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Re: misc. things




}  From: Troutman_Stuart/HP-Chelmsford_om1@om1.ch.apollo.hp.com
}       
}       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).
}

Let's not forget the end of "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the
Shondells!  Man, was *that* cool!


}       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.
}

I thought the harmonica was fine, and it was cheaper than Dave Arbus, too!
I wonder if the harp solo was produced by Keith?


}       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.
}       

John Alec has a particularly fabulous collection of basses/guitars.  Check
out the "Tommy" movie to see at least one of them.  I think some of this
was in his interview with Guitar Player magazine, which I'm pretty sure
I still have in a box somewhere...

I'll have to see if I can dig up the reference (the interview in Gary
Herman's book? Guitar Player?), but it's my recollection that John used to
use Gibson Firebird basses a lot (I think that's the name).  This was a
Fender Jazz Bass body with Gibson pickups.


> Mike <

    Obviously no more "Mingy Stingy"!