Guitar that doesn't sound like guitar?

[Blue Strat]

A thread on the SSS forum got me thinking about this. With the plethora of amp modelers, multi-effects units, and guitar synths out there, do you ever try and make your guitar sound like another instrument?

 

It seems to me that whenever I use a multi-effects unit, I usually get bored with it quickly and want to get rid of a lot of the excess effects and get back to a semi-pure guitar tone. Fuzz or overdrive or distortion with a simple effect like chorus or tremolo is usually just fine for me, and a lot of time I play with only fuzz or overdrive as an effect.

 

I've thought about getting another multi-effects unit, but then I'm not sure. It would expand my sonic palette, but do I need it? The headphone practice or DI recording features would probably get used most often, but when playing into an amp, I'd probably just go through one or two effects.

[Billster]

Outside of synth, how about EVH on Cathedral?

 

Also, there's a song on the third Boston album (I forget which song)where Scholz uses careful volume pedal and overdubbing to make a "string" section. I did a "pipe organ" thing once using that technique.

 

It seems like the modeling stuff is too electronic. A good tone and a soft touch can do a lot of versatile things

[AlChuck]

A couple of years or so ago, I tried an experiment where I recorded some snippets of guitar -- riffs, rhythm figures, atonal stuff... and then cut them up and convolved them with other sounds using Sound Forge's acoustic mirror. The results were somewhat interesting. One phrase came out sounding like a strange horn playing an Arabic scale, another like ghostly children... it was great fun. I used ACID to assemble them with a rhythm loop and a couple of other sounds; check it out if you're so inclined:

 

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1548&alid=-1

 

the third song, "Erase My Head."

[Tedster]

I can get killer bagpipes out of my guitar by droning the B string while tapping along the E string in the vicinity of the octave...and in this case, sloppy helps, as it replicates that little slur that goes in between bagpipe notes.

[Billster]

Originally posted by Tedster:

I can get killer bagpipes out of my guitar by droning the B string while tapping along the E string in the vicinity of the octave...and in this case, sloppy helps, as it replicates that little slur that goes in between bagpipe notes.

Oh yeah, that band Big Country did "bagpipe" guitar in the 80's. That's cool.

 

Another one: The Joe Satriani EP (four tracks re-issued on the Timepieces double-retrospective) is 100% guitar. Drums using muted strings and plinking above the nut, stuff like that. Bass using the octave box and/or tape speed.

[Guitar Geezer]

...and then there is that E-Bow thingie that moves the string without plucking.

 

Would like to try one sometimes (but a little pricey just for an experiment)

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Come to think of it

Kinda like Page with his violin bow

[Teahead]

I used to try everything I could to make my guitar sound like anything but a guitar! Inspired by players like Nick McCabe of (The) Verve, who used tape loops, wahs, slides and rack effects to create huge swells of "alien" sounds with his Les Pauls.

 

Jonny Greenwood also does some very interesting stuff, often sounding like a raging trumpet or twisted synths, with the most atonal of styles.

 

If you can get either one of the "Storm in Heaven" or "Northern Soul" albums by (The) Verve, or "Ok Computer" by Radiohead, I promise you some of the most un-guitar sounds you've ever heard.

 

Tea.

[musicalhair]

There is a lot you can do with picking technics, tone, volume swells and such things to get away from what a guitar normally sounds like. Evelop filters can get you into synth terriory. Ring Mods can completely alter the guitar's sound and lose the characteristic guitar sounds. Lets not forget talk boxes.

[Blue Strat]

Originally posted by musicalhair:

There is a lot you can do with picking technics, tone, volume swells and such things to get away from what a guitar normally sounds like. Evelop filters can get you into synth terriory. Ring Mods can completely alter the guitar's sound and lose the characteristic guitar sounds. Lets not forget talk boxes.

I had a ring modulator at one time, a Snarling Dogs Mold-Spore wah pedal. Too crazy!! I traded it for my Big Muff Pi and have never looked back. I've been playing with a wah circuit lately, and it's pretty wild. I've just got to build a low-frequency oscilator for it now...

[Guitar Geezer]

SnarlinDogMoldSpore

Good name for a band!!!!!!!

[Guitarzan]

i always loved snarling dogs as a name! Charlie Stringer must have had a good sense of humour. did any of you really read everthing in the ads? even the fine print was hilarious.

[Blue Strat]

Originally posted by Guitarzan:

i always loved snarling dogs as a name! Charlie Stringer must have had a good sense of humour. did any of you really read everthing in the ads? even the fine print was hilarious.

You should have seen the questionare that came with the pedal!

[spiral light]

As Teahead said, Nick McCabe of (The) Verve gets great sounds, Radiohead too. I would also throw out Robert Fripp in his Frippertonics setting.

[A String]

Originally posted by billster:

Outside of synth, how about EVH on Cathedral?

OT a little bit here, but when that song came out I tried for ever to match that sound. After months of trying, I stumbled across it by accident when I was setting up my zoom 505. It was simply one repeat on a delay effect and volume swells on the guitar. However stupid I felt, at least I got it.

[Boggs]

Check out GraphTech's Ghost system... Also, study Pat Metheney. Boggs

[fantasticsound]

Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, when I wanted to be an electric guitar hero , I had a bad habit of my guitar timbre NOT sounding like guitar. People often thought it was a synth. (Nothing against synths, but I wanted to be a guitar hero! )

 

On one occasion I did desire a non-standard guitar sound. I was renting a Yamaha GEP-50 (late 1980's single-U rack guitar effects box). It was the first digital effects box I used that offered a reverse reverb program. My writing partner wrote a very dark song about someone searching for a young girl who disappeared. The reverse reverb (with just enough dry to keep time) made for an especially eerie timbre for the main solo. In contrast, I went back to a typical guitar timbre for the end solo. The contrast was great.

 

After that, I played around with all sorts of non-traditional guitar sounds, including the E-bow, but I've never been particularly adept with it.

[MadStrum]

I always liked the guitar the way it sounded..

I play a little bit of keyboard, and when plugged into a computer, it really gives you limitness instruments... although it takes quite a bit of tweaking if you were trying to say, emulate a saxophone.

 

Pier.