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The Whammy Bar (Basics & Weird Effects)
(13 Jul 02)
Horses, cats and windmills... weired sounds
OK, here is an Eddie Van Halen-trademark, often called "The Horse". The way to do this is: hit an harmonic at the fifth fret, press down the bar while shaking it forth and back, then let it move up again, pull up a bit more ( above standard pitch ) and down again...
Example 7- The Horse
The purring cat
This is an effect made popular by Steve Vai... used i.e. in "Blue Powder". But Steve Lukather is another player who uses it a lot, as i.e. in the Toto-Song "Daveīs Gone Skiing", from the "Tambu"-Album...
Itīs kinda difficult to describe. First of all, you need a properly setup FLOATING doublelocking system ( FLoating: Adjusted to go both down AND up, so you can both push it down / lower the pitch and pull up on it / raise the pitch ).
Set the bar ( youīll need to ) so it is parallel to the strings, pointing towards the headstock. Then, while playing notes with the left hand, slam down your right hand onto the bar. Let your hand slide along the bar and slide off of it... if you do it right ( I hope you get the idea from my description ), the whole bridge will shake / vibrate fast, and thereby create a shake-y sound, kinda like a purring cat. Here is how that sounds:
Example 8- The purring cat
Steve Lukather had another nice trick: While playing trills with the left hand, he slightly pushes down the bar and lets it come up again... that way, he creates some kind of a "whirly", "drunk" effect.
Steve Vai took that to another level with his "windmill" ( He used to do that a lot live and in videos with David Lee Roth ).
This is how the "windmill" works: While playing trills with the left hand, push down the bar a bit and then start to turn it around over and over... like a windmill. That way, the pitch will constantly go up and down, higher and lower. It looks kinda cool. Just be careful not to hit your switches or knobs and thereby hurt yourself. A really wacky effect, isnīt it ? Well, I warned you !
Example 9- The windmill
Here are "dips". That is something that guys like Jeff Beck and Joe Satriani use a lot. Before you play a certain note, press down on the bar a little bit. Then play the note and immediately let the bar come up. That way, you kinda dive up into the note, kinda slurring into the right pitch. Try it. I improvised a melody, used that technique ( check out Joeīs "New Blues" from "The Extremist" as an example ), and this is what came out:
Example 10- Wang Bar Dips
OK... if you ainīt got enough yet, here is one of the weirdest alien effects you can do. This actually is almost more of an visual effect, and it sounds extremely wacky. I saw both Vai and Richie Sambora use it.
I call it the "inferno".
Hereīs how to do it: With your right hand, pick pinch harmonics on the open G-string ( yes, those high-pitched, squealing harmonics a la Billy Gibbons... immediately after you pick the string, touch it slightly with the side of your thumb or the nail of your pinkie to turn the picked note into an harmonic... Iīll explain that technique into the detail in my article about harmonics, coming soon to iBreatheMusic... )
While doing so, move the right hand forth and back along the string, while picking it and creating those pinch harmonics. Due to the fact that youīre moving your hand along the string, the pitch of these harmonics will change constantly.
Now, with the left hand reach below the neck and put it onto the wang bar. ( Looks weird, doesnīt it ?!? ). And keep hitting the bar with your left hand while picking those pinch harmonics. Itīs an alien-effect... and sounds like this:
Example 11- Alien Inferno
Alrighty, thatīs about it. I recorded those soundfiles last year already at a friend's home studio.( sorry about the hum, guys ! ), and at the end of that session, I felt like combining a few of the techniques described above into an improvised a capella-solo. This will conclude this article.
Dont forget to experiment ( there are even more effects to create with the bar, but Iīll leave it at that for now ), and also use it in a musical way... if you apply vibrato, do it in the right rhythm. Try to enhance your melodies and licks with some wang bar effects, or try to imitate other instruments ( like the voice ) by using the bar... you can also use it for weird effects, imitating animals... the way Adrian Belew and Steve Vai do it.
But donīt forget about the music. The wang bar is a great tool, but itīs only one of many and shouldnīt be overused. Some of my examples might be hard to use in a real band-/ song-context, but others are great new colors for you to create cool stuff.
So donīt think itīs only for acapella-weirdo-stuff like my final soundfile... that one might not have a lot of musical content, but is meant to show you how some those effects sound in combination.
Alien Reproduction Ceremony:)
Alrighty... Iīll see ya at the iBreathe-Forums...
Whammy on...
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Eric started playing the guitar at age 10. He attended GIT and studied with Scott Henderson, Brett Garsed, Dan Gilbert amo. Eric is involved in several bands and recording projects and his instrumental debut - Hidden Creek - plus his instructional book Talking Hands - A Guide To Contemporary Lead Guitar Techniques is available HERE
Visit his website at www.ericvandenberg.net
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