How to Use the Whammy Bar | Heavy Metal Guitar

-
-

Must Haves for any Guitar Player:

Alright. I'd like to talk to you very quickly about using the bar, sometimes called the whammy bar, sometimes called the vibrato bar. And it's something that's overdone a lot, so you have to be careful with it. I actually stopped using it very early on in my career. But, it's fun to play around with it once in a while, and if you're checking out the styles of guitar players like Jeff Beck, or Dave Gilmour, it's an integral part of their playing. So what they'll often do is play melodies, and take a note and just enhance it with the bar. Something like.

So there you can really hear the vibrato, that definitely gives it a vibrato bar feel, makes it kind of anthemic. Jimi Hendrix took the bar to whole new places. He would do a lot of stuff with feedback and harmonics. So an example of that is, if we take the natural harmonics, say on the 7th fret, I can play with the bar, and it's going to make a really cool sound. Check it out.

So that also has to do with the amp feeding back. I'm going to just do a couple more examples, and listen to how the amp feeds back, and listen to how I take the feedback and use the bar to enhance it. And let's see where it goes.

Alright, that's it. I hope you've enjoyed this lesson on the vibrato bar and the whammy bar.

[soobaroo]

People are wondering whether he's high or not, but I think using a strat for metal should be legalized.

[standodge]

Although this video nearly a decade old. I've literally been learning guitar from Alex since back in the 90s! First heard of him when he was in Testament then started seeing him more frequently in guitar magazines. Always teaching. Even 30 yrs later I stumble across him in the guitar world. Keep it up Alex, I'm still learning from you.

[killasjanitor]

1:04 You know you're a god at guitar when you can hit a pinch harmonic on accident

[.-zy]

DUDE, IS YOUR TREMOLO BLOCKED OR WHAT? YOURE PUSHING DOWN PRETTY HARD WITH LITTLE EFFECT.

[christhompson]

I couldnt stop laughing at how high he looked lmao

[justincase]

That tremolo is decked as opposed to floating. He had to use two hands to get any kind of dive. Helps with tuning stability but trade-off is mobility.

[FarbonCiber]

he looks like he is having a really hard time trying to push the whammy bar down

[messyroomstudios]

I think his whammy bar is broken... I couldn't hear the wha-wha sound effect

[officialWWM]

If you gotta use 2 hands to push that thing down, I think your springs may be cranked a little tight, lol.

[lextonhallisey]

Today I was looking for whammy bars online than I when out side to take out the trash and I found one in the garbage

[Jimb]

Alex is god.
If you're unaware of him and youre into metal look up testament, hes the lead guitarist

[adolescenttestudine]

The last 30 or so seconds sounds like it's straight out of a horror film

[Bricklinsv]

Obviously Alex does not care much for vibrato bar. And that guitar has a crap bridge for using a vibrato technique

[GereDJ]

Alex, is the bar adjustable? I mean, can it be set to fine or to coarse movement, or slight to wide movement to produce the same sound? Is the length of the bar mostly consistent in guitars?

[kevinmcguinness]

Definitely helps having the humbucker in the bridge 👍🤘

[nomore]

Came here cause I'm a beginner.... learned nothing. Everything you did, I figured out in my first 2 minutes of having a wammy.

[Raul_Silva_]

thought it was just a normal video and then alex skolnick (testament) shows up lol

[arnieevangel]

Cool.. I remember that sound.. Smashing pumpkins song called ..DROWN

[jymebale]

The loud feed back is great but I was hoping the guy would have played some quieter  and shown even more of what a tremolo can do as what he did show was good but there is so much more.  Hendrix was king of feed back and it is fun to play with.

[prachijain]

My bridge seems like it is going to come out
..is it ok or wht?