes the slack strings would often fall off the nut and have to be quickly snapped back in position.
Hendrix's studio works "Third Stone from the Sun", "Axis: Bold as Love" and "Voodoo Child" (among others) introduced the world to this new use of the Stratocaster vibrato. Live tracks such as "The Star Spangled Banner" "I Don't Live Today" and "Machine Gun" featured the vibrato being used to mimic rockets, bombs and other sound effects, all within the context of blues-based psychedelic rock. To some degree, Hendrix used stage theatrics less and less as his career progressed, but feedback and vibrato remained a tremendous emotional outlet within his music. Many rock bands of all types have used the tremolo for all sorts of effects, especially as a vibrato over chords. One guitarist especially known for his use of the bar is David Gilmour
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
of the rock band Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
. This can be heard on countless songs.
A more powerful and heavy use of the tremolo bar, is the effect created by grabbing and shaking the bar violently. This style of playing is often used in the lead guitar breaks of heavy metal. Slayer would be the best example of this.
The band Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
makes heavy use of vibrato bars. A Slayer song titled "Raining Blood" fully illustrates this style. This is often combined with natural and artificial harmonics, to make a 'screaming' or 'squealing' sound. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman have used these harmonic squeals since 1981.
Night Ranger
Night Ranger
Night Ranger is an American rock band from San Francisco that gained popularity during the 1980s with a series of albums and singles. The band's first five albums sold more than 10 million copies worldwide...
guitarist Brad Gillis
Brad Gillis
Brad Gillis is a guitarist most famous for playing with the band Night Ranger. He was in the band Rubicon during the 1970s before Night Ranger. He has also played for Ozzy Osbourne and Fiona, and has released solo albums....
has based his entire playing style around the use of the floating tremolo, more specifically the first generation Floyd Rose unit. He is widely considered a true innovator in "whammy bar" tricks and techniques. Some prime examples of this are present on the tracks Don't Tell Me You Love Me
Don't Tell Me You Love Me
"Don't Tell Me You Love Me" is a hard rock song by Night Ranger written by Jack Blades from their 1982 album, Dawn Patrol. It was released as a single in January 1983 and peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was ranked as the 92nd best hard rock song of all time by VH1.The song was...
and You Can Still Rock in America by Night Ranger
Night Ranger
Night Ranger is an American rock band from San Francisco that gained popularity during the 1980s with a series of albums and singles. The band's first five albums sold more than 10 million copies worldwide...
.
Pantera
Pantera
Pantera was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas. Formed by the Abbott brothers, Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell in 1981, bassist Rex Brown would join in late 1981 with vocalist Terry Glaze. Looking for a new and heavier sound, Pantera had Terry replaced in 1987 with Phil Anselmo as...
guitarist Dimebag Darrell
Dimebag Darrell
Darrell Lance Abbott , also known as Diamond Darrell and Dimebag Darrell, was an American guitarist. He was best known as a founding member of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan. Abbott also contributed to the album Rebel Meets Rebel, a collaboration between Pantera and David Allan Coe...
is often said to have been one of the most influential users of the tremolo bar. His use of the tremolo bar contributed to the signature sounds and high pitched squeals that defined his playing. He extensively used the bar in all of his studio albums including Cowboys from Hell
Cowboys from Hell
Cowboys from Hell is Pantera's fifth album and their first Atco Records album, recorded at The Dallas Sound Lab in Irving, TX and released on July 24, 1990. This was their first commercially successful album, exposing the band's groove metal style to mainstream audiences...
, Vulgar Display of Power
Vulgar Display of Power
Vulgar Display of Power is the sixth studio album by heavy metal band Pantera. It was released through Atco Records, on February 25, 1992. It is the last album where Darrell Abbott is credited as "Diamond Darrell". One of the most influential groove metal albums of the 1990s, Vulgar Display of...
, and New Found Power
New Found Power
- Personnel :Damageplan* Patrick Lachman − vocals* Dimebag Darrell − guitars, bass * Vinnie Paul − drumsGuest musicians* Corey Taylor - 2nd verse, breakdown, and last chorus on "Fuck You"...
. Kevin Shields
Kevin Shields
Kevin Patrick Shields is an American-born, Irish vocalist, guitarist, and producer of alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine....
, the guitarist with alt rock/shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine created a new style of guitar playing known as 'glide guitar'. This is primarily characterised by extensive use of note bending
Portamento
Portamento is a musical term originated from the Italian expression "portamento della voce" , denoting from the beginning of the 17th century a vocal slide between two pitches and its emulation by members of the violin family and certain wind instruments, and is sometimes used...
, achieved via continuous manipulation of the tremolo arm on his Fender Jazzmaster
Fender Jazzmaster
The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar designed as an upmarket sibling to the Fender Stratocaster. First introduced at the 1958 NAMM Show, it was initially marketed at jazz guitarists, but found favor among surf rock guitarists in the early 1960s...
. The best example of Shields' guitar playing is the band's album Loveless
Loveless (album)
Loveless is the second studio album by alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. Released on 4 November 1991, Loveless was recorded over a two-year period between 1989 and 1991 in nineteen recording studios...
.
On live versions of the song "In The Evening" by the band Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, guitarist Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
used a Fender Strat with a trem to create an effect where he made the pitch change with every chord, producing a wah wah sort of sound.
Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave Guitarist Tom Morello
Tom Morello
Thomas Baptiste "Tom" Morello is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, his acoustic solo act The Nightwatchman, and his newest group, Street Sweeper Social Club...
has been known to use an Ibanez Locking Trem to create his sound on many of his solos. On the track "Sleep Now in the Fire" from The Battle of Los Angeles, he uses the tremolo bar in unison with kill-switching to raise and lower the sound of the feedback from his Amplifier to create a very rhythmic solo. On the Audioslave track Original Fire from Revelations, he depresses the bar to slack and then taps the strings against the pickups and then releases the bar to raise the pitch of the sound. This emulates the sound of monkeys laughing (solo at 2:28).
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
has incorporated frequent use of the tremolo arm on his Stratocaster guitars as part of his unique and easily identifiable style. The tremolo arm is often integral to his use of the guitar to produce "sound effects" such as animal voices. On the track "Twang Bar King", from the album of the same title, he deliberately overuses the "twang bar" to create a camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
parody of the technique.
Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
makes extensive use of a Bigsby vibrato in most of his electric-guitar work, producing an almost constant shifting of pitch in some solos, and simple chord-vibrato in rhythm work. This effect is accomplished by keeping a grip on the arm of the unit while moving the pick. This technique is prominent on more his more hard-rock songs such as "Like a Hurricane", "Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)" and "Rockin' in the Free World".
Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
uses the trem arm on his Ibanez Edge Trem System extremely often; most of the time to make his signature "Satriani Scream", where he plays a harmonic near the bridge on the G-string and raises the bar. It can be heard on many of songs, including "Surfing With The Alien", "The Extremist", and "Flying In A Blue Dream". This technique is also used by many similar guitarists of the genre including Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
, Paul Gilbert
Paul Gilbert
Paul Brandon Gilbert is an American guitarist. He is well known for his technical guitar work with Racer X and Mr...
, Head and Munky of Korn
Korn
Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...
and John Petrucci
John Petrucci
John Peter Petrucci is an American guitarist and songwriter best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Along with his former bandmate Mike Portnoy, he has produced all Dream Theater albums since their 1999 release, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory...
of Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
. Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
is an acknowledged master of the whammy bar. Arguably the best known example of his work, and something of a signature tune, is the track Where Were You from the 1989 album Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop
Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop
-Album:-Singles:-Personnel:*Jeff Beck – electric guitar, production*Tony Hymas – keyboard, synthesizer, production*Terry Bozzio – drums, percussion, spoken vocals, production*Leif Mases – engineering, mixing, production*Dick Beetham – engineering...
. Guitarist Kirk Hammett
Kirk Hammett
Kirk Lee Hammett is the lead guitarist and a songwriter in the heavy metal band Metallica and has been a member of the band since 1983. Before joining Metallica he formed and named the band Exodus. In 2003, Hammett was ranked 11th on Rolling Stones list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
from the band Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
uses the whammy bar in some of his songs, such as the solos for the songs "Master of Puppets
Master of Puppets
-Personnel:Metallica* James Hetfield – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar on track 1, first solo on tracks 2 and 7* Cliff Burton – bass, backing vocals* Lars Ulrich – drums* Kirk Hammett – lead guitarProduction...
","Enter Sandman
Enter Sandman
"Enter Sandman" is a 1991 song by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released as the first single from their eponymous fifth album, Metallica. The music was written by Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich...
","The Thing that Should Not Be",and his live solo from Seattle, which can be heard on Live Shit: Binge & Purge
Live Shit: Binge & Purge
-San Diego:Recorded at the San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, California on January 13 and 14, 1992.-VHS one/DVD one:#"20 Min. MetalliMovie"#"The Ecstasy of Gold"#"Enter Sandman"#"Creeping Death"#"Harvester of Sorrow"#"Welcome Home...
.
Les Claypool
Les Claypool
Leslie Edward "Les" Claypool is an American musician and writer, best known as the lead vocalist and bassist in the band Primus. Claypool's playing style on the electric bass mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends and slapping.Claypool has also self produced and engineered his...
, the bassist and lead vocalist of Primus
Primus (band)
Primus is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Jay Lane. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by Lane, though the latter two departed...
, installed a Kahler bass tremolo on his main bass, a Carl Thompson fretted 4 string bass guitar (this is highly unusual for bass). He uses the tremolo to create the wobbling bass tone heard on Frizzle Fry
Frizzle Fry
-Personnel:Primus*Les Claypool – electric bass, electric fiddle bass, string bass, vocals*Larry LaLonde – electric guitar, acoustic guitar*Tim "Herb" Alexander – drumsProduction*Todd Huth – second acoustic guitar on "Toys"...
, Nature Boy, Too Many Puppies and John the Fisherman, alongside many other Primus songs and in solo work.
Highly influential Australian guitarist Rowland S. Howard
Rowland S. Howard
Rowland Stuart Howard was an Australian rock musician, guitarist and songwriter, he played electric guitar in the post-punk group The Birthday Party. Howard died of liver cancer in December 2009, aged 50 years....
's near continuous use of his Fender Jaguar's Floating Tremolo system coupled with volume and overdrive/fuzz effects to create sustained shrieks, expressive bursts of noise, extreme sound effects, and washes of warped pitch bending, feedback and distortion in bands including the Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, and These Immortal Souls proved to influence bands as far reaching from Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O, guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are complemented in live performances by second guitarist David Pajo, who joined as a touring...
.
Herman Li of Power Metal band Dragonforce is another famous user of the tremolo-arm. He uses it in almost all of his guitar solos, including several unique sound effects made using a whammy bar. Some examples are "The Elephant", where he turns the volume down, plays a note, raises the pitch with the arm and turns the volume up at the same time, creating a sound similar to an elephant's trumpeting. He also removes the arm and strums it across the strings, creating the "pac-man" noise, or runs it up and down the string, creating a "Ghost noise" (Both sounding similar to their namesakes' sound effects in gameplay). In one song, he combines these, playing 4 pac-man noises, followed immediately by an Elephant noise (which would be impossible live, since he would have to remove the arm, strum the strings with it, put it back in and use it, all in a matter of seconds).
Rock isn't the only form of music to make good use of the tremolo bar. Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
extolls what he calls "the dreamy underwater sound" of Gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
artist Pops Staples
Pops Staples
Roebuck "Pops" Staples was a Mississippi-born Gospel and R&B musician.A "pivotal figure in gospel in the 1960s and 70s," he was an accomplished songwriter, guitarist and singer...
(The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples , the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha , Pervis , Yvonne , and Mavis...
) in their cover of Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
's "Uncloudy Day." Dylan said, of the tremolo bar, "it's very hard to control, but when you use it the right way it can be a very beautiful effect."
Sound files
External links
General- 1967 Fender Service Manual giving instructions for adjusting the then current Jaguar/Jazzmaster (floating), Stratocaster (synchronized), and Mustang (dynamic vibrato) tremolos, with diagrams of each.
- VibratoNotTremolo.com
Synchronized tremolo
- Bridge routing patterns including several strat trem options, and showing the associated pivot screws, at Warmoth GuitarsWarmoth GuitarsWarmoth Guitar Products, Inc. is an American manufacturer and distributor of electric guitar and bass parts, catering particularly to small scale manufacturers, custom builders, amateur constructors, and professional artists such as Rivers Cuomo and Matt Sharp of Weezer and Jeff Loomis...
.
Floating tremolo
- Buildup of a 1963 Fender Jaguar showing the installation of the tremolo unit.
- Exploded view of a Fender Jazzmaster showing the tremolo unit components.
Dynamic Vibrato
- Mustang trem installation giving a routing template.
Vibrola and other Gibson trems
- Gibson Vibrola Tailpiece setup instructions for a side vibrato unit, with a diagram showing its operation.
- Jimi Hendrix's 1967 Gibson Flying V.
Locking tremolo
- Floyd Rose website.
- History of the Floyd Rose locking trem at the KramerKramer GuitarsKramer Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. Kramer produced aluminum-necked electric guitars and basses in the 1970s and wooden-necked guitars catering to hard rock and heavy metal musicians in the 1980s; Kramer is currently a division of Gibson Guitar Corporation...
website.
Kahler tremolo
Stetsbar
Linear Tremolo