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Whammy on a bass?

#23
bassrique said:
Thread calling Benjamin Strange.......thread calling Benjamin Strange.......
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bassrique said:
Why a whammy on a fretless?

-----

And where is Strange?
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You rang?

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#26
lonote said:
Why not?
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Because it adds a complication for little payback ? <-----that's a question mark

I can understand a fretted guy that wants a whammy.

I can understand a fretted guy with a whammy that wants the frets pulled out.

I'm not sure I understand a fretless guy that wants a twang bar. Chord fingerings that can't be slid? Fast up and downs that'll make fingers bleed on strings? Sex?

Are there some sound snippets out there in the internetland that may elevate my thinking? YouTube vids?

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Thread calling Dr. Benjamin Strange again......thread calling Dr. Strange....



Edit: That's one big intercom.
 
#27
bassrique said:
Because it adds a complication for little payback ? <-----that's a question mark

I can understand a fretted guy that wants a whammy.

I can understand a fretted guy with a whammy that wants the frets pulled out.

I'm not sure I understand a fretless guy that wants a twang bar. Chord fingerings that can't be slid? Fast up and downs that'll make fingers bleed on strings? Sex?

Are there some sound snippets out there in the internetland that may elevate my thinking? YouTube vids?


Thread calling Dr. Benjamin Strange again......thread calling Dr. Strange....



Edit: That's one big intercom.
Click to expand...

A whammy on fretless is certainly viable, and you can do lots of things that you can't do with your fingers alone. Can you dive bomb your fretless below it's normal range? Didn't think so. Can you apply a very wide vibrato on chords while maintaining the relationship between the notes as a constant? Didn't think so. Can you pitch bend false harmonics? Didn't think so. Can you make girls in the front row swoon by swinging your bass around by nothing but the whammy bar, sending giant waves of undulating bass through the crowd, and pull off preening, Jimi Hendrix like poses without a bass trem? Didn't think so.

I use my whammy bar pretty judiciously on a track on my Myspace, entitled Lamentations: The Widow. It's on a pitchshifted bass solo towards the last third of the track (whammy bar + fretless + Whammy pedal + distortion + delay + pitchshifting = cool). You can hear it here: Link Removed
 
#28
HOLE_IN_THUMB said:
has anyone heard of basses with whammy bars. as half joke half serious want to get one put on my POS squier. but then again im cheap (explains my POS bass) and could always just shove a screwdriver up in my bridge.
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Lol... good luck jamming the base and springs in there with the screwdriver... not to mention the fact that your hand would then become the ground when you touched the strings. :D

That being said; Dude, have you been under a rock? (Just being funny, no offense meant here) Lol, whammy bar bridges have been around for bass nearly as long as guitar; though, truth be told, they are ten times the price. I'd maybe wait on a new bass first. Though, it would be cool to have a $250 bridge on a $180 bass. :) :hiding:
 
#29
Bass Trems are cool if not overused and abused. Billy Sheehan used to use a DiMarzio bass with a kahler back in the 80s when DiMarzio sold necks and bodies. In the 80's Ovation sold a couple basses with the Kahler, Carvin offered the Kahler for a few years and of course Steinberger made about 200 or so transtrem bass tremolo's. I also believe Viger offered a model with a trem too. Others offered basses with tremolo's too.
My next Warmoth will most likely have a Hipshot tremolo.
 
#30
Benjamin Strange said:
A whammy on fretless is certainly viable, and you can do lots of things that you can't do with your fingers alone. Can you dive bomb your fretless below it's normal range? Didn't think so. Can you apply a very wide vibrato on chords while maintaining the relationship between the notes as a constant? Didn't think so. Can you pitch bend false harmonics? Didn't think so. Can you make girls in the front row swoon by swinging your bass around by nothing but the whammy bar, sending giant waves of undulating bass through the crowd, and pull off preening, Jimi Hendrix like poses without a bass trem? Didn't think so.

I use my whammy bar pretty judiciously on a track on my Myspace, entitled Lamentations: The Widow. It's on a pitchshifted bass solo towards the last third of the track (whammy bar + fretless + Whammy pedal + distortion + delay + pitchshifting = cool). You can hear it here: Link Removed
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That does not sound like a bass. Cool. Use a pick on that??

Can you pitch bend false harmonics? Didn't think so.
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On a fretless, up and down [some "umph" is lost though], and on a fretted onlu up, unless I get tricky.

Can you make girls in the front row swoon by swinging your bass around by nothing but the whammy bar, sending giant waves of undulating bass through the crowd, and pull off preening, Jimi Hendrix like poses without a bass trem? Didn't think so.
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Don't rub it in. :D

belew_twang_in.jpg
 
#33
Fathand said:
How does the Kahler tremolo work? It requiers only front routing, so it isn't a "floating bridge" per se, is it? Are there any springs?

:confused:
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How does it work? Pretty well. It does float because it goes both up and down. And the springs are located under it inside the rout and are hidden from view. Unlike the Floyd Rose or a Fender whammy where the springs stretch across the back and attach to a separate block, the springs attach to the main unit.
 
#35
JimmyM said:
How does it work? Pretty well. It does float because it goes both up and down. And the springs are located under it inside the rout and are hidden from view. Unlike the Floyd Rose or a Fender whammy where the springs stretch across the back and attach to a separate block, the springs attach to the main unit.
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Ah, I suspected the system would be something like that. Works well, huh? So it seems. I've looked through some threads and haven't seen complaints about the tuning/intonation problems I expected.

I'm thinking about getting a Kahler on my next bass, but still not sure about how much I would _really_ need it. Nice option to have in your back pocket, though. :)
 
#36
Fathand said:
Ah, I suspected the system would be something like that. Works well, huh? So it seems. I've looked through some threads and haven't seen complaints about the tuning/intonation problems I expected.

I'm thinking about getting a Kahler on my next bass, but still not sure about how much I would _really_ need it. Nice option to have in your back pocket, though. :)
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The trick to keeping the strings in tune with a whammy is you have to work the bar while you tune. As you tune the string, work the whammy. This gets the string used to being whammied, and makes it more used to the movement and keeps it settled down.

To be honest, nobody -needs- a whammy. I'll probably never buy another bass with one. But it's fun and you can do some interesting things with it.
 
#37
I would not be without one, but would rarely use it for straight up groove bass playing.

If you do experimental, chordal or harmonic bass work, its amazing.

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6 string version is really hard to use, being the ultra stiff springs- however I was informed that if you replace the springs with guitar springs, it's much better.
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Here is a great site dedicated to them

http://basstremfanatic.forumarena.com/
 

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