Weird guitar sounds
41There's a picture of Fred Frith in the new Wire with his "pickup at the headstock" guitar.
Weird guitar sounds
42Rotten Tanx wrote:If you mail your guitar to Alaska and put a lot of chorus on it, you can get some pretty cool sounds.
I like turning the first knob on my amplifier up, the one by the input socket. When I say up, I mean past 3 o'clock, man! You start getting this crazy, filthy dirty sound. If you turn the last knob up as well, sometimes you can make your guitar scream! Not much use for music, but sure as hell scares the neighbours!
Weird guitar sounds
43Hmmm... What about shoving a mic in a piece of pvc tube? You could also kinda get someone to move it around the speaker cone. I'd think that mixing the signal would work better, but this is just a conceptual idea.
Also, for acoustic guitar, have a pair of stereo mics with a fair amount of space between them and get the guitarist to walk around the room while playing. You can hear the phase going in and out kinda like a flanger/chorus. If it's an ambiant room, you'd pick up the steps of the guitarist, the squeeking of the floorboards etc. I would assume that a pignose or 'belt' amplifier might work as well.
The heating vents that are above my room sound pretty cool with a mic in them too.
What about a mic in a bass drum?
As for the guitarist side of it, the E-bow is pretty damned cool. Also using a wah pedal as a way to control feedback works too.
Also, for acoustic guitar, have a pair of stereo mics with a fair amount of space between them and get the guitarist to walk around the room while playing. You can hear the phase going in and out kinda like a flanger/chorus. If it's an ambiant room, you'd pick up the steps of the guitarist, the squeeking of the floorboards etc. I would assume that a pignose or 'belt' amplifier might work as well.
The heating vents that are above my room sound pretty cool with a mic in them too.
What about a mic in a bass drum?
As for the guitarist side of it, the E-bow is pretty damned cool. Also using a wah pedal as a way to control feedback works too.
Weird guitar sounds
44instant_zen wrote:I was also wondering how the hell the guitar sound on "Passing Complexion" was achieved.
santiago wished his repeating harmonic figure could have been played an octave higher than executed. iain burgess responded with a little eventide magic. (very exciting stuff in the 80's) if i remember correctly sant was cranking up his mini roland practice amp at this point.
Weird guitar sounds
45the first poster asked about passing complexion... the band scissor shock actually covered that.. look it up on http://www.soundclick.com
listening to their version, it sounds like it's just bottom string octave harmonics. obviously the big black version just has tons of distortion..
Anyway, I like to put a fork in between the strings right in front of the pickups.. put the end of the fork on the bottom string and then have the top of the fork go OVER the middle strings and then put the top of the fork under the 2nd-from-the-top string.. whatever. when you hit the bottom string, the whole fork will move and make crazy vibrating sounds.
Also, near the pickups.. put a pen/marker/drumstick under the strings.. obvious but I don't think anyone mentioned it.
A quarter or an allen wrench rubbing really hard against the strings almost makes the guitar sound like a double bass.
Take the jack out of the guitar and rub it against the strings; in some guitar/amp combinations, it can make cool sounds. Be careful, though, because it can shock you. Literally shock you.
I once put tinfoil around the strings... Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prepared_guitar
listening to their version, it sounds like it's just bottom string octave harmonics. obviously the big black version just has tons of distortion..
Anyway, I like to put a fork in between the strings right in front of the pickups.. put the end of the fork on the bottom string and then have the top of the fork go OVER the middle strings and then put the top of the fork under the 2nd-from-the-top string.. whatever. when you hit the bottom string, the whole fork will move and make crazy vibrating sounds.
Also, near the pickups.. put a pen/marker/drumstick under the strings.. obvious but I don't think anyone mentioned it.
A quarter or an allen wrench rubbing really hard against the strings almost makes the guitar sound like a double bass.
Take the jack out of the guitar and rub it against the strings; in some guitar/amp combinations, it can make cool sounds. Be careful, though, because it can shock you. Literally shock you.
I once put tinfoil around the strings... Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prepared_guitar
Weird guitar sounds
46I played slide with my mobile phone, then a call came in, with all these interferences, that was actually kind of funny. You can get some evil noise with a guitar-pickup, a distortion-pedal and a mobile phone, and if there is someone actually talking on the other side of the phone, it sounds as if the voice comes from hell. In order to have that effect on stage you can just call mom.
Weird guitar sounds
47My friend gave me an old Kramer guitar. I was messing around with it, so soon two of the strings broke (5th and 1st). I then looped the 5th string around the 2-4 around a few times and then tied a knot. Its neat.
Also, if I'm doing work at home, I'll sometimes just turn the volume up and throw pen and pencils at my guitar. Sometimes its just great to hear the sound of feedback, huh.
Also, if I'm doing work at home, I'll sometimes just turn the volume up and throw pen and pencils at my guitar. Sometimes its just great to hear the sound of feedback, huh.
Weird guitar sounds
48instant_zen wrote:One of my personal favorites is making your guitar sound like a steel drum by weaving heavy picks between the strings and playing between the picks.
I once played around with a small, $60 ZOOM multi-effects pedal and there was a pre-programmed steel-drum sound. It is, of course, a digital pedal and it was some pitch-shifting, reverb and a little chorus mixed together, I believe.
It was pretty stupid but sounded fairly realistic.
Weird guitar sounds
50Weird guitar sounds is kind of my MO.http://www.myspace.com/aenpage (except sea of fists thats like metal or something)I'm not 100% sure what pedals are in there...POGDevi Ever TPcrybabyloopstationGreat Destroyermore, im sure.