Whammy Bar defined

Although it sounds like some sort of chocolate candy, the whammy bar is actually a steel lever attached to the bridge of an electric guitar.

To the mere guitar player, the whammy bar is used to "shake" a note or to create a vibrato effect. This is done by a mechanism that can only be explained by someone with a triple degree in physics, philosophy and engineering and a Ph.D. in astronomy, so I'd rather not go into that.

But in the hands of Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Dimebag Darrell and Steve Vai, the whammy bar can do most anything. It can make the guitar sound like a horse, a cat, an exploding bomb, an alien and other things not of this world. Just as a magician has his wand, the guitar virtuoso has his whammy bar.

With the whammy bar, there is an infinite spectrum of sounds to experiment with. Only the imagination is the limit. There is also a variety of facial expressions to discover and practice, because to play the whammy bar without engaging in facial muscle acrobatics is just plain wrong.

The whammy bar represents everything I think guitar-playing should be. Avant-garde, radical, fearless, playful, weird. It also sounds like chocolate candy, and I'm all for that, too.