Originally posted by Adde
Any guitarrist here wanna share some tips regarding cool ways using the tremolo arm. It`s really a cool thing to use sometimes, especially in longer solos, both Adrian and Dave have used it quite a lot, and very well to I think. Unfortunatly I have no locking device for my strings so I cant do really wild bombing stuff but I can shake and press the arm pretty much I think for the guitar to get out of tune. Rabies, if I dont remember wrong, you used to be, or still are, into the tremolo arm thing, share some tips will ya!
Here is a big tip. Do you listen/like Steve Vai? Even if you don't - if you are a serious guitarist, you should give him a listen. He does some incredible things with the guitar....and he alone will give you all kinds of ideas with the whammy. Its unreal. He plays melodies using the whammy to change notes, general vibrato, dive bombs, squeals...if your whammy is 'tight' enough..you can hold a note and (for lack of a better term) flick the whammy (push down lightly and release) to make a cool 'warble' noise...or the extreme...if you have a floyd, play a music passage while banging the shit out of the guitar with your right hand. If you have a floyd with a floating bridge, if you whack the body near the bridge while playing, it will cause it to warble as well..making a wicked sound.
Those are some of the things he does....with a Whammy.
'nother neat trick. Push down on whammy while sliding a note up the fretboard at the same time. Try to keep the pitch of the note stable as you do this...if done right, makes a really bizzare vibrato to the note as your fingers go over each fret. Very, Very, Very difficult to do. The reverse works too (pull up on whammy while sliding note down in unison)...but is harder and has less range...as you cannot pull up on whammy as far as you can go down.
Let the mind wonder...and experiment. None of this is particularly usefull in Maiden songs though...altough they dive-bomb occasionally...
...of course..most of my tricks require a locking nut and a floyd...I have never used any other kind...so I dunno what you can with those..other than just use it to vibrato...or use it in lieu of sliding a note or bending a note. Anyplace where you alter the pitch of the note in some way (bend, slide, vibrato, etc) with your fingers can be duplicated with a slightly different result using the bar.