houndman55 Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Why doesn't Gibson have vibrato options? All standard Fender models except the telecaster have a whammy bar. Most gretsches have a bigsby. Most metal type guitars have a floyd rose. Except for the SG and firebird vibrola and the occasional higher end Gibson with a bigsby or Floyd Rose I can't think of any standard Gibson models with a whammy bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjsinla Posted October 18, 2014 Share Posted October 18, 2014 Why doesn't Gibson have vibrato options? All standard Fender models except the telecaster have a whammy bar. Most gretsches have a bigsby. Most metal type guitars have a floyd rose. Except for the SG and firebird vibrola and the occasional higher end Gibson with a bigsby or Floyd Rose I can't think of any standard Gibson models with a whammy bar. Sounds as if you are saying there are options. BTW, these two SG models only come with a bar. And, bars are not everyone's cup of tea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeman Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Tuning is a lot more stable. I have no need for a wammy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Why doesn't Gibson have vibrato options? All standard Fender models except the telecaster have a whammy bar. Most gretsches have a bigsby. Most metal type guitars have a floyd rose. Except for the SG and firebird vibrola and the occasional higher end Gibson with a bigsby or Floyd Rose I can't think of any standard Gibson models with a whammy bar. "All standard Fender models except the Telecaster.." You mean the Strat? Or the occasional Jag or Jazzmaster? The Fenders after the Tele were ALL made with trem units as part of the design, so of corse, they have them. Only occasionally would a Strat have a non-trem bridge as basically an "option", but most who don't want it just don't use it. Most Gibby models (maybe all) were NOT designed with a trem bar, but available as an option. Most don't go for the option, so naturally, they don't make what people don't buy. BUT, they are available. IF you happen to be one of the few who want a Gibby with a trem, you can do what most have done throughout the history: buy the guitar you want and add the trem you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L5Larry Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Contrary to Leo Fender's "Synchronized Tremolo", the act of bending pitch is called "vibrato". Tremolo is the variant of "volume". If you want to do dive bombs on a Whammy bar, Gibson Is not the guitar for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimi Mac Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Plenty of Gibsons have Bigsbys, and the Les Paul Alex Lifeson Axcess has a Floyd Rose... A vibrato can and often will compromise tuning stability and sustain in any guitar. Gibson has chosen not to offer every one of their flagship guitar with one compromising the bridge unlike Fender. It's just a difference not a fault or oversight... Plenty of Les Pauls have also come with Bigsbys over the years and you can find them with relative ease on eBay and they do continue to reissue them as an option every few years or so like several other options they make "runs" of in production. The Les Paul, and in general bread-&-butter of Gibson is their tone and sustain, that is compromised by a vibrato mechanism and would compromise one of their premier selling-points... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjsinla Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 The Les Paul, and in general bread-&-butter of Gibson is their tone and sustain, that is compromised by a vibrato mechanism and would compromise one of their premier selling-points... IMO, the SGs like the SG Original and the recent 61 Les Paul SG sustain just fine, the bigger problem seems to be tuning stability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimi Mac Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 IMO, the SGs like the SG Original and the recent 61 Les Paul SG sustain just fine, the bigger problem seems to be tuning stability. I'm literally dumb-founded by this... And I hear it alot across the board. (in general not the forum board particularly) When I was young and dumb all I ever cared about in a guitar is a Strat... Frankly, IMHO, there is no such thing as tuning stability in a Strat-style fulcrum knife-edge style vibrato bridge. Even when it was blocked like Eric Clapton style, it still went out of tune if you broke a string and just in general... I grew to hate vibrato bridges. Later after my hiatus I became a fan of hard-tails... I found that in general simply by their nature they were leaps & bounds / head & shoulders above vibrato style bridges (and Strats) for tuning stability. Yes I see every now and again a string go out of tune but a quick touch and it's back in and generally stays in tune for extended periods of playing and dormancy. I do see the environmental and temperature conditions affect set neck guitars that can make a uniform tune drift, but overall a set-neck guitar with a hard-tail type stop-bar & bridge on a Les Paul or SG style guitar has vastly better tuning stability than do vibrato/Strat style bridges! In my experience the consistency isn't even close! But I hear lots of guys talk about tuning stability on them and it boggles my mind every time... Have you (those that speak of it) ever tried a Strat long-term? I grew to absolutely hate Strat bridges & vibrato systems for it... It seriously makes me wondrous... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjsinla Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 I'm literally dumb-founded by this... And I hear it alot across the board. (in general not the forum board particularly) When I was young and dumb all I ever cared about in a guitar is a Strat... Frankly, IMHO, there is no such thing as tuning stability in a Strat-style fulcrum knife-edge style vibrato bridge. Even when it was blocked like Eric Clapton style, it still went out of tune if you broke a string and just in general... I grew to hate vibrato bridges. Later after my hiatus I became a fan of hard-tails... I found that in general simply by their nature they were leaps & bounds / head & shoulders above vibrato style bridges (and Strats) for tuning stability. Yes I see every now and again a string go out of tune but a quick touch and it's back in and generally stays in tune for extended periods of playing and dormancy. I do see the environmental and temperature conditions affect set neck guitars that can make a uniform tune drift, but overall a set-neck guitar with a hard-tail type stop-bar & bridge on a Les Paul or SG style guitar has vastly better tuning stability than do vibrato/Strat style bridges! In my experience the consistency isn't even close! But I hear lots of guys talk about tuning stability on them and it boggles my mind every time... Have you (those that speak of it) ever tried a Strat long-term? I grew to absolutely hate Strat bridges & vibrato systems for it... It seriously makes me wondrous... Played Strats for years. Maybe you misunderstood me, It's like you said, tuning stability is the biggest problem especially when you break a string. Blocking the trem on a Strat should really fix that, though. FWIW, I don't really do dive bombs anymore, I just use the bars for more subtle, shimmery kinds of effects, the same effect you can get by shaking the neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookieman15061 Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Been playing strats all my life. Never had a problem. Floating term to give it a sweet Gilmore shimmer is sublime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capmaster Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Contrary to Leo Fender's "Synchronized Tremolo", the act of bending pitch is called "vibrato". Tremolo is the variant of "volume". If you want to do dive bombs on a Whammy bar, Gibson Is not the guitar for you! Correct decription of terms. The confusion created by Fender was and still is leading to lots of misconceptions. Floyd Rose Gibsons are fantastic performers, by the way. Plenty of Gibsons have Bigsbys, and the Les Paul Alex Lifeson Axcess has a Floyd Rose... A vibrato can and often will compromise tuning stability and sustain in any guitar. Gibson has chosen not to offer every one of their flagship guitar with one compromising the bridge unlike Fender. It's just a difference not a fault or oversight... Plenty of Les Pauls have also come with Bigsbys over the years and you can find them with relative ease on eBay and they do continue to reissue them as an option every few years or so like several other options they make "runs" of in production. The Les Paul, and in general bread-&-butter of Gibson is their tone and sustain, that is compromised by a vibrato mechanism and would compromise one of their premier selling-points... Except for taking more sensitivity when palm-muting, on LP Axcess guitars like my Alex Lifeson model the Floyd Rose system is compromising absolutely nothing. IMO, the SGs like the SG Original and the recent 61 Les Paul SG sustain just fine, the bigger problem seems to be tuning stability. Confirm that for my Frank Zappa "Roxy" SG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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