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THOUGHTS ON BASS TREMOLO

#23
Mike M. said:
That happened to Slash with his Les Paul. Bent the neck one too many times, the neck broke and slammed right into his face! Said it felt like someone hit him with a baseball bat!
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Serves him right for being a guitarist!!
Hahahaha...


Maybe that would break the stings... Really, the only I've heard about problems with a tremolo was that it made your strings flat really fast.

Look at Jimi Hendrix. He had to tune a whole bunch because of his obsessive use of the tremolo.
 
#24
line6man said:
How did that happen?
If a neck breaks, it would snap away from you, not toward you. Unless he was bending the other way and pulling the neck toward him?
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Being a Les Paul it probably broke at the head stock. All that string tension is pulling on the neck, so it seems to make sense that if it broke at the head stock it's going to come flying in your general direction. Guess he was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Said it actually cut him up because it slammed him so hard.
 
#25
Al3x said:
Look at Jimi Hendrix. He had to tune a whole bunch because of his obsessive use of the tremolo.
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The tremolos on old Fenders really aren't the best.
There have been many improvements to tremolo bridges since Hendrix's day. It's uncommon to see tremolos pivoting on six screws. Almost all modern tremolo bridges pivot on two studs. This helps the bridge to pivot smoothly without binding up. Also, the bent-steel style saddles on old Fenders provide a flat surface for the strings to rest on, which allow them to shift side to side. Most modern bridges, tremolo or hardtail, have a little groove for the strings to rest in, so they cannot shift around.

Furthermore, heavy tremolo users often opt for locking tuners, or if you have a bridge like a Floyd Rose, with fine tuners on the saddles, a locking nut. I don't believe I've ever seen locking tuners or nuts on a bass, though.

Aside from stretching the strings when you pull the tremolo arm up, if your bridge allows for it, the key to staying in tune is to make sure that the strings can return to pitch properly by eliminating friction. Be sure that your nut is lubricated properly, so that the strings cannot bind in the slots.
Also, keep the number of wraps around the tuning peg to a minimum. (On guitars, you tie the string in a sort of knot around the peg, but bass tuning pegs are very different than guitar tuning pegs, so you can't do that.)
 
#26
Al3x said:
Serves him right for being a guitarist!!
Hahahaha...
Click to expand...

Well we are bass guitarist! :bassist: ;)

Maybe that would break the stings... Really, the only I've heard about problems with a tremolo was that it made your strings flat really fast.

Look at Jimi Hendrix. He had to tune a whole bunch because of his obsessive use of the tremolo.
Click to expand...

That's only because the strings would stick in the nut slots. That's why Floyd Rose came up with the locking nut and vibrato bridge.

You can completely slack your strings with a Floyd, and it comes right back in tune. Your strings should last as long as usual if you don't over do it.

I had no tuning problems at all using a Kahler on my bass.
 
#29
line6man said:
Very cool. (Though I think Sperzels are some of the ugliest tuners around.:hyper:)
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I don't use them, but I kind of think they look cool. They are very well made.

I wonder if they make a set with staggered string posts to eliminate the need for the string retainer on a straight, inline headstock?
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They do for guitar.

Invalid Link Removed
 
#30
line6man said:
How did that happen?
If a neck breaks, it would snap away from you, not toward you. Unless he was bending the other way and pulling the neck toward him?
Click to expand...

Easy, the broken off neck is gonna go in the direction of the strings pulling on it which of course will cause it to come speeding toward you as it slams and twists toward the bridge. It donst matter one bit which way you where bending the neck when it breaks, its going back toward the bridge which is the direction of the under tension strings.
 
#33
oh i have one! ... it's basically just there for novelty purposes.

i have never found a use for it except in those big ending crescendos where you basically just hit and do anything.

YouTube - Jc Basses Nerubian

the thing is, i could replicate that effect with a chorus or phaser lol

and just to add... nope, there are no tuning problems - bending the whammy takes more strength than bending a guitar tremolo though
 
#34
Let me dispel the rumors here. As I stated earlier, I have two basses with Kahler trems on them. Here's the truth about them.

Kahler tremolo bridges are easy to pull the bar. in fact, they're easier than a guitar trem in many cases. You can pull up or down and they stay in tune. They don't break strings, and they don't wear out the nut.

They are sometimes not the easiest thing to install. You need a bass with plenty of clearance between the body and the neck. But there are ways around that (like routing a channel in the body of the bass to sink the whole bridge down to make the clearance.

So, there you go. :)
 

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