Reggae sound

[Disco_Dave]

Could anyone give me any tips on getting that chuka-chuka reggae guitar sound. We are trying to cut a cover of White Man in Hammersmith Palais by The Clash and need to work on a better reggae sound as the guitars sound really muddy.

Any help would be great.

[darrin_h2000]

Its the rythem signature that gives you that reggae groove. First put that strats pu switch in the neck and middle position. Then find a dirty tone but still like an old fender. then you just play two tripelets in every measure doing an upstrum first and then a down strumm twice repeating this every measure. While the drummer and bass are doing regular 4/4.


Seventh chords are best, have the singer sing about oppression and "the man" and dont forget to smoke your weight in Hash.

[64Firebird]

That's right, reggae rythens are very close to polka. Oom pa pa oom pa pa.

[Aaron Cheney]

Huh?

Perhaps I've been missing something all this time, but I've never thought of the reggae beat as described. To me it was always just the stong upbeat stroke that defined reggae:

1 AND 2 AND 3 AND 4 AND

where do the triplets come in? Help I to undahstahnd. I don't want the Rasta vibration to be anyting boot positive.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com

[beaverbiscuit]

Originally posted by 64Firebird
That's right, reggae rythens are very close to polka. Oom pa pa oom pa pa.

You really think so, 64Firebird? I think of ska as kinda being like that, with bass drum on the 1 and 3 and snare on the 2 and 4, but I thought reggae emphasized the bass drum on 1 and the snare on 3, so it's much slower. I think of "Spirits in the Material World" by the Police as being a ska tune and "I Shot the Sheriff" as being reggae.

Did that make any sense?

[Aaron Cheney]

Does this clear it up for you, Disco-Dave?

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com