Gee, is this wiggle stick fun!

[cephus]

I recently noticed my tremelo arm in the pencil holder on my desk and thought I'd go ahead and screw it in and play around with it. I have had the trem blocked on my strat for 15 years or so. I just had to say that I've had a good giggle playing around with it.

Back in the mid/late 80s I had a floyd-equipped kramer and had all the weird noises down pat. Divebombs and motorcycles and machine guns. I ended up moving away from that guitar because the tone of a floyd is a bit weak since the trem block is only 1/4" thick. I am looking forward to doing the wobble thing at the next gig, though.

The thing is keeping relatively good tune. I have a graphite nut and saddles. I recall 2 methods for performing with a non-locking trem. I'd tune it and give all the strings a good yank, then retune it. Then if a string goes out, yoiu can just pull all the slack out of it and it would be in tune. The other was to tune it, then push down the trem and retune it, so when you get out of tune, you could just fix it by dumping the pitch and returning. Neither method is fool proof.

I was wondering if anyone had a link to a site that has some good tips for adjusting your trem to stay in tune. I did google and search this forum, but it's difficult to find keywords that don't return four hundred and eighty million results.

 

[apl]

I got your wiggle stick right here, buddy.

HA: To make a funny.

 

[savageblues]

I gave up and had mine blocked as well (my strat has the Wilkinson bridge, and roller nut arrangement - '90 Strat Deluxe Plus).

I am just way to picky about intonation/tuning to enjoy whammying, knowing that every bend would throw things off. How I became so neurotic about this, I'll never know. Neil Young has always been one of my favourite tremolo users...

I remember Guitar player gave away one of those ultrathin vinyl albums where the guy from Night Ranger (Paul Gilbert or something) demonstrated all the whammy sounds and techniques you mention. Cool. I learned a lot, and fast in those days. Now is a different story.

 

[travelin travis]

I got your wiggle stick right here, buddy.

HA: To make a funny.

Nice. I did'nt expect that one from you APL.

I have my bridge pulled tight too but it's fun to loosen it up and play with the wiggle stick every once in awhile.

I am just way to picky about intonation/tuning to enjoy whammying, knowing that every bend would throw things off. How I became so neurotic about this, I'll never know. Neil Young has always been one of my favourite tremolo users...

It's a curse and I have it too.