How many forumites own whammy equipped guitars but don't use them?

arjunmenon

I know a fair share of people here own whammy equipped guitars yet don't use them or block them.
Reasons?

costafonix

me,, i find it gets in the way... ?

arjunmenon

CostaFonix wrote: me,, i find it gets in the way... ?

? I hear you on that one. I used to feel the same way initially.
By getting in the way, do you mean getting in the way of your picking hand or distracting you?
I'm just trying to gauge why people don't use them as much.
I find having a whammy quite liberating. Allows me to apply some unconventional phrasing ideas (i.e. scoops, flutters, slight to heavy warbles on extended chord voicings etc)

costafonix

I'm a lazy guitarist so try get away with the least amount of 'extra effort' as possible,, in fact I dont even mess with my volume/tone controls (there's 2 songs I set them differently, all the others are set to full).... I used to use the whammy a lot in my early gigging days,,,, probably too much so, maybe thats why I just dont like using it now,,

Warren

My Strat is my first Whammy equipped guitar. I don't use it much at all, only on a few songs to add a little shimmer (Apache etc.). I have no idea how to do all the rock-related stuff (big dive bombs, whammy harmonics etc.) and I haven't spent any effort in learning to do that stuff.

Jeff Beck is the king of the Whammy bar IMO, but his whole style is built around that now. I've also seen John Mayer doing some interesting whammy stuff recently. Maybe I should spend some time on incorporating it, but where to begin?

Heath

don't really know how to use the darn thing .......

DonovanB

I like it, but I only get small solos and my main guitar has a fixed bridge

Mr-M

I like the "natural reverb" effect that you get from a trem, but I'm not a whammy user, so I block mine. I prefer the sound of a blocked trem over a fixed bridge.

arjunmenon

CostaFonix wrote: I'm a lazy guitarist so try get away with the least amount of 'extra effort' as possible,, in fact I dont even mess with my volume/tone controls (there's 2 songs I set them differently, all the others are set to full).... I used to use the whammy a lot in my early gigging days,,,, probably too much so, maybe thats why I just dont like using it now,,

Ok, so you're on a whammy sabbatical ?

Warren wrote: My Strat is my first Whammy equipped guitar. I don't use it much at all, only on a few songs to add a little shimmer (Apache etc.). I have no idea how to do all the rock-related stuff (big dive bombs, whammy harmonics etc.) and I haven't spent any effort in learning to do that stuff.
Jeff Beck is the king of the Whammy bar IMO, but his whole style is built around that now. I've also seen John Mayer doing some interesting whammy stuff recently. Maybe I should spend some time on incorporating it, but where to begin?

Jeff Beck is brilliant. A great place to start would be:

1. Incorporating it to add a little vibrato on chords.
2. Graft alert - Then move on to hitting specific notes (i.e. fret an A and then use the whammy to take it up to Bb or G#, then B or G and so forth...see how high or low you can go) - This should hopefully teach your arm how much pressure to apply
3. Now incorporate other phrasing ideas such as slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends etc in conjuction with the whammy (try both before the note and after the note) - This should get you in Jeff Beck territory.
4. Work on scoops (moving from a lower note to a higher note quickly)
5. Work on flutters (both downwards & upwards) to get a elastic band like effect.
Hopefully, the above helps you Warren & Tailon.

Donovan Banks wrote: I like it, but I only get small solos and my main guitar has a fixed bridge

I feel your angst ?

Warren

Arjun Menon wrote:
Jeff Beck is brilliant. A great place to start would be:

1. Incorporating it to add a little vibrato on chords.
2. Graft alert - Then move on to hitting specific notes (i.e. fret an A and then use the whammy to take it up to Bb or G#, then B or G and so forth...see how high or low you can go) - This should hopefully teach your arm how much pressure to apply
3. Now incorporate other phrasing ideas such as slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends etc in conjuction with the whammy (try both before the note and after the note) - This should get you in Jeff Beck territory.
4. Work on scoops (moving from a lower note to a higher note quickly)
5. Work on flutters (both downwards & upwards) to get a elastic band like effect.
Hopefully, the above helps you Warren & Tailon.

Thanks Arjun. I only really use it for 1 above, so I have 4 new things to work on. Uh...thanks, I think! ?

Norman86

It took me a good few months to even get hold of a whammy bar that actually fits my trem!
Finally got one from stewmac thats a perfect fit, but i like how my guitar is setup now!
And i know that playing with the whammy is gonna whip my poor strat outa tune ☹

Wizard

I got a super-short "Gilmour" whammy when I got my new bridge.
Am starting to experiment with it.
Find it fits into the palm more naturally.

singemonkey

Arjun you should consider doing a little workshop on this. I don't have any real intention to play Jeff Beck style, but I know I'm totally underskilled when it comes to using the bar. I use it for dips in surf music and I'm just starting to figure out - now that I've got the bigsby on an LP - how to do some of the Brian Setzer type stuff.

I also don't know about the set up on my Pacifica. It's very stiff, and hard to do graceful dives. But I'm worried that if I set it up easier that I'll have big problems using the guitar in the multiple tunings it has to do.

@Norman86 - shouldn't be a problem if the nut's nicely cut.

Ray

Aye, I blocked it. Because I cant use it. Nothing that I play (or try to) needs it.

Bob-Dubery

I got an electric with a whammy. I don't use it. Probably because I've never screwed the handle into the block. If I had I might use it. I'm not really interested in dive-bomby stuff, but it could come in handy to add a little shimmer.

Thought: I think that the whammy has been locked fairly tight - it doesn't seem to move when I bend a string.

LooneyAtTheGate

Constantly changing my tuning, especially to dropD. Haven't felt the urge to create anything lately with the whammy for some reason. Its a shame though because its a great creative tool.
Its even just fun to go crazy on the thing, dive-bombing and such like.
I do prefer doing my vibrato and pitch bending with the left hand, its sounds more natural..

Hammeron

Mr T wrote: I like the "natural reverb" effect that you get from a trem, but I'm not a whammy user, so I block mine. I prefer the sound of a blocked trem over a fixed bridge.

Interesting...explain why you prefer the sound of the blocked trem over fixed bridge.

I am guilty of having 2 of them and not using them. They have proven so damn difficult to set that once the nut is locked I am happy to leave it that way for as long as possible, and I do enjoy using the fine tuners.

Hammerons, pull-offs and bends galore does the trick! ?

AlanRatcliffe

I love guys who can really use the whammy creatively - Beck, Belew and Vai spring to mind, but I generally like hardtails on my guitars (bar Strats). Years ago I had a Hohner made Steinberger that kept on breaking so I learned to play without and finally went hardtail. It also helped that I had a fretless guitar at the time and a Washburn KC-70V with Floyd to do the motorcycle noises (the only thing you can't do with your left hand is downbends).

Mr T wrote: I like the "natural reverb" effect that you get from a trem, but I'm not a whammy user

+1 for Strats specifically. They don't have the Strat vibe without a trem. I don't block them though - just keep three springs fairly tight so the bridge is flat. I used to use five springs, but that ends up as too much of a good thing.

Arjun Menon wrote: 1. Incorporating it to add a little vibrato on chords.

I already do that with my LH. I can vibrato specific notes within a chord too (BTW - Is that weird? Someone pointed it out the other day and seemed surprised, but it's natural for me - particularly to make a melody within a chord sequence stand out).

nick

Only whammy equipped guitar I have is the strat (which I rarely use) and its got 5 trem springs in and been set flat. Im also a simple guitarist, Ive only now started adding the BB King 'trill to some licks ?

Ray

talking about these things I have got a Bigsby on my wishlist at a couple of places but I think I wnat it just becasue I like the look of it.