Forgive me

[rmp]

Extreme use of a trem will absolutely give you tuning issues unless it's a locking system like a floyd rose or something like that.

And Locking systems are great, until you break a string, mid set... Oy! that can be a treat...

Over all if the guitar is setup correctly and the nut slots are properly regulated, a good trem won't really be all that problematic if used tastefully. Bigsby's for example.. these are really meant for more subtle use.

Make sure to do one additional thing after you've taken all the right setup steps.. Get a tube of Big Bends Nut Sauce, and use that as suggested (there are YouTube vids..)

[Gordon Currie]

Dbone:

Most of the responses are from people who value a tremelo system.

An important question is - how much do YOU value tremelo? Or is it something you THINK you should have?

Like coil-tapping, active pickups, fan frets, etc. it is an optional feature. And there are people who 'couldn't live without' those features as well.

For anyone's first electric, I would recommend going basic. Trust me, you will have your hands full with all the differences from acoustic guitar and the techniques that are critical on electric (like muting).

If you enjoy electric guitar, it is VERY likely that you will purchase another down the road. If at that time you are jonesing for tremelo, go for it then.

[Dbone]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

I've got three that I love, and all have locking tuners:


A Sterling LK100D with their vintage trem. This is a Steve Lukather signature guitar. If you've watched Steve play you'll know that he does some moderate pyrotechnics using both down and up bends with the trem arm. It pulls off this stuff very well and, in fact, if rigged with .009 strings can pull off a step-and-a-half sharp bends. It has plenty of back pressure so you almost don't feel that it is even there. Best, it can easily pull off chord wobbles.


A G&L Dual Fulcrum Trem on an S-500 Strat guitar. The "L" in the name G&L was Leo Fender. It was his last company where he got to develop his trademark instruments to a high potential. It is very stable and smooth for wobbling chords.


A Carvin TL60T with a Wilkinson Trem. It is very stable and smooth for wobbling chords.

Here is the trade-off: A trem bridge will flex as you bend notes with your left hand, making it a little more work to bend exactly onto pitch. It also causes all the other strings to go flat, so if you bend up on one string and fret another, that second one will go flat.

Here is what the trem bridge brings to the table: If you think about it, left-hand vibrato can ONLY cause upwards vibrato. You vibrate the notes by bending sharp, you can't go flat. A trem bridge allows you to create vibrato that moves both flat and sharp around the base note (tonic), or goes sharp, or goes flat. If you want a vibrato that wobbles around the tonic, you need a trem bridge. Here's an example:



Bob

That blue one's a looker!

[Dbone]

Appreciate all the replies. I think if I ended up getting one with a tremelo I would block it initially. I suppose there is no harm in having one for future versatility.

If I saw a guitar that I loved, and it had a tremelo, I wouldn’t shy away from it I guess.

[rmp]

Originally Posted by Dbone

Appreciate all the replies. I think if I ended up getting one with a tremelo I would block it initially. I suppose there is no harm in having one for future versatility.

If I saw a guitar that I loved, and it had a tremelo, I wouldn’t shy away from it I guess.

that's probably the best, most practical approach.

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by Dbone

Appreciate all the replies. I think if I ended up getting one with a tremelo I would block it initially. I suppose there is no harm in having one for future versatility.

If I saw a guitar that I loved, and it had a tremelo, I wouldn’t shy away from it I guess.

Play it a while before you decide to block it. And seriously consider decking it. That way you can bend notes up with the fretting hand, dive them with the trem, and for all practical purposes it'll be just as stable as if it were blocked.

I think this subject gets WAY over-thought. Most players will hardly, if ever, notice the disadvantages (not that they aren't legitimate ones.)

[FrankHudson]

I avoided them for years as a younger player. I had a very strong left hand and figured I they were beside the point for me. I played mostly Telecaster back then. As to Bob saying that you can't bend down without a trem bridge using only left-hand finger vibrato, the young whippersnapper-me would have said, sure you can: bend up to a note above what you want to play, strike it, and drop the pre-bend. Also useful for the both sides of the note warble, you silently pre-bend up to the note and wiggle when you strike it.

Double stop or even some triple note chords I'd finger vibrato too. More complicated chords or open strings? I'd clench the guitar body and wring the neck. Looked brutal, but a Tele can take it.

So why am I going off topic a bit with this personal story: I now have electrics with vibrato bridges. I even have a Bigbsy equipped Tele. I float the trem on my main Strat. My old hand joints and weaker finger strength isn't up to doing what I did back then. They make some kind of vibrato things easier. For me it's kind of come down to my own variation on the old story told about B. B. King telling some other younger bluesman to go ahead and use light gauge strings because "Why do you want to work harder than have to?"

I never was a "Tele Master" with my young-man bends, though I liked making a racket. And I'm not Jeff Beck with a vibrato bridge now either.

They do take some extra setup to make them work as well as they can. They still can have some trouble even if you don't use them. Restringing a Bigsby is less fun (The Vibramate Spoiler is a great add on!). The alternate tuning issues? Well, it takes longer to re-tune as every string pitch change will likely effect other strings too, so you need to go back and forth on all strings a little more to make sure they are now all still right. Modern electric tuners make this less of a chore, particularly on a noisy stage. Some bridges (Strat style, when floating) are designed to have a balanced tension for string height. Changing to an alternate tuning can throw things off.

Yes, a string breaking in the middle of a tune means it may be best grab your back up guitar because you maybe seriously out of tune and it'll take a bit longer to restring on stage.

I still believe that beginners will be slightly better off to skip a vibrato equipped electric for their first guitar, unless they specifically want to explore the things you can do with it or they wish to learn the repertoire of players who use them.

[Bob Womack]

Oh, and my first serious electric was a hard-tail Gibson Les Paul that I played for twenty years before I got a guitar with a wobbly tail. Hard-tails are still my go-to because they are far more stable during all the left-hand articulation I do.

Bob

[Steel and wood]

Okay, I have a confession.

I put a Bigsby on my Samick Greg Bennett Royale and my Fender Telecaster because ….. wait for it …… it looks cool. (That was the primary motivating factor).

Not to say that I don't use them though (and the bar on my Stratocaster) to colour chords when I choose (strummed slowly over a minor chord with the reverb turned up works a treat), which I can't do using my left hand only.

[Dbone]

A little out of the price range I had in my head (just a wee little ;-0) but golly gee whiz...feeling this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D3L-nnp-hs

[Ray175]

If properly set up, all pinch points lubricated and used for the range for which it is designed a floating strat tremelo is stable (my 1961 strat has a floater, and gives me 3 semitones of movement on the G string, 2 on the B string and 1 on the top E). If you want to alter pitch by 4 semitones or more, or divebomb, then a locking tremelo and locking nut will be stable - this is the case for my 1986 Charvel Model 4 with a Kahler tremelo and locking nut - it never detunes....

[RP]

Originally Posted by Dbone

Appreciate all the replies. I think if I ended up getting one with a tremelo I would block it initially. I suppose there is no harm in having one for future versatility.

If I saw a guitar that I loved, and it had a tremelo, I wouldn’t shy away from it I guess.

Why not just set your sights on a Robert Cray hardtail Strat???

[maxtheaxe]

I use trem on all my electrics (excepting the Tele and the hard-tail) and, with a proper set-up, should not cause trouble with tuning. I also recommend the use of locking tuners with these, and a well-cut trem-nut. I also use 'Big Bends Nut Sauce' when I re-string.

I float my trems very slightly to avoid having them noisily smack the top pf the guitar when released. I've also found some after-market trems that work quite well; Wilkinson in particular makes a nice one for six-screw bridges that is quite similar to the trems that PRS uses. Their two-point blade trem is also nice but the lock-down screws for the saddles are hard to find replacements for.

[Dbone]

As can often happen in purchases, a little bit of “feature creep” has set in...lol...

Heavily leaning towards a PRS McCarty 594 hardtail...A little “excessive” for a first electric guitar, but I figure I will likely only be having one (more of an acoustic guy), so I’ve decided to make it a versatile and nice one

If I feel like dive bombing on the regular down the line I will get me something cheaper to wail on at that time

The hardtail is official at this point, but the specific guitar is not locked down...definitely feeling those McMarty 594s though...yum...

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Dbone

As can often happen in purchases, a little bit of “feature creep” has set in...lol...

Heavily leaning towards a PRS McCarty 594 hardtail...A little “excessive” for a first electric guitar, but I figure I will likely only be having one (more of an acoustic guy), so I’ve decided to make it a versatile and nice one

If I feel like dive bombing on the regular down the line I will get me something cheaper to wail on at that time

The hardtail is official at this point, but the specific guitar is not locked down...definitely feeling those McMarty 594s though...yum...

I prefer hardtails over tremolos. If you're looking at the McCarty 594 ... wow! I'm a huge fan of Mahogany/Maple cap bodies with a set Mahogany neck. Mine are Gibsons but I'd love to have the 594 too.

Can you play one before buying? Electric guitar neck profiles are like acoustic ones - they all differ.