Who can tell me in plain English how to make the dive bomb effect on a guitar?

Question

I tried so many videos on youtube but they dont help at all.

All they say are the words "harmonic" and "whammy bar" and then just do it.

It doesn't help at all.

Answer 1

You know that skinny metal arm thing attached to the bridge of stratocaster style guitars, that's the whammy bar/vibrato/tremolo.  to divebomb you just pluck a note or strike a chord and push that m**********r down towards the guitar body quite forcefully which will lower the pitch HEAPS.  Bring it back up slowly by reducing the force you're pushing on it and it'll slowly return to normal pitch.  0m40s into Eruption by Van Halen is a good example of how it should sound.

Good luck.