"Let me teach you a thing or two about CHUNK, sonny!"
The other day I posted a few audio clips I’d recorded using a Guild Archtop fitted with a Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Dynasonic® pickup. Going with the ’50s theme, I strung the guitar with flatwounds and coughed up a few Eisenhower-era licks.
Reader Dohmin Semper wondered how that setup would sound playing punk or metal. I muttered a polite response and moved on.
But later I felt guilty. With all this blog’s big talk about breaking things rules, why had I restricted my demo of this cool pickup to the most obvious uses? What a wuss! So I slunk back into my studio and bashed out a few riffs through high-gain amp simulations.
Hollowbody Metal
I find the tones cool and unusual. I’m not sure they work for actual metal, where it’s all about the right balance of gain and note definition. These tones are loose, tubby, and lacking in percussion—you might even say flatulent. But there’s something about their oddball harmonic content that catches my ear.
Next I tried another sound over rhythm tracks, doubling the guitar and adding a clean-toned bass to reinforce the note attack. (Please pardon the lazy-ass excuse for a mix.)
Archtop ApocalypseI distort, you decide!
So what do you think? Will nü-nü–nü metal be played on jazz archtops with .013-gauged flatwounds and 1950s pickups? 😉
P.S.: Even recording direct with the monitors turned down low, the guitar desperately wanted to erupt into runaway feedback. Proceed with caution, or at least a sense of humor.
haha thank you very much for this!! i can headbang for hours listening to the Archtop Apocalypse 😛 no, seriously I’m not kidding. I’m bored with the polished, high-distortion metal records. that sounds interesting. 😀
That’s what my amp sounded like when i put a hole in the speaker. LOl definitely ‘flatulent’ sounding.
Ripped speakers are a time-honored rock-and-roll tradition! According to various sources (none of whom I particularly trust) Ike Turner, Link Wray, and Dave Davies of the Kinks relied on this method of distortion.
Man, I think those sounds ruled. Not suited for classic old-school metal but surely for heavy “alternative” music.
Thanks, Nuno!
Now I just hope I don’t go to hell for Photoshopping metal hair and a studded wrist band onto Tal Farlow, one of the great jazz players. 😉
Joe, out of curiosity, what do you use for drums?
FXpansion’s BFD2, the super-awesome drum workstation: https://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=53&tab=148.
The sounds were from the ad-on JEX Exotica kit. But the default kits that come with the program are pretty wicked too. So, for that matter, is the light version of the program, BFD ECO. It’s amazing stuff.
DISCLOSURE: I have worked as a paid BFD/FXpansion developer, so consider the source!
honestly…it sounds like any smashing pumpkins song
Look up the band Scissor Fight…. they want their tone back LOL Seriously, the tone you got on that first riff is the holy mecca of most stoner sludge style bands.
I am, after all, from San Francisco, home of Flipper and the Melvins—inventors of slow, sludgy, low-metabolism punk rock. 😉
Love yer blog Joe! And I’m glad you ran this segment. I love the sound of my Yamaha AES 1500 running through a Carvin V3M; I can conjure up all kinda classic, thrash and nu dirt. It wails!
Ooh, those AES1500s are wicked guitars! Really under-appreciated, IMHO. Do you have to damp the string a lot to prevent runaway feedback?
Post some audio clips, please! 🙂
Sono italiano. Spero lavoreremo bene insieme.
What have you been up to? I am fascinated about covid19. Can you talk about it? If the same thread is opened please redirect my post :). Thanks :).
PS: I don’t know any people with covid and you? rambo 😀