I'm a true "whammy bar" guy!

Hi, my name is Wolf. Since high school (I'm 73 now) I have been using the tremolo bar on my Strats. Not for those deep sea dives, but to create the guitar sound that Hank B. Marvin of The Shadows in England created many years ago. Hits like "Apache", "Atlantis", "Wonderful Land" and many other tunes were big in the 60's and are still played in Europe. I myself had a guitar hit in 1982 with my "Lonely Seagull". Hank and I both use the whammy bar mainly for tremolo and occasional 'soft' dives. The "Shadows" sound is created with two main ingredients: the Whammy bar and the Echo/Delay unit. If you'd like to hear what I'm talking about, look up 'The Shadows' in YouTube and check out one of the tunes I mentioned. One of my favorites to play myself is "Going home" by Marc Knopfler of the Dire Strait, but Hank plays it a little better :smile:

Welcome! I also willingly & warmly wield the whammy on a wide number of works

The only song I can ever remember using the wanker bar on is Tommy James & The Shondells' "Hanky Panky" back in '65. I just never found it all that useful or necessary. But I do admire those who do (to whatever degree is most creative for them) and of course I love me some Strats.

Welcome to our menagerie, Wolf!

Welcome, Mr. Wolf.


Me, I never used the trem arm. When I buy a strat the first thing I do is remove it and put it in a drawer. I do admire those who do it, though.

Interesting that this thread should come up right now. I'm not a whammy bar kinda guy either, and I find the one Strat I have that has one gets more in the way than gets use. However...

I'm trying to learn how to play John Cipollina's stuff -- particularly the solo he play on "Pride of Man" from Quicksilver Messenger Service's first album. What makes it difficult is that Cipollina was not a "string-bender," but rather a finger-picking whammy-bar guitarslinger. Bandmates used to say he was always out of tune. But when he played, he somehow made it all in tune by his unique style of playing.

What's trickier is that I'm trying to learn this stuff on an acoustic, strung with medium-gauge strings (.012 - .053) that make two-step bends virtually impossible.

Yeah, a whammy bar in the right hand(s) can be an awesome tool. In my hands, it's an obstruction. :smile: