FEATURE
TREM
WARS
BY GERRY GANADEN
This first Gretsch Custom Shop guitar, a Pink Penguin with Bigsby tremolo, was master-built by Stephen Stern for Boz Boorer, guitarist and musical director for Morissey.
Photo courtesy Fender
Whammy bar technology has evolved significantly from the electric guitar’s golden
era to today’s ever-changing design innovations. Because of this, guitarists have
been able to warble and divebomb single
notes and add some shimmer to chords.
There have been many designs throughout
history and there are just as many being
made today, but the most historically significant ones are the ones we’ll look at
here: the Bigsby, Fender, Floyd Rose and
Kahler tremolos. Each of these has pushed
the evolution of the vibrato-ed note, while
being very distinct in design, functional-ity, performance and practicality. Each has
its own characteristics, which dictate how
much wham you put in your whammy.
Before we continue, though, it should be
pointed out that the wiggle stick has been
historically misnamed. The term tremolo is
defined as a rhythmic fluctuation of volume,
whereas vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch.
Technically, the contraptions being discussed
here achieve vibrato; but Fender, being the
most influential guitar manufacturer on the
planet, named their design a tremolo. From
the inception of their vibrato bridge, the term
tremolo is the most widely accepted name
for this particular guitar part.
Vibrato technique by hand has always
been an acquired art. It’s an emotive
expression of a note or chords executed
by the fretting hand. It can be performed
subtly or in the extreme. Tremolos give us
the mechanical assistance to create vibrato
in a completely different way.
One of the earliest examples of a tremolo
bridge was made by acoustic harp-guitar luthier
Joseph Bohmann at the turn of the twentieth
century. Mounted to the bridge of the guitar,
it looks like a handle with a ball grip at the tip.
It has been argued that this was a hand rest.
However, many who have played a Bohmann
guitar report that slight downward pressure
on this handle causes a flexing of the acoustic
top, which creates a vibrato effect on notes and
chords. It wasn’t until the late 1940s that the
industrial revolution would spur the creation of
a steel tremolo that was easier to use.
116 PREMIERGUITAR APRIL 2009
