That little bar

[raptorspike]

I was looking at a Fender Stratocaster the other day. What is that little bar, that moves back and forth, near the bottom? What does it do?

[Problem Child]

Hmm...I think you mean the whammy bar. You have to press it down in the direction of the strings. It develops a cool sound. It actually lowers the tension of the strings. You would get a similar sound by detuning a string with the machine head, but the whammy bar is better, coz you can use it for whole chords. I think you can use it for dive bombs as well, but I'm not sure ...

[Andrew]

There are loads of techniques you can do with the whammy bar. You will sometimes hear it called a 'tremelo arm' or 'vibrato unit'. First of all, it sounds to me like 'back and forth' means moving the bar around, across the strings. As you have probably worked out this doesnt do anything. To use the whammy bar, move it in and out, towards and away from the strings. Okay, here are a few techniques -


Vibrato - Play a note or chord, then continuously move the whammy bar up and down slightly. (You probably know this, but when you say just 'vibrato' you mean vibrato done with the left hand. In tab, if vibrato is done with the whammy bar, it says 'w/bar'.)

Bending - Only works on notes, not chords, since some strings bend easier than others with the whammy bar. play a note, then bend it down to whatever note you like, add vibrato if you like then release the bar back to the original pitch.

Scoops - depress the bar slightly with your hand, then play a note and release it. If you get the timing right, it should sound like a quick slide up to the note.

Doops or Dive bombs - play a note or chord, then
depress the bar untill the strings are slack.