Tidy vibrato at the top of a bend

nero1701

i'm really struggling to get tidy vibrato on my bends..

For example, the solo on sunshine for your love.

digitalkettle

nero1701 said:

i'm really struggling to get tidy vibrato on my bends..

For example, the solo on sunshine for your love.

Vid required for critique...be brave!

fastonebaz

Wiggle with the left hand not the right hand. 

steven70

I struggled with this for a long time. In my case, I was bending my wrist and using fingers - rather than rotating the wrist.
Only observed this when I happened to be looking in a mirror for some reason.

Cream era Clapton's bends are really tricky anyways...been trying to get Badge right for years.

ryanverbena

For me, this is the hardest single technique to master.

I've spent way more time practising it and still nowhere near where I'd like to be. 

robinbowes

Just shake the neck.  

mgaw

robinbowes said:

Just shake the neck.  

Do wot he says

Gassage

Watch Kossoff....

digitalkettle

Gassage said:

Watch Listen to Kossoff....

Fixed!

Dinosaur viewpoint: some of these finer nuances were better absorbed when listening was all you had...and it was a much slower process than playing join-the-dots along to a Youtube vid.

roberty

Turn it into an exercise, get the metronome out and wiggle to tempo. Start slowly, focussing on consistency and control. A few minutes a day and it'll soon start to feel natural 

HAL9000

steven70 said:

I struggled with this for a long time. In my case, I was bending my wrist and using fingers - rather than rotating the wrist.

^ This. Rotate the wrist rather than using your fingers. Hook your thumb over the top of the neck and use that as your pivot point.

Gassage said:

Watch Kossoff....

…and BB King.

mgaw

Do wot he says, just tried it works a treat

sweepy

Clapton had a very odd vibrato anyway , if you use 10's try 9.5's , might give you a lil more vibrato control

InactiveX

HAL9000 said:

steven70 said:

I struggled with this for a long time. In my case, I was bending my wrist and using fingers - rather than rotating the wrist.

^ This. Rotate the wrist rather than using your fingers. Hook your thumb over the top of the neck and use that as your pivot point.

Gassage said:

Watch Kossoff....

…and BB King.

Peter Green and Danny Kirwan:

Brize

Are you using your other fingers for reinforcement? For example, if you're bending with your ring finger, you need to have your middle and index fingers on the two frets behind and apply vibrato with all three fingers.

Danny1969

What @Brize said above, you need to reinforce the bend with more fingers, I sometimes use all 4 but generally at least 3 

stratman3142

digitalkettle said:

Gassage said:

Watch Listen to Kossoff....

Fixed!

Dinosaur viewpoint: some of these finer nuances were better absorbed when listening was all you had...and it was a much slower process than playing join-the-dots along to a Youtube vid.

I was obsessed with Paul Kossoff and wanted to make that kind of sound. 

Attempting to emulate a type of sound was where it started, but I know it took over a year before I could do a half decent vibrato. This was before videos of the technique were available. But I did watch players live (including Paul Kossoff himself) to try to figure out what was going on. 

I agree with the rotate the wrist approach. I also 'feel' the vibrato on bent notes in terms of applying and releasing pressure

chrisj1602

I couldn’t do it so I just decided to practice it for a few minutes every time I picked up the guitar until I could. I just found a place on the neck I that it felt the most comfortable and went from there. It sounded horrible at first but I gradually got there.

nero1701

Firstly, Thank you to all who have replied :-)

Progress update:

I have always supported beds from behind with additional fingers, I have, as some suggested really worked on slowing it right down, mainly practicing on the 12th fret of the G. I'm firstly spending time getting to half tone bends, consistently and cleanly, then holding the half tone bend, then finally coming out of the bend comfortably. I'm now working on Half tone> slow wobble>Release.  I'm using a metronome at 60bom atm.  Counting 1 beat into bend, 2 beats vibrato and one beat out of bend.

I've spent too many years "getting by" with lots of my technique, now finding myself not in a band, it's been great for refining stuff.

I'll update in a couple of weeks

axisus

My bending vibrato is embarrassingly bad. I feel a bit ashamed how bad it is, but then I'm a mediocre guitarist anyway. I had to avoid it for the first two decades of playing due to a problem I had with my ring finger - any pressure on that finger (eg bending) could cause my nail to separate from the nail bed and give me weeks of pain. I used to 'fix; it with superglue, but that was always a disaster solution, it got me back to playing short term, but made things even worse about a week later. It literally took decades to heal enough to never be a problem! Anyway, bending was a bad idea back then, but trying vibrato on a bend was an act of insanity! 

MikeP

Have you watched that Clapton clip from the 60s in a ridiculous get up and demonstrating vibrato? Three fingers and little wrist action as I remember. I can't do the wrist waggle for bends plus vibrato, only on unbent notes. Bends with vibrato are 3 fingers and fingers pushing up and down only for me.