Maybe a weird question but... how to hold the tremolo arm?

Jeremiah

Tremolo, vibrato, whammy bar, whatever you call it, it's something on a guitar I've largely ignored until my recent foray into surf rock.

I'm struggling to get to grips with the best way to hold the bar when I do want to use it; it's fine when I just want to grab it to do a wobble at the end of a chord or something, but when I actually want to use the vibrato effect when playing, I feel that holding the bar puts my hand too far away from the strings to pick comfortably and accurately.

I've also seen people on Youtube just resting the ends of their fingers on the bar and pressing down rather than actually holding it, but I find this tricky too as the angle on the end part of the bar is steep enough that my fingers want to slide down towards the bridge.

The guitar I'm using is a Yamaha Pacifica with a Wilkinson 2-post tremolo, I'm guessing the technique would be a bit different for something like a Jazzmaster where the arm is in a different position relative to the bridge and the pivot point is a way back.

Musicwolf

On my Strat I have shortened the arm (a la Dave Gilmour) which means that the tip fits comfortably into the palm of my hand.  I tried a similar mod on a PRS but it just didn’t work, so I guess that it depends upon the guitar.

maltingsaudio

If your new to all this,you’ll probably be finding the arm itself is in the wrong position for you to use it comfortably. Don’t be afraid to gently bend it so it’s it’s in a more useful position. I normally use pinky and ring to feather it for gentle vibrato effects. If the arm is miles away it’s not possible so a gentle adjustment is called for

Hattigol

The answer is.....however works best for you.
No right or wrong, look at SRV.

tanihhiavlt

I've only recently got into using the trem any - partly as I have an 84 strat (they go out of tune when tremelo'd any) .. but the Suhr classic S has a Gotoh 510 bridge and that'll beat a Freeflyte trem every day..

One of the biggest nuisances for me is the inability to get at the pickup selector fast enough.. I like to be able to switch mid lick and the trem is at exactly the wrong height for that  

My heroes for trem work would be Jeff Beck, Jan Cyrka and Scott Henderson, Jeff has his trem arm at around a 110 degrees where a vintage trem is at 90 degress. it makes the trem arm end further from the body..