Nice one, I tend to always use that trick, I think Vai calls them Grace Notes, you can do them by tapping your whammy bar downwards (lowering pitch) and flicking it backwards (raising pitch). It gives each note you play a slight modulation in pitch. VERY NICE WITH SLIDES!
Here are my contributions...
Number one.
I think Stach calls this the Down the lizard throat, starting from a low note, slide it upwards the neck. Do this and push down your whammy bar at the same time trying to maintain the pitch of your original note.
Number two.
An old take from Eddie Van Halen, hammer on and pull off between two notes continuously while at the same time divebombing or just dipping the whammy bar down in between hammer ons and pull offs.
Number three.
Flutter! Pick a note, flick the edge of the whammy bar, depress it slightly then quickly let go, causing your trem to vibrate slightly for a short bit, the vibration will transfer to your picked notes as well. Vai does a good show case of this trick on Blue Powder. But make sure your trem arm is screwed tight with your bridge assembly...or else you'll hear a very ugly thud. Not very good for rock star persona or getting women to throw panties on stage.
Number four.
A modification of the conventional natural harmonic divebomb, I'll use the High G note harmonic found on the 3rd string 5th fret as an example. Crank it up, lot's of nice gain, and trebles too, switch to the bridge pickup for that super mean evil tone. Now pick the 3rd string 5th fret natural harmonic, divebomb with the righthand, and while the pitch goes down, tap the whammy bar repeatedly with the lefthand. WHAT FUN! :lol:
Number Five.
Whammy bar perfect pitch. You can actually construct whole melody lines with the whammy bar. Think of it as a fretless guitar, or a pitch wheel found on keyboards. Pressing down lowers pitch, pulling up increases it, let your imagination run wild, just make sure you're in tune. Something I have yet to even begin to get right. Examples of this can be found very much in Vai's song Frank, where there's a whole melody line done with the whammy bar.
Number Six.
I don't really know what to call this. Switch to your bridge pickup, use your lefthand this time to do random divebombs and your picking hand to do artificial harmonics for a random tonal splendour.
Number Seven.
Michael Lee Firkins style. He makes his guitar solo like a slide guitar, no slides here, just a floyd rose type whammy bar. Think of it this way, try the noraml licks with a slide, focusing on how the pitch varies when you're using a conventional slide. Try to do that exact same thing with the whammy bar. It ain't easy, I've never been able to execute it perfectly.
Just experiment. Before I got a guitar with a locking nut type whammy aka. Floyd type, I used a Les Paul with a fixed bridge. For the longest time I hated the damn Whammy bar, often leaving it in my case, using my floating bridge guitar like a fixed bridge. Silly yes? It's there, the possibilities are seemingly endless!
Hope this helps.
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