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Songs That Use a Bass Tremolo
- Thread starter Stickk
- Start date
A lot of songs by Primus not used over the top but on the low key like in Sgt. Pepper and the intro to My Name is Mud. Victor Wooten also has a tremolo on one of his basses so I'd look through a few of his songs as well.
bongomania
Commercial User
Note that "tremolo" and "whammy" aren't the same thing, although they do get mixed up a lot via Fender guitar amps and certain other vintage guitar brands.
"Tremolo" is a cyclical volume change.
"Vibrato" is a cyclical pitch change.
"Whammy" is pitch change using a lever to pull the strings.
"Tremolo" is a cyclical volume change.
"Vibrato" is a cyclical pitch change.
"Whammy" is pitch change using a lever to pull the strings.
Yes, I know, I wasn't trying to be technical. I used tremolo because I thought people would know what I meant (for example, Hipshot and Kahler both call their bass whammy bridges "tremolos."
Primus and Victor Wooten are the only things that jump to my mind when it comes to bass trems. Kip Winger had one on a bass back in the 80's, but I kind of doubt it was very prominent. So Primus and Wooten would be where I'd look.
Remember the cover of the Cheech and Chong song by Munkybarz uasing his Kahler?
That was a sweet video.
That was a sweet video.
Stanley Clarke - one of his basses has a Bigsby unit, seen on the cover of I Want To Play For You.
The Nugebeast's Stranglehold has a sweet bass solo. The bass player doesn't use a trem, but you can make the solo even better with one!
I was gonna mention "Heart Of The Sunrise" by Yes...but we were both mislead by the OP's taking slight (though not unprecedented) liberties with the word "Tremolo". Yes, Chris Squire used electronic amplitude modulation on a number of his recorded tracks; that's "tremolo" in the legitimate sense of the word.
Turns out OP was asking about Whammy Bars, aka Vibrato Tailpieces, strictly technically incorrectly known as Tremolo Tailpieces or just plain Tremolos.
Tony Levin used a Kahler-equipped MusicMan Stingray on "Dig Me" and "Industry" from the King Crimson album Three Of A Perfect Pair
In the late 80s/early 90s Glover played a Tune bass with tremolo/vibrato/wobbly bar bridge when they did 'Fireball' live.
The original studio album was recorded with a Fender Mustang, short scale thereby allowing him to achieve those considerable string bends. I don't know if it's great or terrible, that solo. Love it though!
Nowadays he just uses his standard Vigier and goes for a moremelodic solo.
Kahler was the only company I could find that made a wammy bar for a 6 string bass. it should be here in a few days and Chris Benavente is going to put it on my Vortex. I've already got a few songs in mind to use it on. new recordings with it coming soon!
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most of the stuff with "tremolo" on bass I've heard is from the late 80s and early 90s, but I don't know about names, just stuff that suddenly plays on the radio xD
