Whammy Bars

Here's a cool trick by Richie Sambora

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=7RUEVPdOrwI

I don't know how he's doing that, but that's pretty nice if you're able to get that same effet with your whammy bar :)

Good luck

I don't mind taking a shot at such an article.

Hendirx often used the whammy bar when he was getting feedback from his amp, using the whammy bar to control/affect the feedback.

One trick I've, ahem, pinched from Jeff Beck is to hit a note, then either bump your bridge or give the whammy arm a quick jerk to create a vibrato-like effect. Its distinct from genuine vibrato (i.e. with the fingers), and with practise you can control how much, um, note-jiggle you get from jerking the bar (hey, I should write an article, if only to officiate the technical term 'note-jiggle' lol). On this point, you can also try hitting a note then banging your guitar hard with the plam/side of your hand. This works especially well if you then slide away from the note you've just hit. Works mostly/best on strats, but I've achieved it on my Epi' LP - just don't go overboard or your hand will ache for ages afterwards.

Another JB pinch is to e.g. fret the 3rd string at the 7th fret, hit the note, then depress the whammy bar, raise whammy bar to origianl position, then hammer on at the 9th.

Oh, another hendrix rip off is to play a repeating lick - a repetition of hammer ons/pull offs between the 7th and 9th frets will do nicely for our e.g. - then while doing this, use your whammy bar to change the pitch, depressing and releasing the whammy bar repeatedly to taste. Works best in an all-out-carnage-style ending.

JB rip off - fret and hit a note. then lightly touch the struck string 12 frets above the note you just hit (e.g. play a note at the 5th fret, then lightly touch same string at the 17th fret) creating a harmonic, then depress then raise whammy bar. creates a note-flying-off-into-space effect.

steve vai steal - if you have strat-like pups with open magnets, depress the whammy bar so the string sticks to the magnets on your pups then release whammy bar, creating a popping/clicking noise. I've no idea where/how he used this, but I remember reading him talk about it ages ago. he also mentioned scraping your pick against the springs holding the whammy in place, if you've removed the backplate on your axe, as a sound effect.

classic JB steal - play pickless. simultaneously stricke a note with your thumb while your hand (cupped around whammy bar) jerks up against the whammy bar, creating a, um, shrieking kinda tone to it. for the benefit of Musica23 and other Jeff-heads, the really crazy bits of Brush With The Blues (off the alb Who Else!) feature this technique a lot.

that's all I'm thinking of off the top of my head. will try to update more later. let me know how you get on!

further JB steal (anyone spot a trend here? lol) - depress the whammy bar, then strike a note. creates a 'slide guitar' kind of effect. he also seems to use this in conjunction with 'violining' (turning the volume pot down, hitting the note, then highering the volume to create a 'volume swell' or violin-tone), but I've no idea how!

JB also ends at least one song by hitting a bass note, then depressing the whammy bar a bit to create a machine-slowing-down-and-switching-off kinda vibe, but again I've yet to fully suss that one.

richie sambora - I've only taken a quick look and would need to verify on my strat which is alas "in the 'shop" right now, but it looks/sounds like he's just playing each open string (1st, 2nd, and 3rd only), then using the whammy bar to quickly lower then raise the pitch (the tapping motion you see him doing on the whammy), but I think he'd have to mute each string as he moves to the next one. he could be muting this way, his picking hand seems pretty intensely controlled, but like I said I'd have to mess around with my axe to be sure. it also sounds tone-wise like he's running his axe through an Ibanez tubescreamer.

you could always try playing scales (slowly, lol) using the above techniques on each note. for the techniques which require you to play more than one note, play the scale in groups of two, three, whatever. this will help you become comfortable with the technique and repeating the technique (whch is what you'll find in a lot of guitar solos where the whammy bar gets used) - doing any of the above techniques once is fairly easy. doing them on-call, a certain number of times, and then being able to develop out of the whammy-trick (and into the whammy-trick) fluidly is what will make the difference between you sounding super-kewl or sounding super-rubbish.

sorry for the repeated posting - everytime I hit send I suddenly think of another point. perhaps I should do an article on this, for the sake of clarity.

cheers for all the great info!

it certainly is fun to experiment with all this stuff, even if it doesnt sound fantastic yet :? :D