The whammy bar, or the vibrato arm, comes in many different guises, each with its own unique way of altering the pitch of your guitar strings. The Vibrola system designed by Doc Kauffman and introduced back in the 1920s, suffered from poor tuning. Paul Bigsby developed his well-known vibrato as a more stable unit to replace the troublesome Vibrola. In the 1950s, Leo Fender came up with the industry standard floating design, before Floyd Rose and Kahler, with their double locking systems, came to the attention of guitarists who liked to abuse their whammy bars while keeping their guitars in tune. Over the years many more designs have come into use, from companies such as Gotoh, Wilkinson, Ibanez, PRS and Vega-Trem.
This story is from the October 2023 edition of Guitar Techniques.
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This story is from the October 2023 edition of Guitar Techniques.
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