Has anyone ever wondered what the tremolo setup in their guitars look like, but was too afraid to take it apart. I’ve never had a guitar with a tremolo bar but my buddy did and one day he decided to show me.
My buddy in Brantford was a collector of guitars. He was rather talented, but was more into collecting them, then playing them. Nice hobby if you can afford it. I was very fortunate one evening to see a “59 Fender Strat” that he had picked up for his collection.
One night I was invited to bring my HiWatt and Gibson RD to his house with a couple of buddies to jam. I had come in, set up my amp and he gave me a beer. The boys always looked forward to jammin’ with me because I was one of the few guitar players who liked to challenge myself with different playing techniques. Most of the time they just watched and asked questions. That always drives me crazy! Then my buddy went over and brought out a guitar case and placed it in front of me.
When he opened the case, I felt my body shaking inside. It felt like someone had just opened up the “Ark of the Covenant” and was looking at the “10 Commandments” written by God and given to Moses on the mountain, inside!
I had never seen this legendary 59 Strat let alone had the ability to play it.
I just looked at it for a while and then he said “why don’t you plug it in?” I then picked it up and studied it intensely. After 10 minutes of viewing every angle and part of this mythical beast, I plugged it in and played for around 2 hours straight.
After I stopped playing I asked him “What does the Whammy (Tremolo) Bar system look like?”. He drew a quick picture on a pack of smokes and then asked me if I wanted to see this one’s? The guy who he had bought it from then took it from me and started to take off the back to expose the inner workings of it. It looked something like this:
Now to give you a better understanding how it works, I have a video for you.
So if you have one of these on your axe, you now have a better idea of how it works and how to roughly adjust it. I strongly recommend that you take the back cover off it and just take a look around just for an educational experience.
Remember by taking the cover off the back of your guitar to take a look, you won’t blow it up! This will make you more aware of your overall guitar and make you feel more comfortable with it. Knowledge is power and besides, it makes you look like you know what your talking about.
Take pictures and save them. Later on this may become a life saver if you do start adjusting it. This will allow you to see what it looked like before you started. Actually, take pictures of every stage of it. There is nothing worse then having a couple of screws left over when you think your done! It happens to the best of us!
Keep on Jammin’
I would definitely be afraid to be take apart my guitar.
I would love to have seen the 59 Fender… I bet it was beautiful.
Cool, very informative video!
It’s even more exciting webfetti when you take one apart!
To put the tension back on the Tremolo(more commonly known as Wammy Bar) is something not for the faint of heart.
I’ve seen guitars that have been repair by their owners and the touch is just not there yet.
Very cool though.
Keep on Jammin’
You make it sound as if I sold it or lost it Bryan.
I will NEVER part with this beauty! It’s just too good of a guitar with the perfect action on the fretboard to ever get rid of.
If you ever put your fingers on it, you would say the same thing … unless you wanted to buy it! You know what the response would be anyway.
Keep on Jammin’
Ya webfetti, it’s one of those tasks that you don’t want to have a extra piece when you think that the job is over. I know that it has certainly happened to me before thats for sure.
Keep on Jammin’
For years I’ve played a solid bridge PRS and recently got a Musicman Silhouette with a trem. I must say the trem is loads of fun but I miss the stable tuning of the fixed bridge. I have had a tremolo stabilizer installed in my Strat once but then the trem was to rigid. Oh well more reasons to have one of each I guess
While trying out many guitars with trem, I see what you mean Charl. The constant tuning drives me crazy and I can see myself boring the crowd if I use one live.