Meanwhile, at Warmoth...the Golden Era of the Whammy Bar: 1969 - 1989

[Re-Pete]

Referring to it as a "tremolo" is a pet peeve of mine. There is no tremolo going on with the use of that device. It's vibrato or pitch variation. And what the heck made Leo Fender think it was "synchronized"??

I think I can answer your last question.


Up until the Strat's six-screw "synchronized" tremolo, most tremolo bars had either a moving tailpiece and a stationary bridge, or vise versa. They were separate pieces. On the Strat, the bridge and the "tailpiece" (or in other words, the block the strings anchor in to) where bolted to each other, and thus moved in tandem... a.k.a. "synchronized".

Hey thanx for that explanation Aaron. It does make sense, if you consider that all that was before that whammy bar of the Strat was the Bigsby and some backyard inventions.

 

[Strat Avenger]

That does make sense. 

 

[Hbom]

Interesting thread. Easily hi-jacked to candy land.

Here's a comment from another forum that I visit where this thread is being discussed;

velorush said,

"How could they have missed the very reason it is called the "whammy bar" - Lonnie Mack's "The Wham" 1963! 

They set it up in paragraph three, but then, nothing...?"

So I'll ask it here.
Why no mention of Lonnie Mack and "The Wham"? :icon_scratch:

 

[aarontunes]

Interesting thread. Easily hi-jacked to candy land.

Here's a comment from another forum that I visit where this thread is being discussed;

velorush said,

"How could they have missed the very reason it is called the "whammy bar" - Lonnie Mack's "The Wham" 1963! 

They set it up in paragraph three, but then, nothing...?"

So I'll ask it here.
Why no mention of Lonnie Mack and "The Wham"? :icon_scratch:

I didn't mention "Wham" for a few reasons. First, although Lonnie may be using the bar for bends and stuff, I don't really hear anything in that song that couldn't be played in some other way that doesn't require a tremolo bar. Also, as far as I can tell, that "whammy" etymology is highly apocryphal. It's great story though! Maybe I'll use it in some blog post in the future.


Mostly, I chose to leave it out for the same reason I didn't mention Uli Roth, David Gilmore, Alan Holdsworth, Ritchie Blackmore, Brian Sezter, or many other worthy players: because there are only 10 spots on a top 10 list. Have you ever, in the history of media, seen anything definitively settled by a top 10 list?   They are conversation starters, and that is all.


What other forum have you seen discussing it? Can you point me there?

 

[amigarobbo]

I was always more of a Flying Saucer Attack kinda guy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR0i3InK2vM but I suppose a case could be made for thingy out of My Bloody Valentine doing something interesting with a bendaphon bar post 89

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7-llAFh7h0[/youtube]