# Guitarist Poll: Use of The Tremelo Bar **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 30, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353 "2003-06-30T14:50:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/1 "2003-06-30T14:50:50Z")
How important is it to you these days to have the bar on your guitar? Dating myself, but back in the late 60’s none of the guys in any of the bands I was in would be caught dead without the tremelo bar. This was due mainly to the success of The Ventures and other Surf Instrumental groups, but how necessary is it today? I don’t see the “post a poll” feature at the bottom of the page, so we’ll have to do this informally. I appreciate any replies. Quasi ---
**Author:** ![bsumpter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cdc98d/32.png) [@bsumpter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bsumpter)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/2 "2003-06-30T14:54:43Z")
Don’t use them personally. I take them off all of my guitars. I tried them back in the 80’s during the Van Halen hysteria, but never used them much at all beyond that. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/3 "2003-06-30T15:00:22Z")
My only electric doesn’t have one, but I’d take it off if it did. Mine was a gift. I’ve heard some decent effects from those who use them, but my tastes lean in the natural vibrato (BB King sort of thing) area. No doubt Stevie Ray could make his sing, but I’m not in Stevie’s league. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/4 "2003-06-30T15:09:40Z")
Even if you never touch the bar, its springs are a big part of what makes a Stratocaster sound like a Stratocaster. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/5 "2003-06-30T16:52:42Z")
Ah, Dick Dale - Whammy Bar King. If you get a chance, check out Brian May’s webpage and you can read about how he made his out of a knife and some valve springs from a motorcycle engine. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/6 "2003-06-30T21:08:20Z")
I have an Epiphone, so there’s no tremolo bar. I doubt I’d use one much if I had it - the sound is really interesting to play with, but I think it’s a limited effect. And also, it knocks the strings out of tune really fast. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/7 "2003-07-01T08:02:20Z")
Loss of tuning is why Floyd Rose is now quite rich. His design overcomes that issue rather well. It is the sort of tremelo system I had installed on my custom designed Fender Pseudocaster™. A good tremelo system permits forms of musical expression that would be nigh well impossible to produce any other way. I really enjoy cranking out the rock and roll on my electric and couldn’t imagine not having a trem system on it. Listen to Joe Satriani if you want to hear some astonishing trem work. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/8 "2003-07-01T08:25:00Z")
Back in my music days, I always wanted a guitar with a whammy bar, and never got one that actually worked without going out of tune when you used it. My main guitar is/was a 1956 Les Paul Junior that I love the sound of, but it doesn’t have a whammy. I have a strat with a whammy bar, but never use it cause of the tuning issue. At one point I had a trash guitar that I put a new trem system on, which locked the strings up at the top of the neck, and tuned at the trum unit, but it was such a pain in the ass. I just never figured out how to get a decent trem system working. Always wanted that Eddie/Satch sound, but never had it. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/9 "2003-07-01T10:34:47Z")
I’d take my whammy bar on and off whenever I felt like it, but I didn’t care too much when I lost it though. I agree with Zeldar, using your fingers on the fret board to get a vibrato sounds a lot better (I think this is because your vibrating in the sharp direction rather than the flat direction). ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/10 "2003-07-01T11:36:03Z")
[hijack] Does anyone know how the whammy bar ever got to be called “tremolo bar” by so many people? The effect is obviously a vibrato and not a tremolo. [/hijack] I never used it much as it would send my cheapo Strat completely out of tune. It’s interesting for surf guitar-type of effects, but for regular vibratos, fingers sound much better. (I don’t think this has to do with vibrating in the sharp direction. Violinists vibrato in the flat direction. I think the reasons are that a) you can be more subtle with your fingers and b) you’re not affecting sympathetic vibrations of the neighboring strings.) ---
**Author:** ![fauxpas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e480ec/32.png) [@fauxpas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fauxpas)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/11 "2003-07-01T17:20:52Z")
I don’t really use it today. Now with all this effects and naturaly “trembling” it. But I sure wish I could use it just like Joe Satriani, he’s really good with it. ---
**Author:** ![mamm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@mamm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/12 "2003-07-01T17:34:19Z")
[hijack] Not only people call it tremolo incorrectly, some people go one step further and call it “tremelo”. [/hijack] [hijack\_#2] I think Fender’s old catalogs are reponsible for the phenomenon. When they released the strat in '54, the guitar had (according to Fender) a tremolo bar, not a vibrato bar. [/hijack\_#2] I’m whammy-less since I sold my last 80’s shred-machine (Washburn N4). Now I’m back to the basics - I just have a strat (with a blocked vibrato block) and a Les Paul, and I’m very satisfied with this situation. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/13 "2003-07-01T20:23:07Z")
The wang bar was never terribly important to me. I never play my Strat anymore anyway, partly because I’ve been moving in a jazz direction and favoring my archtops (ES-375 and ES-175). ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/14 "2003-07-01T21:19:40Z")
Well, **whatever** y’all call it, thanks for checking in on its use or non-use! 😃 Q ---
**Author:** ![meow\_meow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@meow\_meow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meow_meow)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/15 "2003-07-02T02:19:11Z")
of course, it is tremBAlos. [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail36.html](http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail36.html) hysterical! as for me, i have a gibson SG. mm ---
**Author:** ![DaveX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/96bed5/32.png) [@DaveX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveX)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/16 "2003-07-02T03:01:30Z")
When I first started playing and the Joe Satriani’s of the world were important (or an inspiration) to me, I bought a strat knock off and probably over used it … I got into a litlle more atmospheric rock-style music later, and a girlfriend bought me an Amercian Standard Tele (obviously no threat of every having a bar) and I really haven’t missed it. I’m in a more straight forward rock band now (still playing a tele, those things are built like a tank!) and thought it might be useful at points, I can’t say that I miss it at all. ---
**Author:** ![DaveX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/96bed5/32.png) [@DaveX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveX)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitarist-poll-use-of-the-tremelo-bar/185353/17 "2003-07-02T03:02:39Z")
Though… The last word of my post should be “though” Damn my preview skills.