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Buying an Electric Guitar --
Bridges
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Electric guitars have either a tremolo bridge or a
non-tremolo (hardtail) bridge. The tremolo bridge has an
arm called a vibrato bar, or as some of you
may know it, a "whammy" bar. Pressing on the vibrato bar
with your picking hand changes the string tension, which
slightly detunes the strings. Your technique can create
trills, dive bombs, ghost bending, and other effect
sounds. Vibrato bar "kings" include Dimebag
Darrell, Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore (listen to
"Highway Star" and "Smoke On The
Water"), Jimi Hendrix (check out "Are You
Experienced?"), Judas Priest's K.K. Dowling and
Glen Tipton (check out "Sinner"), Randy Rhoads
(listen to "Little Dolls" and "Over The
Mountain"), Eddie Van Halen, and Heart's Nancy
Wilson.
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 Vintage Tremolo
This is the bridge most commonly used on
three-pickup guitars, including many beginner guitars. For most playing
styles, a vintage tremolo is a good choice because it is easy to
use and maintain and has very few
parts. Pushing on the vibrato bar releases string tension which
lowers the pitch, letting you create warbling effect
sounds. However, this can cause the strings to go out of tune, so
you'll need to retune often. Is learning vibrato-bar technique
important for a beginner? No way! A beginning
guitarist needs to stay in tune!
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Locking Tremolo
This bridge is adjusted up slightly to "float"
over the guitar body (you may have heard the term "floating
bridge"). Not only can you push on the vibrato bar to lower the
string pitch, but you can also pull, which increases string tension and
raises the pitch. As its name implies, the locking tremolo bridge has locking nuts so you can "lock" the strings in
tune. Tuning a guitar with this bridge can be tricky. Once set up, a locking tremolo can't be
beat for tuning stability. If
extreme "whammy" technique is your plan, this is your bridge.
Keep in mind that a guitar with a high-quality locking tremolo is more
expensive.
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 Non-Tremolo
(Hardtail)
This is an ideal hassle-free bridge if you have no desire to
use a vibrato bar. It's screwed directly to the top of the
guitar body, limiting string movement, assuring that your guitar
stays in tune. Because of its direct contact with the guitar's
body, a non-tremolo bridge offers better transfer of string
vibration into the body. Direct contact affects the sound so, guitars with this type of bridge
have different sound characteristics than those with tremolo
bridges, even if the vibrato bar is removed. |
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