Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Been over there, overdone that...

Jeff: You said "we call them tremelo over here" and then say that you are not "over here". Hmmm. I understood the reference to mean that you were not in the USA. Pardon me if I misspoke, no slight intended.

You won't easily find a good definition of "tremelo" in any dictionary, because it's from Italian and is only in usage in reference to sound amplification. An amplifier with "tremelo" has a circuit to vary the amplitude, not the pitch, and this has been in common usage with reference to amplifiers since at least the end of WWII. (Tremelo="tremble").

Vibrato refers to a change in pitch. (Vibrato is a term in musical notation) Magnatone built a wonderful line of stereo amplifiers in the late '50s through mid-'60s which actually had a stereo vibrato circuit which varied the pitch of the note and panned it across the channels. The sound of one of these is amazing and about as far from Link Wray tremelo as you can get.

If that "whammy" bar on any of your guitars varies the amplitude of the sound, it would be a first. It's a vibrato. Kaufmann Vib-Rola, Bigsby vibrato, Accent Vibrato, Hi-Performance Vibrato, etc.

Paul: You are making a strong case for the vibrato being associated with the "Whammy Bar" in the United States. Another interesting device that has been used to raise the pitch of a few US guitars has been called

Hate to say it, Peter, because it makes me seem inflexible and egomaniacal, but Floyd is wrong. It's a vibrato system.

I don't care how many of these he's sold (And I've owned several, of course), that doesn't make him an expert in terminology or language. By definition, it's a vibrato, not a tremelo. Just because he makes a good product, doesn't mean he calls it by its correct name. And, unfortunately, now he's confused the issue...

Yes I agree Paul. I think we should be guided by the experts in the field and times certainly do change. Uncle! Let's get with the times and let the experts at Fender decide. They have been around the industry long enough to know.

From the Fender site today April 29, 2005.

American Stratocaster

0117400

The beauty of the American Stratocaster guitar lies in its details. This model incorporates several simple player-centric refinements into the timeless design of the Strat guitar: hand-rolled fingerboard edges, three staggered single-coil pickups, five-way switching and two-point synchronized tremolo

.

What's a 2 point synchronized tremelo?

...sounds like a linebacker stance...

I won't say uncle on this one. Like I said before, they are no interchangeable. Too bad Fender is going along with Floyd.

George Bush has been around longer than Fender and he STILL says, "noo kyoo ler". Dreadful language skills, no idiot left behind, etc.

So we agree to disagree and I'm cool with that.

Two point probably refers to using a pair of studs (like most locking trems do) as opposed to the original Fender tremolo, which had six screws. I have no idea what is synchronized, unless they mean the whole thing moves together.

If it doesn't have a locking nut, and there is anything between the locks and that nut (ie rollers, saddles, nut) then it will be far more prone to going out of tune. Yes, I do know that a standard Fender trem can stay in tune, but it takes a lot of work, and it simply isn't reliable. I have spent the better part of twenty years looking at various designs, including working on the development of new systems, and I have yet to see anything that rivals a Floyd. Even a Floyd can have problems, but that is generally due to poor metal used in the studs (which the knife edges wear into and create a friction point), or poor knife edges.

I'm usually too lazy to call it a tremolo, refering to it as a thingy instead, but most people don't know which thingy I'm refering to.

Semantics aside, metal players tend to favor guitars with (insert thingy name here) systems, so Rics would not be a first choice. The voicing is also not the best for highly overdriven sounds from the instruments I have either owned or tried.

I think it's a case of Floyd going along with Fender. IIRC the original error was made by Fender in 1954 when the Strat was released (bite your tongue, Paul, I'm agreeing with you on this one ) and they called it a tremelo.

You're right, Paul, they aren't interchangeable. But 51 years of wrong terminolgy has made the error semi-permanent.

In any event, Ray Wylie Hubbard's latest CD is titled "Delirium Tremolos". Just thought you needed to know.

Paul sayeth

"I won't say uncle on this one."

Paul, I was the one that was saying uncle or should I say U.N.C.L.E., Napoleon. Do you suppose we will find instruments of mass tremelo should we explore this further?

Any device on a guitar that changes the pitch of the strings is technically a Vibrato device. It's just that people have been incorrectly refering to it as a tremelo for so long that it has
become "acceptable" to call it a tremelo.

Peter, you're making me Ilya.

Yes, Peter, I heard you say uncle! And then you came up with the Fender quote, so I had to lock myself down.

Dave, I not only bit my tongue, I swallowed it...

It seems there's no Kur(yakin) for those who say 'tremelo'!!