Anchoring and the Whammy Bar

Playing Technique
#1

Hey all, I’m hoping someone who makes a lot of use of their whammy bar could chime in here:

I used to mostly float my right hand, but after working through CTC exercises (upstroke escape with a lightly supinated wrist) I found I’m able to pick much faster and with more accuracy if I do a soft anchor with my fingers on the pick guard… the problem here is that if I want to periodically grab some Jeff Beckish style whammy lines where I’ve got to keep a light hold of the bar, I’m now essentially removing my anchor and the act of gripping the bar puts my wrist in a slightly pronated position… basically all my downward pick slanting control goes out the window.

Anyone here using the bar a lot? Have you found a picking movement that allows you to keep hold of the bar without losing speed/accuracy? Do you simply have to switch between modes of playing (i.e. let go of the bar for speed and then grab it for specific passages?

Any insight would be appreciated!

#2

I use it a fair bit, but I don’t tend to play anything that requires fast picking, so it doesn’t matter what happens to the picking. I tend to play legato when using the whammy as it has more of a vocal quality. I also have my whammy bar loose and floppy (insert joke here) instead of a fixed position so I really have to go for it. My bridge also floats so a lot of the time I put the bar backwards and and tap it to make it rise in pitch to add inflections.

I soft anchor too - just tried and I can still sort of play some picking ( I use mixed escapes). It might be a good idea to give examples of what you want to play whilst using the bar.

#3

Thanks for the reply!

As for the types of things I want to play - let’s say in the best case scenario I’d be mixing Eric Johnson style pentatonics with Jeff Beck whammy… specifically the stuff that mimics a slide… thrown in for color.

In the 40 minutes since posting this I went on a YouTube binge to see how other players are integrating the bar with their picked playing and tried a few different bar grips. Where I usually rest or wrap my ring and pinky over the bar (leading to my described problem) I found that if I place the bar in between my middle finger and ring finger, and then pick a bit closer to the bridge (maybe an inch, so that the part of the bar under my fingers is closer to the body rather than the angled up section) I can actually continue to anchor all my fingers. It’s only a little bit awkward feeling to have the bar in-between my fingers, and I get the feeling it will become more natural feeling as I continue using it. I’m able to pick much closer in speed and accuracy this way than my previous attempts.

A good example of the grip I’m talking about can be seen in this Vai performance (~0:56):

If anyone else has insights I’m grateful for you jumping in. For the time being I think I’ll try to work up the method I just described.

#4

Yeah, that is pretty much it really.

1 Like
#5

This is one of those times where I really wished we had good close up footage of a guy like Criss Oliva.