how soon is now question
- Thread starter gaz217
- Start date
It's rather hard unless you know a lot about effects and vibrato. I haven't tried it in a while, though. Also, because of the production, we don't hear the change overs between chords etc. Just play "Shoplifters" instead. Much easier.ever since first hearing how soon is now i've wondered how johnny marr makes that waling sound on the guitar. i am thinking of learning the guitar and wanted to know how to create that effect, anybody know?
Harsh Truth
Ever Felt Had?
I've wondered if the live version they do these days is done just on the guitars or if Mikey helps out a bit with some sort of sample... anyone know?
I think Mikey was giving a bit of help on his synths.
I robbed this:
"There is a 'vibrato' or 'tremolo' twist knob on certain guitar amplifiers; some Fender models come to mind. It specifically produces that unmistakable wooga-wooga sound, originally intended to emulate a skilled stringed instrument player's fingered tremoloing (think concert violinists, cellists, etc.). It's basically an electrically-induced volume oscillation; one can hear the chord being played, bouncing back and forth on the volume scale, but Marr's good enough to mask the changes. Early guitar rock god Bo Diddley used it extensively on his Fifties singles, which have influenced generations of guitarists, including (obviously) Marr. The distinctive drumbeat of the track is also a blatant/loving Diddley nick".
"There is a 'vibrato' or 'tremolo' twist knob on certain guitar amplifiers; some Fender models come to mind. It specifically produces that unmistakable wooga-wooga sound, originally intended to emulate a skilled stringed instrument player's fingered tremoloing (think concert violinists, cellists, etc.). It's basically an electrically-induced volume oscillation; one can hear the chord being played, bouncing back and forth on the volume scale, but Marr's good enough to mask the changes. Early guitar rock god Bo Diddley used it extensively on his Fifties singles, which have influenced generations of guitarists, including (obviously) Marr. The distinctive drumbeat of the track is also a blatant/loving Diddley nick".
Worm
Taste the diffidence
Johnny gave a fantastic and detailed interview about Smiths songs in Guitar player magazine about 15 or 16 years ago. It's available at The Arcane Old Wardrobe, which for my money is the best spot for Smiths interviews and pictures on the web.
Here's the relevant bit:
Here's the relevant bit:
"How Soon Is Now" was in F# tuning. I wanted a very swampy sound, a modern bayou song. It's a straight E riff, followed by open G and F#m7. The chorus uses open B, A, and D shapes with the top two strings ringing out. The vibrato sound is f***ing incredible, and it took a long time. I put down the rhythm track on an Epiphone Casino through a Fender Twin Reverb without vibrato. Then we played the track back through four old Twins, one on each side. We had to keep all the amps vibratoing in time to the track and each other, so we had to keep stopping and starting the track, recording it in 10-second bursts. This sounds incredibly egotistical, but I wanted an intro that was almost as potent as "Layla" -- when that song plays in a club or a pub, everyone knows what it is instantly. "How Soon Is Now" is certainly one of the most identifiable songs I've done, and it's the track most people talk to me about. I wish I could remember exactly how we did the slide part -- not writing it down is one of the banes of my life! We did it in three passes through a harmonizer, set to some weird interval, like a sixth. There was a different harmonization for each pass. For the line in harmonics, I retuned the guitar so that I could play it all at the 12th fret with natural harmonics. It's doubled several times.
thepostmarks
New Member
first off...add one fender twin. the track was actually cut clean with the clean track being fed independently into FOUR Fender Twins...but you can do a fair approximation with one. anyway...set the depth of the vibrato at full and the speed roughly on the slow side between 3 and 4 (each amp will be slightly different). that's the basic vibrato effect.
next step is to approximate the tone. johnny originally titled the demo of the song 'swamp' and that is exactly the perfect description of the tone. you want to roll off all the highs and boost the mid and lows. we want a tone to emphasize the power of the vibrato but give a certain non-descriptness to the chord changes. another way is to adjust the tone through your guitar. ultimately wou want as murkey a tone as possible.
as for the chords...i believe the progression was played with a capo on the second fret. these are the chords listed as if they were played regular tuning...just play the shapes capo'ed on the second fret.
e / a / b sometimes e7 for the e part. don't quite remember off hand the rest of the progression.
the harmonized slide part? well...that's a much trickier proposition as it was detuned and run through a eventide harmonizer several times. good luck cracking that code.
hope this helps...
christopher
the postmarks
www.thepostmarks.com
http://www.myspace.com/thepostmarks
next step is to approximate the tone. johnny originally titled the demo of the song 'swamp' and that is exactly the perfect description of the tone. you want to roll off all the highs and boost the mid and lows. we want a tone to emphasize the power of the vibrato but give a certain non-descriptness to the chord changes. another way is to adjust the tone through your guitar. ultimately wou want as murkey a tone as possible.
as for the chords...i believe the progression was played with a capo on the second fret. these are the chords listed as if they were played regular tuning...just play the shapes capo'ed on the second fret.
e / a / b sometimes e7 for the e part. don't quite remember off hand the rest of the progression.
the harmonized slide part? well...that's a much trickier proposition as it was detuned and run through a eventide harmonizer several times. good luck cracking that code.
hope this helps...
christopher
the postmarks
www.thepostmarks.com
http://www.myspace.com/thepostmarks
Worm
Taste the diffidence
Not as much as the link. You made a fan!
