whammy bar madness

nickp

just fiddling and doing some exercises - dipping one, two, three frets etc.  partial scales

do you guys favour three spring or two springs on your fender style trems?

DLM

Ibanez Edge here. 3 springs, straight. 9-42. My madness can thus get considerably madder than yours.

*pterodactyl scream*

*flub-wub-wub-wub*

xSkarloey

3. 

One of my guitar heroes is Jeff Beck, so there's always some wang bar silliness going on with my playing. I like the way he uses it to get slurs, so it adds a lyrical side to his phrasing, almost like a slide. 

Trem arm 'flutter' is good fun too. 

nickp

@Skarloey

spot on - i'm aiming to start introducing slurs and the like into my playing.  I believe that he uses two spring which obv makes it all much lighter but I'm using 3 at the mo which require a reasonable amount of force to drop down say a tone and a half on the E string.

perhaps it is just a case of practice practice practice like all this guitar stuff

xSkarloey

On my guitar I never get that much drop on the top e compared to the rest.

I don't know if Beck has 2 or 3 springs. I suspect 3.

What he has is a bridge set up for upwards pull (and he often uses his heel of the hand for this).

On a mob so can't post links but if you're interested Youtube has a Rig Rundown of Beck's gear where they talk trems and much more.

nickp

Ta - my trem is set to float, and it is pretty stable on both of my strats - three frets lift on the G string (would that be a minor third?)

It is just a fair push to get it to dive - and as I'm practicing doing chromatic scales (on each string) and some wider intervals I was just wondering whether two springs might be better?  On the other hand probably tuning stability reduces.  

I can deffo get a tone on the top e and maybe 1.5 frets (but the trem arm has to go a long way for the E string to do this)

I'll have a look at the u tube video.  I think he has a pretty simple rig - it's all in the hands!!

mike_l

nickp said:

Ta - my trem is set to float, and it is pretty stable on both of my strats - three frets lift on the G string (would that be a minor third?)

Yes, a minor third it is.

Lexie1

Also check out Mike Casswell's youtoobs about Jeff Beck's style. He has really nailed it and has also done a tremendous DVD about Tremelo Styles etc which also includes a really good "How To Set Up" section, which covers the 6 Screw Trem, The 2 Post and Floyds. Many a good tip included.

nickp

Ta @Lexie1.  I've just started on his vid (at the beginning!) which is why I'm doing the scale thing with the trem.

agreed - I'm a fan of Mike Casswell.  I'd like to get his LTP jeff beck videos but worried of having too many things "on the go" and therefore not learning anything!

He advises 2 springs on the Vid but my guitar tech prefers 3 for stability - so I'm doing a straw poll!

Lexie1

PM incoming nickp

robinbowes

nickp said:

do you guys favour three spring or two springs on your fender style trems?

Four

R.

Sambostar

Got three on the Floyd guitars I think maybe more.  One goes a bit fluttery when you pick, although I haven't checked the pattern the springs are set in.  Maybe just light springs?  Took me a good year to learn to play a Floyd without detuning it whilst I played, so no way would I have 2 springs on any trem, not even a V trem, just too much flutter when you pick and not in a nice way, makes it sound like it's going through a bad effects pedal, at least the I play it does anyway.

Yeah I would say 3 bare minimum.  I am not a light player.

I do have a pet hate for the guitar players who set their trems so light they go out of tune and start wharbling if you so much as blow on them.  Yes, they have a refined sensitive technique, but unfortunately their tone, dynamism, expression and music inevitably sucks, which they inevitably use loads of reverb, delay and various other expensive effects to mask and thicken out their sound, when all they simply had to do is play harder and get some more trem springs.  There is also sensitivity through strength.  The guitar is not a piano or a keyboard and setting your trem that way, unless you are a total master genius like Jeff Beck you miss out on 99% of the instruments potential, expressive quality and tonality, at least to my ears.

Obviously not disrespecting people who set out to create a new sound with fewer springs and largely using only the trem to play with.

I was of the impression Jeff Beck used three springs two, he is just incredibly strong and controlled.

As a rule the more springs you take away, the closer you get to playing dentist waiting room musak.

4 or five solid springs on a V trem and you start bending the bar and it will eventually snap off.  Mine have 4.