When I was a teen, the "official" story I heard was that Link Wray did that first. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXLo1YAUQBE&spfreload=10"]Rumble - Link Wray original 1958 instrumental with street video - YouTube[/ame]
Oh Lucky, lucky man, art thou. I'll wager he excitedly brought out his O-scope so you could see the lopped-off sine waves in person, lol! Did you grow up with a den full of Leslie cabinets, Jacob's Ladders and Tesla coils lying all over, LOL? Sadly, even if I'd had such an influence around, I'd been far too much a doylem to have appreciated it, though I did have an uncle who was a short-wave operator, having spent many years in the military - he had a roomful of equipment, "the shack" as they called it in those days. I suppose that may have lain some interest. Oh, I could just see it: "Son...w-w-wh-what have you d-d-done to my amplifier?" "I modified it, dad" :happy:
That's a great one. Pretty similar sound to the Kinks (though he predates them by about 8 years...) [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq_KQYVPadQ"]The Kinks - You really got me (1965) HD - YouTube[/ame] Truthfully, I think the old blues guys in the '30s really "invented" distortion by over driving their cheap-o amps.
Interesting guitar - Richie Blackmoor Signature Strat So I ended up with a really good deal on one of these on scratch and dent discount. It has a big dented area and cracks in the finish at the part of the body where your forearm would touch on the side. Probably that is a bigger deal on a polyurethane finish like this than on a nitro one like the guitar this one is styled after. I have found sometimes I play a banged up guitar more than a "perfect" one - so this might be a good thing. It is an odd duck. It's a 70's style strat, with the 3 bolt neck plate, big headstock. It only actually has 2 pickups, the middle one is a black pickup cover with some sort of backing. It also has duncan straplocks flush mounted, no strap buttons sticking up at all! And the most unusual thing, it has a scalloped fretboard - but not fully scalloped on the lower strings until you get up higher on the neck. I have not found that the scalloped fretboard makes any difference to me either positive or negative so far. It's made in Mexico, seems nice enough. Has Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickups - they sound good, middle position with both on is hum cancelling, and has a lot less "quack" than a normal strat, but a more rocking tone. I'm a casual fan of Blackmoor/Purple - even back to middle school. But I'm not really a fan of signature models, but I just though this was a pretty interesting guitar.
I tend to prefer beat up or warn in guitars. The half scallop though never tried to play on them. Supposedly you need a very light touch and very fast fingers. Yngvie Malmstein plays scalloped fretboard if I'm not.mistaken. Baza
I play a full scalloped strat. (bolted an Yngwie signature neck to a fat strat with a Duncan SB-1 in the bridge position) The touch is actually varied across the neck. IMO, it's harder in ~the first 4 frets, but after that it's easier. I like how it's easy to bend chords. :evil: I wouldn't say the touch is that much "lighter". It's just different. If you get used to a scalloped neck, you'll find "normal" necks easier simply because the scalloped neck is a different, more difficult in its own charming way creature.
:thinking: Just trying to figure Blackmore's reasoning with respects to removing the middle pickup...on most Strats, the middle pickup is wired in reverse - opposite direction of current travel or the phase, done by winding the coil in reverse combined with opposite polarity. So one would end up with hum canceling for 2 positions on a 5 position selector switch. I think he must've been trying to emulate a Humbucker. There wasn't a pickup manufacturing standard as far as coil windings go and chances would be high that if one tried to use an (early) SD Humbucker on a Strat, it would be out of phase with the other pickup(s). So in effect, the logic was that by removing the middle pick up it would be the same as having a single Humbucker. The bridge pickup probably having the reverse wind/reverse polarity. Right? :thinking: ...anyroad...congrads on your find Like you a casual fan - I would've been a bigger one except I think that the keyboardist approached his instrument in much the same way as a lead guitarist would and not only robbed Blackmore of opportunities to showcase his playing but gave DP a somewhat dated, county-fair/circus sound. Favourite Blackmore piece? "Highway Star" off the Made in Japan live album
Yeah, I sort of wondered about the reason for just having 2 pickups. Might just be that Blackmoor really liked single coil pickups and found the middle one got in his way. And he didn't feel like playing a mustang, jaguar or duosonic...hahaha. Of course one thing - on his personal guitars, he glues the necks on! I'm glad they didn't make this model that authentic. Anyways... Highway Star is one of my favs too. I like the keyboard playing in Deep Purple. Of course I even like the Deep Purple stuff when they didn't even have Blackmoor on guitar but had Tommy Bolin instead, and David Coverdale on vocals. I think Come Taste the Band is pretty good - but not much like actual Deep Purple other than the keys and drums (for good reason).
Blackmore was one of the only ( save for Hendrix, different style ) players who frequented the tremlo with good results. Would've preferred a B-bender, myself.
Joe Satriani's trem-bar antics are good. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-miLbYrpdvQ"]Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien ( live 2006 ) - YouTube[/ame]
Joe Satriani is super great. Saw him in a small area (Virginia tech) for surfing with the alien album tour. Hard to match that. Ironically had as much influence on me as a bass player as a guitarist. Stu Hamm had the crowd chanting, and killed it with his peanuts theme two hand tapping on the bass! Crazy playing on guitar and bass happened during that show! What could match it?
I saw Satch on a G3 tour and the most notable thing wasn't his technique but his energy and enthusiasm.
Despite the smaller audience, I thought I'd post this one to the Guitar forum - maybe more of a response than the typical that this post would otherwise induce. A rather dark song loosely about being on the wrong end of a firm contract, told from the vicitm's POV; it has one of the most mesmerising bass lines that I can recall ever hearing. Additionally, Keith Leven's guitar - on the surface - a simple, repeating arpeggio has this off-pitch quality to it that I can't define. I chose the Old Grey Whistle Test as he's included some effects that are not found in the original studio version - here he plays a rare bird - a Travis Bean TB3000 Wedge which is plugged into a 70 - 73 vintage Fender Twin Reverb - or so I think I've heard. What's your reckoning on the effects? My take is I definitely hear a flanger or possibly a phase-shifter (or both?) but there's something else... I hear it weave in and out it's present every other repeat of arpeggio, something sweeps in with the flanger - almost synth - like but its not a synth. Levine is sparse when it comes to equipment - so I know its not a Line 6 Floorboard or any of that... [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFKe4qi4Kt0"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFKe4qi4Kt0[/ame]
To me it sounds like a flanger like you said, but also with a ring modulator just barely on (so that it isn't super crazy the way ring modulators can easily sound). Entirely possible there is something else in the mix as well, but that is my guess.
I just spent an hour posting examples and describing ring modulators - then it all disappears - I can usually recover my text but not this time. :yeleyes: No more I'm done ======== Quick-like - that's an intriguing idea - the ring modulator but I don't hear one in this piece. Ring modulators barely on - i.e. barely oscillating (chopping) sound like a tremlo at full max - not exactly my favourite effect. Its when one increases the gain (here its amount of oscillation) and rate past the halfway point, then things can be interesting as it leaves the frequency as the variable. That's the shaolin temple bells effects and such. One of the examples that come to mind is the first seven seconds of Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs ". Those aren't bells or a xylophone being processed through a chorus but its actually a guitar (at least I'm pretty certain it is) through a ring modulator - maybe a mini-moog. No - not a Ring Modulator but that's an interesting thought. I don't know it, it could be something as simple as a phase 90 (MXR) or even a Univibe except that it has a long period - one of the longest Ive ever heard for a guitar effect. Reminiscent of RS's "Shattered" - Keith uses a phaser on that, right? [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-owNAp68_s4"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-owNAp68_s4[/ame]
LoL - well - a recap, anyroad. I go through these periods occasionally where I become somewhat obssessed with the exact tone of something. It'll pass.
It just sounds like a phaser with a really slow LFO rate to me, and not too much resonance. Doesn't sound anything like ring modulation, or even flanger, as far as I can hear.
