whammy bar

hey, some of my friends are telling me that if i use a whammy bar to much, it will stretch and ruin my strings..and i also wont be able to keep the guitar in tune..i was just wondering if this was true? :confused:

It all depends on what type of guitar you have. If you have a cheep guitar, and ride your whammy bar like your girlfriend, I'm pretty sure the springs might wear out. But if you have a nice one with a god tremolo, then I'm sure you wont be having any problems,

Your friends are just talking to look smart... would the whammy bar be invented if it ruins the strings... no


I dont think you have to worry about it!!!

Good playing!!! :)

then rather a cheap whammy bar then a cheap girlfriend :rolleyes: :p
I should check out mine to be sure it's a descent one, original Ibanez, but last time my strings weren't properly jammed..

GuitarPsy- then rather a cheap whammy bar then a cheap girlfriend

HA, thats a good one.

Do you have a tremolo on you ibanez??

Pretty much if you have a floyd rose, you got a good tremolo, in my opinion all the others are sorta, bad.....

got the RG370DX-BK: http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=RG370DX&color=0 with nice black tremolo, dunno what is what since english is my secondary language, so I could make a few mistakes in names :p

Whamming will not hurt your strings. You will eventually need new springs (in the back of your axe) however if you are worried about this try a Hipshot from www.Stewmac.com.

The only time your strings should stretch is when you first put them on.
After they are stretched in (after the first day or so depending on how hard you stretch 'em in), the next time they stretch will be the time they break !

The more frequent and violent use of the whammy bar , the more often you'll break your strings ... Exactly the same as more of normal daily playing (bending and stuff) will break the strings faster than playing the guitar every once in a while... That's pretty logical !
I donno why does people get worried about their strings ? :confused: I mean they have to break , they are like car oil or tires , use it more and you'll need more ... Just know how frequently you break strings , and try to change them before they break , cuz you don't wanna break an e-string during a gig .
Not to mention that dirty old strings only give crap tones.

If you have got a good locking tremolo system , setup correctly , you won't have to be worried about tuning , no matter how hard you play the whammy.

what about the bridges?

I have a strat with a vintage tremelo system and frquently use my whammy. I have never really thought of this, but does it mess up my bridge too?

No,don't worry.Ive been told using your trem to raise the pitch can harm the neck and everything...geez,you would think if that was the case then trems would come with a warning label.

If you don't use a floyd type trem,then it might go out of tune...Ive always had a hard time getting non-locking trems to serve their purpose well.

Originally Posted by: GuitarPsygot the Ibanez RG370DX-BK: http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=RG370DX&color=0 with nice black tremolo

can someone explain to me what a floyd type trem is? and if there's one on my guitar (see link in quote), thnx :)

I have a 20+ yr. old Strat with a Wilkenson trem bridge and never broke a string cuz of the whammy bar. Stays in tune. But I'm not too hard on it.

yea my strat harly ever goes out of tune once the strings have been settled in for like a week

personally Floyd Roses are overrated

I don't know if they are over rated...its the only way ive seen cheap guitars stay in tune through real whammy abuse.There is alot of crap for double locking trems out there though(low-end ibanez/jackson/bc rich/esp e.c.t)...besides the kahler's(which are tough to find) the original floyd rose/pro or ibanez edge/pro really are the best floating trems.

Originally Posted by: alucard0941
personally Floyd Roses are overrated

The Floyd Rose on the Ibanez I had noted in my sig is the reason I returned it. And the String locks. I'm on the hunt for another Ibanez with a fixed bridge.

Frequent use or even abuse of the whammy doesn't hurt your bridge , and Floyd Rose bridges aren't over-rated , they have more advantages than drawbacks , but it depends on what you're looking for , which is something personal of course.

Originally Posted by: GuitarPsycan someone explain to me what a floyd type trem is? and if there's one on my guitar (see link in quote), thnx :)

Scroll through this google hit: http://www.google.com/search?q=Floyd+Rose+tremolo+explained&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

I think you have an Edge Pro, or Edge Pro II; far's I understand, Ibanez used the Floyd system and came up with the Edge system to better lock the strings and the trem returns back to zero point w/out too much loss in tuning. Sweet looking /sounding guitar you have. I had the same one w/out the single coil middle p/up. I popped about 9 E strings the first 3 days I had it, so I'm done with any type of floating bridge. I'm looking at an RG321, w/a fixed bridge. I'm concerned it's a cheapo model though, so I'm still thinking about it. It's hard to find an RG model with a fixed bridge! :confused:

PS: oh, yeah, and the string locks at the nut drove me crazy too! So, no string locks for me either, which narrowed my search down even more.