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Whammy bars

Lazerface

By Lazerface
in The Gibson Lounge


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Buxom

Buxom

Posted
Posted

I despise the whammy bar. Hardtail all the way! If i ever had a strat i would block the trem. I prefer teles anyway, it baffles me when i see a bigsby on a tele. Just get a frakkin strat!

 

A Bigsby offers a whole different tone than a block, and the Telecaster with the Bigsby is a look as iconic as the Stratocaster.

 

And you obviously don't know how to set up your guitar, because I've never had tuning issues from either of the Strats I've ever owned.

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EVOL!

EVOL!

Posted
Posted

I despise the whammy bar. Hardtail all the way! If i ever had a strat i would block the trem. I prefer teles anyway, it baffles me when i see a bigsby on a tele. Just get a frakkin strat!

 

First, Strats and Teles are not the same guitar by any stretch. You can get several tasty tones out of a Tele. A Strat? Not so much.

 

Second, my two SGs have Bigsbys and I love them. There are tuning stability sacrifices you have to make (push the bar all the way down and you'll go out of tune), but the trade off is so worth it. How else can you do the warped record/tape sound?

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Buxom

Buxom

Posted
Posted

I guess you were exaggerating. I'm not going to go Hendrix and scrape celluloid/strings. That was his thing, and I don't think anyone could ever really do it like he could. That's what causes tuning issues. You just have to adjust to it over time. I learned to play one one, so I'm a lot more comfortable using it. (although, a Telecaster is my main guitar)

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Buxom

Buxom

Posted
Posted

You learned how to play a whammy bar? How long did that take you? *rolls eyes*

The first "one" was supposed to be "on" I'm tied, I woke up at 5:30, and worked a double shift after school.

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kaleb

kaleb

Posted
Posted

I hate when people express their negative opinions about something in a negative manner. It is one thing to say that you don't like whammy bars and that is just your opinion, but you're criticizing us for using them? That's low. Especially since great music has been created on them. I mean, I like a pretty simple effects setup: a tuner, wah, overdrive (of the Tube Screamer type, no less), and 2 delay units! AND NO PEDALBOARD! But if you wanna have the biggest pedalboard on the planet, or the biggest rack unit, or like plugging straight in (doing it Malcolm style!), I won't say nothing. But I hate it when players won't stop saying that "effects are bad", and "real guitar players don't need effects", and "you use an overdrive pedal so you're going to guitar hell!". And I hate the exact opposite: when guys with complex setups call simple setups "limiting" or "boring", and make stupid remarks like "you're a luddite", and "your sound is bland because it is too direct". BS. We're all guitar players, and we should cherish the tools we have been given to play with. I'm not a big chorus guy (can't say I hate it, because it is cool sometimes and many of my favorite songs have it! Yes, most of those are Rush tunes. Xanadu, anyone?), but it's not like I wish that it had never been invented (I don't blame the overplayed music of the late 80s on chorusing). And yes, certain effects, beit effects (like pedals), whammys, and even certain scales can be overused, it's the player, not the effect.

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kaleb

kaleb

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First, Strats and Teles are not the same guitar by any stretch. You can get several tasty tones out of a Tele. A Strat? Not so much.

 

Second, my two SGs have Bigsbys and I love them. There are tuning stability sacrifices you have to make (push the bar all the way down and you'll go out of tune), but the trade off is so worth it. How else can you do the warped record/tape sound?

 

No offense man, but have you ever took time to listen to Jeff Beck and Ritchie Blackmore? They make the Strat sing. Just because there is one too many SRV clones out there doesn't necessarily mean that and Layla are the only things you can get out of one. It all depends on the amplifier, and of course the player operating the machine. A Strat into a Fender may be the 'Strat sound", but into a Marshall style amp they sound like a different beast. The same sound, but different. Trained ears can tell.

 

Go listen to Robin Trower and then tell me that a Strat is not beautiful.

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pippy

pippy

Posted
Posted
I know how to set up my guitars, whammy bars will put any guitar out of tune if you use em right.

No offence meant, Lazerface, but that's utter nonsense. I can't comment on the first part but the second part of it is certainly wrong.

 

The Strat I owned for 24 years was set up well and always returned to pitch regardless of how hard the vibrato arm was used.

 

Nor have I seen Jeff Beck needing to re-tune after every song and his use of what is a very lightly-sprung vibrato bridge tends to be pretty extreme.

 

Perhaps you need to re-think the first part of the above quote? Just a thought.

 

[smile]

 

P.

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This_Dying_Soul

This_Dying_Soul

Posted
Posted

a strat is just as worth of it's place in music history as the Les Paul or Tele or SG.

 

There's lots of players out there that have used them to great effect. As for the whammy bar in general - a bigsby (more correctly a vibrato bar) gives you an alternative sound to had vibrato - increasing pitch then lowering it back to normal, by allowing you to DECREASE the pitch and return it to normal.

 

And lets not forget the stuff that guys like EVH, Vai and Satch did with a floyd rose.

 

It's a different sound - not better, not worse, just different.

 

Personally, I find the strat has quite a diverse palet of tones. One just needs to experiment with it... or spend the money on a American Deluxe model if you find that 5 different pickup positions isn't enough. That's my strat, and I love it. While not exactly a tele, I find it does get some tele-like tones and then some.

 

My Gibbies will always be with me and are my prefered instruments, but as I've mentioned on this site before some of the best sounding bands I've ever heard use a combination of the Les Paul and a Strat. If I was to join a band that had a guitarist already using a Les Paul, I'd likely use my strat in order to have my tone stand out from theirs. My Gretsch would also be a good choice if the music was not requiring a high gain level.

 

My stance on effects - use em if you got em, but just remember you don't have to use em all the time. I do find my tone is better when I have fewer pedals in the signal chain. Simple setups have their place. When I record multiple guitar tracks, I often have at last one track with no effects.

 

At the same time, the use of effects is a way of expanding the basic tone of the guitar and amp. There is no shame in it. Using effects in a musical context is just as much of an art form as the music itself. Effects dont make you sound better - in fact if you don't know how to use them they can make you sound worse... guys that use outragous effects like Vai can play circles around most people with nothing more than just a guitar and an amp if they want to and they sound so good with effects because they've found a way to use them to enhance what they are playing or have learned how to manipulate the effects.

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Searcy

Searcy

Posted
Posted

If you ever bothered to spend some time with a Parker Fly you would understand that if is not necessary for a guitar with a whammy bar to go out of tune ever. Even if you break a string. There's more to life then just Teles and Strats and Les Pauls.

 

 

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stein

stein

Posted
Posted

I despise the whammy bar. Hardtail all the way! If i ever had a strat i would block the trem. I prefer teles anyway, it baffles me when i see a bigsby on a tele. Just get a frakkin strat!

 

 

I know how to set up my guitars, whammy bars will put any guitar out of tune if you use em right. Break a string, and its game over. Break a string on a hardtail, and keep playing all night.

 

 

You learned how to play a whammy bar? How long did that take you? *rolls eyes*

We been TROLLED, dudes!

 

see the complete contradictions?

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mikekefr

mikekefr

Posted
Posted

I know how to set up my guitars, whammy bars will put any guitar out of tune if you use em right. Break a string, and its game over. Break a string on a hardtail, and keep playing all night.

I have 2 guitars w/ lockdown/whammy,if you make sure the strings are stretched before 'locking down' and keep the strings fairly fresh <replace more than once a year> ,going out of tune should not be a problem,it isnt for me anyway.I'll agree trying to finish a song w/ a broken string when your G bumped up to an A ,is an art in itsself,but the pros outweigh the cons to me.

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Searcy

Searcy

Posted
Posted

My Parker DF has a whammy bar, but due to the excellent design of the guitar, it stays in tune better than my guitars without a whammy (Gibson, Epiphone and LTD). And although I don't use the whammy all that often, when I need it it's a great tool to have. YMMV

 

Does the DF have the trem lock that lets you lock the bridge if you break a string?

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martinh

martinh

Posted
Posted

I generally have very little problem with strat style trem units unless they are set up as a floating vibrato, i.e. with the base plate not touching the face of the guitar. Although this allows the player to bend bend both up and down with the arm, it has two terrible disadvantages. First, as others have noted, if a string breaks, the whole instrument goes out of tune. Second, if , like me, you tend to rest either a finger or the palm of your hand on the bridge, you get a constant random vibrato that is very annoying. I crank the springs on my strat up until the bridge plate just touches the body. This is quite a bit stiffer than the hendrix "only two slack springs" method, and will only bend down. However I find it to be completetly stable. If I ever feel a need to do the real "dive bombing" nonsense, I use my floyd rose strat with the locking nut. It will take all manner of abuse and return to being in tune,

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