Steel Vibrato VS. Guitar Vibrato

Chris Templeton · From: The Green Mountain State

When using vibrato on steel, I like it when a player hits the note without vibrato, then starts a slow vibrato as the note(s) goes on, and then goes faster, like a singer.
When a player is unsure of their playing, sometimes there's a tendency start with a fast vibrato, probably unconsciously thinking if they play above and below the note 10 to 20 cents , the right note will be in there somewhere, all the while not paying attention to the frets getting smaller up the neck with an incrementally narrower vibrato.
For guitar vibrato, unless one can bend just over a fret, on electric or acoustic with very light strings, guitarists are limited to a vibrato that can only go sharp of the fret, or use what I call a "faux vibrato", rocking the fretted finger back and forth.
A gentle tremolo/whammy bar on an electric guitar can get vibrato below the fret, but the finger or bar is nicer to my ears.
That's why I like the the steel vibrato and other fretless instrument vibratos.
There's also the "sliding vibrato", "rolling vibrato" & variants of both.
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Excel 3/4 Pedal With An 8 String Hawaiian Neck, Sierra Tapper (10 string with a raised fretboard to fret with fingers), Single neck Fessenden 3/5
"The Tapper" : https://christophertempleton.bandcamp.com/album/the-tapper
Soundcloud Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/bluespruce8:

Greg Forsyth · From: Colorado, USA

Chris Templeton · From: The Green Mountain State

You are welcome, Greg.
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Excel 3/4 Pedal With An 8 String Hawaiian Neck, Sierra Tapper (10 string with a raised fretboard to fret with fingers), Single neck Fessenden 3/5
"The Tapper" : https://christophertempleton.bandcamp.com/album/the-tapper
Soundcloud Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/bluespruce8:

J Fletcher · From: London,Ont,Canada

Vibrato is something that I am paying attention to these days , and spend a bit of time daily working on it . Anybody have some exercises they use to improve their vibrato ? Jerry

Chris Templeton · From: The Green Mountain State

Plenty of Youtube videos of steel vibrato.
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Excel 3/4 Pedal With An 8 String Hawaiian Neck, Sierra Tapper (10 string with a raised fretboard to fret with fingers), Single neck Fessenden 3/5
"The Tapper" : https://christophertempleton.bandcamp.com/album/the-tapper
Soundcloud Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/bluespruce8:

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Vibrato is so personal. To me, vibrato goes a long way to defining the way a player sounds.

On guitar, I think bending into a vibrato with the ability to go above and below a note is pretty common. Of course, this is easier with lighter strings and/or tall frets and/or a scalloped fretboard, but I don't think those are essential. I certainly do not use light strings and I do it a lot. Of course, the combination of heavy strings and really low frets make getting good vibrato control difficult.

I came up playing blues guitar, and BB King was my reference point on vibrato. I don't think there's a better-sounding vibrato out there. He talks about it at length here, and note that they discuss bending into a vibrato, and that he doesn't prefer that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPBkt1-ubII. On the other hand, this fellow gives a good demo that includes bending into a note and then executing vibrato - https://youtu.be/sajDAGVuBrE

To me, the vibrato on steel does feel different than doing typical vibrato on fretted guitar. Then, there's the distinction between side-to-side motion and the bar-rolling motion, and they do sound quite different. Coming from guitar and slide guitar, I certainly started with a fairly hard-core side-to-side vibrato like I'd use with a slide. For stuff like blues or a harder/faster, more stinging vibrato, I still do that. But the more subtle bar roll is very cool too. It took me a while to not just habitually use the side-to-side slide guitar type vibrato on steel, since I'd been doing that for so long before starting on steel. Once I started doing the bar roll more often, I found that I could use that approach on slide guitar too for a more subtle, slow vibrato on slower material, when I have time to dally on a note.

Another difference is that vibrato on fretted guitar tends to focus more on a single note, whereas on steel (or slide guitar), putting vibrato in double-stops or full chords is more natural. But I and many others will vibrato multiple strings on fretted guitar, especially double-stops.

Good topic! I think it's really important to spend some time really focusing on vibrato. Speed-of-light picking is fun to listen to sometimes, but for me, a large amount of the beauty of steel guitar is when you hold notes long enough to really squeeze the tone out of them, and I think vibrato is an important part of that.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Like Dave says, the bar rolling vibrato technique makes you a more honest player. The sideways motion is for overdriven blues tone and a more exaggerated or frantic effect. Both have their place.

I also strive for hitting the note I want to hold before even thinking about vibrato. It’s like my singing voice. I have zero vibrato. Never learned it and it never came to me, so I have to hit the note smack on. I don’t care for a lot of vibrato in singing voices anyway, and it’s kinda that way with my taste for instrumental styles. It can be nice sometimes, but I don’t miss it if it’s not there as long as the playing and/or singing is good.

Yeah, good topic.

Pat Chong · From: New Mexico, USA

I agree with Fred.

I, too, never had a natural tremolo in my voice, and because of that, I do not add vibrato to my playing, either. I just try to hit the notes, properly.

Some people play without shoes... I would wonder if there are more who play without vibrato?

.....Pat

Chris Templeton · From: The Green Mountain State

I was in the studio 2 days ago, and I was tracking with a guitar with a tremolo. The song has a desert southwest feel with heatwaves off the pavement
I thought that using the tremolo, a little ababove and below the note gave it a nice feel
I decided against it because I wasn't confident the notes would all come back to zero, tuning wise.
I'm pleased with the recording.
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Excel 3/4 Pedal With An 8 String Hawaiian Neck, Sierra Tapper (10 string with a raised fretboard to fret with fingers), Single neck Fessenden 3/5
"The Tapper" : https://christophertempleton.bandcamp.com/album/the-tapper
Soundcloud Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/bluespruce8:

Ron Pruter · From: Arizona, USA

Tremelo definition= variations in volume.
Vibrato definition= variation in pitch.
Smile

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Emmons SKH Le Grande, '73 Fender P/J bass, Tick tack bass, Regal high strung, USA Nashville 112.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Random thoughts~

Guitar vibrato can be done with the finger going side-to-side, and with a vibrato lever. But it’s also done longitudinally (the “finger wiggle”), and also by moving or pulling the neck, which seems to be the newest method. They all work, and the sounds are very slightly different (when done properly). I was fortunate enough to play several years with a local player (Charles “Lucky” Marshall) who was a dead-ringer for Chet Atkins’ style, but he played for over 40 years and never bent a string! If anyone ever was the master of a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, it was him.

Classical vibratos are usually very fast, but most guitar and steel players in the U.S. seem to use a slower vibrato. (I think that fast vibrato is why B.B. King sounds so unique.) Most non-classical singers also use a slower vibrato, with the best ones (to me, anyway) using a variable-speed vibrato. Vibrato also can also aid in increasing sustain on string instruments, but that fact is seldom discussed. Idea

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