"ready-made" feedback guitar?

[kaliyuga]

joeysimms - I've done everything you described, sans pedals, and to great effect! Tunings, especially, are important to me for creating thick tones which can be deconstructed over a long period of time. Some peices I've been recording lately have been 20-30 minutes, so I have a lot of time to "play" with the drone.

Wow, John, I love the concept for the Hooper band!!! I've never seen the film, but shit, it's got Burt Reynolds And Bundtcake Vesuvius is a great name - another name we had for a similar type of project was Exhilirate Norseman! (exclamation point included) which I've always loved. Any chance you've heard of a Birmingham group called Liquid Brick? They're a fantastic 6-piece improv/noise group with lots of tribal, primitive rhythms beaten out of large buckets, sheets of metal, etc. Really nice guys, they just played a house show in Auburn a few weekends ago and it was incredible.

Jason

[inverseroom]

Kaliyuga--nah, I don't otherwise know the T-Town scene, I live up north. However, I remembered one more thing about a band I used to know that you could try.

The band, from Philly, was Baby Flamehead. Their guitarist, Chris Unrath, either bought or built an electric hurdy-gurdy guitar. It consisted of an electric strung with only 2 or 3 strings, tuned in unison or octaves, I dunno for sure. And instead of picking them, he had bolted a sort of abrasive wheel to the guitar that scraped against the strings, and it had a handle attached, and he would turn the wheel and fret these enormous, amazing, violin-like chords. I've been looking for one of these ever since, but I assume now that he made it. I don't know what sort of substance was on the wheel though, to make it both smooth and rough at the same time--600-grit sandpaper maybe?

Anyhow, maybe I'll do that one of these days.

J

[kaliyuga]

Wow, what a great idea! I'd love to see the schematics for that thing. One of my roommates just won a bid for a violin on ebay - can't wait for that. And the bow can be used on so many things! I'm about to do a search for Baby Flamehead.

Jason

[stevemoss]

Sandpaper of almost any kind would likely be too much for the strings to deal with.

On a real hurdy gurdy, they use a wheel that's been coated in rosin. Also, a real hurdy gurdy has keys to control the pitch of a few of the strings (like an autoharp) while other drone strings go all the time.

Theoretically, there's no reason you couldn't fake a hurdy gurdy-like sound by modifying and using all 6 strings on a guitar. Find out what key a hurdy gurdy plays in, and tune three or four of the strings to act as your drone strings that play in that key. Then, using either a violin bow or perhaps the Fernandes Sustainer system, hit all the strings while fretting chords that compliment the drone.

[cgarges]

I've found that magic stuff happens with an MXR dynacomp is put first in line. Turm both knobs all the way up.

Also, I don't know if it's just this one I've got or what, but I have a Stienberger "Spirit" guitar that is just magic for feedback. Sucks for everything else (actually, I haven't tried it as a boat paddle, but I suspect it might work well for that, if it's not too short), but it's great for feedback, and always seems to pick the right overtones.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Randy]

A variation on Inversroom's suggestion: I use one of those cheapo RadioShack megaphones (the black one with a number pad). I put it on full bore and position it over the pickup, while my mouth is over the megaphone mic. you can change the shape of your mouth to alter the timbre and tone of the feedback you get. you can play with the volume of the megaphone, also.

I also use an ebow now. That is a lot easier, but more predictable.

[inverseroom]

Not quite what I was thinking of, but check it out:

http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/play2640.jpg

John.

[Randy]

the signal, one out and one to the mini-amp circuit.

Or alternately you could put a contact mic on the speaker of the mini-amp, and generate the feedback THERE, and then have that fed to the real amp.

I was referring to your first post. I must admit I kinda skim the posts before answering sometimes. The hurdy-gurdy thing is a cool idea also.

[kaliyuga]

randy - I love the megaphone idea; I would have never thought of that. I work next to a radio shack - may pop in there tomorrow and pick one up.

thanks for the picture, inverseroom. It makes a lot more sense than what I had visualized.

Thanks to everyone for making my first post a rewarding one.

Jason

[todd]

hey kailyuga,
sounds like eyedrum might actually be ideal for what you're doing...but don't stop there! they do a lot of electronic/noise type stuff too, not just free jazz. go check out "tenth to the moon" kind-of harsh electronic stuff with a bit of structure (vocals too). it's a former bandmate of mine's newish project. we all had to do something after pineal ventana broke up (check our stuff out too, it's not too hard to find on ebay or on the web for download!)

thanks,
todd

[joeysimms]

so I have a lot of time to "play" with the drone.

Ah ha!!! Ain't that what it's all about, too....

[kaliyuga]

Todd - no shit! I was a dj at WEGL (auburn u. station) from '96 - 2000, and at some point we had a Pineal Ventana cd in rotation - really cool. I never heard the entire disc, but the songs I did play I distinctly remember being quite scary, in the best sense of the word! Actually it would probably appeal more to my tastes now than back then Hey, do you know of Hematovore from Auburn? Great metal band. A couple of their guys own Sarcophagus Studios in West Point, GA. A few weeks ago, during all that rain we had down here, the place flooded so they evacuated EVERYTHING. Meanwhile, without their knowledge, the owner of the building decides to sell it to some interested guy, or entity, with enough money on the spot! Rat Bastard!

I'll check out tenth to the moon.
Free Jazz is Fun IS jazz FreE in Fuzz Jann is Jazz Is Free In Jjaaz in freeeee

[kaliyuga]

joeysimms - is there really anything else it could be about?

[signorMars]

when i was about 12, my friend had a peavey rage 158 (little 8 or 10" speaker thing) that would feedback like nothing else. we would stick our strat copy guitars on i think the mid pickup, and stand 2-3 feet away and you could play all sorts of neat melodic stuff just by changing the distance. you could probly pick one of those up for like 50 bucks... versus a full band with drums, i doubt the thing would be too loud.

boss also makes (made?) a distortion pedal called the feedbacker. you press down and hold the pedal and it creates a feedback loop and goes absolutely insane. i don't know how much they cost or how hard they are to find, but they are more fun than monkeys.

if you're in a more overdubbing sort of situation and have a tube head handy, you can just plug the output from the head into the recording (through some sort of direct box or something... nothing too nice because we're talking an 8ohm signal) and turn the volume ALL the way up. this creates unbelievable feedback. think "quiet" off siamese dream. it also heats those tubes an unbelievable amount and makes a beautiful burning smell, so i wouldn't do it for extended periods of time. oh. and don't touch the other end of the cable when it's plugged into the amp head. 8 ohms is a fun shock.

--ross ingram

[vvv]

Consider an E-Bow...