Vibrato

It was really good.

Vibrato, low-key, pitch control.

It was really good.

She's still in love.

Players like western swing guitarist Bill Carson had given Fender plenty of feedback about what they wanted in a new instrument, and one of those things was a way to manipulate the pitch of the notes.

Vibrato systems already existed.

Paul Bigsby had developed his famous vibrato tailpiece, and Leo Fender had previously worked with Doc Kaufman, whose Kaufman Vibrola was another early attempt at the idea.

But in true Leo Fender fashion, he thought he could improve upon them.

But there's still one question.

Why isn't the Fender synchronized tremolo actually a tremolo? Because, in musical terminology, tremolo and vibrato are two different things.

Vibrato is a variation in pitch, while tremolo is a variation in volume.

When you push the arm on a Stratocaster, you're changing the tension of the strings, which changes the pitch, not the volume.