Guitar Lesson Hot Topic: Tremelo vs. Hard-Tail Bridge
In my guitar lessons @Arcadia Music Studio in Concord I enjoy answering the questions of my students, our fans, and people who are are curious about the guitar. A guitar player I know recently asked me to compare the two basic bridge types found on electric guitars. The bridge is the lower part of the guitar where the strings are anchored and then pass over a bridge saddle.
Hard-Tail or Fixed Bridge:
This type of bridge is attached to the body of the guitar in a fixed position. It offers great stability and if massive enough, can generate tremendous sustain at performance volume. Most electric guitar bridges will have an individual adjustable saddle for every string. This allows quite a range for individual string height and guarantees the maximization of each string’s intonation.
The advantage is one of stability under maximum stress, like a lead player dripping sweat over his Les Paul, beating the holy hannah out of the guitar and getting the most excellent sound and response one could imagine.
Tremelo
I like to pronounce it “tre-MO-lo”, instead of “TRE-me-lo”, because it makes me feel more continental and worldly-wise. This type of bridge is most frequently found on Stratocasters, Charvels, Jacksons, and a plethora of other models. The bridge “floats” or pivots on the top of the guitar, and is connected to the body of the guitar with heavy springs. The tension of the strings tuned to pitch then counter-balances the spring tension, allowing the bridge to rock back and forth. When you pick a string and rock the bridge the pitch of the note will go up or down, creating a unique sonic effect.
Also referred to as a “whammy bar”, one can mimic a motorcycle taking off, a dive-bomber blitzing the ground, or just make a note shimmer a little bit. The tremelo bridge has been a little harder to handle because the strings actually move over the saddles and through the nut, and usually go a little out of tune with repeated use. The “evil G string” on the Strat is notorious for going sharp when whammied, and the low E string often will sound slightly pitch anomalous in a hard rock setting.
One can create a separate peace with a tremelo bridge and learn to use it effectively while maintaining a fairly good sense of intonation. It just takes a little practice to learn how to palm-mute without pushing down on the bridge to make the notes go out of tune.
As a professional music instructor, I feel very responsible to translate my stage experience in Li’l Ricky Blues into understandable bites in order to help my students become better players and musicians. And now I want to extend that service to you – I invite you to email me a question you may have about the guitar, or suggest a topic in music you’d like me to write about. My students and I are always talking of the ways and means for them to have fun by playing better in the private guitar lessons I offer at Arcadia Music Studio in Concord, CA. Tune in next week for the next series of articles.
