Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi. This is gonna sound really nuts, but, how come basses cant have whammy bars?

Oh but they can !! .. just tend to sound pretty ******. Kahler made a bass locking tremelo unit as an aftermarket thing in the late 80's ... and I once saw a mid-70's Thunderbird that had a HUGE hole routed through the body to accomodate one of these monsters ... PLUS .. an added third T-bird pickup ... if it had been a little cheaper I would have bought it ... was a true "wall of shamer".

I think you can find these bass locking trems if you look around.

Also .. the Fender VI bass .. had a Jaguar style trem unit .. it was really more of a GIANT detuned guitar than a 6-string bass.

Krishna Jain

PS Maybe a locking tremolo on my '63 P-bass would be a good idea ....

I've seen Victor Wooten playing a Fodera bass equipped with a Kahler tremolo, which sounded anything but ******.... however, he could probably make just about anything sound good

Les Claypool plays some basses that have whammy bars. It sounds COOL when applied at the right time! I think the issue is that it might be harder to keep the setup good on those.

This sticks out in my mind (mostly as one of the most bizarre niche instruments i've ever seen).

The way my brain breaks it down:
a) How many people play six-string?
b) How many people want a Synchromatic six-string bass?
c) How many people want a Bigsby on their Synchromatic six-string bass?
d) How many people want all that, PLUS a built-in guitar?

Brain.... reels....

As there is NO nut clamp for any /bass whammy , the angle to the tuners is critical .

A Rick bass just does not work well with it .How do I know ? I worked for Gary Kahler in the early 1980's and he was the maker of nearly all the brass hardware used in the guitar industry at that time .
Lawsuits with Floyd Rose made him have a terrible taste in his mouth for the music industry ...he now makes golf clubs.