The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Another newby here; not only to this site but to computers and guitars as well; .

After retiring and wanting to for 45 years I am finally taking a life long dream and taking guitar lessons.

I have just purchased a Orlando 1502T serial #64138 for $200.00 US and a Aria G-400 (no serial number on the label) acustic for $50.00 US and a Eagle G-300 serial #80928 classical. Thanks to this site I have learned my Orlando is in fact a Aria/Matsumoku.

Question, are these guitars good, better, or of the snickering type. I really like the 1502T, and excuse this newby for lack of knowledge but it's "PRETTY".

If anyone has any information on the G-400 it would be appreciated, as other than it supposed to play like a hummingbird (what ever that is) I can not get any thing else.

Plus will that bar on the 1502T (I think it's a virbrator?) be a asset or hinderance to a beginner. My instructor looks at it and then me and just shakes her head.

You mean a tremolo bridge? A whammy bar? Heh, yes, they are guaranteed to make your guitar teacher roll their eyes. My friend teaches guitar, and he laughs about it- "beginners love the whammy! it calls to them!" Because it's true, people who are entranced (for the first time) with the glamour that is Playing The Guitar almost always are entranced by the whammy, yet most of the time not only is it not helpful, but it actually makes things worse.

And no wonder- it's been made part of the mystique of the Strat. WHen you think of guitar gods, you can't help including an image of Hendrix or Van Halen up there wanging away on the tremolo. Yet the uncanny thing is, with a few rare exceptions, most guitarists are not really able to make the tremolo musically useful. What's worse, on many guitars even touching the whammy bar is bound to make you very out of tune. No wonder so many players hate them, and so many teachers sigh and roll their eyes when their beginning students ask them how to use it.

But it need not be so. A good tremolo bridge on a well set-up guitar doesn't have to make it go out of tune. With a little precaution you can prevent it from ever giving you trouble, and if you want to leave it there for decorative purposes you certainly can. You can also disable it completely. Or you can set it up and use it, and with care it can be not a hindrance to being in tune.

First, understand whether your bridge is free-floating or not. If so, that means you can bend the notes up OR down. You can adjust this by adding or subtracting springs on the back, and you can adjust the angle of it by tightening the screw that holds the bracket the springs are attached to. If you want to disable the tremolo, and make it like a hard tail, add springs so that the bridge is held tightly against he body- thsi will also give you slightly better sustain.

In order to make free-floating work, remove a spring so it no longer is held tight against the body, and adjust the screw to set the angle you want. It's very important if you do this to lubricate the nut so that the strings don't bind, and avoid using string trees if you can. Oridnary pencil graphite is the tried 'n true lubricant, some guitars also have graphite nuts to help with this.

YOu'll also have to get used to being careful about resting your palm against he bridge, because of course you can bend notes inadvertently. Actually many players (such as Jeff Beck, and me) find that you can do all the bending you want with the bar removed, just by pressing or pulling on the bridge. One thing though- after you bend, and release, you need to give it a little wiggle to make sure it re-centers. After a while of this it will tend to recenter itself msot of the time. And you must ALWAYS do this before ever tuning a string- the classic scenario is when you bend the string, then it's out of tune but not centered, and then you retune, and now everything's out of tune, and after a few minutes you want to throw the guitar out the window- and that's why people hate tremolo bridges. Jsut remember to re-center and most of your problems with it will be averted.


OK, but suppose you have no interest in becoming a dive-bombing VH wannabe- why even bother with it? Well, I think it's still useful, because the tension, the tightness or looseness on a tremolo bridge translates into ease with which you can bend notes with your fingers- not with the bridge, but by bending the string. A good tremolo will make it easier to bend, and adjusting the bridge will change how it feels when you bend. Beinding strings, btw, is a key skill every guitarist needs to learn, not only for blues styling, but because that's how you learn vibrato, and there lies a great secret to getting great tone. Tone is 90% in your fingers (don't tell, but the secret I've found is to learn to bend a string just slightly sharp, so that it choruses with itself- listen to Dave Gilmour and you hear him doing it all over the place, like in the solo to 'Another Brick int he Wall Pt 2'.

So there you have it. I guess I shoudl have asked whether the trem on your guitar is the tradiitonal strat type, or the steam-age looks of a Bigsby, or one of the weird Kay-like things. They all work in different ways, but the outcome is the same. I suggest for a beginner you adjsut it so that it's not free-floating, in other words you can bend down but not up. Then most of the time you'll never have to deal with it. When you're ready, you can go for a free-floater, providing the bridge is really up to it (MAny MAtsumoku guitars are great for this, especially the later Electras and WEstones) I don't know your model so I can't comment, but I'm pretty sure you're in the same situation.

Whammys are impractical and cool as heck, and part of the fun of guitars, IMHO.