"Prepared" Guitar

[toneless]

Well,this is not a topic about stompboxes but "prepared" guitar is a great way to experiment with new aproaches and create a lot of unorthodox sounds that along with some f/x there are no limits...

Mark Hammer has a great article in his site (Device 1) about "prepared" guitars and i wanted to know if anyone is using this kind of style for getting his sound.
Any good tips???

Some books that may help:
Tricks and special effects by Ethan Fiks
The guitar f/x cookbook by Chris Amelar

Nick

[Rodgre]

I'm not familiar with that Mark Hammer piece, but I quickly wanted to talk about my "prepared guitar" technique that I used to do when I was a kid. I didn't have many effects and for some reason I was determined to make the guitar sound as strange as possible.

I came up with a neat form of "psuedo ring modulator" effect by putting small pieces of transparent tape on each guitar string, usually somewhere around the neck pickup, to choke the tone a little bit (short decay) but it also has the effect of hitting a harmonic wherever the tape it (try the 24th fret) and when you fret notes, it gives this interesting dissonant effect.

I haven't tried it in a while, but I might next time I plug in. It sounded particularly cool with an Electric Mistress, if I recall. It worked cool in conjunction with the "filter matrix" setting, or maybe any short short delay with some regeneration. Very Adrian Belew.

Roger

[bwanasonic]

Alligator clips placed at various points near the bridge make some great ring-mod like sounds that range from demented banjo to gamelan on glue. Listen to Marc Ribot and Eugene Chadbourne for inspiration.

Kerry M

[smoguzbenjamin]

Try a piece of pipe cleaner weaved in between your strings at the bridge. Sounds very sitar-like on my guitar

http://members.tripod.com/~MarkHendu/Noise.html - Many noise makers there

[toneless]

updated books for "prepared guitar" :


1)Prepared guitar Techniques by Peter Yates and Matthew Elgart
2)Tricks and special effects by Ethan Fiks
3)The guitar f/x cookbook by Chris Amelar
4)(Device 1) from Craig Andertone at Mark Hammer's site


Nick

[Johan]

not something you need to prepare for, but still... pull the low E-string over the A-string ( around the fifth fret ) so that they cross and hit them both...makes a bellike sound...old Mikael Schenker trick...

Johan

[bwanasonic]

not something you need to prepare for, but still... pull the low E-string over the A-string ( around the fifth fret ) so that they cross and hit them both...makes a bellike sound...old Mikael Schenker trick...

Johan

Actually it's a classical guitar technique that has been used for at least a century. More commonly the G and D are crossed for a *snare* like percussive sound. Old Segovia trick :wink:

Kerry M

[Johan]

cool..i didnt know that....