Whammy bars

Whammy bars are only cool if they are the Jaguar/Jazzmaster style "floating tremolo arm" model. I hate Bigsbys, and I hate those other spring contraptions that people insist on affixing to guitars.

Of course, when I switched to Danelectro, I had to leave the wonderment of the floating tremolo behind. No more floating tone bending which went up or down according to whim. But I've got a lot more into string bending recently. Using Super-Slinky strings and adjusting your action as low as possible leads to amazing possibilities for bending notes 2 or even 3 semitones up. Just wish you could bend notes down in the same fashion, the way my floating tremolo used to do.

One thing I used to like doing was bending the bar all the way down then jamming it between the D and A strings, and just leaving it there while it attempting to play normally. Unfortunately one time I did this with a very expensive borrowed Ibanez Iceman and ripped the whole bridge out, and it was onstage in full view of everyone so it's not like I could just blame it on somebody else.

I love what whammy bars can do (especially for fully-voiced chords!), but I hate the fact that any tremolo bridge I can afford will lose it's tuning with every dive bomb.

So I got a whammy pedal. :D

Ah, the floating tremolo never lost tuning. NEVER. Oh, I miss that guitar. I wonder what it would cost to get it shipped over...

I hate whammy/tremolo bars typically. Kate is correct about the only cool ones being on Jazzmasters/Jaguars. Kevin Shields' use of the tremolo is still unsurpassed. Really, it was rather innovative the way he combined tremolo bar with alternately-tuned chords and reverse reverb/delay. Nobody since MBV Loveless has achieved such a beautiful distorted guitar tone in my opinion. So, I have to credit whammy bars with greatness.

Also, in Back to the Future, Marty McFly rocked out with the whammy bar (on an Ibanez methinks) in the talent show audition while he was wearing a vest. Classic.

my fave wangerz

- Chris Salmon of Stump - his wangfunk frenzyon The Tube was inspirational

- Ritchie Blackmore...

adrian belew sux

a-33 - if you like Ritchie Blackmore (and I do), you'd LUV Uli Roth. Der maestro von twang-bar uber alles!

Uli is class - i saw him last year - with that MACKEM (boo!) from rainbow on keys - 'polar nights' WAS AWESOME.

Whammy bars + minor chords x reverb out the yin-yang = awesome surf-rock tone

I wish I had one

I just found mine while packing up the house. Putting it aside for Chinese-made Strat torture.

I have never owned a guitar with one! Not intentionally...

Floating tremola arm sounds so much MORE SEXY.

Steve Vai's Ibanez has the best whammy of them all. You can go up or down a full 5 steps and it will stay in tune due the huge cutout/spring on the back. That's why he uses it constantly! It's over $2,000 though and it's so obviously the Steve Vai guitar (monkeygrip, tree of life fretboard design) that it wouldn't be wise to step on stage with it. You're going to invite heckles regardless of what you play or how well.

The new Ibanez S-Series "Zero Return" trem is amazing. Obviously not appropriate to all stage personas, but if you want stupid whammy tricks and ridiculous tuning stability, it's unbeatable.

hardly ever use my whammy bar, but i like the floating bridge on the strat for adding accents and shimmering textures to picked notes and chords.

the bridge on the jaguar sucks. i don know how anyone could ever use that without going wildly out of tune. one slip and youve knocked *everything* out. too fuckign dangerous!

I don't see how anyone uses a locking tremolo for anything musical. I know it can be done, but I cannot figure how. I can see the Bigsby, as you can get those nice soft twang effects, but a Floyd Rose is something else.

I've never been able to figure out how Blackmore and J Mascis were able to hit those vintage style tremolos as hard as they did without knocking it out of whack. I know you can add a couple of extra springs on to the vintage tremolos which adds tuning stability, but both of those guys sometimes hammer them really hard, especially Blackmore on some of the live 70s Deep Purple recordings I have heard.

i lost mine within a week of buying my jag.

good riddance, i say.
how can you use one without sounding/looking really fucking 80s?

The way Satriani and Vai have been using them lately, it sounds more like electronica, which is very current.

The guitarist whose rock band I'm in is a very tasteful and unique whammy bar-ist. He's also the first guy I've heard use it really well in straight-ahead jazz.