misc. things

[Troutman_Stuart/HP-Chelmsford_om1@om1.ch.apollo.hp.com]

Item Subject: Text_1
     
     Just a few little notes on a few recent topics:
     
     1. The primary effect used on the vocals in the alternate version of 
     "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hands" is actually tremolo (sometimes 
     inaccurately called vibrato), not phasing (or 'flanging' in current 
     lingo), and not just reverb (or echo), although there is some of that 
     added as well. Tremolo, as you older one-time garage band guitarists 
     know, is the nifty effect that processes the signal (audio output) 
     through a variable-speed gate, thus breaking a steady tone into a 
     broken rapid-fire staccato/machine-gun attack (dig this macho 
     terminology?). Most primitive guitar amps of the 60s & 70s had a 
     tremolo switch with a potentiometer (knob) to adjust the speed of the 
     gating, so one could attempt to pace it in rhythmic time to the tempo 
     of the song. Man, was that cool. Tremolo guitar was very popular in 
     the surf music bands of the day (a la "Pipeline" by The Chantays).
     
     2. Yeah, as someone else pointed out, there was no violin used onstage 
     during the "Who's Next" tour. I caught them in Charlotte, NC around 
     late '71, and poor Daltrey was wheezing and huffing into that little 
     harmonica in a vain attempt to replicate the frenzied violin riff. 
     Didn't work very well, but nobody cared. I was busy watching Moon 
     drive the tempo out of town.
     
     3. I have a snapshot of them onstage in Detroit (probably Cobo Hall) 
     sometime around '68, and Entwistle has a bass with one of the most 
     peculiarly designed bodies I've ever seen. I can't recall seeing any 
     other photos of this beauty. I can't draw the shape of it here in 
     cc:Mail, but it was fairly small, black finish, with the outer edge 
     highlit in a light yellow or pale orange, maybe white trim. The 
     general shape is sort of...hmmm...how to describe this...a tight curve 
     down at the lower edge nearest the plug and volume/tone knobs, and 
     very little else around to the neck intersection, only a very small 
     cutaway 'horn' by the underside of the neck. Looks vaguely like the 
     silhouette of a large conch shell. Kinda like a weird variation on the 
     old Vox teardrop body, but smaller than that. Anybody know this one? 
     (Now that I'm thinking about this, I believe I DO have another photo 
     of it, also onstage in the US, ca. '67-'68.) The headstock was pretty 
     similar to the standard Fender Jazz Bass shape, as I recall.
     
                                        -stuart@apollo.hp.com