Six Slick Whammy Bar Tricks

The electric guitar is the best instrument ever created. Not only because of how cool it can sound, but also because of its unmatched versatility.

On top of the countless effects and stomp boxes we guitar players have at our disposal, there also are a few modifications that give us access to otherworldly noises, most notably a whammy bar.

The first thing to understand about this mechanism is the effect it can have on the bridge of your guitar. If you have a traditional bridge, proceed with caution. Whammy bars have a tendency to throw off intonation and the overall setup.

The tricks outlined in my video lesson below are performed using a Floyd Rose floating bridge, which protects the guitar against any tuning issues. As John Petrucci once said, “When using a whammy bar, it’s very easy to sound bad,” so keep that in mind as you work on these techniques, and don’t discouraged if you find your “angry neighing horse” trick sounds like a sad dying horse at first.

Tyler Larson is the founder of the guitar-centric brand Music is Win. His insightful, uncomplicated guitar lessons and gear demonstrations along with entertaining, satirical content about life as a musician receive tens of millions of video views per month across social media. Tyler is also the creator of the extremely popular online guitar learning platform, Guitar Super System. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tyler has been teaching guitar for over a decade and operates a production studio in Nashville, TN.