{"id":11236,"date":"2017-05-17T11:03:50","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T16:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/?p=11236"},"modified":"2017-05-17T11:31:11","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T16:31:11","slug":"bass-whammy-got-the-urge-to-bend-a-note-or-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/gear\/hardware\/bridge\/bass-whammy-got-the-urge-to-bend-a-note-or-two.html","title":{"rendered":"Bass whammy &#8211; got the urge to bend a note or two?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few things to point out up front for those that care about the technical naming details of this:<\/p>\n<p>The proper name for this type of thing is a vibrato system. Fender for a very long time has incorrectly called it a tremolo system. The reason it&#8217;s incorrect is because a tremolo effect is produced by the quick in-and-out &#8220;stuttering&#8221; of the audio signal, somewhat similar to how a rotary speaker works (in sound, not in operation). Vibrato however directly refers to altering the pitch of the note, which is exactly what a vibrato system allows you to do.<\/p>\n<p>To cite a guitar example (as it is the best way to give your ears a sample of the sound), Link Wray&#8217;s &#8220;Rumble&#8221; very clearly has the tremolo effect heard starting at 1:55.<\/p>\n<p>(&#8220;Rumble&#8221; also has one of the coolest bass lines ever, by the way.)<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ucTg6rZJCu4?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That stuttering signal you hear at 1:55 is a true tremolo effect.<\/p>\n<p>So why do we, <em>and<\/em> manufacturers, all refer to it by the incorrect name of tremolo system? Because Fender does. Yes, that is literally the only reason. Fender flip-flopped the definitions of vibrato and tremolo, it stuck, so we all call it tremolo even though it&#8217;s technically vibrato.<\/p>\n<p>Moving on&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>This is vibrato, a.k.a. whammy bar use, on a bass:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m6pSHYfMz-I?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Tremolo system use on the bass is one of those weird, wacky things you can do to a bass when you want something different. <\/p>\n<p>The #1 enemy from using a tremolo system on the electric bass is wobbling when using the bar, which can become very annoying very quickly. Fortunately, we carry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/catalogsearch\/result\/?cat=0&amp;q=whammy\">several tremolo systems<\/a> from Hipshot that <em>do not<\/em> wobble. <\/p>\n<p>Installing a Hipshot bass tremolo is fairly simple and straightforward. The only thing you have to remember is that flatwound strings would get wrecked fairly quickly with tremolo system use, so you have to stay with roundwound. For most bassists that use tremolo, this isn&#8217;t an issue since tremolo sounds best with the brightest possible sounding strings. Roundwound fits the bill there.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the 4 and 5-string offerings for tremolo systems <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/catalogsearch\/result\/?cat=0&amp;q=whammy\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few things to point out up front for those that care about the technical naming details of this: The proper name for this type of thing is a vibrato system. Fender for a very long time has incorrectly called it a tremolo system. The reason it&#8217;s incorrect is because a tremolo effect is produced &#8230; <a title=\"Bass whammy &#8211; got the urge to bend a note or two?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/gear\/hardware\/bridge\/bass-whammy-got-the-urge-to-bend-a-note-or-two.html\" aria-label=\"More on Bass whammy &#8211; got the urge to bend a note or two?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}