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

arjunmenon · 2011-04-26T09:28:32+00:00

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

AlanRatcliffe

WORLDLYPUPPY wrote I think Gilmour is the smoothest whammy master of all....

Much as I like Gilmour, I think Beck has him beat by far - he uses a huge range of whammy styles and is just so precise but fluid.

Hammeron

MIKA the better one wrote I dont use any whammy..... I lock all trems.... I had a bigsby for awhile but I just dont like it.....

If you lock the Trem does re-stringing become as easy it is on a fixed?

evolucian

Never been much of a whammy player myself... I just really love the way Beck and Michael Lee Firkins play with it (... the whammy bar... pffft).

I did look at my whammy bar today though... looked at it and chucked it aside cos I was looking for something else. To use it I'll have to have extreme patience and a Jeff Beck setup... none of which I'm willing to do at the moment. Bends are the way for me... woohooo!!!!

But hey, at least I looked at the whammy today... its gotta count for something

chris77

@Tamla. Even on a non-blocked trem restringing should be as easy as on a fixed bridge. The springs will pull the bridge taut against the body, so there shouldn't be a problem at all. When you start tuning the strings up to pitch the increased tension wil stretch the springs causing it to float again. No mess, no fuss. If you use the same guage strings as before you will be set to go from there. If your'e using a lighter guage string, then before however, you might have to loosen the spring-claw's screws in the back a bit to get the float right again. Heavier guage strings, you might need to tighten them a bit. All in all though it should be as easy any fixed or blocked bridge to restring.
The bugger up comes with floyd roses and kahler type trems. Them things be bastards to restring hey.... Too many screws and crap to keep track of for my
liking. Don't even know if can block them like regular trems. (Maybe Alan or Chad can help?)

Hammeron

chris77 wrote @Tamla. Even on a non-blocked trem restringing should be as easy as on a fixed bridge. The springs will pull the bridge taut against the body, so there shouldn't be a problem at all. When you start tuning the strings up to pitch the increased tension wil stretch the springs causing it to float again. No mess, no fuss. If you use the same guage strings as before you will be set to go from there. If your'e using a lighter guage string, then before however, you might have to loosen the spring-claw's screws in the back a bit to get the float right again. Heavier guage strings, you might need to tighten them a bit. All in all though it should be as easy any fixed or blocked bridge to restring.
The bugger up comes with floyd roses and kahler type trems. Them things be bastards to restring hey.... Too many screws and crap to keep track of for my
liking. Don't even know if can block them like regular trems. (Maybe Alan or Chad can help?)

Chris, how do F. Roses and Kahlers differ from other Tremelo systems regards re-stringing?
The Rose type on my Epiphone Explorer is a pleasure to Re-sring but on the Cort VX...bitch!

AlanRatcliffe

Any floating bridge (aside from the Steinbergers, which had an integrated lock) is going to be a bit of a pain to restring and tune because of the way the strings interact, but the double-locking bridges like Floyds are the worst. Having said that, you do get used to them with time and practice and you learn the tricks that speed things up. The biggest thing to learn is to overtune each string with every tuning pass, then as you tune up the next string and the other strings drop in pitch, they are closer to where they should be. Another thing I used to do to save time is string up with the balls on the tuners - then you only have to clip one end (the bridge side) and need only the bare minimum of winds ...and no slippage on the unwound strings.

You used to get a tool for locking the bridge in place for string changes (it slid between the bridge and body, so the bridge would not drop into the body with no strings on), but with all the different takes on the design, they didn't work for anything too far from the original Floyds or with unusual setups. I don't think you get them any more (Chad might know). I used to use a steel plate with foam tape on the underside to protect the finish, just to stop the bridge from dropping all the way into the body with the recessed models (which is most of them these days) - that alone can make a huge difference.

Something newer that does work very well with any floating bridge is the Tremol-No - simply lock the Tremol-No and you can change and tune the strings without the bridge moving. When the strings are up to pitch, release the lock and the bridge will be in the right place. Can save your butt when you break a string mid-performance (push the bar down, lock the bridge and your remaining strings are back in tune). It also lets you lock the bridge for altered tunings and the newer Deep C models let you half-lock in a "down only" mode - so you can still bend down or use for dropped tunings without the other strings going out.

=

chris77

My experience with a floyd was a licenced copy on an Ibanez Gio that I had the displeasure of restringing and tuning for a mate a few years ago. After restringing the damn thing I had a whale of a time trying to tune it. Then trying to balance it. And then trying to tune it again. One of the most frustrating guitar related experience I've ever had. (Probably only second to learning to fret a B properly and fitting the Clapton mid-boost to my Strat. ? ) Only afterwards did I come across tips like shimming the bridge and changing the strings one by one.

IceCreamMan

using the whammy oin my strat does throw out the tuning a lil after a while but hell thats what tuner pedals and tuners are for ,,,not?

why the tuning fuss, takes less than a minute to tune again ....and its not like you need to tune between every use of the whammy?

or am i missing something.

arjunmenon

Alan Ratcliffe wrote You used to get a tool for locking the bridge in place for string changes (it slid between the bridge and body, so the bridge would not drop into the body with no strings on), but with all the different takes on the design, they didn't work for anything too far from the original Floyds or with unusual setups. I don't think you get them any more (Chad might know). I used to use a steel plate with foam tape on the underside to protect the finish, just to stop the bridge from dropping all the way into the body with the recessed models (which is most of them these days) - that alone can make a huge difference.

Were you thinking of the "Key" from Stewmac.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar_tremolos/Floyd_Rose_tremolos_and_parts/The_Key.html?tab=Pictures#details

I used to use a stack of business cards that i'd taped up and cut in half. Worked like a charm.

AlanRatcliffe

Arjun Menon wrote Were you thinking of the "Key" from Stewmac.

No, that's to help set intonation with the strings tensioned.

arjunmenon

Alan Ratcliffe wrote
Arjun Menon wrote Were you thinking of the "Key" from Stewmac.
No, that's to help set intonation with the strings tensioned.

Oops..my bad

Isis

This is quite embarrassing, but my first electric guitar was an Ibby with a Floyd copy on it. I thought the whammy was a picking hand guide :-[ I though that if you held onto the whammy bar with your right hand it will help you pick better. I've had a few Floyd (real and "inspired by") guitars since then. I never really liked those things to be honest. It's not like I did dive bombs and stuff every 20 seconds, so it became a pain in the a@# to maintain, so I sold them all when I got my RGA 121 with the fixed Gibraltar bridge. The only other guitar I had after that was an old RG7620 or something but I had the bridge blocked.

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