h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

being in the clubhouse and also, for those people in the MuG, I've just thought, have we got a smiley?

...Been learning Pink Floyd riffs all day... Oh. Is that ok to say in the Clubhouse? feeling well chuffed with myself! (can now do all the twiddly bits on the intro for Wish You Were Here! )

was going to ask.. can any electric guitar players enlighten me as to how brian may gets that weird 'wop' sound from his guitar in the big guitar solo he does on ROTC? its almost like a bubble... just be interested to know, that's all. See, I recently 'went electric', so to speak, so I'm kind of keen to learn new stuff...

My favourite Floyd riff is money, as for the wop do you mean in Last Horizon? I think it might be the red special itself when you put the switches phased, not certain though. You could try the new digitech Brian May pedal apparently helps to produce the Red Special sounds.

Thanks for the tip. I dunno if it is on last horizon. Will check.

I like money too, doesn't get played much on the radio tho does it? mind you, Jeremy Vine played it the other day, but then that's not a surprise, he does sometimes play unusual stuff.

Off to check the tracklist on rotc...

Yeah a smiley would be great. Esp for all us Queen fans. Kaz, you think we should add it to the page we've already got going?

Could somebody be more specific about the 'wop'? Which track is it in? I doubt of anything directly related to the guitar would be so apparent as to stand out. It could be a wah-wah pedal or, if it's in the solo from 'I Want To Break Free' I think it's some sort of envelope filter (which I'll explain further if it turns out to be the track!)

Yes, we need a geeeeeeeeeetttttttttttaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr smiley!

(and a banjo smiley, but I'm weird like that!)

Re Money: never, ever start playing that bassline. You'll be at it for hours. It's the playing equivalent of an ear-worm or Pringles (once you pop you just can't stop). Much like the 'Groove Is In The Heart' bassline in that respect. And they're in the same key!

Hi, yeah, I'll try and be a bit more specific about the bit of the solo. Its not on Last Horizon, I checked. Its on the main guitar solo, shortly after that great little section of violining he does (I think its called violining, it sounds like one (!)) the tune reminds me of something but I can't remember what its called... anyway, I'm digressing.. Its not really a 'wop' sound but its more like a bubble of sound fading out. I'm guessing its perhaps to do with reverb, but it sounds like whatever he's playing, he's managed to delay it through the amp so it's all distorted. (but its not overdrive) its like there's a mismatch between the pickups and the amp somewhere. Sounds terrible, the way I'm describing it, but its quite a cool sound really , I spoke to some people in the MuG but they didn't know what I was on about either so I'm feeling a bit stupid! Its only cos I've been working out David Gilmour's Take A Breath off his new album and he seems to get a similar effect when he does his solo. If you saw the Jools Later... show a couple of weeks ago you'll know what I mean. He performed it then.

Sorry, you can tell I'm new to all this techie stuff with electric guitars can't you Sorry for the really description

I'd whack the DVD on but there's a DNA round on Mastermind in ten minutes!

BTW: The violining is done by turning the volume down, playing the note, then turning the volume up again. It's easier on some guitars than others (the volume knob needs to be near enough to the strings for you to play the note while your pinky's resting on the volume).

is there?

I don't think the effect is from an effects pedal (anyway, so new to this stuff and I'm not a fabulous guitarist that I kind of wanna learn how to get the best sounds from the guitar on its own first!) seems to be an infinite number of possibilities.

btw, just a general question, was told by guitar techs not to use the top pickup when playing with distortion/overdrive. They said to keep to the bridge pickup, is this true?

oh. Thanks for the violining tip!

Don't use the neck pickup with distortion? Sorry but they're ranting from their rumps. It's a guitar - use whichever pickup makes the sound you want! If you've ever heard Gary Moore's Parisienne Walkways you've heard a Les Paul's neck pickup played with distortion (and with the pichup's tone knob turned down). Lovely, beautiful smooth sound.

Also, a hell of a lot of Hendrix is neck pickup - though being a Stratocaster with single coil pickups (rather than the Les Paul's humbuckers) the sound's brighter. All Along The Watchtower? That intro solo is neck pickup all the way.

I thought they might be talking rubbish, but was a bit nervous to try anything- had some trouble with my guitar and amplifier when I first got it which scared me a bit, so maybe I'm been a bit too precious with my guitar!

I'm lost.

I always used a volume pedel rahter than the volume knob on the guitar for that, too easy to miss the volume knob on the guitar tr turn it out of sync with what you're playing

Sounds like there are lots of ways to make your guitar sound different.

Oh yus and of course the guitarists lore clearly states you'l never never find that* totally right* sound youre after the guitar and amp do of course make the most differnece, well, after one's ability at playing (unfortuantley they've not yet created an electric effect gizmo that can substitute for years of practise ) I'm fed up with most of my guitars now... need to sort out a pile of money flog all of mine and get a more simple reduced sized collection of one very good acoustic and the electric I want

...anyway...I was going to say, at the risk of this becoming an extension of the MuG I guess we better leave it there...

Why would you want more than 2 guitars (one electric one acoustic) anyway, unless you're a pro?

...Moving on...
There's another Queen+PR DVD out that I saw on the site the other day of their tour in Japan, noticed Fire and Water is in the set. I was wondering how long it would be before Bri tried his hand at some more Free songs...
Anyone got it yet?