Whammy is a gameplay feature of the Guitar Hero series, featured on every console Guitar Hero title, used to acquire additional Star Power energy from sustained notes.
Whammy bar[]
Gisbon SG controller, featuring a whammy bar.
The whammy bar is a rod-shaped appendage attached to a Guitar Hero controller. It has many names including, vibrato bar, tremolo bar, wobbly stick, or even wang bar. The whammy bar exists on most Guitar Hero controllers except for the Enduro-AX Industrial strength guitar controllers on Guitar Hero Arcade cabinets.
Usage and misconceptions in the Guitar Hero series[]
The whammy bar can only be used on sustains (long notes). When (repeatedly) pressed or held down, the player can change the pitch of the held note or chord. Through experimentation and repeated use, one can come up with cool or even comical new sounds to use in a song.
Whammying on sustains of any kind does not affect the amount of points you get on said sustains (it was a common misbelief that whammying accelerated the scoring speed). Outside of changing the way notes sound, the only gameplay use the whammy bar has is to acquire Star Power. When a Star Power phrase contains a sustained note, the player can use the whammy bar to fill up their Star Power Meter. The speed the player moves the whammy bar does not affect how much and how fast the meter fills up; the meter fills up at a set speed when whammying.
The whammy bar can also be used in Battle Mode to counter the Whammy Bar power-up.
Whammying in other Guitar Hero games[]
If the player is using a standard game controller, the whammy bar becomes the left analog stick (PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, & Xbox 360) or is activated by shaking the Wii Remote (Nintendo Wii) vertically.
In the Guitar Hero: On Tour series and Band Hero on Nintendo DS, sustained notes are whammyied by continuously strumming the Nintendo DS's bottom touchscreen left and right. When strumming sustains, the whammy feature overrides the strumming feature until the tail passes the target. Tip: If another sustained starred note appears at the end of sustain's tail, keep strumming.
The Guitar Hero Carabiner toys feature a whammy bar-like button used to play sustained notes.
Guitar Hero on iOS supports the whammy feature on touchscreen by slightly moving the finger around the target when playing sustained notes. Whammying notes in Guitar Hero (iOS) gradually fills the Star Power meter even on non-starred notes.
While the Guitar Hero Live controller has a functional whammy bar, the game itself does not make use of its whammy bar outside of altering pitch due to lack of any meters or gauges for Hero Powers.
