FUNCTION OF THE TREMOLO

To lower and raise the pitch of the strings, causing a vibrato sound by moving the bar up and down.

INDICATION OF PROBLEMS WITH THE TREMOLO

Instrument won’t stay in tune.

Spring tension is uncomfortable.

Bar sits in wrong position.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Understanding the basics of how your tremolo bridge or wang bar works, is a must! Let’s take a look at these basics. Because there are so many variations on the tremolo, it is impossible to be specific in a report like this. While of a general nature, what follows should help you in making basic adjustments to keep your tremolo in top working order.

In order to use the tremolo bar and have the instrument stay in tune, the locking systems were created. These units, which are in wide use today, have locking nuts at the headstock and fine tuners on the bridge. It was found that the biggest reason the old tremolos went out of tune was because the strings were hanging up in the nut. When the string tension was released, the string would slide through the nut towards the tuners. When the tension was returned, the strings had a tendency not to come back all the way. This of course caused the guitar to be out of tune.

To stop this from happening, the locking nut was developed. Once the guitar is tuned to pitch, you clamp the strings tight at the nut. This stops any string movement through the nut. The problem now is how to tune the guitar. Even the act of locking the strings pulls them out of tune. So along with the locking nut, came fine tuners on the bridge itself. As you can imagine, all this extra hardware created new problems for the guitarist. While at the outset this may look confusing, take time to understand your tremolo and all the factors involved in its use and adjustment.

Today most tremolos are of the FULCRUM type, while there are many variations, to keep this manageable we'll concentrate on this, the most common tremolo.

FULCRUM

The fulcrum type wang bars was originally developed by Fender for the Stratocaster guitar in the middle 1950’s. This basic design is still at the heart of a large percent of the systems in use today. (See Fig. #1) This unit works on the principle of having a knife-edge pivot point on which the bridge rests and a set of springs that return the unit back to pitch. When you push down or pull up on the bar, the bridge is allowed to pivot up and down at these fulcrum points. These points may take many different forms. Older types generally had six screws across the front of the bridge, some have a single blade system on which the bridge moves, and so on. Most common today are units using two studs for the fulcrum points, one on each side of the bridge. (See Fig. #2) Not only are these studs the fulcrum points, but they also serve as screws for adjusting the height of the bridge.(See the section on setting the action at the bridge.)