Chords for Why I Use A Blocked (Decked) Tremolo Instead of Floating
Tempo:
112.5 bpm
Chords used:
Ebm
E
Dm
Gb
G
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
Hey blues fans, this is Anthony from Texas Blues Alley.
It's time for Tone Tuesday.
This week
I'm going to talk about the tremolo on my strats.
Somebody recently asked me if I prefer it floating or
blocked.
The answer is blocked, always blocked, and I'm going to try and explain why I play it that way and
also how I've managed to do that while still having good use of the whammy bar.
Let's start with the alternative, the dark side, which is the floating tremolo.
For those of you
who don't know, go into any guitar center and look at the strat and you will see it floating off of the body
by no less than this and oftentimes as much as that, depending on what
person, I'll use a nice word, person set up the guitar.
I have no idea why anybody thinks that's a reasonable setup for guitar.
Let me just put a little disclaimer in here.
I know about all of the different ways that you can stabilize things and everything like that,
but a default vanilla strat off the shelf set up like that is a very very unstable instrument
and I would never use it that way.
So why would anybody use a floating tremolo to begin with?
Well, the main advantage is that when you use your whammy [Dm] bar,
having it [N] floating means that you can go down in pitch and
up in pitch.
So if you pretend that my hand is not here on the tremolo bar right now,
and if that's how the bridge looks by default because of the tension of the springs in the back and all that kind of stuff,
it means that when you touch the whammy bar,
you can go forward and backward and get a variance in pitch both above and below the center note.
Now, why wouldn't you use a floating tremolo?
Well, I'm gonna try and keep this video short, but I could talk about this for a long time.
Number one, when you've got something here that is basically
being held in place by tension this way from the strings and tension on the [E] back from the springs,
it is inherently unstable.
When you have a floating trem,
you can put yourself out of tune just by resting your hand on it.
Not to mention when you go to tune it up, as you tune up your low string, that pulls on it more,
which pulls everything else out of tune.
So trying to tune a guitar
that has the tremolo set like this is
more than three times as difficult as tuning a guitar with a blocked tremolo.
So tuning
difficulty is the first thing.
Number two is, because of the style of music I play,
I do a lot of bending.
And when you bend a string on a guitar with a floating tremolo,
as you bend the string, you're pulling,
you're applying more tension
[Gb]
to that bridge saddle, which can pull it out of tune.
So if you're trying to do like a big, you know,
two whole step Albert King bend where you're really bending the string up like this, if your tremolo is set to floating, as you
bend, you can actually
be fighting yourself.
You're trying to bend up high,
so you're pushing on the string, which increases tension to the bridge, which pulls it farther front, which lowers your pitch.
So because I don't like to fight with myself, I would never use a floating tremolo
[G] for those reasons.
And then the last reason, which is a little bit more subjective,
is that when you have your tremolo floating like that, your only point of contact with the body is through these screws here.
And the
generally accepted wisdom is that the firmer the contact between the bridge and the body, the better transfer of vibration, better sustain.
That's a little bit more subjective, but the tuning and the bending thing are the big reasons why I'd never use a floating tremolo.
Now let's move on to talk about the alternative, the way that I use it, the blocked tremolo.
This is not without its
problems, but I'll talk about that in a little bit.
Let's first talk about the advantages of a blocked tremolo.
Number one,
you don't have any of this funny business up here.
Your tremolo is not going anywhere until you actually apply the whammy bar.
That makes it a lot more stable to tune, that makes it a lot more stable to bend.
So what, oh, and then if you want to get into sustain, having a firmer contact between the bridge and the body can transfer
vibration better, all that good stuff.
But what is the problem with this whole [B] arrangement here?
Well, that brings us to our springs, because the only way to get
that back against the body like that is to have your [E] springs pulled tight.
And
the only way to get your springs pulled [Ebm] tight is to screw this in, which pulls the strings tighter, which pulls the bridge back
against the body.
Most standard,
well, pretty much the springs that you get on any new Strat are new
springs, and they have a lot of tension.
So you actually only really need
about three or four springs pulled tightly to get that bridge back against the body.
The problem with that is that the strings are so strong that by the time you get enough tension on them
to get this back against the body, it becomes very hard to break away with the whammy bar,
making it really hard to get a nice smooth
vibrato-y kind of action with your whammy bar.
The way that I overcame this was by discovering the springs that I have in here, which are called Raw Vintage.
I think they're imported, and the basic idea is these springs are made not to modern specs,
but they're made to old specs.
They're made to have the lesser tension that springs were made with back when guitars were first being made.
[N]
That has two
advantages.
It means that you can use all five of your springs,
which they say adds more beef to your tone.
It makes it meatier.
I have no idea,
but using five springs back here theoretically would have more points where it's applying pressure across here,
you know, whatever.
Five springs seems like a good idea to me.
But the other benefit that you get is because these have less tension, [Ebm] it means
that when you get your bridge plate set back against the body,
your breakaway force is a lot less.
This is the biggest difference that I've noticed.
Now I can have a blocked tremolo
back against the bridge, back against the body, and I can still
[F] have [Ebm]
all the advantages of the blocked tremolo without the disadvantage of the
monster strength needed to break it away.
So the bottom line is I use Raw Vintage springs in the back of my [Bbm] strats
because they're lower tension and they allow me to have all five springs while simultaneously using less force to break away
[Eb]
the bridge from the body.
So anyway, that's how I set up the tremolo on my guitar.
I hope that's useful to you
and thanks for watching.
It's time for Tone Tuesday.
This week
I'm going to talk about the tremolo on my strats.
Somebody recently asked me if I prefer it floating or
blocked.
The answer is blocked, always blocked, and I'm going to try and explain why I play it that way and
also how I've managed to do that while still having good use of the whammy bar.
Let's start with the alternative, the dark side, which is the floating tremolo.
For those of you
who don't know, go into any guitar center and look at the strat and you will see it floating off of the body
by no less than this and oftentimes as much as that, depending on what
person, I'll use a nice word, person set up the guitar.
I have no idea why anybody thinks that's a reasonable setup for guitar.
Let me just put a little disclaimer in here.
I know about all of the different ways that you can stabilize things and everything like that,
but a default vanilla strat off the shelf set up like that is a very very unstable instrument
and I would never use it that way.
So why would anybody use a floating tremolo to begin with?
Well, the main advantage is that when you use your whammy [Dm] bar,
having it [N] floating means that you can go down in pitch and
up in pitch.
So if you pretend that my hand is not here on the tremolo bar right now,
and if that's how the bridge looks by default because of the tension of the springs in the back and all that kind of stuff,
it means that when you touch the whammy bar,
you can go forward and backward and get a variance in pitch both above and below the center note.
Now, why wouldn't you use a floating tremolo?
Well, I'm gonna try and keep this video short, but I could talk about this for a long time.
Number one, when you've got something here that is basically
being held in place by tension this way from the strings and tension on the [E] back from the springs,
it is inherently unstable.
When you have a floating trem,
you can put yourself out of tune just by resting your hand on it.
Not to mention when you go to tune it up, as you tune up your low string, that pulls on it more,
which pulls everything else out of tune.
So trying to tune a guitar
that has the tremolo set like this is
more than three times as difficult as tuning a guitar with a blocked tremolo.
So tuning
difficulty is the first thing.
Number two is, because of the style of music I play,
I do a lot of bending.
And when you bend a string on a guitar with a floating tremolo,
as you bend the string, you're pulling,
you're applying more tension
[Gb]
to that bridge saddle, which can pull it out of tune.
So if you're trying to do like a big, you know,
two whole step Albert King bend where you're really bending the string up like this, if your tremolo is set to floating, as you
bend, you can actually
be fighting yourself.
You're trying to bend up high,
so you're pushing on the string, which increases tension to the bridge, which pulls it farther front, which lowers your pitch.
So because I don't like to fight with myself, I would never use a floating tremolo
[G] for those reasons.
And then the last reason, which is a little bit more subjective,
is that when you have your tremolo floating like that, your only point of contact with the body is through these screws here.
And the
generally accepted wisdom is that the firmer the contact between the bridge and the body, the better transfer of vibration, better sustain.
That's a little bit more subjective, but the tuning and the bending thing are the big reasons why I'd never use a floating tremolo.
Now let's move on to talk about the alternative, the way that I use it, the blocked tremolo.
This is not without its
problems, but I'll talk about that in a little bit.
Let's first talk about the advantages of a blocked tremolo.
Number one,
you don't have any of this funny business up here.
Your tremolo is not going anywhere until you actually apply the whammy bar.
That makes it a lot more stable to tune, that makes it a lot more stable to bend.
So what, oh, and then if you want to get into sustain, having a firmer contact between the bridge and the body can transfer
vibration better, all that good stuff.
But what is the problem with this whole [B] arrangement here?
Well, that brings us to our springs, because the only way to get
that back against the body like that is to have your [E] springs pulled tight.
And
the only way to get your springs pulled [Ebm] tight is to screw this in, which pulls the strings tighter, which pulls the bridge back
against the body.
Most standard,
well, pretty much the springs that you get on any new Strat are new
springs, and they have a lot of tension.
So you actually only really need
about three or four springs pulled tightly to get that bridge back against the body.
The problem with that is that the strings are so strong that by the time you get enough tension on them
to get this back against the body, it becomes very hard to break away with the whammy bar,
making it really hard to get a nice smooth
vibrato-y kind of action with your whammy bar.
The way that I overcame this was by discovering the springs that I have in here, which are called Raw Vintage.
I think they're imported, and the basic idea is these springs are made not to modern specs,
but they're made to old specs.
They're made to have the lesser tension that springs were made with back when guitars were first being made.
[N]
That has two
advantages.
It means that you can use all five of your springs,
which they say adds more beef to your tone.
It makes it meatier.
I have no idea,
but using five springs back here theoretically would have more points where it's applying pressure across here,
you know, whatever.
Five springs seems like a good idea to me.
But the other benefit that you get is because these have less tension, [Ebm] it means
that when you get your bridge plate set back against the body,
your breakaway force is a lot less.
This is the biggest difference that I've noticed.
Now I can have a blocked tremolo
back against the bridge, back against the body, and I can still
[F] have [Ebm]
all the advantages of the blocked tremolo without the disadvantage of the
monster strength needed to break it away.
So the bottom line is I use Raw Vintage springs in the back of my [Bbm] strats
because they're lower tension and they allow me to have all five springs while simultaneously using less force to break away
[Eb]
the bridge from the body.
So anyway, that's how I set up the tremolo on my guitar.
I hope that's useful to you
and thanks for watching.
Key:
Ebm
E
Dm
Gb
G
Ebm
E
Dm
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Hey blues fans, this is Anthony from Texas Blues Alley.
It's time for Tone Tuesday.
This week
I'm going to talk about the tremolo on my strats.
Somebody recently asked me if I prefer it floating or
blocked.
The answer is blocked, always blocked, and I'm going to try and explain why I play it that way and
also how I've managed to do that while still having good use of the whammy bar.
Let's start with the alternative, the dark side, which is the floating tremolo.
For those of you
who don't know, go into any guitar center and look at the strat and you will see it floating off of the body
_ by no less than this and oftentimes as much as that, depending on what
_ _ person, I'll use a nice word, person set up the guitar.
I have no idea why anybody thinks that's a reasonable setup for guitar.
Let me just put a little disclaimer in here.
I know about all of the different ways that you can stabilize things and everything like that,
but a default vanilla strat off the shelf set up like that is a very very unstable instrument
and I would never use it that way.
So why would anybody use a floating tremolo to begin with?
Well, the main advantage is that when you use your whammy [Dm] bar,
having it [N] floating means that you can go down in pitch and
up in pitch.
So if you pretend that my hand is not here on the tremolo bar right now,
and if that's how the bridge looks by default because of the tension of the springs in the back and all that kind of stuff,
it means that when you touch the whammy bar,
you can go forward and backward and get a variance in pitch both above and below the center note.
Now, why wouldn't you use a floating tremolo?
Well, I'm gonna try and keep this video short, but I could talk about this for a long time.
Number one, when you've got something here that is basically
_ being held in place by tension this way from the strings and tension on the [E] back from the springs,
it is inherently unstable.
When you have a floating trem,
you can put yourself out of tune just by resting your hand on it.
Not to mention when you go to tune it up, as you tune up your low string, that pulls on it more,
which pulls everything else out of tune.
So trying to tune a guitar
that has the tremolo set like this is
more than three times as difficult as tuning a guitar with a blocked tremolo.
So tuning
difficulty is the first thing.
Number two is, because of the style of music I play,
I do a lot of bending.
And when you bend a string on a guitar with a floating tremolo,
as you bend the string, you're pulling,
_ you're applying more tension
[Gb]
to that bridge saddle, which can pull it out of tune.
So if you're trying to do like a big, you know,
two whole step Albert King bend where you're really bending the string up like this, if your tremolo is set to floating, as you
bend, you can actually
be fighting yourself.
You're trying to bend up high,
so you're pushing on the string, which increases tension to the bridge, which pulls it farther front, which lowers your pitch.
So because I don't like to fight with myself, I would never use a floating tremolo
[G] for those reasons.
And then the last reason, which is a little bit more subjective,
is that when you have your tremolo floating like that, your only point of contact with the body is through these screws here.
And the
_ generally accepted wisdom is that the firmer the contact between the bridge and the body, the better transfer of vibration, better sustain.
That's a little bit more subjective, but the tuning and the bending thing are the big reasons why I'd never use a floating tremolo.
Now let's move on to talk about the alternative, the way that I use it, the blocked tremolo.
This is not without its
problems, but I'll talk about that in a little bit.
Let's first talk about the advantages of a blocked tremolo.
Number one,
you don't have any of this funny business up here.
Your tremolo is not going anywhere until you actually apply the whammy bar.
That makes it a lot more stable to tune, that makes it a lot more stable to bend.
So what, oh, and then if you want to get into sustain, having a firmer contact between the bridge and the body can transfer
vibration better, all that good stuff.
But what is the problem with this whole [B] arrangement here?
Well, that brings us to our springs, because the only way to get
that back against the body like that is to have your [E] springs pulled tight.
_ And _
the only way to get your springs pulled [Ebm] tight is to screw this in, which pulls the strings tighter, which pulls the bridge back
against the body.
Most standard,
well, pretty much the springs that you get on any new Strat are new
springs, and they have a lot of tension.
So you actually only really need
about three or four springs pulled tightly to get that bridge back against the body.
The problem with that is that the strings are so strong that by the time you get enough tension on them
to get this back against the body, it becomes very hard to break away with the whammy bar,
making it really hard to get a nice smooth
vibrato-y kind of action with your whammy bar.
The way that I overcame this was by discovering the springs that I have in here, which are called Raw Vintage.
I think they're imported, and the basic idea is these springs are made not to modern specs,
but they're made to old specs.
They're made to have the lesser tension that springs were made with back when guitars were first being made.
[N]
That has two
advantages.
It means that you can use all five of your springs,
which they say adds more beef to your tone.
It makes it meatier.
I have no idea,
but using five springs back here theoretically would have more points where it's applying pressure across here,
you know, whatever.
Five springs seems like a good _ idea to me.
But the other benefit that you get is because these have less tension, _ [Ebm] it means
that when you get your bridge plate set back against the body,
your breakaway force is a lot less.
This is the biggest difference that I've noticed.
Now I can have a blocked tremolo
back against the bridge, back against the body, and I can still _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] have [Ebm] _ _ _ _
all the advantages of the blocked tremolo without the disadvantage of the
monster strength needed to break it away.
So the bottom line is I use Raw Vintage springs in the back of my [Bbm] strats
_ because they're lower tension and they allow me to have all five springs while simultaneously using less force to break away
[Eb] _
the bridge from the body.
So anyway, that's how I set up the tremolo on my guitar.
I hope that's useful to you
and thanks for watching. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Hey blues fans, this is Anthony from Texas Blues Alley.
It's time for Tone Tuesday.
This week
I'm going to talk about the tremolo on my strats.
Somebody recently asked me if I prefer it floating or
blocked.
The answer is blocked, always blocked, and I'm going to try and explain why I play it that way and
also how I've managed to do that while still having good use of the whammy bar.
Let's start with the alternative, the dark side, which is the floating tremolo.
For those of you
who don't know, go into any guitar center and look at the strat and you will see it floating off of the body
_ by no less than this and oftentimes as much as that, depending on what
_ _ person, I'll use a nice word, person set up the guitar.
I have no idea why anybody thinks that's a reasonable setup for guitar.
Let me just put a little disclaimer in here.
I know about all of the different ways that you can stabilize things and everything like that,
but a default vanilla strat off the shelf set up like that is a very very unstable instrument
and I would never use it that way.
So why would anybody use a floating tremolo to begin with?
Well, the main advantage is that when you use your whammy [Dm] bar,
having it [N] floating means that you can go down in pitch and
up in pitch.
So if you pretend that my hand is not here on the tremolo bar right now,
and if that's how the bridge looks by default because of the tension of the springs in the back and all that kind of stuff,
it means that when you touch the whammy bar,
you can go forward and backward and get a variance in pitch both above and below the center note.
Now, why wouldn't you use a floating tremolo?
Well, I'm gonna try and keep this video short, but I could talk about this for a long time.
Number one, when you've got something here that is basically
_ being held in place by tension this way from the strings and tension on the [E] back from the springs,
it is inherently unstable.
When you have a floating trem,
you can put yourself out of tune just by resting your hand on it.
Not to mention when you go to tune it up, as you tune up your low string, that pulls on it more,
which pulls everything else out of tune.
So trying to tune a guitar
that has the tremolo set like this is
more than three times as difficult as tuning a guitar with a blocked tremolo.
So tuning
difficulty is the first thing.
Number two is, because of the style of music I play,
I do a lot of bending.
And when you bend a string on a guitar with a floating tremolo,
as you bend the string, you're pulling,
_ you're applying more tension
[Gb]
to that bridge saddle, which can pull it out of tune.
So if you're trying to do like a big, you know,
two whole step Albert King bend where you're really bending the string up like this, if your tremolo is set to floating, as you
bend, you can actually
be fighting yourself.
You're trying to bend up high,
so you're pushing on the string, which increases tension to the bridge, which pulls it farther front, which lowers your pitch.
So because I don't like to fight with myself, I would never use a floating tremolo
[G] for those reasons.
And then the last reason, which is a little bit more subjective,
is that when you have your tremolo floating like that, your only point of contact with the body is through these screws here.
And the
_ generally accepted wisdom is that the firmer the contact between the bridge and the body, the better transfer of vibration, better sustain.
That's a little bit more subjective, but the tuning and the bending thing are the big reasons why I'd never use a floating tremolo.
Now let's move on to talk about the alternative, the way that I use it, the blocked tremolo.
This is not without its
problems, but I'll talk about that in a little bit.
Let's first talk about the advantages of a blocked tremolo.
Number one,
you don't have any of this funny business up here.
Your tremolo is not going anywhere until you actually apply the whammy bar.
That makes it a lot more stable to tune, that makes it a lot more stable to bend.
So what, oh, and then if you want to get into sustain, having a firmer contact between the bridge and the body can transfer
vibration better, all that good stuff.
But what is the problem with this whole [B] arrangement here?
Well, that brings us to our springs, because the only way to get
that back against the body like that is to have your [E] springs pulled tight.
_ And _
the only way to get your springs pulled [Ebm] tight is to screw this in, which pulls the strings tighter, which pulls the bridge back
against the body.
Most standard,
well, pretty much the springs that you get on any new Strat are new
springs, and they have a lot of tension.
So you actually only really need
about three or four springs pulled tightly to get that bridge back against the body.
The problem with that is that the strings are so strong that by the time you get enough tension on them
to get this back against the body, it becomes very hard to break away with the whammy bar,
making it really hard to get a nice smooth
vibrato-y kind of action with your whammy bar.
The way that I overcame this was by discovering the springs that I have in here, which are called Raw Vintage.
I think they're imported, and the basic idea is these springs are made not to modern specs,
but they're made to old specs.
They're made to have the lesser tension that springs were made with back when guitars were first being made.
[N]
That has two
advantages.
It means that you can use all five of your springs,
which they say adds more beef to your tone.
It makes it meatier.
I have no idea,
but using five springs back here theoretically would have more points where it's applying pressure across here,
you know, whatever.
Five springs seems like a good _ idea to me.
But the other benefit that you get is because these have less tension, _ [Ebm] it means
that when you get your bridge plate set back against the body,
your breakaway force is a lot less.
This is the biggest difference that I've noticed.
Now I can have a blocked tremolo
back against the bridge, back against the body, and I can still _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] have [Ebm] _ _ _ _
all the advantages of the blocked tremolo without the disadvantage of the
monster strength needed to break it away.
So the bottom line is I use Raw Vintage springs in the back of my [Bbm] strats
_ because they're lower tension and they allow me to have all five springs while simultaneously using less force to break away
[Eb] _
the bridge from the body.
So anyway, that's how I set up the tremolo on my guitar.
I hope that's useful to you
and thanks for watching. _ _ _ _ _