Help me get this sound!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kasey
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Kasey

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I've been trying for a week to get somewhere close to the distorted guitar sound at the end of this song:
The Pull by The Microphones

Skip ahead to about 3/4th's of the way through the song. and wait to hear the explosion of sound.

I know that he's using a Kay hollowbody guitar, and i'm prety sure the only thing he's running it through is a cassette tape deck (he does weird things like this). I've tried it (i dont have a hollowbody guitar, but i have a brian moore with humbucker pickups made for jazz which should be fairly close) but I'm not getting the same screeching distortion. So i ran my guitar through two tape decks and its distorted, but its not the same screeching distortion...

any ideas?
 
Just a thought, listening to this at a low volume at work on mediocre PC speakers:

Try a Big Muff distortion pedal if you can get your hands on it (or a software emulation thereof)-- the tone and distortion controls on that unit allow for some really nice scooping and can get pretty bombastic. Add some EQ perhaps (i.e. boosting some mids?) and maybe you can get something like it?

Again, just a first thought without really listening critically to the sound.
 
Heres what you can try:

Get an acoustic/elec and run it through overdrive pedal, and run it into a small amp. Then take a razorblade and slice the crap out of the speaker. Turn volume all the way up. Then mic it with a 57. Then run that signal into another small amp and repeat.
 
wrong and wrong.

you want a fuzz pedal with germanium transistors. like a fuzz face or something. try the fuzz factory by zachary vex. also listening on a laptop..
 
Im with VSpaceBoy here.
Sounds like an acoustic through a distortion unit then tape distortion also.
I think it is an acoustic because of the amount of harmonic overtones you can here after it has passed through a distortion unit. and also the rumble sound that is also produced from acoustic -> distortion.
 
Get a shitty practice amp (like a gorrilla) or one of those amps you can clip to your belt and walk around (preferably one with a 5" speaker) Turn everything up and run an acoustic pickup through any distortion/fuzz pedal you want and jam a mic right up to the grill. You should get close to the sound
 
ecktronic said:
Im with VSpaceBoy here.
Sounds like an acoustic through a distortion unit then tape distortion also.
I think it is an acoustic because of the amount of harmonic overtones you can here after it has passed through a distortion unit. and also the rumble sound that is also produced from acoustic -> distortion.
Click to expand...

i think you may be right, i tried it and it does sound closer, but i know for a fact that he's using a Kay hollowbody guitar... i don't know a whole lot about hollowbodys.. do they have the same kind of harmonic overtones after distortion as a normal acoustic would?
 
Kasey said:
i think you may be right, i tried it and it does sound closer, but i know for a fact that he's using a Kay hollowbody guitar... i don't know a whole lot about hollowbodys.. do they have the same kind of harmonic overtones after distortion as a normal acoustic would?
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Sorry man i really dont know much about hollow bodies. Im guessing that they would ve similar, but im sure they would both have different characteristics to the sound. That could be the missing link in your chain.
As someone said earlier using a really small practice amp could work. Im thinking smaller than this though. You know the mini amps you get in the Marlboro packets etc. I think this might be the way to get that tight dense sound.
Check this out:
http://www.firebox.com/?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=5&display=all
There is a demo of the amp in action. i think its what you want.
 
Megaman said:
Get a shitty practice amp (like a gorrilla) or one of those amps you can clip to your belt and walk around (preferably one with a 5" speaker) Turn everything up and run an acoustic pickup through any distortion/fuzz pedal you want and jam a mic right up to the grill. You should get close to the sound
Click to expand...

that sounds about right :D :D
 
Megaman said:
Get a shitty practice amp (like a gorrilla) or one of those amps you can clip to your belt and walk around (preferably one with a 5" speaker) Turn everything up and run an acoustic pickup through any distortion/fuzz pedal you want and jam a mic right up to the grill. You should get close to the sound
Click to expand...

in fact, im actually pretty sure that he did use a gorilla amp. i at least know he has one.
 
Kasey said:
he's using a Kay hollowbody guitar
Click to expand...
I made a lamp out of one of those once. It didn't even make a good lamp.[I'm not kidding]:)
 
ocnor said:
I made a lamp out of one of those once. It didn't even make a good lamp.[I'm not kidding]:)
Click to expand...

i like the sound of it on his records
 
Karl Precoda of The Dream Syndicate used Kay guitars on their first classic record, 'The Days of Wine and Roses'. He had to abandon the use of the guitars eventually because they were so fragile and unreliable, but they gave that first record (yes...record) a great sound. I think I've got that Microphones recording and I'll have to give it another listen to see what I think.
 
centurymantra said:
Karl Precoda of The Dream Syndicate used Kay guitars on their first classic record, 'The Days of Wine and Roses'. He had to abandon the use of the guitars eventually because they were so fragile and unreliable, but they gave that first record (yes...record) a great sound. I think I've got that Microphones recording and I'll have to give it another listen to see what I think.
Click to expand...

it's off of "It was hot, we stayed in the water" a brilliant album.
 
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