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PART 3 "THE FAB SIXTIES A.K.A. THE GLORY YEARS PART 2" (Winter, Clapton, Iommi...)
In our last installment, we discovered what made the sound of Rock "N" Roll dramatically change in one evolutionary metalurgic step. But, as explained in previous columns, strings ARE the very FIRST part of your "signal path" which will lead you, step by step, to your desired sonic destination.In this installment, we will make every attempt to bring back your greatest memories of high school biology class, even if you absolutely hated your teacher! Just kidding...I said last month that we would DISSECT some more potent memorable musical examples so you can hone in on a desired sound or tone that might have been eluding you until now.
Before we get into that, I hope that you readers have been doing your own experiments and tests, so you are getting somewhat familiar with the differences and idiosyncrasies of the various strings, and their REAL effect on YOUR technique, playing, and most importantly, the final sound that is being realised through your amplifier.
Once you have found the perfect string set that matches your own particular playing style, half the battle is won. Remember that when you hit "pay dirt", you won't be fighting your instrument at all for ANY reason, and your own creativity will soar beyond what you had known previously! Also, when your guitar is expertly set-up for YOU and you alone, you will be "But...ah, are you experienced?...well I am!"
Beware of repairmen that set up instruments to their personal liking rather than your own. The essential thing, is that the instrument feels effortless when you play, and this is precisely when you can really tap into your deepest level of creativity while being "one" with your axe. In other words, you'll be on auto-pilot, and playing from a very subliminal state! As you can guess, THIS is where everyone wants to be at musically.
SONIC BIOLOGY 101
Okay, kids, let's look at last month's musical examples and explore what the heck was REALLY going on! Let's take a few cuts from Johnny Winter's "Second Winter" album to start with. The first song on that record was entitled "Memory Pain"...that song was Johnny's infamous Gibson Firebird on the front or "neck" pickup, running through Fender Black-face Twin Reverb amps.
As far as I can tell, from the recording, he was running his amps flat-out in the studio. Since I had seen J.W. and company play live many times at the Fillmore West during San Francisco's musical heyday, I can say that I saw him use Super Reverbs, too, in live situations as well. But, when you listen to the record, his sound wasn't nearly as distorted as it was live. I called amp-guru Ken Fischer for his opinion, as he can tell you what brand of pre-amp tubes are in your amp by listening to the type of background hiss the tube makes while it's running! He totally agreed with me that Johnny was using Twins instead of Supers.
Since you readers know that Ken had worked for Ampeg previously, it's a fact that Johnny Winter also used Ampegs during part of his career. Several years back, I had a brief discussion with Johnny's guitar tech, who when asked what gauge of string Johnny used, told me that he used .010,.013,.017,.026,.036, and .046. Now, here's the surprize! Johnny uses a wound .017 instead of a plain string. On listening to "Memory Pain", you can ACTUALLY hear the wound third, as it sounds stiffer and darker on the double-stop chord riffs especially when he adds a bit of vibrato to them. Not only that, but when he solos, you hear the top two strings as being much more glassy than his wound "G" string. Check it out!
I have another theory about why he uses a wound "G": Johnny, as everybody knows, is one HELL of a slide player, too. Just listen to "Mean Town Blues", on the "Johnny Winter And LIVE" album and I'll rest my case. "Highway 61 Revisited" is yet another sonic gem (a pure nickel round-wound one at that!) I must say, that during this series, I will make every attempt to get the facts from the actually players themselves whenever possible. I am only interested in presenting you with just the real information or, otherwise this column would not full-fill its true intention.
Now, let's examine Eric Clapton's tone from the famous 1966" John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers" album. This is a fairly well-known sound, as it was a widely acclaimed breakthrough in the guitar's tone from a historical vantage point. That was a vintage Les Paul Standard being played at full volume through a Marshall 2-12 combo with 6L6 tubes as the output section complimented by a tube rectifier. The strings were again a pure nickel round-wound set, as they aided in that nice, round, burnished tone.
This was also around the period when Ernie Ball came into prominence here in the U.S.A. and began exported their custom- gauged "Slinkys" to the United Kingdom. Before this, players would take banjo strings and substitute the lighter gauges for adaptation to their guitars, so they could bend the strings without coming down with a case of lock-jaw!
I want to investigate another pioneer of the late-sixties, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. Tony probably uses the strangest set of gauges I have ever encountered in my career in the musical field. You might want to be in a sitting position when you read this...he uses .008, .008, .010, .016 wound, .024, and .032! It would be silly to remind you of the heavy sound he got on their first album, "Black Sabbath". Most of you probably know that Tony lost a couple of his fingertips in an industrial accident, and hand-made his own leather prostetics so he could continue playing. He used an S.G. Special through the early Laney amplifiers, and was one of, if not the first player to de-tune his guitar to get that real dark tonality that made his sound instantly recognized by even the most deaf players! If I'm not mistaken, he had modified his guitar with some ridiculously over-wound custom pickups made by a guy in Britain who ended up in some ill-fated incident.
As I recall, this is what Tony told me in around 1988, and if Tony is reading this article, please correct me if I have gotten any of the above statements incorrect. Since we're on the subject of de-tuning, I thought it would be fun to talk a little about what de-tuning does to your sound and the effect it has on your guitar's scale-length.
The first thing that happens when you tune to a lower pitch is that you lose a lot of top end in your sound. This is because the strings are a bit looser than they are in standard pitch. You must add treble on your amplifier, or use a separate equalizer to make up for the loss of the higher frequencies. Let's take a Fender Stratocaster guitar as a model for the following concept: When you de-tune your Strat to "E" flat, for example, the guitar's scale-length of 25.5" is decreased to 24"!
This is the scale-length of a Fender Mustang or Jaguar. What is actually happening, is that the bendability of a heavier gauge on a Strat in "E" flat will feel the same as if you installed the exact gauges on a Mustang or Jaguar at standard pitch. In standard tuning, you will definitely feel the difference in bendability when you try the same gauge of strings on a Stratocaster versus a shorter Gibson- style scale-length, which is 24.75".
The scale-length has a big influence on how you choose what gauge of strings is right for each instrument. The rule is: the longer the length of the scale, the tighter the string will feel. The shorter the scale, the easier heavier gauges will bend...it's that simple. In future columns, I plan to have guest luthiers and top-notch guitar repairmen discuss these concepts in heavy detail to aid you in your quest for tone.
CAUSES FOR DE-TUNING
There are various different reasons why guitarists have lowered the pitch on their instruments. The first reason is for vocal purposes. Some singers just can't make it up to standard pitch if their life depended upon it, so what's the group to do? Secondly, how about if you're playing with brass instruments that are normally in flatted keys?
A great example of this is the Beatles' song, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away". What's in the background with John Lennon singing? Flutes! Third, the heavier "G" strings of the early days were wound instead of plain, so tuning down would make them easier to bend.
Another good reason is that it sounds big and thick, especially on acoustic guitars, when you are using heavier gauges of strings, like 13-56. I find this is really true on the smaller Martin guitars, like my 000-C16. These instruments are really quite punchy sounding as compared to the Dreadnought style guitars, and when you are recording, they really sound huge when an old tube microphone is used! My friends tell me that my little 000-16 sounds way better than their own D-18s.
Once again, scale-length is at work here as a D-18's scale is 25.4" versus a 000's scale-length of 24.9". My Martin is from 1990, so it has a shorter scale than a D-18 and the neck joins the body at the fourteenth fret. The funniest reason I've heard for de-tuning came from a luthier friend of mine in Stockholm, Sweden. He told me that he heard from reliable sources, that the real reason why Jimi Hendrix played in "E" flat, was because his roadies couldn't see the Conn Strobo-tuner very accurately when they were on acid! Now, that's funny.
Speaking of Jimi, I am doing some deep research on him at the current time, because I have many questions about his amp set- ups during the first two albums. I must be right on the money with Jimi, due to his vast array of tones and his impact on this era that we are investigating. It won't be long before I have the information to share with you.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
I want the readers of this magazine to get all of their questions answered about any issue that pertains to helping them acheive their tonal desires. If anybody needs to know about how any player got a particular sound, we can get the answers for you using this column as a vehicle. After all, my aim is education and the desire to pass along the truth about strings, amps, and other related things as they all work together to form the thing that we know as "sound".
Also, if anyone has any string samples that we can examine for a short time, we can all benefit from the information we receive. It will make us all better musicians, and keep in mind that knowledge is power! In the future, I would like to do a "Q & A" column using your questions. Look for upcoming articles about how to spot defective strings and what makes them that way, as well as much, much more on the 1960s. We have a tremendous amount of ground to cover, so keep listening!
Copyright 1994 by Dean L. Farley
Reprinted from "Vintage Guitar" May 1994 issue.