So what's with all this neck shaking business?

lovestrat74

This is how it's done ..

Fretwired

darius said:

Why does everyone with a youtube channel feel the need to shake their guitar necks, resulting in totally no effect? 
Tremelo arm anyone?

Get a Marshall  amp, crank it take your guitar and shake the neck .. it was a trick of Hendrix to create sonic mayhem .. as per the @JohnPerry ; post above ...

tone1

Strat54 said:

Think I just wet myself at this. Wasn't even looking for an example, but here you goes....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vRnAqRojtQ

That is hilarious.... It reminds me of a line in the film Cool Hand Luke.....’Keep Shaking the Bush Boss’ 

https://youtu.be/G7QwTTn3FIk

clarkefan

darius said:

I think its the 'all the bloody time' element of the waggling that irks me so. 
There's only really one time it should be used. And that is if you are playing the last note of Sweet Child of Mine and you are Slash. One massive bend. No waggle.

I remember watching a clip of Slash doing that while I was playing my Les Paul, and thinking, easy for you mate, you're rich

historyisjunk

Seems a pretty legitimate technique to me. Several of my favourite players use it a lot- (Colin Cripps is no poseur)

In fact back in the 70's Fender made a lot of guitars with extra large neck pockets to facilitate it.

Bebopper

Bill Frisell and Jim Campilongo are both masters of this as an expressive device.

Frisell talks about it here at 26:35.

Grumpyrocker

historyisjunk said:

Seems a pretty legitimate technique to me. Several of my favourite players use it a lot- (Colin Cripps is no poseur)

In fact back in the 70's Fender made a lot of guitars with extra large neck pockets to facilitate it.

Most of the times I've seen it online - and there's a lot of it online - it's just a bit of a waggle combined with an earnest gurn that achieves absolutely nothing at all.

I don't there's some obscure technique that some have used, but I don't think we're talking about the same thing. 

Johnnyseven

I assumed it was simply just a way of making someone sat down playing a guitar on their lap look a bit more exciting.

It doesn't annoy me as much as the eternal fiddling with volume/tone pot to find the holy grail of tone.

carlos

Some of the videos on this thread are not holding the body before vibratoing the neck. Overall I wouldn't recommend doing anything that puts any extra stress on the neck joint.

Fortheloveofguitar

Johnnyseven said:

I assumed it was simply just a way of making someone sat down playing a guitar on their lap look a bit more exciting.

It doesn't annoy me as much as the eternal fiddling with volume/tone pot to find the holy grail of tone.

Aye Chris Buck annoys the crap out of me by adjusting the volume knob every 3 seconds 

Cirrus

It depends on the guitar as to whether it does much. On my Explorer it does - quite a thin neck and the fin that sticks out to the right adds a counterweight which helps the body resist movement. I like it for getting slower tremolo than is comfortable to get with fingers. Also, pulling the neck back while hitting a note hard helps the attack go sharp which can sound exciting in the right context (less so for more technical styles where it'll just sound out of tune).

It feels quite safe to me. Nothing like bending the neck via pushing the headstock because when you do that, you're forcing it. When you're just pulling the neck back and forth it's self limiting - the whole guitar is free to move, and the harder you "wiggle" the quicker the body will move to reduce tension at the neck join.

Grumpyrocker

Fortheloveofguitar said:

Johnnyseven said:

I assumed it was simply just a way of making someone sat down playing a guitar on their lap look a bit more exciting.

It doesn't annoy me as much as the eternal fiddling with volume/tone pot to find the holy grail of tone.

Aye Chris Buck annoys the crap out of me by adjusting the volume knob every 3 seconds 

It reminds me of Nigel Tufnell adjusting the tuning on the violin he plays the guitar with. 

chrisj1602

I suppose it’s the modern day equivalent of windmilling...

TeleMaster

I honestly cannot stand these orgasmic facial expressions on these videos too. It’s so put on and excruciating. 

MagicPigDetective

TeleMaster said:

I honestly cannot stand these orgasmic facial expressions on these videos too. It’s so put on and excruciating. 

Do they do it when no one is watching?

TeleMaster

MagicPigDetective said:

TeleMaster said:

I honestly cannot stand these orgasmic facial expressions on these videos too. It’s so put on and excruciating. 

Do they do it when no one is watching?

I’m sure they do. Just not when playing guitar. 

Whitecat

If you don't like something on a YouTube video the best thing to do is to leave a measured, reasoned comment below it, it's a great area of the internet for level-headed debate that is both respectful and insightful.

guitars4you

True story - But I once had a customer wanting a refund on his guitar that he'd purchased the day before - Because when he held the headstock facia and moved it to/fro it caused such a 'tremelo/vibration' 

DrJazzTap

It's facial gurning I've never understood. Perhaps im a tad self conscious!

zepp76

darius said:

I think its the 'all the bloody time' element of the waggling that irks me so. 
There's only really one time it should be used. And that is if you are playing the last note of Sweet Child of Mine and you are Slash. One massive bend. No waggle.

@darius  I've recently read Slash's autobiography and he mentions doing this one time and the neck just exploded in his hands, it just shattered apparently!