RolandC

Then by all means, set that bad boy free!

It will not harm the guitar in the slightest.

If you release the bridge, but don't actually use the whammy bar at all, it should have zero effect on tuning. If you use the whammy bar to really dive bomb ( a la Eddie Van Halen), it will eventually go out of tune as you do not (presumably) have a locking nut. If you use it gently to add a little nuance, it should stay in tune prety well.

I agree that the use of the whammy bar is stylistically determined, but if you get to know it and learn how to use it properly it expands your options.

JMHO

What kind of guitar is it?

Fender has several different vibrato systems, but none is actually called a "flying bridge."

Fender uses a synchronized tremolo (2-point and 6-point) on Teles and Strats, a floating bridge tremolo on Jazzmasters, and a dynamic vibrato on Mustangs. In fact there is a fourth, the Fender vibrato tailpiece on the Bronco, though that was discontinued in 2005.

Each one has its own little idiosyncracies, so a little more info would be helpful

You might also think about raising the action so the slide doesn't bump the frets. About 1/5" at the twelfth fret should be ok.

Hey mrwhitepantz,

Welcome to the forum.

A few thoughts.

1) My first guitar was a Samick/Greg Bennett rl-2 semi-hollow guitar. You can pick one up used for around $300. It's a great little guitar for the money--stays in tune, has a nice warm sound, etc. However, I can tell you that it doesn't really project much more unplugged than any of my solid body guitars--it's not an acoustic and it doesn't perform like one.

2) The absolute ***best*** beginner guitar you can get is the one that will inspire you to pick it up and practice, so I would suggest that you get whatever makes your heart skip a beat when you hear it.

3) Apropos to (2) above, a $15 investment in a guitar stand will be more that worth the money. Having the guitar out and available (as opposed to packed in its case) will make it that much more likely that you will practice.

4) USED!!!! Due to a glut of guitars flooding the market and a sluggish economy, it is a buyers market for guitars right now, meaning that you can pick up a killer guitar for cheap in the used market. A few cosmetic scratches/dings can bring a much higher-end instrument into your price range.

5) FWIW, I would not buy a guitar that I had not personally put my hands on. I understand that you don't know how to play yet, but even still you will be able to get a feel for the weight, size of the body, thickness of the neck, etc. Again, if a guitar feels comfortable, it's much more likely that you will pick it up and practice as opposed to a guitar that feels too heavy/clumsy/etc.

Good luck, and happy practicing!

I think it's fine to look up the key, but that can be misleading.

For example:

The notes of the Gmaj scale are: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#. If you play those notes in order, starting with G, you will get the familiar Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La Ti, Do. This is called the G Ionian mode.

But what if you played all the same notes but started with A instead of G? That is, if you played A, B, C, D, E, F#, G? In that case, you would be playing the A Dorian mode, and it will sound different from the Ionian mode.

Why?

Because even though you are using the same notes as the Gmaj scale, you have made the tonal center A instead of G. In fact, the A Dorian mode contains within it all of the notes of the A min pentatonic scale. So a piece played in A Dorian will sound "A-ish" even though the key signature shows Gmaj.

Likewise, if you were playing D Mixolydian mode (another poular mode in rock/blues) where the notes are D, E, F#, G, A, B, C, even though you would be playing the same notes of the Gmaj scale it would now be centered around D, and so would sound "D-ish."

The real trick, then, is not to worry so much about what key the piece is in as trying to identify the tonal center.