How often did Brian actually uses the Tremolo bar during his playing.. live and studio recordings??? When you are just an amature air guitarist jaming to his solos, you think he uses it all the time but when you actually focus in on his playing on videos and some of the live show. He actually doesn't seem to use it all that often...
There seems to be a bit of a debate amongst various people online regarding skill or lack of skill using the whammy bar/bending strings... What are your guys thoughts and opinions using or not using the Tremolo bar..?
Shows Brian is able to get many of his sounds without the use of the Tremolo bar...
His real guitar uses a floating bridge like set up, does it not?
Technically there are many ways to pitch a bend with a floating bridge. He could just arc his long arm around the bridge. (*seemed to use a bit)
I don't know. Never played his true custom/Replicas...only the Burns which is considerably different.
He uses it pretty regularly. Usually at the end of sections (choruses, end of song). He often holds it while playing arpeggio chords during slower songs like White Queen.
He even gently whacks it consecutively sometimes whilst holding a full chord to get an interesting effect - good example at Wembley but I can't think of the song.
matt z wrote:
His real guitar uses a floating bridge like set up, does it not?
I don't know. Never played his true custom/Replicas...only the Burns which is considerably different.
No, the bridge is screwed to the body, the strings pass through six rollers which are designed to reduce friction. The trem system itself is a couple of inches behind the bridge. It rocks on a knife edge and pushes back on two large springs on bolts which run through the trem block and into the body under the bridge.
The trem does float (meaning you can raise or lower the pitch) but because the bridge is static you can dampen the strings with your palm over the bridge without causing the trem to move and change pitch, something that is (almost) impossible to do with a strat style trem if it is set to float. It was about another 15 years before Floyd Rose addressed the problem producing a separate trem block and bridge in a single unit.
If you watch him play he uses the trem A LOT, just little touches and flourishes to make the sound more fluid. He does it without thinking sometimes watch the StarLicks vid, he can't even demo the chorus with accidentally using the trem.
His trem is much much nicer to use than any I've played, Strats are stiff and unresponsive compared to it, Bigsby and well bigsby, and Floyd Rose are pretty nice, but they don't have the feel his has, which i personally think adds a huge amount to his guitar style and was way ahead of it's time.
The only issue with his guitar is the lack of ability to adjust the action without major surgery to the instrument, raising the height is fairly easy but lowering it can be a pain
^^^ Togg has something here. Brian and maybe Jeff Beck are the only two guitarists I can think of who use the trem as part of the guitar and their natural playing, almost everyone else seems to make it a feature when they use it, almost like it has an on off switch!
Another thing that Brian does, and I think most wouldn't be aware of it, two or three times during a gig he'll turn the volume pot down depress the trem arm and let it float back up to bring strings back to pitch if they've gone out slightly.
I watched an interview recently where Brian May said he often just hold it in while playing, the tremolo arm, that is ;)
...I ordered the tremolo arm about a year ago from Brian May Guitars, it still hasn't showed up (order in process). Annoying!
When I was a kid I remember him using the tremolo stick during the echo pedal conversation on the guitar solo (I think it was Rio?) - the bit that goes Guitar: Dah Dah! echo: Dah Dah! Guitar: Dah Dah! echo: Dah Dah! etc. In my childish mind I though that it was the whammy bar making the echo.
There was no internet then so I thought that for years.
Was kind of disappointed when I got my first electric guitar.
Although not as disappointed as my mum's ears.
Brian grew up listening to Hank Marvin, and so his playing style was heavily influenced by Hank, who I'd say pretty well made the trem his own. my guess is the Jeff Beck also was pretty influenced by Hank as well
ITSM, you can get great trems from places like th Cyber Shop