ShortScale.org

I've just read icey's js thread where he's on about wiring the guitar up so he's got about 27 switching options or something, in itself its not a bad thing but i think as players we get too pre-occupied with things like this along with FX amongst other stuff. They are all distractions from your playing itself, sometimes positive, sometimes negative.
Looking at it from a tutors point of view (and i'm not trying to tell anyone how to 'suck eggs', i know there are some great guitarists on this forum) i'd like you to try a little experiment....

I want you to choose your favourate guitar with your amp on one setting without the use of any FX. Then pick one of your favourate albums that you feel you can 'jam along' to fairly comfortably *both Lead and Rythym*, preferably something with some dynamics. Smashing Pumpkins "mellon collie..." as an example could be a good choice.

The rules are: You can only use one pickup on your guitar, changing the sound only by means of the guitars volume or tone knobs.
Set your amp how you like it. (if you set it mid to high gain you can clean things up with your guitars volume), strictly no FX. The only other tool you have are your fingers, consider pick attack, vibrato and other techniques that make a sonic difference.

I'd like to know how people go with this, and i'll have some questions afterwards.

i choose rfus

Hurb wrote:i choose rfus

I'm not with you brother?

Cool idea Fran, I'm doing it now to Surfa Rosa & Come On Pilgrim.

Fran wrote:

Hurb wrote:i choose rfus

I'm not with you brother?

radio friendly unit shifter.

Hurb wrote:

Fran wrote:

Hurb wrote:i choose rfus

I'm not with you brother?

radio friendly unit shifter.

Lol. How did i know you would make your own life difficult and pick Melt Banana or Sonic Youth or...........

Fran wrote:

Hurb wrote:

Fran wrote: I'm not with you brother?

radio friendly unit shifter.

Lol. How did i know you would make your own life difficult and pick Melt Banana or Sonic Youth or...........

iam gonna record it too...should be fun on my none distortion fender clean amp!

I did this about a year and a half ago. I used:

Jag-stang neck pickup (why do I find myself talking about this pup so much recenltly?) straight into a Marshall AVT150H, on OD Channel 1, with gain and volume all the way up. B/M/T settings were about 6/8/9, with some reverb on the amp (is that cheating?) for a fairly blank and standard plexi-style/70's-rock tone.

I've started doing it again with the bridge humbucker from my Squier '51 (coil split for a nice, strattish sort of tone) into a Valve Junior Head, with the volume at about three quarters, into the AVT412 cab from the Marshall. This time I'm not using the volume knob much, I'm using my hands more.

I got fucked off with having to depend on effects and such at gigs. I wated to be able to do what I wanted with just my guitar, and a decent overdrive tone. Ironically, I haven't played a gig since, which is a bummer.

Good idea. I wish i could go fucking record. Can i use my POD?

Watching some of those old instro bands (lots of black and white vids on youtube) made me think about this sort of thing. They really did get a lot out of the instrument with just their hands.

I'd love to do this with Remain in Light by the Talking Heads. But I can only kinda play Crosseyed and Painless.

TH are one of my favourite bands and it really annoys me that I suck at playing their songs.

I'd love to be in a band when I just take a guitar, amp and cable to gigs. That'd be amazing.

I just like FX too much.. cakes need icing, yo.

bob wrote:They really did get a lot out of the instrument with just their hands.

Bob's on it.
Come on guys, back to basics. And Mr Doog, i'm suprised at a talented player like yourself getting the cold sweats at leaving the pedalboard behind.

It's more about practicality really- tuner, distortion pedal, solo boost- just stuff to make it WORK live. I gotta be in tune and have gotta have my lead bits stick out or it's just pointless to me.

I only use a delay, tremolo and the PS-5 live with WK, and those are used for like 10-20 seconds in a few songs, hardly intergral to my setup or anything. I guess I just like textures a lot, it's nice to keep it a little interesting.

I guess it's more "I'd like to be in a band where such textures and that are not really needed".

I only use 3 delays, a tremelo/fuzz a ring mod, overdrive, fuzz, distortion, a tuner, a blu box, a wah, a volume, and a loopstation.

BUt that's IT!

Cool thread.

I'm not a slave to my pedals though I love them. A while back my pedalboard was being a bitch in soundcheck so I thought "fuck it" and just threw it in the boot of the guitar, plugged into my amp and went for it - played a fucking blinder.

I have no doubt that after getting the JVM I may go back to being an amp and guitar guy, it's all cyclical with me. I love my pedals but they're not the be all and end all - everything I write with them can be played just as well without.

i play with just guitar + amp for my band's gigs.

Amp is a Roland Microcube, on "Rectifier" setting, tone 5, volume 8. Obviously this is a small amp (4W, fits in my backpack..hey im lazy), but it sounds amazing mic-ed up, and we don't have a drummer so meh..

my main gigging guitar (Yamaha RGX-321FP) has a locking floyd rose trem so i tune at home before the gigs.

For my guitar parts, any change in volume needed is done through the guitar's volume control. For solos i just switch to the neck pickup (which ive raised significantly, so it's louder than bridge). For certain songs i smooth out my tone with the guitar's tone control.

so yeh it can work - and it does feel liberating. certainly compared to the mess of tonal options i have at home (3 guitar amps, 9 channels between em, 10 pedals, choice of 4 guitars etc etc)

If i were to convert to guitar-amp-cord style, i would need a dirtier amp. I loves me some overdrive.

Bronco -- Twin Reverb. Playing Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue. His feel is so laid back, it's quite difficult to play well.

Did anyone go through with this experiment?
If so, i was interested to know if you felt 'liberated' as aphasiac pointed out. Did you feel more part of the actual music with more time and space to think about what you was playing? Did it push your basic skills helping you find new techniques or sounds?

Or did you feel exposed, frustrated and limited?