I'm no Jon Lord - Replicating Lord's Hammond on Guitar:

Inspector #20

Inspector #20

Ambassador of Tone
Fallen Star
Country flag
Ok,

So we recently added 'Perfect Strangers' and I have been working on finding a way to come up with a suitable guitar substitute for the Hammond organ intro. We laid down the bass and drum tracks today, then I took the files home and worked on them in my own studio. This is- just a rough sketch if you will....
 
Last edited:
I think what you did sounded fine.

But I see @bea ’s position on this, too. I think she makes a very creative suggestion.

Substituting keyboard parts with guitar is pretty normal. A well-executed bass part using chords on the bass (and maybe a touch of chorus on the bass just for that part) would stand out as something unique. Besides, the range of the bass reaches better into the lower registers that an organ can do than a guitar does.

Give your bass player a chance to share the limelight!

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons Deep Purple is one of my all-time favorite bands - the Hammond organ work by Jon Lord. I like the fact that he could rip a part on the organ that could match or exceed whatever Blackmore was doing. In fact, I think his work is often more interesting than Blackmore’s.
 
smitty_p said:
I think what you did sounded fine.

But I see @bea ’s position on this, too.

Substituting keyboard parts with guitar is pretty normal. A well-executed bass part using chords on the bass (and maybe a touch of chorus on the bass just for that part) would stand out as something unique. Besides, the range of the bass reaches better into the lower registers that an organ can do than a guitar does.

Give your bass player a chance to share the limelight!

Incidentally, this is one of the reasons Deep Purple is one of my all-time favorite bands - the Hammond organ work by Jon Lord. I like the fact that he could rip a part on the organ that could match or exceed whatever Blackmore was doing. In fact, I think his work is often more interesting than Blackmore’s.
Click to expand...

Precisely....one of my all-time favorites...
 
I have the demo completed now, except for the vocal tracks...and I will try to get those on later today if the singer and I can meet up.

I did a double bass track on this one, panned left and right at 20% for a fuller bass sound. I used my Gibson Les Paul for all guitar parts with the very mid-rangey EQ settings, which is intended to compliment the bass.

I'm happy with how this turned out...I like how this Les Paul jumps out at you like a straight razor...

P.S. the bass player may do the organ part, but for the purposes of finishing the demos, I'm working in whatever I can....
 
Last edited:
Im with bea--- well and Smitty --I think the bass with a touch of chorus (or would it be tremelo---or both) would give a much more authentic Hammond tone
In the original Lords organ and Blackmores guitar as it kicks in are VERY different tones----to my ear the same guitar tone ----going straight from Organ opening to rhythm section is, well flat----
 
eSGEe said:
Im with bea--- well and Smitty --I think the bass with a touch of chorus (or would it be tremelo---or both) would give a much more authentic Hammond tone
In the original Lords organ and Blackmores guitar as it kicks in are VERY different tones----to my ear the same guitar tone ----going straight from Organ opening to rhythm section is, well flat----
Click to expand...

I think the rhythm kicks in nicely....
 
Robert Herndon said:
I think the rhythm kicks in nicely....
Click to expand...

I think what @eSGEe is saying is that going from one type of instrument to another provides more interest rather than the same instrument for both parts. Granted, even doing this can become a bit formulaic and sort of cliche, so you don’t want to overdo it, song after song.
 
smitty_p said:
I think what @eSGEe is saying is that going from one type of instrument to another provides more interest rather than the same instrument for both parts. Granted, even doing this can become a bit formulaic and sort of cliche, so you don’t want to overdo it, song after song.
Click to expand...

I agree with all of you. I am just exploring my options at present. There is a real keyboardist in the works, but he is not here, so I moved forward and completed this track....
 
smitty_p said:
I think his work is often more interesting than Blackmore’s.
Click to expand...
... and that might have caused trouble between the two.

One of the most obvious examples for this can be found in Child In Time: Jon Lord improvises on the full harmonic scheme, and is playing is melodically creative, while Blackmore just makes noise on A minor and needs to speed up the timing in order not to be too boring.
 
bea said:
... and that might have caused trouble between the two.

One of the most obvious examples for this can be found in Child In Time: Jon Lord improvises on the full harmonic scheme, and is playing is melodically creative, while Blackmore just makes noise on A minor and needs to speed up the timing in order not to be too boring.
Click to expand...

I love everything Lord and anything Blackmore... :-)
 
Robert Herndon said:
and anything Blackmore...
Click to expand...
... well i strongly dislike when he hit guitars into pieces.

But anyway, @Robert Herndon, Your playing is good. But to my ears there should be some kind of contrast between the intro and the remaining song. Purple also play with the contrast between guitar and organ (and, BTW, Uriah Heep do that as well, but on a slightly lower musical level).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top