guitar tricks?

[blimpsgo90]

I was wondering if anyone knew of any guitar noise "tricks" that involve plugging/unplugging the instrument cable to create strange noises - are there things I can safely touch it to to produce cool effects? Or just tricks in general that don't involve pedals?

Thanks!

[Mark Hammer]

You can buy a "normally-closed" momentary pushbutton switch at Radio Shack to install between the wire from the volume pot and the output jack. Pushing it will cut the signal momentarily, enabling you to get "stutter" effects. Make sure it is a normally-closed type.

[Chuck H]

Find kids toys and other stuff that generate sound with metal parts like toy ray guns, machine guns, squeezy toys that say "ouch" and the like. Hold these things close to your pickup and instigate the sound to see if they are useful.

Chuck

[Chuck H]

Another one...

Play with an antenna. One of those thin metal ones you find on old transistor radios or boomboxes. You can buy them new form Mouser too. Because of their light wieght and smooth surface they do neat things when you slap and slide with them.

Another one...

Billy Gibbons from ZZ top sometimes used a coin (a quarter) pounded and forged into the shape of a guitar pick. He says thats part of the trick to getting those squanky right hand harmonics and a couple of his other interesting sounds.

Chuck

[Chuck H]

Another one...

You can use your right hand index finger (assuming your a right handed player) to tap naturally harmonic "open string" spots while using your left hand to alternately hammer on to the frets just adjacent to other open string harmonic points. Really cool effects to be found here when using mild to heavy distortion.

C'mon, doesn't anyone else know any cool effects that don't require a pedal?

Chuck

[Robert M. Martinelli]

As to the "shutter" effect, I would not do it by using a temporary NC pushbutton/switch to open the signal path, as this could leave the "door open" for disturbances, I' d rather use a NO temporary pushbutton/switch connected between the output jack and GND, this way the "shutter" effect would be achieved shunting the signal to GND.

As to picking, another simple trick to achieve harmonics and other nice picking effects is to use ( like Brian May of Queen does ) a copper penny as a pick; I don't know if US quarters and UK pennies sound different though, all I can do is try with Euro cents ( brass ) .

Hope this helps

Best regards

Bob

[Mark Hammer]

Excellent point about the NO vs NC! Good call on your part.

Regular readers here will know that I go on ad nauseum about what I like to call "bi-directional tone pots". This involves swapping the existing tone pot, whatever its value, for a 1meg linear pot, and hanging a different value tone cap (e.g., 6800pf and .022uf) off each outside lug. The wiper is connected to the input lug of the volume pot, and the free ends of the caps go to ground. This gives you a tone pot that is max treble when centred, and gives a different tone rolloff in each direction from centre.

The "trick" part of this is that it compresses the normal rotation required to go from full treble cut to max treble into half the number of degrees of rotation. If that tone pot is situated where you can reach it with your pinky when picking, it lets you do "pinky wah". The late Danny Gatton was a master at this, but he's not the only user. Probably the best-case scenario for this is on a Tele if you flip around the control plate so that the pickup switch is closer to the output jack.

[billybillybilly]

as far as putting "kids toys and other stuff that generate sound with metal parts like toy ray guns, machine guns, squeezy toys that say "ouch" and the like" (which can be really cool !) , try recording something to your cellphone(riff from song, harmony part, beat, etc) and play it back while tapping at or rubing the strings with the cellphone over the pickups while fingering on the fretboard . that can be quite interesting , but you also get the interference from the cell ... also , just make sure no one calls ya if youre doing it on stage .

ive gotten my amp to feedback and still be able to play very softly giving the feedback a psuedo gated kinda response to playing . ive always loved feedback .

i think , from my experience , bad guitar wiring jobs seem to be the best for making noise . you could try looping a hot lead (passive onboard guitar controls of course) with a switch in it to get clickety pop sounds and different switch types give ya varying clickety pops (mechanical noise) . or run a hot lead to a screw that holds the 3/5way pickup selector switch (if ya got one) and tap and rub at it while doing some fancy schmancy hammer on/pulloff finger work on the fret board . viva la noise !

[Chuck H]

I saw a Youtube of this kid playing some real high gainer stuff and he got some neat effects whacking his pick across the strings above the nut. I suppose if you have a floating bridge with a tailpiece you could do it there too. If you use a floating trem with a heavy arm you can do neat high speed pitch vibrato things by just slapping the arm instead of pushing it down. Reverse string bends and reverse slides into position can be really cool if you don't over do it and make it gimmicky.

Try punching your bass player in the face. Big stage appeal. Makes a nice warbling sound as the bass guitar crashes to the ground.

Just kidding.

Chuck

[Suburbanite]

One of my favorites is to use a cheap battery fan as a plectrum, absolutely great fun and looks good on stage,

Did any one ever buy a jelly fish pick? supposed to give you a chorus effect but actually just sounded awful, even the sales demo online sounded awful

[Robert M. Martinelli]

The "battery fan" thing made me think back to another gizmo I have heard about, back in the 70s, and its name was "gizmotron" ( quite obviously )
The gizmotron actually consisted in a battery-operated motor which, put in contact with the strings, was supposed to simulate "violin-like" effect, due to the different envelope the notes had ( practically no attack and "endless" sustain ( as long as the motor was kept in contact with the string being played at that moment ).
Don't know if they still can be found around, but I think it's a pretty easy device to build anyway...
Hope this helps
Best regards
Bob

[Jag]

I once played on a concept album where the producers only instruction was "make some interesting noises". I ended up waving a Westinghous Mixmaster over the pickups while fretting random notes on the neck while routing the signal through a talk box. That solo was cool.

I used to unplug my guitar and wave the jack over various parts of my amp. This makes especially cool sounds if you can crank the amp and move the jack in between the output tubes.

If you have a guitar with unpotted pickups, you can set the amp gain fairly high and talk, yell and scream into the pickups.

[Le Basseur]

The "battery fan" thing made me think back to another gizmo I have heard about, back in the 70s, and its name was "gizmotron" (...)
Don't know if they still can be found around

Actually,it's the E-Bow thing,here:
http://www.ebow.com/ebow/flash/home/home.htm
As a practical use of it in some (more) modern terms,watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx1Rc...eature=related
Another odd guitar gadget I recall is a dynamo self-powered handheld flashlight that,used in the immediate vicinity of a guitar PU,reproduced in a very realistic manner a motorbike engine...try it as a song intro if you play hard or heavy,your audience'll scream!
Regards,

P.S.
As for another kind of "specialities" (true,related to bass more than guitar...),watch Michael Manring and his "alien" approach using extensively D-Tuners:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY4Ra...eature=related
Enjoy,

[Robert M. Martinelli]

Actually,it's the E-Bow thing,here:
http://www.ebow.com/ebow/flash/home/home.htm

Hi Lebasseur, ( BTW - nice Avatar! )
nope, the E-bow ( A.K.A. Energy Bow ) worked on a completely different principle, it relied on electromagnetic fields to "excitate" the stings when put in their vicinity ( but with no mechanical contact ), while the "Gizmotron" worked actually on a mechanical principle, as there were sort of wheels which needed to touch the strings to transmit movement and get notes out of the guitar/bass.

According to Wiki, this device was invented by English musicians Kevin Godley and Lol Creme (1975)

Best regards

Bob

[Le Basseur]

( BTW - nice Avatar! )

Thanks!

nope, the E-bow ( A.K.A. Energy Bow ) worked on a completely different principle, it relied on electromagnetic fields to "excitate" the stings when put in their vicinity ( but with no mechanical contact ), while the "Gizmotron" worked actually on a mechanical principle, as there were sort of wheels which needed to touch the strings to transmit movement and get notes out of the guitar/bass. According to Wiki, this device was invented by English musicians Kevin Godley and Lol Creme (1975)

Sorry for the confusion,I didn't know that the "Gizmo" was a wheel-contact thing...actually,I saw it a long ago in use but from a far distance (audience) and I was't able to determine HOW is working (besides,obviously,I was too young to make the difference between it and the E-Bow. ).
As for the "direct contact" between a gadget and strings,I recall some guitarists using another thing:a real (violin or cello) bow for some "swell" effects...does this ring a bell to anyone?
Regards,