A little Keaggy volume knob trivia

W

windowman

New member
For anyone that's been wondering what all the hubbub is about Phil Keaggy I thought you might like to hear a small excerpt. It's about 2 ½ minutes of him standing on stage soloing by himself after the band has dropped out. This is the musical section that Steve Morse has referred to as having really knocked him out years ago. It was done live in 1976. I've dropped it down to mono so it would load faster. Besides, it's just him all by himself so it might as well be in mono anyway. (1.17MB) What's really interesting is his use of the ole pinky around the volume knob tricks he did back then. Now I know you've heard guys try to imitate him such as Morse and Carlton etc, but NOBODY can come close to Phil with this particular technique.

However…there's a definite trick to it. I figured it out about 10 years ago and shortly thereafter read an interview with him in a very small magazine that most people have never seen, where he happened to mention that he had indeed done what I thought he had. Can you guess it? Winner will receive…well, I don't know but I'll think of something. :)

This is on a prohosting server so it won't let you "right" click and "save target as". You MUST "left" click and then choose to save file to disc. That's the only way you can do it. They sure have fast severs though! Enjoy!!!

 
Great clip ! Very inspiring - if not a bit intimidating.

My guess is changing the volume pot to a linear taper rather than a logarithmic. Is it hardware mod ? If not, guess he's got an awfully fast finger...:D

mm
 
Come on! You must be a ringer. :rolleyes:

You didn't really just guess that off the top of your head did you? It took me years and years to figure it out....

He's been going to the hardware store since the 60's and replacing the volume knob closest to his pinky with a quick tapered pot all this time and never told anybody till a few years ago. Pretty neat I thought. Instead of having to roll the volume knob way far around to go from 0 to 10 he only has to go a quarter inch or so. He also always makes sure that the pot (hole) closest to his pinky contains the volume knob for the rear pickup.

Your prize is in the mail. Hope you like my sister. :D
 
You beat me to it! (O.K., you beat me by several hours, but I still knew the answer!).

Is there a mod to switch between audio and linear pots? Like using a push-pull pot or something?

Lee

(Why can't I download the clip?)
 
(Why can't I download the clip?) [/B][/QUOTE]

Did you follow my directions? NO RIGHT CKICKING. Good luck--it's really well worth it!:cool:
 
I did, and when I click on the link, it goes to the same screen. Am I still doing something wrong?

Thanks,
Lee
 
I also tried and failed to download the clip. Yes I left clicked to save to disc and it initiates the download but it never gets past 0% downloaded. :(

Anyone else out there get this to work? I just got advertisments and when I close the advertisement it stops the download in progress. If I leave the advertisement up it stays at 0% downloaded.

I used to have a double live album with Phil Keagy playing with 2cnd Chapter of Acts and the band and Phil had a solo spot on that complete with those amazing volume trills.
 
I don't know what's going on with this server now. I'm at someone else's computer right now and they're using netscape. When i left clicked the link I got to the download page but when I left clicked the link there, instead of giving me a choice to download or play from the browser it automatically started playing the file in netscapes browser window.

Dunno why....oh well.

And, yes, that's a clip from How the West Was One, ("Rejoice".)

Well, gotta get off the net for a few months. By all.
 
LWatford said:
Is there a mod to switch between audio and linear pots? Like using a push-pull pot or something?
Click to expand...
Here are a couple circuit modifications you can do that will give you the best of both worlds using a linear taper pot. The circuits and some the possible tapers compared to log and linear tapers are illustrated in the attached file.

Mod-a
This simply has a resistor tying the adjustment pole to ground. In this case I show a value of 250K or 1/2 the pot value. For the majority of travel it drops off like a log taper pot then becomes very sensitive like a linear taper at the lowest positions. Supposedly a resistor value of 1/10 the pot value most closely approximates an actual audio taper pot, but this will not give that initial high sensitivity.

Mod-b
This uses a switched resistor tying the input to the output. The Mod-b plot shows the switched in circuit with values R1=100K (1/5 the pot value) and R1=250K. When switched in the lower positions are very sensitive shooting the output up to -6dB in only a quarter turn - even more sensitive then linear taper. When switched out the taper is nearly log taper just like Mod-a. You can play with the resistor values to suit the sensitivity to your liking. The larger R1 gets the closer the switched in taper will look like that in the Mod-a circuit. R1=250K and R2=250K might also be a good combo. The switch could be either a separate toggle or a pull-pot.

The switch could also be bypassed altogether and R1 left hard wired. In this case R1=250K and R2=100K would give a nice combination of very sensitive low position and audio taper high position.

Try them all and see which one you like.

Hope this is useful. :)
barefoot

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barefoot - did you do these up? Or pick them up in your travels ?
Very effective. Makes you want to start rippin' and tearin' on something.:D
Wish I had something old (that is, junky) to play with.

Cheers,
mike
 
Just made them up, though I'm sure it's been done before. I got the "R=1/10*pot for audio taper" from a remote level control circuit described in a Rane distribution amplifier manual. The curves are just from simple voltage divider formulas entered into an Excel spreadsheet.

Ohm's law and a bit of head scratching can get you very far.:)

barefoot
 
windowman said:
I don't know what's going on with this server now. I'm at someone else's computer right now and they're using netscape. When i left clicked the link I got to the download page but when I left clicked the link there, instead of giving me a choice to download or play from the browser it automatically started playing the file in netscapes browser window.

Dunno why....oh well.

And, yes, that's a clip from How the West Was One, ("Rejoice".)

Well, gotta get off the net for a few months. By all.
Click to expand...

A few months? Geez. Wonder if he's going on tour or something. :cool:
 
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