The Steel Guitar Forum

I've been reading a good book. It is titled. "STOMPBOX" A history of guitar fuzzes, flangers, phasers, echoes and wahs. Written by Art Thompson. I got my copy at Barnes and Noble book store. Reguardless of what some may think, there has been many effect units used on #1 country records out of Nashville. One of the first ones to use fuzz was the record by Marty Robbins, "Don't Worry Bout Me." Alvino Ray used a talk box back in the 1940's. As I read the book, I was surprised at how many "country" #1 records have had effect units used on the instruments. Effects need to be used where they fit, and used sparingly. Like a good seasoning on food. I'd like to start a collection of old effect units. As I read this book titled "STOMPBOX", I was surprised at how many different stomp boxes there have been. Someone told me if you play a Wah and a Fuzz long enough, it will throw you into age reversal! If you are bald, after a time you start growing hair! All kidding aside, I would like to make a effect that made a steel guitar sound just like a fiddle. Then I could do all those "Tommy Jackson" type fiddle intros and breaks on Ray Price tunes. <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Keith Hilton on 11 March 2001 at 09:45 PM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Keith Hilton on 11 March 2001 at 09:51 PM.]</p></FONT>

I'm showing my age, but the first "effect" that I remember seeing was a guitar player that carried an extra amp that actually had "holes" poked in the speaker cone with a pencil to get a fuzz tone on a recording!(By the way Keith...I just bought one of your units from Herby at Dallas...sure wish I'd done it sooner!) www.genejones.com <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 12 March 2001 at 04:05 AM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 12 March 2001 at 04:07 AM.]</p></FONT>

Also showing my age here, too, but my Dad used to play in bands back in the mid '60s, and when he first heard "Satisfaction," and "You Really Got Me," he decided to make his own fuzz tone. He made a cabinet with 4 12" speakers in it, and rigged up a 4-way switch so he could use each speaker separately. One speaker was unmodified, one was covered with wax paper, another with tinfoil, and the fourth had holes punched in it. So there you have it. He later made a tremolo device out of a mercury switch like they put in thermostats - he had the mercury switch on a cam that was rotated by a little electric motor. The motor would raise and lower the end of the mercury switch and the little glob of mercury would slosh back and forth and ground out the signal in rhythm. The 4x12 fuzz cabinet is long gone now but I still have the tremolo box. It sounds GREAT! Very organic.

Remember those electronic parrots that would repeat what you said, you know the stuffed parrots that sat on a little plastic tree branch and repeated a word or two of whatever you said at them? I took one of those things and gutted the insides, put it in a stompbox, and I used to play guitar thru that! It would sort of randomly repeat riffs and notes, pitch-shift them up by a random amount and distort them! Great for rock and roll solos...

Any other crazy effect stories? Maybe I should start a new thread!

Matt Farrow



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Matt Farrow
Marlen 9-string 6+2
Kustom K150

http://surf.to/pharaohamps