Testing the waters...

Thatbastarddon said:
An EH Small Stone phaser used to get me in the ballpark…
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Yes, in fact I actually heard (read) that he used two choruses and a phaser in series - probably the chorus on the JC or something like that. I used the JC-120 preamp sim of my GX-700 with the chorus on there, too. Tried adding another chorus in series on the GP-8, but it got very messy. I also don't have a Jaguar, Mustang, Jazzmaster or anything like that so I went with my Strat. Set up a footswitch to flip on the distortion from the GX and obviously recorded the solo over all that on a more outrageous setting. The bass is just doubling the riff really.

A while ago I got a little carried away playing the riff so, knowing that our singer is a bit of a Queen fan and the drummer won't say no, I hashed out a prototype of the track. As I was doing my best NOT to sing along while playing, I figured I'd add a vocal cues track. Unfortunately, I'd had a few drinks by this time and was alone in the studio. I can't sing, I'm certainly not a replacement for Freddy but the keys of D and G vaguely work for me. The singer is going to do it justice and I might drop the tambourine which I don't think was there in the original. By the end of the vocal track (not counting the doubling in the chorus) I realized that I couldn't actually remember what the lyrics are right at the end... but I knew I wasn't going to end on a long high note and I think I'll probably just fade out in the final cut. Couldn't remember the end solo either. Oh well, for your amusement...

Tie Your Mother Down

SndUp | Tie your mother down

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Here's another little solo project that I just couldn't get out of my head. According to Francis, it's "a strange little tune that has no bass guitar, two lead guitars that are out of tune with each other, two rhythm guitars that are out of tune with each other, a lyric that's got nothing to do with the song and is named after two people who don't have anything to do it either.". I think it's the abstract nature of the whole thing that makes it alluring. Musically, it wouldn't have felt out of place on a Uriah Heep or even a Led Zep album, it's certainly a far cry from what Quo are known for.

Ultimately, it's just a couple of Telecasters, a Hummingbird and a tambourine plus vocals. I'm not sure what they used for the original but I figured I'd stick with their 'regular' rig of a VOX (AC30, or AC15 in my case) and a 2203 driven through a Roland GP-8. The GP-8 wasn't invented when the song came out but was used in later tours for it. The intro 'drone' is actually a single heavy strum of the root chord, played backwards to fade in.

I'm not a master of vocal harmonies (or anything for that matter), but I think I did a reasonable job for my standards. Atypically, I ended up using another LDC for my voice, something I never do. For it's always a 58 up close and personal, playing with the proximity effect and EQ'ing out a bit of the low end of my voice. Here I opted for a more distant approach and an even harsher EQ.

While it can't be heard in the studio, it was raining off an on while I was working on the song and at one point I stuck a condenser mic out of a window to capture the sound, so the rain is actually 'authentic' and not some patch off a synth. I feel it adds to the counterpoise between the rather melancholy lyrics and 'upbeat' tune.

"Gerdundula"

SndUp | gerd&ula

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