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Tremolo Arm, Vibrato

Instruments without this device are called hard-tail . The term vibrola is also used by some guitar makers to describe their particular tremolo arm designs. The tremolo arm began as a mechanical device for more easily producing the vibrato effects that blues and jazz guitarists had long produced on arch top guitars by manipulating the tailpiece with their picking hand. However, it has also made many sounds possible that could not be produced by the old technique, such as the 1980s-era shred guitar "dive bombing" effect. It may also be used outside it's socket for different effects, as in Whammy Tapping.

See vibrato unit for details of the history of these terms in relation to electric guitar, and related issues.

They were not operated by hand, but rather moved with an electrical mechanism. It was developed by Doc Kauffman to simulate the pitch manipulation available with steel guitars. A hand operated unit was later created and used on Rickenbacker's Capri line of guitars in the '50's, such as John Lennon's '58 325. It was a side-to-side action vibrato unit (rather than the up-down action of later units) that was notorious for throwing the guitar out of tune, hence John's replacing it with a Bigsby B5. Thankfully, it was replaced by the Ac'cent Vibrola, which used no coiled springs to change tension, giving it less chance to throw the guitar out of tune.

In the original design, this was based on the principle of the 'knife edge' balance. A bevel on the front underside of a steel top plate formed a very wide angle knife edge that rested on the top surface of the guitar body. A small imbalance in tension between the pull of the strings and the counterbalancing pull of the tremolo springs held the pivot edge firmly in place against the body. Six hardened steel woodscrews passing through slightly oversize holes just in front of the pivot point, stopped the bridge from being pulled towards the neck end of the guitar. The upper portion of the screws is smooth, not threaded. These six screws are often mistakenly assumed to be the pivot point rather than the hidden knife edge. This design works, in spite of the friction caused by the edges of the six holes sliding up and down the screw shafts when vibrato is applied.

A larger, heavier and more complex mechanism than the synchronised tremolo, and promoted over it by Fender as their premium tremolo arm mechanism, it never achieved the same popularity, though if properly set up according to Fender's recommendations, it held tune as well or better than the synchronized vibrato unit.

In practice, this stability was not generally achieved, leading some players to replace the mechanism with a fixed bridge and tailpiece to produce a high quality "hard-tail" solid body guitar not otherwise available at the time. The floating tremolo was greatly favored by some surf music bands, particularly for its ability to produce a pronounced and distinctive vibrato on a sustained chord without disturbing the tuning of the guitar. To fully achieve this benefit however, correct setup, as per Fender's recommendations, was essential.

It was also notably used on the Jagstang, a custom design by Kurt Cobain combining features of the Jaguar and the Mustang. Some late 1960s Mustangs were fitted instead with the floating tremolo , which was promoted by Fender as their premium unit, but later Mustangs returned to the Dynamic Vibrato.

Many but not all units also have the words "PAT PEND" or "PAT. NO. 3,241,418" stamped under the word "Fender".The Dynamic Vibrato was the last of the floating bridge designs to be discontinued by Fender, with the Mustang in 1982, and the first to be reintroduced, again with the Mustang, in 1990.

This mechanism later became known as the side vibrato because of the position of the lever which emerged from the side of the long tailpiece. This lever had only restricted movement up and down in a plane close to that of the strings, so its action was unlike that of the Bigsby and Fender units, and remains unique. It was also described as the Gibson Vibrola Tailpiece in Gibson documents, but this name can be applied to any of the Gibson tremolo mechanisms. It was not a success and is of interest mainly to historians and collectors.

Its tremolo arm and all subsequent designs used the action adopted by Bigsby and Fender. As the Deluxe Gibson Vibrola a short version of it was fitted as standard to the 1967 reissue Gibson Flying V. Two other long tailpiece designs, superficially similar to the Deluxe Gibson Vibrato , are the Lyre Vibrola which was being fitted to Gibson ES-335s as an option by 1964 and is engraved with a lyre motif, and the Maestro Vibrola which was an option on the ES-335 by 1967.

This was simply known as the Fender vibrato tailpiece , or sometimes the Fender steel vibrato . It was again designed by Leo Fender although he had sold the company by the time it appeared. Basically a synchronized tremolo simplified to reduce cost, it had little popularity, and was the only Leo Fender tremolo arm design not available on any current Fender model.

Designed by Fender and Floyd Rose himself, this type of tremolo bridge has been introduced in the early '90s on the Deluxe Plus and Ultra series guitars. The concept is primarily intended for guitarists searching for the features of a locking tremolo system without the need to perform major surgery on their instrument. Nowadays, the Fender Deluxe tremolo is available on American Deluxe, Plus, Ultra Series and many Custom Shop guitars. The whole assembly also includes a set of locking machine heads and an LSR roller nut for optimal tuning stability. Usually available in chrome, the Fender Deluxe Locking vibrato is also featured in gold and black.

Duane Eddy established the "twangy guitar" sound with a Bigsby vibrato on his Gretsch guitar. Classic examples of this are his recordings of "Rebel Rouser" and "Peter Gunn". Both "Perfidia" and "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures are also typical examples. Prior to Jimi Hendrix, many guitarists used the Fender or Bigsby vibrato to approximate the pedal steel or slide guitar tones found in Hawaiian or Country music.

Hendrix completely rewrote the book on vibrato; using it while picking, hammering on, pulling off and with harmonics and feedback tones.

Source: Wikipedia > Tremolo Arm