Well things are humming here at Jamorama HQ as we get closer to the end of the year and New Zealand is warming up as we approach summer. Festivities really start to kick off around this time of year and all of a sudden it seams every weekend is full up with gigs, parties or BBQs.
While it still may be a bit cold to hit the surf, the idea of the beach is steadily growing more and more appealing for those of us coming out of a pretty cold winter and the Stephen Shackinger track entitled Perfect Waves paints a picture for me of that exact feeling.
This is a fantastic piece of music. The Fender Stratocaster he plays provides a beautiful tone that is very reminiscent of that Dire Straits kind of guitar sound especially from about 4:17. He is using delay over the verse sections which create that echo you can hear. Also his backing track is laden with all sorts of nice embellishment’s and some duelling lines that seam to track the lead line or play up the octave.
His use of interesting licks woven in and around the main motif are very well crafted and while this man is clearly very proficient on the guitar he is also very disciplined with when, where and how he uses some of his more flashy techniques.
It’s been a decade since the Whammy pedal was introduced and now it has a permanent place in the history of rock and roll. The Whammy not only adds to your playing, it creates new sounds, feelings and textures – - this is what has made the Whammy pedal a legend.
The Whammy is simple to use – Take your guitar’s sound and pitch shift it using a special algorithm, then control that pitch with an expression pedal, like an extended pitch shifting wah-wah. So easy and so expressive that it takes your playing to a new world of quirky dive bombing insanity further than any tremelo arm can reach and create bends that can only be found on other instruments.
{this video contains profane language and alot of whammy pedal}
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello is famed for his guitar style, which consists of heavy metal/punk hybrid riffs and hip hop-inspired sounds. If you have heard Rage Against the Machine’s eponymous debut album you`ll know exactly what this pedal sounds like – it’s all over this record like a violent rash. Morello’s guitar playing is characterized by heavy use of guitar effects, such as delay, modulation, wah, harmonizers, distortion, feedback, and others in unique ways and combinations. The most recognizable effect in Morello’s arsenal is the Digitech Whammy and he combines the whammy with some thumping grooves and hard hitting riffs that have now become classics.
Kia Ora Jake here. I just wanted to write a quick post in response to a few questions about guitar effects pedals. A boutique guitar effects pedal is most usually a hand built or a limited edition pedal built by electronic enthusiasts, or a modded (modified) pedal. Many people mod their Boss units for example. There`s a whole new world of quantum manipulation opportunities out there once you start buying some of the crazy and often deranged units. Obviously there`s time and a place for everything but if you want to continue along the consciousness bending, sonic roads of Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Tom Morello, Jonny Greenwood, Robert Fripp, Alan Holdsworth, Steve Hillage, Reeves Gabrels here are a few links to help you get really weird….soak up some of these, wring yourself out, and drink!
There were a few being built inside small transparent soap boxes a few years back…great if you need to wash all those fingerprints from across the surface of your brain! Tomorrow I`ll be having a brief look at the analogue versus digital argument, just so we all know exactly what we`ve been missing…
Back in the late seventies, prior to the arrival of PUNK ROCK, with its garland of spit, safety pins, anarchy, rebellion and anti-authoritarian posturing, Steve Hillage took the psychedelia of the late 60`s and infused it with the kind of prodcution techniques it really deserved.
Towards the end of the 70′s Hillage’s progressive guitar-rock and psychedelic fusion leanings helped build a reputation that became synonymous with spacey, ambient soundscapes and “excursions”.
1978′s Green, co-produced by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason is an exemplary and landmark recording in this respect that, with both power and sensitivity focuses upon a pantheistic ecological message
HIllages “hippie” music was eclipsed by the D.I.Y. madness of anarchy, punk rock and “dissent” at the end of the decade.
The Hillage sound remained immortalised in the consciousness of a whole new generation by the UK “Festival” band The Ozric Tentacles. Ten years after Hillage released “Green” the Ozrics pioneered a new wave of trippy, techno space rock into the 90`s acid scene updated with hard pounding beats, shifting time signatures, the use of eastern and exotic modes and instruments.
After the collapse of Thatcherite ethics in the 80`s the British music underground, fuelled by political unrest and drug fuelled madness exploded across the media and across the country in revolutionary fervour.
Pedals never replace playing ability, groove, talent, technique, vision and expression but can really help having the brain of Hendrix sitting in a little box on the floor. At the end of the day its all in your hands and head.
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