Do you like tremolos or not?

[Dru Edwards]

So, do you like tremolos or not? I know there's always that song you need it in but generally speaking, do you prefer it or not? Do you use it a lot?

I have some guitars when the whammy bars on them (Floyd Rose w/lock nuts) but rarely use them so I tend to prefer the guitars without them myself.

I can pretty much do with my hands anything I'd like to do with a whammy bar.

[mikealpine]

Dru, I've never used one. I have a Strat that is built for one, never attached the handle. I think it is cool when someone knows what they are doing and doesn't overuse it, kind of like salt when cooking, but it's nothing I've been too interested in experimenting with or learning (tremolo, not salt).

[mr. beaumont]

I'd like to have a guitar with a good locking trem, like a Floyd rose, someday.

Start style terms and Bigsbys are useless to me...tuning nightmares.

[Bob Womack]

I played hard-tails only for twenty-five years and developed my vibrato style without a tailpiece. Right about then I added a guitar with a Wilkinson Tailpiece.

What I've learned is that both left-hand and tailpiece-style vibrato are tools in the same chest. There are things you can do with each that the other can't do. For instance: You can exert vibrato on one note within a chord with left-hand vibrato but you can't with a tailpiece. You can easily exert undulating vibrato above and below the fundamental note or chord with a tailpiece where in left-hand land you can do it by stopping the note below the fundamental and prebending up to the fundamental, but it is much harder and not nearly as fast.

BTW, I don't play much tail-wagging music that calls for a bunch of whammy like Eddie V uses.

So, horses for courses in my book.

Bob

[clintj]

I like them when they are well set up. I finally unlocked the one on my wife's Strat and set it up using Dan Erlewine's book, and it actually holds tune really well now. And I agree that a little goes a long way - the tremolo work on 'Wicked Game' is very tasty and about as much as I think a song needs.

[s2y]

I love Floyd trems. I can live with my Bigsby, agreeing that it's a pain to keep in tune.

[Dru Edwards]

I actually blocked off the tremolo on one of my cheap guitars because it was too much a pain to keep in tune.

[ADK]

I have a Strat copy but never attach the handle. Just seems to get in the way.

[Matt_Adamas]

If it's not a Floyd it might as well be a hard tail which is why I out 5 springs in any guitar with a non-locking trem on it. Floyd'd guitars get 2 springs (with 9s) and a trem stopper so they are drop down only.

[Steve DeRosa]

Use the Tone Twister screw-on trem on my Gretsch Double Annie once in a rare while, almost never use the one on my Strat, everything else I've got is hardtail...

[muscmp]

i have the one on my strat set up fairly tight that gives me the ability to give it a wiggle when i feel like it and the guitar still stays in tune. i do use 4 instead of the 5 springs.

like bob says, it does what your fingers can't, and your fingers do what it can't . may as well have that ammunition available.

play music!

[LouieAtienza]

I play a lot of Ventures stuff, so a trem is a must! I now only use 2 springs with the claw in tight, maybe only 1/4"-3/8" from the pocket wall. If you shake them like a rattle, and just release the bar and let it snap back, it won't stay in tune. I'll do mild dips with the bar, but control the return. Sometimes a slight up-pull gets the strings back in place if they get stuck somewhere. On vintage Strat bridges i disengage the middle four screws from the plate. I even had one set up with only 2 screws ala SRV.

I do have a few guitars set up with Floyds, one is a GraphTech Ghost equipped Floyd bridge.

[Bob Womack]

Strong Bad does those Trembalos.



Bob

[Tony Done]

I really like them when they're blocked by tightening the springs. I think they might add a bit of extra resonance, but that could just be an urban myth. Or the spring cavity can be used for housing trimpots and the like if you want to muck with the tone and volume controls.

HTH.