Tremolo bridges having tremolo activation levers, which are often called whammy bars, vibrato bars, or tremolo bars, that are designed so that the musician can easily add vibrato while playing the guitar. Vibrato is the periodic variation in a tone and tremolo is periodic variation in the amplitude. Because of this confusion, tremolo and vibrato will be used interchangeably herein. This is accomplished by having the base plate of the bridge pivoting on a fixed point or points. The vibrato arm is connected to the base plate and when the musician moves the vibrato arm the strings of the guitar (or other instrument) increase and decrease in tension. As a result, the tone varies periodically resulting in a vibrato effect.
One problem with tremolo bridges is that when a musician pulls (bends) on a string, the tension of the other strings are affected. This occurs because the base plate is balanced on pivot point (line or anchor) and increasing the tension on one string results in base plate moving from its resting position. When the base plate moves the tension on the other strings change. In most cases it causes the tuning of the other strings to go slightly flat. This is an undesirable side effect of tremolo bridges and negatively effects the quality of musical sound.
There have been attempts to solve this problem by adding counterbalancing springs with different spring constants to the tremolo bridge. However, these have been ineffective since the tremolo bridge is already balanced between the force of the strings and the springs on the tremolo bridge. Adding additional springs does not solve the problem.
Thus there exists a need for a tremolo bridge that does not result in the other strings going flat when one of the strings is tensioned. Note that while the present invention is described with respect to guitars, it is applicable to any string instrument.