Tremolo Systems
The innovation called the guitar tremolo was produced in the 1940’s with the Bigsby Vibrato Tailpeice. This was found on Gretsch, Rickenbacker and Gibson guitars. The purpose of this is invention is to vibrate the strings or raise and lower the pitch of the string with a bar in your picking hand. The tremolo or whammy bar has been heard in many music styles including, rock and roll, country, surf, pop, blues rock and of coarse heavy metal . There are also whammy bar style innovators like, Hendrix . Jeff Beck, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani There are so many tremolo units on the market today that it can be a minefield to know which to choose. Fender tremolos are a solid unit which have been around in their original form since 1954. They are solid but lack some of the more abusive type functions . The two point system solved this problem and are found on many guitars today. Some manufacturers of these types of trem are Wilkerson, Schallar , Fender and Floyd Rose. The two point system is a floating design that pivots on two pegs screwed into the guitar body making it smoother and able to raise the pitch up and down significantly more. The Floyd Rose developed in the late 70’s is the hair crazed heavy metal divebomb trem of choice, It has a unique double locking system that stays in tune with both up and extreme dive-bombing action. These trems are fantastic but do have their drawbacks. If a string breaks on the guitar then it is rendered useless and impossible to play on with. It take a while to replace strings plus they can be tricky to set up at first. The Schaller is the original German manufacturer of the Floyd Rose and this version is the very best as are the USA Floyd rose models. Its worth looking into where your unit is made before buying it , Europe and US are Good , Japan is good , anywhere else I would give a wide birth Floyd rose also made a Speedloader system , this needed special pre stretched strings for quick changing. Unfortunately this never really seemed to become popular but they were very good to use. Another downfall is the strings they need are getting harder to source. Floyd Rose make a trem called a Floyd Rose Special which is a far eastern model that I personally would avoid and spend a little more on an American original There are many very useful Floyd Rose copy tremolo’s like the Edge , TRS , Edge low pro found on Japanese Ibanez guitars. There are also many cheap inferior Floyd Rose Copies made like the Edge III and other licensed Floyd type trems found on Indonesian or Chinese guitars. They are often made from inferior materials and wear out very quickly plus the trem arm play and movement ( or wiggle) make them awful to use. . The Kahler tremolo is also very nice and was invented in 1979. I’ve used a Kahler tremolo and they are a very smooth tremolo’s and stay in tune perfect. I would say these are on power with Floyd rose tremolos and have plenty of whammy action plus stay in tune. Washburn Wonderbar (not wonderbra) is another trem known in the guitar world but I’ve never used one myself. Stetsbar have made a very innovative tremolo that can be fitted straight onto a guitar that has either an inferior trem or no trem at all. This has made it possible, with no alterations, to fit a trem on vintage hard tail guitar and be removed with ease, so there is no de-valuing of the guitar. There are several models of Stetsbar and they make them to fit on most guitar types . Ibanez have a new zero point tremolo system out now that is also a very nice tremolo to use and is fitted onto their newer range of prestige guitars . Tremolo’s are quite varied and have different stylistic purpose. Some tremolo’s can take more abuse and are more stable than others. Choose wisely
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There comes a time in the life of most guitarists that tone, and pursuit of it , ends up with many changes of pickups, effects, amps, speakers strings and plectrums . One way we learn tone is to create texture and tone by the varied ways we attack the strings and where we attack them in relation to the bridge and neck. The amount of attack changes the volume and the angle of attack changes the tone. Picking near the bridge makes the notes brighter and the closer to the neck the darker the notes will sound. Different material, pick thickness and bevels make a lot of difference not only to the tone but the feel of a pick on the strings and in the hand . Just like the flesh of the fingers can both make notes warmer or pop out loud, the shape of the point at which the pick strikes the string can be warm, if rounded and brighter if pointed This warmer or brighter sound is then amplified with thicker picks. Thin picks mean they will also sound thin but if used for strumming, they create less drag than thick picks and break less strings plus strumming a lot of notes needs less volume. The materials picks are made from can be both basic an exotic. There is a ton of materials out there in plectrum land from different wood picks, plastics thermosetting plastics, shell, stone, plexi, glass, horn and bone . Things that can contribute to a pick being desirable is in how they look , but more importantly how they feel and sound. Ive been through the gambit of picks from thick picks , ones with non slip qualities , to smaller thinner shap picks. The type of pick required can depends of the style we play , sharper picks for accuracy and thicker rounder ones for slower tuneful playing, picks with grip for sweaty on stage stuff. For recording you may want thinner pick so you can dig into the strings plus you may find thicker picks too loud when playing soft quiet passages. One thing is for sure , you will want lots of picks for those times the vortex sucks your pick from where you left it to the many places they get transported, back on the couch being one place favoured by the thieving pick fairies. After asking Guitar Addiction on facebook, what picks they like, here is what many of them have said 1.Dave Lee - John Petrucci jazz iii and Winspear Picks shiv - the JP one is great as it is slippery over the strings but not in the hand, but the shiv has really nice materials. 2. Matthew Murphy - V pick dimension and snake because they are insanely awesome. 3. William Fairbrother - Dunlop 1.14 or Ibanez, both are pretty stiff, with my acoustics I prefer Dunlop 73 mm. to give a bit more dynamic. 4. Dominik McKoy - Dunlop .60mm because it has a nice percussive sound but doesn’t yet feel like its made of paper and Pickboy cause they’re thin but sturdy! 5. Daniel Djames O'Doherty - Used to be Jazz iii but then I used Winspear picks and they're amazing! The only problem is, every other pick feels small now. 6 Jim Waters - Dunlop jazz III.....nothing else for like 20yrs. I don't like change. 7. Barry Knott -3.0 mm stubby for electric and 0.7 mm Sharkfin for acoustic. 8.Daniel Thompson I have a bit of a problem with plectrums.. Have always played fingerstyle until recently. Finding it difficult to keep hold of the thing just slips out my fingers all the time. 9.Samuel Magura - Dunlop big stub 2,0mm and ultex 0,94 10.Iam Ako Used the red jazz iii picks for years bit recently changed to the Petrucci picks and absolutely love them. 11.Tommy Slak Dava Grip Tip Poly Gels and Dava Grip Tip Delrin, hardly use anything else anymore. 12. Costas Hetfield - Dunlop Tortex 13. Paddy Ruzicka - Dunlop 1mm with grip. I really dont like grip but these picks rules! 14.Brad Wimer -My two faves are my V-Pick Screamer & a Nylpro from Planet Waves. 15.Aziz Metalocalypse- Dunlop Tortex Purple 1.14,Green .88, and Dunlop Ultex sharp 1.14 16. Scottwork Stirling -V-picks and chickenpicks but I still have a soft spot for sharkfins 17-Igor Novogradec - Jim Dunlop 0.73mm and Jazz 3,because of the sound and feeling 18.Zack Patten -Jim dunlop jazz III jp signatures. they are thicker than a jazz III and much better textured making picking super easy feeling. 18.Robb Galus -Fender medium, lreferable tortoise shell. 20.Nicolai Böhlefeld - I used to play Ibanez picks (the one with sand grip, 1mm), but I've been almost exclusively playing the dunlop ultex jazz 3 john petrucci picks for a year now. 21.Ben Benarfa - Gibson's picks 22.Dave Freer - Make your own out of almost anything.. I cut mine with sheet matal shears or scissors. 23.RIck Wilkins -My favourite picks are actually the tortoise shell picks I make from old jewellery for acoustic, and Dunlop Tortex Orange for electric 24.Attila Deák -Fender Heavy and Medium 25.Karl-George Kay- I, of course, love the Jazz IIIs, but recently my heart has been stolen by the beautiful Dragon's Heart guitar picks. So yeah. Those. As you can see the guitar pick world is full of variety and contrast, you must search for your own pick of choice and fall in love with it. But beware there is always a better one out there ready to steal your heart. |