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i am going to learn Satch Boogie which is by Joe Satriani, the song is fine for me to learn but i only have a fender Stratocaster and this song has dive bombs which i can not do on my guitar. I know I can make my guitar have a floating bridge but its not very reliable. I cannot buy a guitar with a floyd, so can anyone suggest what to do when the song has the use of the whammy bar in it. I have put two different links for the song, one is the studio and the other version is watching him playing it but that version is pretty close to the studio version.

Studio version

Live version

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    Can you afford a whammy pedal? Sep 3, 2015 at 11:33
  • @ToddWilcox There different sounds, but i suppose you could fit it in to the parts where dive bombs are happening but I don't think it would fit. Sep 3, 2015 at 11:37
  • If you're not actually going to use a whammy bar, it's going to sound different no matter what else you do. The dive bomb function on a whammy pedal is the closest thing I can think of that's not an actual whammy bar. If it's just one string you could radically detune it and then instantly retune it by ear if you're good enough. Sep 3, 2015 at 11:46
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    @ToddWilcox What do you mean " if you're good enough" of course I am, I am random10101010 in the flesh. Sep 3, 2015 at 11:53
  • Listening to the studio version, I think your biggest issue is that there are both pull-ups and dives. Sep 3, 2015 at 12:47

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You can also use an airplane flanger set to crazy. Check this video. Paul Gilbert also uses one for when he want his hard tail guitar to give him a dive bomb effect.

Around 6-10

Here is another good video on its uses.

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  • If anyone could edit the youtube link to start at 6-10 I would greatly appreciate it.
    – Neil Meyer
    Oct 4, 2015 at 9:42
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My ideas, in order from probably most effective to least effective, without regard to cost or convenience:

  1. Scrimp and save every penny and start trolling stores that sell used guitars, looking for something cheap with a Floyd Rose and even 24 frets if you can get both. It doesn't have to sound great, it just has to have the Floyd Rose.
  2. Float your Strat bridge and either lubricate the heck out of your nut (I use pencil graphite) or get a graphite composite or other permanently lubricated nut. Add locking tuners and remove any string trees and you could make a decent trem system even if it's stock Fender for less than the cost of a used axe with a Floyd Rose.
  3. Don't float your Strat bridge but do loosen the trem claw screws so that you can dive only but when the trem comes back up it rests against the body in a "home" position. Nut lubrication and locking tuners will help as above. Since this configuration will only dive, it will stay in tune better, but you'll have to get your hand strength and bending chops going to replicate the pull-ups.
  4. Get a Whammy pedal and set it for dive bomb mode and use that for dives and do pull-ups as above.
  5. Pre-bend and release to replicate dives and bend to replicate pull-ups. This is going to take a lot of strength and practice and won't sound perfect but will make you a better guitarist. For larger bends, you should be able to get at least three or four frets with your fretting hand on unwound strings and then you can push the string down with your picking hand between the nut and the tuner/string tree to get another two or three frets. Jimmy Page used that trick a bunch, also good for adding vibrato to natural harmonics.
  6. Play slides (glissando) instead of dives and pull-ups.

Note that for chord vibrato (which can be done easily with a trem bridge) you can bend the whole neck gently by grabbing the headstock a la Randy Rhoads.

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