Whammy bar technique?

[rspst14]

Hey guys, I'd be interested to know everyone's favorite whammy tricks. I can do the basic stuff...divebombing, chord shakes, whammying pinch and natural harmonics, etc. But everytime I listen to someone like Satriani, I hear a bunch of interesting sounds that I'm never sure how to do myself. Anyone have any interesting whammy tricks for Floyd users? Mine is setup for downward use only.

One other question, I have the bar set to swing around pretty loosely. Whenever I'm holding it while trying to pick, my pick is always much higher than normal, usually around the 22nd fret. If you're picking and holding the bar at the same time, do you typically hold the bar much closer to the bridge so that your picking hand is in a more normal position, then move your hand up toward the front of the bar to get better leverage for dropping the pitch? That's one of the areas I need to work on, I can never seem to get a smooth transition from picking to whammying and back to picking. Anyone have any tips? Thanks.

Ryan

 

[shred me good]

Re: Whammy bar technique?

no1 can whammy like satch!
the reason you find it hard is (i gues) because your grabing the bar like you would a hammer.
i f you want to go just down i think the best way 2 do it is if you hold your pick properly and take your free fingers and push the bar down. dont grab the bar at all. id also say that if you do it this way you will need to get up some strength in your pinky and ring fingers on your picking hand to push it down quickly and acuratly.

 

[Guitarist]

Re: Whammy bar technique?

A lot of the sounds that someone like Joe would use requires a floating bridge. That way you can depress the pitch as well as raise it.

Some of my personal favs also require a floating bridge. I like to swing the bar around so it's pointing towards the end of the body, when it's properly positioned - I like to bounce my right palm against the bar. This produces a quick raised pitch and then it drops back down to normal pitch. That makes for a cool effect and if used quickly and accurately can create a flurry of vocal like sounds.

My other highly used effect requires you to simply fret a note or a harmonic - once that's done - quickly slide over the bar and in a way throw it. This sends the bridge on a frenzy of raised and dropped pitches and creates a very unique sound. Somewhat like a whale orcing or a static. Very unique and hard to put to words, but if you ever have the chance to play a floating Floyd, give it a shot.

Have fun!

 

[Guitarist]

Re: Whammy bar technique?

If you're picking and holding the bar at the same time, do you typically hold the bar much closer to the bridge so that your picking hand is in a more normal position, then move your hand up toward the front of the bar to get better leverage for dropping the pitch? That's one of the areas I need to work on, I can never seem to get a smooth transition from picking to whammying and back to picking. Anyone have any tips? Thanks.

Ryan

I'd recommend tightening the whammy so it doesn't move so freely. This allows more accuracy when making the transition. Other than that it's all pretty much practicing your speed.

 

[Kac]

Re: Whammy bar technique?

I've found a fun whammy technique... I turn on the distortion on my amp all the way up. Make sure the volume and tone knobs on my guitar are cranked... Engage the Whammy pedal, swing the guitar strap over my head, with the end of the headstock resting on the floor, hold onto just the whammy bar and shake it like a son of a B*****! Whammy like you're crazy and do a little crazy dance.
Interesting sound and quite entertaining. I wouldn't reccomend it for any really nice guitars though
Rock On :13: