Hows your vibrato?

[Tone2TheBone]

I remember when I first started playing it took me a little while to get to the point where I was happy with my vibrato. I'd hear songs and go YEAHHHH...thats what I want. Then I'd play it and just couldn't get it to sound real enough. Honest enough. Some people don't even have a vibrato. But for those of you that do...how is yours?

A friend of mine who was one hell of a guitar player had the best vibrato I'd ever heard. It was so fluid and smooth. What struck me was his technique. It almost looked like he'd stop during a phrase and for a split second this vibrato would just come out of nowhere...thumb firmly placed behind the neck and fingers would grab the string and just bend either up or down perfectly and smoothly. A very visible and meaningful sweep. You could SEE the technique there. That made me want to practice mine until I finally experienced the same thing. I've noticed that players all have their different techniques to achieve this too. Eric Clapton for example doesn't even touch his guitar neck in the back...he sweeps his vibratos over the neck using his entire hand. Describe to me your technique.......

 

[Robert]

I just grab the string and shake it baby!

 

[Justaguyin_nc]

They say BB King places the thumb behind the neck and bends the wrist and as you mentioned Eric never touchs the neck and gets his action from his elbow.. I kinda like the Eric style.. although I shake my whole darn body while just fretting... spaz attacks seem to linger longer...