George's "What is Life" Fuzz Guitar

[davekershaw]

Anyone know how George got that sound? I need something close.
Anything that might emulate it?
I've tried lots of software - Amplitube, GTR. Best I've found so far is Rammfire in Guitar Rig, but not really close enough.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers,
Dave.

[funsongs]

Anyone know how George got that sound? I need something close.
Anything that might emulate it?
I've tried lots of software - Amplitube, GTR. Best I've found so far is Rammfire in Guitar Rig, but not really close enough.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers,
Dave.

Have you tried kicking a hole in the speaker of your amplifier, and then cranking it to 11?!

[davekershaw]

Have you tried kicking a hole in the speaker of your amplifier, and then cranking it to 11?!

If that's what George did I'll give it a try!

[gushtone]

The guitar on this actually sounds rather clean. I think it is something mechanical, more like the sitar buzz bridge of a Danelectro/Coral Sitar. It may even be one of those guitars played on the A or D string higher up the neck. You could try weaving a piece of a 9-10-11 guage guitar string through the strings back by the bridge, not tight enough to dampen but just to create a buzz. The right weight thin strip of light paper could do it too. Other than that it just sound s like lots of mids with no bottom or and little top.

Peace...

[gushtone]

PS: Just tried it with a this strip of paper on a Tele, unplugged at my desk and it worked brilliantly. Definitely got me in the neighborhood. Going to have to try it plugged in later. Something metallic sounding would probably do well.

[davekershaw]

PS: Just tried it with a this strip of paper on a Tele, unplugged at my desk and it worked brilliantly. Definitely got me in the neighborhood. Going to have to try it plugged in later. Something metallic sounding would probably do well.

Interesting! Will try it tomorrow.

[mojobone]

Without going back and referencing the track, my mind's ear says 'germanium fuzz'; Maestro, Fuzz Face, early Tone Bender, or some such. A Big Muff and a Telecaster might work, in a pinch. But as someone mentioned it's kinda clean, so what's on the recording is probably a pair of console channels, ganged and overdriven, like on The Beatles' "Revolution".

It so happens, JHS makes a stompbox for that: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/JHSCrayon there's a more expensive one called the Colour Box that'll get you that sound and a bunch more, since it's got a 3-knob EQ. You might be able to emulate this with a console plugin or two, maybe even a channel strip plugin or some combination of saturation, distortion and EQ.

The tricky thing here is I theenk the main riff is doubled with a Coral Electric Sitar, and they can be a trifle hard to source; new ones are in the mid $400s, when they're available, and the vintage ones, you can fuhgeddaboudit, they're so expensive. Fortunately EHX makes a Sitar simulator pedal and Line6 included a Coral Sitar in their amazing Variax, which unlike the newest Coral-style electrics, includes the sound of the original's drone strings. For a cheap fix, you could hang a paper clip off the D string near the bridge and let it rattle.

[mojobone]

This fuzz sounds really close. It's a copy of a vintage unit that I happen to own. https://youtu.be/tOfDAtDUx7o?t=2m19s

[davekershaw]

This fuzz sounds really close. It's a copy of a vintage unit that I happen to own. https://youtu.be/tOfDAtDUx7o?t=2m19s

Thanks Mo.

I still haven't got that guitar down. Will look into that unit. It does sound good.

Dave.