onboard vibrato/tremolo for an electric guitar

Hi,

My electric doesn't have a tremolo bridge so I was wondering if it is possible to build a mini circuit (that can fit in the back routed out section) to simulate a whammy bar going up and down with a potentiometer going back and forth.

Electronically, how do you change the frequency of a sine-wave?

And why are the terms tremolo and vibrato so confused? According to wikipedia, they are interchangeable for meaning two things, amplitude variation and frequency variation.

Not really, especially not a valve one :grin: :grin: :grin:

It would need to be digital, and therefore not "mini", so I would just have a tremolo gadget fixed to your guitar.
Stephen

If you want simple vibrato (periodic limited frequency modulation), you can use a slighlty reconfigured phase shifter (see Rod Elliott's Project 49). If you want to emulate a vibrato tailpiece, buy a Digitech Whammy pedal - as Stephen points out, it'll take DSP to do it, making it somewhat less than DIY-friendly.

[quote author="Mailliw"]

And why are the terms tremolo and vibrato so confused? According to wikipedia, they are interchangeable for meaning two things, amplitude variation and frequency variation.[/quote]

The use of tremolo when meaning vibrato is really a mistake, but maybe one prevalent enough to have the lexicographers forced to acknowledge it as an alternative.

[quote author="Mailliw"]And why are the terms tremolo and vibrato so confused?[/quote]

Just out of curiosity, what makes you think there's any confussion? Personally, other than some "vibrato" knobs on some guitar amps, I don't think I've encountered much confusion at all...

Peace,
Al.

Magnatones Vibrato circuit could be easily adapted to solid state and stuck into a guitar, it does not sound like a bigsby or anyting, but it sounds pretty nice. Most guitars can have a vibrato tailpiece installed quite simply. Even the tune-o-matic bridge with stop tailpiece now has a replacement for the stop tail piece that takes no tools to install and gives you the vibrato. What kind of guitar/bridge do you have anyways?

The trerms vibrato and tromolo are so confused in the guitar world because of Fender, there were already amps with tremolo, and guitars with vibrato, so they labled their amps vibrato and their guitars tremolo. Or so the rumors say.

adam

In the classical world, vibrato means changing the pitch of the note, and tremolo is playing a note very fast. ( think suspenseful scene in a movie)

I was confused when I moved from electric to upright bass myself.. :? I had just read a book by John Patituci about the electric bass and he used the word "tremolo" to describe vibrato.

Shame on John! Heluva bass player though :green:

[quote author="adamasd"]
The trerms vibrato and tromolo are so confused in the guitar world because of Fender, there were already amps with tremolo, and guitars with vibrato, so they labled their amps vibrato and their guitars tremolo. Or so the rumors say.

adam[/quote]

I dont know the lineage off hand, but the vibrato that is in a few fender amps, the circuit from the brown pro- that sounds like pitch modulation, sounds kinda like a phaser more than a trem. Its definitley different than the magnatone but its more vibrato than trem. If that circuit came first, that might be the explanation, but off hand I have no clue.

dave

[quote author="adamasd"]What kind of guitar/bridge do you have anyways?
[/quote]

Its a Godin LG and it has a schaller bridge and strings through the body:

I dont know the lineage off hand, but the vibrato that is in a few fender amps, the circuit from the brown pro- that sounds like pitch modulation, sounds kinda like a phaser more than a trem. Its definitley different than the magnatone but its more vibrato than trem. If that circuit came first, that might be the explanation, but off hand I have no clue.

Click to expand...

Been wanting to build that circuit for years but it hasn't been done yet. IIRIC I thought there was also a relation to VOX.