Tremolo

The word used both for a modulation effect and for the spring-loaded bridge that players call a whammy bar, which is the source of one of the oldest confusions in guitar terminology.

Strictly, tremolo is a fluctuation in volume and vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch, and the bridging device people call a tremolo produces pitch change, so it should be a vibrato. Even manufacturers have never settled it. In a glossary sense, the important thing is to know which is meant, because a tremolo control on an amplifier modulates amplitude while a tremolo bar on a guitar bends pitch.

Example: Leo Fender's synchronised tremolo changes pitch, so the effect it makes is vibrato, not tremolo, whatever the label says.

Tremolo

See also