Never Mind The Distortion – Keep On Rocking!
The sound is little distorted in the beginning, but undeterred by this I quickly start playing my low E string, faster and faster, until I can’t help but go into a Dick Dale – Pulp fiction, kind of thing, that, if I spent more work on, could sound quite good – At least it could sound quite good without the distortion I am currently suffering from!
Despite the distortion, and without much of a break, I continue into that good old Rock & Roll sound. I hit the loop pedal on the second chord loop, I only leave a little, not too horrid gap, and I go for some solo notes on top. I follow the pattern round in a pretty standard manner, and if the sound wasn’t so awful and distorted, it may not sound bad at all – apart from that nasty gap in the loop of course!
A Rakey Rising Sun!
Next comes some strumming, rakey things, which, if you listen carefully, trying to ignore the distortion, you can hear turns into House of The Rising Sun – at least the first few bars of it anyway. I don’t play this one for long, because it is quite boring and repetitive, and instead I play some Blondie inspired notes, with a bit of a Status Quo feel tagged on later, and finishing with a Pachelbel vibe on the end of the medley.
I think it is how horrid, the sweet notes of Pachelbel’s cannon in D sound with the distortion, that finally persuades me to move my effects pedal to a place where I can reach it with my foot, instead of having to walk across the room every time I want to change the sound. To do this I need to mess about with some cables, adding a new long one that I found in back of a rarely used draw, and that I am really not too sure about. I spend time plugging and unplugging cables and adapters to make this new setup work – which gives a few minutes silence – silence I cunningly edit out of the unedited session recording!
Yowser!
Pleased with my progress I make a big noise strumming one chord very fast, which I like so much I change chords and continue with the same fast strumming – Inspired by the somewhat hypnotic sound, I go for the loop, and manage to create one with no discernible gap! Yowser! – I put some notes on top, which also sound haunting and beautiful – though I over experiment, and too many bum notes start to spoil the whole thing. Nevertheless, I press on – this is a new sound, I like it, and I want to get it fixed in my mind for another day.
Having enjoyed the emotion of the track as much as I can, I move on to pastures new. I start chugging, faster and faster, with no real plan in mind, but it soon turns into that Hendrixy thing I do – But there seems to be a serious problem with the cables, not only are they creating some distortion, but giving a weird fade out effect for no apparent reason. All I can do at this stage, is kick them about a bit, and wiggle them some, till things don’t sound too bad –
Kicking & Wiggling!
All the kicking and wiggling of cables seems to have knocked the volume button on the loop pedal, and as I finish the loop, I have to bend down and turn the volume up! Used to these little hassles as I am, I continue playing, and soon get into a nice soloy vibe that, at least for a while, doesn’t sound too bad.
The distortion coming from that cable is getting worse, and no amount of wiggling it with my foot seems to make much difference to it. Really I need a new cable, or at least have a go with my soldering iron, if it’s something easy to solder – though when, in the past I tried to solder broken cables I often ended up with a melted plastic mess, burns on my hands, and a cable that still doesn’t work!
Not to worry – I am sure next time will be better!
Thanks for listening –
Yours –
Tim Buktoo
