To Wham or not to Wham?

thehootman · November 2006

This is a poll for you guys thoughts on whammy bars and bridges - your favorite set up etc.

I would like a floydy, with a tremsetter, as although the whammy in the gnx4 is good, it doesnt help when you are on stage 4 metres from it soloing....

partch · November 2006

My thought is this. You can't use what you don't have? So if there is any at all desire to learn to use it make sure you have it. As far as the negatives of them not staying in tune etc.. That might be for lower end guitars but I play JS1000 & I have no problems with tuning stability. I don't use the tremelo much But if I want to it's there

God Bless!!
Partch

ne1roc · November 2006

You don't need a tremsetter if you have a Floyd with the locking nut. You can't go wrong with an original Floyd Rose. I have a Licensed Floyd on my Wolfgang which is excellent, but I prefer the smoother motion of the floating Floyd on my Kramer Barreta.

shredd · November 2006

I have a Jackson Performer Dinky with a lisc. FR locking. It's a clean whammy, stays in tune if you don't overdo it. I had a tremsetter on my FatStrat copy (which also had a lisc FR locking) and I can't say it made a significant difference.
That said, I have no interest in using a whammy (even in my GNX4) and I have the trem body locked with a threaded stud going into the body with lock nuts on either side of the trem body. I don't do enough meth to be interested in whammy solos. Nor do I have the talent.

WOGS858 · November 2006

my jackson with FR stays in tune for weeks and I play the hell out of it....It is a hassle to change strings but worth it to me

A well set up floyd rose is just MOIST!!

BUT... It's nice to have a hardtail too so.. I think we should all have several of both= GAS

P.G.Shadow · November 2006

Not too hot on the whammy bar these days, never could get them to stay in tune too well. But thats just probly my crappy Schaller tremo.

gtaus · November 2006

I am not a big fan of the whammy bar. My strat goes out of tune too fast all by itself, using the whammy means even more frequent retuning. I don't like tuning, I like playing. Our lead guitarist is a whammy bar fan but he has a better system of locking nuts and a floating tremelo on his Chavel Jackson. But he does not use the whammy bar very often, and if gets too carried away, he will go out of tune, which is a real pain because of the locking nut.

Also, I have been told that a locking nut and tremelo system kills the natural sustain of the guitar. I was told that is because the locking nut and tremelo system lock the string between two points of steel on steel, whereas the stoptail piece and machine heads transfer the string vibrations through the entire wood body of the guitar. It makes sense to me, but I will defer to those on this forum with more tech expertise.

Slacker G · November 2006

To whammy or not to whammy ... that is your question.

Yeah!!! Whammy Whammy Whammy. I use mine at least 6 times in a song where I don't \"use\" a whammy. When I get into it, I use it all the way through. I love that sounds and all you can do with it.

I have mostly Wilkeys. Nothing fancy. I have modified 6 hole Fender stock units so they stay in tune, two hole Fenders work good to when set up properly. No locking heads, no lockinhg nutt, nothing but a properly cut nutt, preferably a graphite nutt} on the neck so the strings don't bind, cheap ass goto tuners on all of them, and ROLLER \"T's\" on all of them.

I hate locking anythings. Just a con game as far as I'm concerned. And I am rough on my whammys.

insideout · November 2006

My 2 cents... I played a Fender Strat with a Schaller tremolo on it from 1983 - 1999. If I sneezed too hard while in the same room as that guitar, it went out of tune. I blamed the tremolo for years. In 1999 I adopted my Ibanez S540 with a floating, locking Floyd Rose, and a 17 megaton bomb could go off on top of it and it would still be in tune. I abuse it ruthlessly, and it is always in tune (provided it's set-up properly

). It's so much a part of my playing now, that when I play a hard tail, and reach for the bar that isn't there, I look like a dork :shock: . Get a good one, get it set-up by someone who knows what they're doing, and then if you want to use it, it's there. If you don't want to use it, use it anyway :twisted:

Slacker G · November 2006

insideout,

The same here. Whenever I grab a Tele, I'm grabbing for the phantom whammy within the first bar. I tried tuning a locking system once and it took me about 20 minutes. And since the strings hadn't stretched out, I tuned a bit after that. Looks like a good concept, never needed one.

I bought a Tele from Warmoth a few years back. Quilted Naple top, Swampash body. {Ultra light} , and even a tummy cut. 3 Pickups SSH. It was set for a Rose, I asked them if they could modify it for a Wilkenson. They sent it to me unmodified, so I sent it back. Then they found that the Floyd took too much meat out of the stud area. Most beautifull Quilt I had seen in years. So I had to just take a refund. Yeah Yeah... Get to the point...

I would have had a whammy, even on my Tele if it would have worked out.
Hard as h@ll to mount one on a flat top. Bummers. Had them on all my Gibson Solids, and on my big Arch tops { \"F\" Holes}. I'd almost not even want to jam with a guitar without one. They just add way too much to be without if you learn how to use one.

ednrg · November 2006

The answer is \"Yes, um, and No.\"

For years, I only played my Charvel with a Floyd. Nothing else mattered. Then I realized that it was a total pain to play anything that was in an alternate tuning. Depending on the song, I either use a fixed bridge or a Floyd.

ednrg · November 2006

\ne1roc\ wrote:

You don't need a tremsetter if you have a Floyd with the locking nut. You can't go wrong with an original Floyd Rose. I have a Licensed Floyd on my Wolfgang which is excellent, but I prefer the smoother motion of the floating Floyd on my Kramer Barreta.

I agree with you completely. I installed a tremsetter a little while ago, and gave it a week. I removed it, because I like the feel without it much better. I felt a slight bump with the tremsetter. Since the Floyd is double locking, it's really not necessary.

Is the Barreta the Kramer with the Drop D pin on the Floyd? I was looking at that model for a long time, but didn't know anyone that played Kramers any longer.

I had a Kramer in the past, and sold it so I could get my Charvel.

To Wham or not to Wham?

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