Slight vibrato from "bending" the guitar?

It seems to me-

That people are against "violent" or forceful applying this technique to the guitar-

but allright with gentle "swinging" or leaning the guitar around. :)

I very, very much appreciate and love the sound I get from my Epi Wildcat, when I play some open tones, and lean the guitar around, to get this subtle vibrato shifting.

I've had other guitars, that were much "stiffer" and wouldn't do this trick. And i've never wanted to "force it happen" by wrestling the neck or something! :o

peace and good rock n roll to everyone \m/

-Erlend :D
 
^^ haha, yeah... "darwinism" :/ ..

Guitars has always been my most beloved material items. I would never dream of doing them harm :/ ... or "play" with them...!! :o
 
Too bad my webcamera is still not working (at all) :/

I've been waiting for months, to show you guys me, my guitar, sound- technique- and all :(

I'm gonna give it ONE MORE DAY, to try every possible driver/ software combination- before scrapping the webcam, and ordering a new one.

-E
 
On the video for Joan Jetts "I love rock'n'roll" her guitarist (Ricky something?) pulls out on the peghead of his Les Paul during the solo making a nice half-step drop in pitch. Looks cool, sounds cool. Didn't hurt the axe one bit. All you guys saying you'd NEVER do that are pansies.
 
I bend my necks all of the time. I really have no idea what you are worried about -It's like you all play Gibson's and think neck bending is done from the headstock or something.

You do it from the grasping the somewhere on the neck and butt of guitar, pushing with your palm against the topside of the guitar and neck, or neck and pushing down on the bridge
 
Just look at any tree in high wind. Any branch of roughly enough size to get a neck out of moves and flexes by many degrees greater than the trifling amounts for a 1/2 or 1 step pitch shift.
People just seem to walk on eggshells around materials without thinking about the real world evidence you already know about if you just thought about it.
 
So no one minds that I once did it by putting the headstock of my Marauder on the stage floor and pushing down hard on the whole guitar? (Guitar pointing straight down. You know, like a jackhammer.)
 
^^ Yeah, naturally a floating tremolo, would counteract this effect :).

I'm never going past... well 100 cents is a half note? So... 25 cents in either direction.

Some strings do more "pitch bending" than others.

I just love that my guitar sounds so alive. :).

-Erlend
 
Not slight, but big vibrato from "bending" the guitar... I did it long ago but I won't do it again !
The guitarist of Cosmic Wurst told it sounded great and won't harm the guitar. So I did it live in the eraly 90s : You play a E chord at the bottom, hold firmly the neck and press with force with other hand on the body quite close to the neck. It sounds like a whammy/trem on a hard tail guitar going down half a tone at least. The visual effect is also great on stage, really wild. Then I played told school hardcore evolving into post hardcore.l did it exclusively with an S-1 (Gibson but bolded neck).

BUT I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS ! Now I am pretty sure this not so good for the guitar (neck, truss rod, bolds). I stopped doing this decades ago and won't do it again.
 
Last edited:
ICTGoober said:
Pete Townshend used to do it all the time when he played SG's. He did it at Woodstock, and I've seen old vids of The Who on TV shows when he was doing it. .
Click to expand...
Pete Townshend was right to do it, knowing he would soon smash the guitar no need to worry about slightly warping the neck
 
ICTGoober said:
Pete Townshend used to do it all the time when he played SG's. He did it at Woodstock, and I've seen old vids of The Who on TV shows when he was doing it. Stanley Clarke used to get some great vibrato from his Alembic basses by striking a couple harmonics, grasping the upper horn of the body and swinging the body back and forth in a slow arc speeding up as the sounds decayed. It was showmanship of the best kind, and sounded great to the audience. He did it several times when he played SNL (Cheap Trick were the musical hosts one night - fantastic night of music). And I've seen him doing it with Chick Corea and during live sets with his very under rated rock band Animal Logic (3 great albums w/ Stewart Copeland and singer/songwriter Deborah Holland).
Click to expand...

I have an SG (Gibson) and there's no way in hell I would do that. Maybe on a cheap/ bolt on neck guitar. A friend of mine snapped the neck doing the same thing on a nice classical / nylon string Yamaha. It was a sad moment!
 
AlexR said:
Just look at any tree in high wind. Any branch of roughly enough size to get a neck out of moves and flexes by many degrees greater than the trifling amounts for a 1/2 or 1 step pitch shift.
People just seem to walk on eggshells around materials without thinking about the real world evidence you already know about if you just thought about it.
Click to expand...

Does the tree's headstock snap off?
 
Originally posted by AlexR View Post
"Just look at any tree in high wind. Any branch of roughly enough size to get a neck out of moves and flexes by many degrees greater than the trifling amounts for a 1/2 or 1 step pitch shift."

Certainly we all know that. But it doesn't really apply, does it. When a tree is alive it is very flexible. When it is dead (as in the wood of a neck) it become stiff, hard, and brittle. Try snapping a live twig over your knee...it just bends. Try snapping a dead twig over your knee...it breaks like a pretzel.
 
GuitarDoc said:
Originally posted by AlexR View Post
"Just look at any tree in high wind. Any branch of roughly enough size to get a neck out of moves and flexes by many degrees greater than the trifling amounts for a 1/2 or 1 step pitch shift."

Certainly we all know that. But it doesn't really apply, does it. When a tree is alive it is very flexible. When it is dead (as in the wood of a neck) it become stiff, hard, and brittle. Try snapping a live twig over your knee...it just bends. Try snapping a dead twig over your knee...it breaks like a pretzel.
Click to expand...

Not to to mention that a "branch roughly enough size to get a neck out of" is at least twice the amount of wood than the nevk made of it and doesn't miss the amount removed for truss rod and maybe graphite rods. But the main thing nullifying that argument is what Doc said. I was just lazy to type when I first saw it.

Anyways, I guess this is like trussrod adjustments. Some people are terrified to touch it citing horrorstories and I really don' t tnderstand why. Don't overdo it and it's fine. I feel the same about bending the neck. I am terrified of doing it and some people laugh at me for being a wuss. The only minor difference I see is that trussrod adjusment is an intended function and I'm not sure if the same is true about neckbending.
 
Pete Townshend was right to do it, knowing he would soon smash the guitar no need to worry about slightly warping the neck
Click to expand...

Playing the guitar will NOT warp the neck. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what a warped neck looks like or how it got that way. All you nervous nellies should just give up guitar if you're afraid to fricking well PLAY THE DAMN THING. Take up playing the kazoo. CEE-RIMINY!
 
Went to play a friend Squire Strat
he didn't have the bar for the trem

At the end of the jam
I warped the neck and pulled up on the bridge

Warping the bridge returned to tune much better

The last part rendered it in need of tuning bad
 
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