Anyone heard the song "Limelight" by Rush? I'm trying to play that, and the solo requires a whammy bar. I've seen people play with a whammy bar, appearing to only use their fingers, but when I try, I find I have to use my whole arm to press down on it and keep it down. Nor can I vibrato with it. Is there something I can/need to do to help, or do I just need to practice (I'm not very strong)? I play a Fender Squier.
His whammy is positioned just below his hand in easy reach for the couple of 'dive bombs' he performs. Shouldn't present too much of a problem, just practice. Make sure the arm is just tight enough to retain its position instead of flopping down.
BTW I see it's your first post. Welcome to the site Anthem!
...i push it down wiht my pinky and ring finger...
That's my problem, though; in order to get the pitch to lower just 2 steps (1 whole note) I have to press my palm against the bar and use my entire arm, and then it feels like I'm about to break something...
I think there's something I need to do to install the bar, aside from just screwing it in the little hole. I can't think of what, but I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be this hard to depress the whammy bar, and I should be able to use my fingers instead of my entire arm.
What guitar do you have? There are springs in the back of guitars that have a tremolo or whammy bar. If they are tightened to much it would make it more difficult to dive bomb. Adjusting these springs should be done by someone who knows what they are doing. If you adjust them then it will affect your action, your bridge height and your intonation a bit. If its a Floyd Rose trem then I can't help you as I don't have a floyd and never worked on one.
fender made the point i was going to make. fender's style vibrato are of a very nice design just have to be set up right. bring it to some one to have it balanced.
Yeah, it's a fender whammy bar; not floating, can only go down. And that does make sense, if the springs are too tight, it'll be harder to pull them. Thanks for helping, and I'll look into getting them adjusted!
A fender trem will go up if your bridge is set up properly. I think fender specs is 1/8 of an inch from the bottom of the bridge to the body. If your bridge is flat against the body then it won't allow it to go up or if your guitar is used there may be a block of wood in there blocking the trem from bending up. Some people do that to help the guitar stay in tune better.
