whammy bar
A tremolo arm attached to an electric guitar bridge that alters string tension to bend pitch up or down.
In Depth
The whammy bar (also tremolo arm or vibrato bar) allows guitarists to create smooth pitch bends, dramatic dive bombs, and shimmering vibrato effects. Floyd Rose locking tremolos enable extreme pitch manipulation while maintaining tuning stability. Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Eddie Van Halen are among the most creative whammy bar users, each developing signature techniques that expanded the instrument's expressive range.
The device is technically a vibrato bar (it changes pitch), not a tremolo bar (which would change volume), but Leo Fender mislabelled it in the 1950s and the wrong name stuck permanently.