Provided that the Tremol-No is installed correctly, it does provide the benefits you would expect from it. Switching it to hardtail mode lets you set up your guitar, change intonation or switch tunings with ease. On top of that, tuning stability is better, unison bends are easier to execute and your guitar will not go out of tune anymore when you rest your palm on the trem bridge. To help you with this, I have created a more detailed post on how you can install a tremol-no system yourself at home. Of course, you can also choose to have a skilled guitar tech/luthier take care of it for you. The pedal will fluctuate the pitch of your signal before it gets to your amplifier, giving you that distinct vibrato sound. There’s a few different ways you can play vibrato on an electric guitar: hand vibrato, using a vibrato system, or using an effects pedal. Hand vibrato

Vibrato can be achieved by either doing hand vibrato, using a vibrato system, or by using a vibrato effects pedal Simply connect your guitar to the pedals input and your amplifier to the pedals output, and you’re good to go! The Deep-C clamp (pictured on the left with the thumbscrew in it) is equally easy to use. Position it up the sliding arm to allow dive-only movement of the tremolo, or move it out of the way (as pictured) if you want the tremolo to have its full range of motion. Compatibility While the Tremol-No kit does include spare screws, it would have been better if the screws came with pre-applied Loctite from the factory. This would absorb the vibrations and prevent the screws from coming loose. Top tip: Not all guitars have vibrato systems installed. Standard Les Paul models, and other hardtail guitars, don’t have this functionality. Using vibrato pedals

Trem Stoppers and Stabilizers

Then, with the bar above the guitar strings, play a chord and move the bar up and down. You don’t need to press it down hard, a little movement will give you the vibrato effect. Remember, tremolo is to do with rapid changes in volume. A “tremolo bar” (more accurately called a vibrato system) actually produces vibrato. So happy to see confirmation that this works. I bought a used OG FR with a D-Tuna on it (nice freebie, I thought), routed away without a second thought. Had no idea a floating bridge didn’t work with it, although it seems pretty damn obvious now! But, if you don’t have a tremolo effect built in, don’t worry! There are guitar effects pedals that are specifically designed to produce tremolo.

If used to its extremes, vibrato can create a thrilling effect that can really draw attention to a note and make it stand out. It’s a very common mistake that people make, which isn’t helped by guitar manufacturers still using the wrong terms today. Using the Tremol-No is fairly straightforward. Switching the bridge from hardtail to floating (or vice versa) is easy and takes mere seconds. Anyone can do it. When combined with other effects, like pinch harmonics, you can get an effect that would be at home in any heavy metal solo. So, you might have heard that guitars sometimes have tremolo bars (sometimes called a tremolo arm or whammy bar, but it’s the same thing): these do not produce tremolo.I’ve recorded this short clip to show you what this type of tremolo sounds like. Listen to how the tremolo makes the ringing out chords tremble. Like tremolo, vibrato is a technique that alternates a sound up and down. But, instead of volume, it’s an alternation in pitch. Most of the time, vibrato sounds like a slight “wobble” in the sound that’s a much subtler effect than tremolo.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s an easy mistake to make as both can sound quite similar, and it’s also not helped by the music industry (I’m looking at you, “tremolo arm”!). Because there's now a 'stop-point', tightening the springs provides extra tension on that side of the tremolo-scale without being able to upset the balance and pull the bridge sharp—it can't move past the stop. The extra spring tension imparts more 'resistance' to bending and fluttering on the string side. The trade-off is you're now dive-only.I have installed Tremol-Nos in various guitars and have not run into any compatibility issues so far. All popular tremolo systems are supported, even though you do need to make sure that the Tremol-No model you use is compatible with the tremolo system. More on that later. I’ve made a recording showing this. This is just one example of how I use vibrato to make notes more interesting! How to play vibrato on your guitar

These stops do their job pretty well but they're a set-it-and-forget-it sort of deal. You can remove it easily but it's not adjustable on the fly. The Tremol-NoSome guitars, you can set up like this relatively easily. If you can put the bridge-base flat to the guitar top and give the springs a bit of a tighten, you’ll eliminate some of the problems of a fully-floating tremolo. You’ll still be able to dive and wobble the bridge about but you won’t be able to pull up beyond the strings’ usual pitch. Tremolo and vibrato are both what’s known as “modulation” effects, meaning that they both change your guitar’s signal to produce an effect.