I hate to be . . . but what exactly is a Vibrola?

tito · Post by **tito** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 4:25 pm

Yea. . .haha. I'm kinda new to the whole "accent vibrato". Could someone put it in plain english?

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 8:48 pm

I asked the same question ... since I am a bass player I had no idea what a "Vibrola" was ... I'll let the guitar experts chime in on this ...

dale_fortune · Post by **dale_fortune** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 9:24 pm

The Vibrola was Doc Kaufmann's invention in the mid-30's. It's a lo-tech by todays standards, vibrato/tremolo/whammy bar/etc. The 1st one was used on a Rickenbacker Bak-o-lite guitar in the 30's by Doc. It had a sewing machine motor mounted inside the body that attached to a cam like device that hooked to the vibrola arm and allowed the instrument to have a slow to fast vibrato effect that was controlled by a foot pedal much like a sewing machines speed was controlled. By it's self it wasn't much, very hard to keep the guitar in tune, but as a constant opperating device it worked great.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 5:52 am

This same basic feature, operated manually by a detachable whammy bar, was used on a number of Rickenbacker guitars in the late '50s, and is currently available on the C58 Lennon replica. It is tough to keep in tune, and works rather oddly--instead of the up-and-down motion of, for instance, a Bigsby vibrato, the Kaufman works side-to-side, leading to scratched guitar tops for the uninitiated.

John Hall once told me that when the Lennon replicas needed Kaufmans, a number of the parts were re-tooled and some were NOS, left over from original issues in the '50s!

The Accent is an entirely different animal, consisting of only three pieces (the Kaufman has about a dozen). There is a simple tailpiece, a spring steel connector which acts as the tensioner to absorb the force and return the strings to original tune, and a string anchor piece.

The Accent became available in the early '60s and is still made.

Both are brilliant designs, but Doc's should never have been adapted for guitar use.

tito · Post by **tito** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 4:17 pm

Paul-"The Accent is an entirely different animal"
Could you explain what the Accent is, and how it could be used? I still don't understand! Sorry

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 6:16 pm

http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdf/vibratos.pdf

tito · Post by **tito** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 6:16 am

Whoa, where do you go to get links like that?

So is this vibrato thing. . .is it like a whammy bar??!?!?!?!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 7:36 am

1. Go to Rickenbacker's website.

2. Yes.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:46 am

Jeez...

tito · Post by **tito** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:51 am

What. . .

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:38 pm

Hey...

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:09 pm

Who...

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:20 am

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:20 am

... ...

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:21 am

I passed 3000 and didn't realize it...