One shortcoming from learning to play the guitar in the 80’s has been a deficit in my natural vibrato. In 1988, the whammy bar was alive and well.
A tremolo, bigsby, or whammy bar is a rod that is attached to the bridge of an electric guitar. The bridge is where the strings enter the body of the guitar. They travel across the body, to the neck and frets and finally end up wound to posts on the head stock.
A whammy bar allows the tone of the guitar to fluctuate in pitch. It’s not unlike natural vibrato in that respect. A tasteful player can harness sustain and feeling from bends and movement of the strings with the fret fingers.
The whammy can also be used for extreme tone modulation. The more aggressive one gets with a trem bar, the more likely the guitar is to go out of tune. In the 80’s, it was common to have a locking nut on the head stock. This would secure the guitar’s tuning in place. The tremolo system would then have fine tuning knobs for each of the strings.
A whammy bar produced some interesting tones. The dive bomb, the squeal, and the talker are common extreme iterations. Steve Vai can speak complete sentences with his guitar, whammy bar and wah-wah pedal.
My first real guitar was a Charvel Jazz Fusion Deluxe guitar. The closest thing to it that’s around now is the Charvel Desolation model.
Everyday after school, I’d practice guitar in our garage, usually for hours on end. I drilled Queensryche, Metallica, Tesla, Dokken, and White Lion solos over and over and over again. Metal solos are like architectural plans. They are precise and mathematical.
These guitar parts became a part of me, dwelling in my subconscious. To this day, I have a recurring dream that I’m trying out for Metallica as a fifth member. We perform “Eye of the Beholder” and “Battery.” It’s awesome.
Last night, I had the privilege of playing guitar at the Emmaus Way community in Durham, NC. As I set up my reissue ‘62 strat, I peeked in the case flap. I found its whammy bar sitting there, wanting to be used. I couldn’t resist.
Now, using the trem bar on a ‘62 strat is a delicate matter. A dive bomb on an older instrument like that can cause serious injury, both to the instrument and myself.
Restraint is key. As Uncle Ben told Peter Parker, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
In the 90’s, my playing greatly improved by not using a whammy bar. My natural vibrato has improved over time. It was nice to visit an old friend, though.
