GR-55 - I want an Ebow (telecaster) Robert Fripp "Heros" tone...

Started by DUNCANRIGBY, January 12, 2016, 11:53:15 AM

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DUNCANRIGBY

Can you help me?

Elantric

Its actually Robert Fripp "Heros" tone...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Heroes%22_(David_Bowie_song)

The music, co-written by Bowie and Eno, has been likened to a Wall of Sound production, an undulating juggernaut of guitars, percussion and synthesizers.[14] Eno has said that musically the piece always "sounded grand and heroic" and that he had "that very word – heroes – in my mind" even before Bowie wrote the lyrics.[4] The basic backing track on the recording consists of a conventional arrangement of piano, bass guitar, rhythm guitar and drums. However the remaining instrumental additions are highly distinctive. These largely consist of synthesizer parts by Eno using an EMS VCS3 to produce detuned low-frequency drones, with the beat frequencies from the three oscillators producing a juddering effect. In addition, King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp generated an unusual sustained sound by allowing his guitar to feed back and sitting at different positions in the room to alter the pitch of the feedback (pitched feedback). Tony Visconti rigged up a system, a creative misuse of gating that may be termed "multi-latch gating",[15] of three microphones to capture the vocal, with one microphone nine inches from Bowie, one 20 feet away and one 50 feet away. Only the first was opened for the quieter vocals at the start of the song, with the first and second opening on the louder passages, and all three on the loudest parts, creating progressively more reverb and ambience the louder the vocals became.[16] Each microphone is muted as the next one is triggered. "Bowie's performance thus grows in intensity precisely as ever more ambience infuses his delivery until, by the final verse, he has to shout just to be heard....The more Bowie shouts just to be heard, in fact, the further back in the mix Visconti's multi-latch system pushes his vocal tracks, creating a stark metaphor for the situation of Bowie's doomed lovers".[17]



read
Anyone ever use an 'E Bow' with the '55?
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=6761.msg46866#msg46866

Quote- the classic "Ebow Tone" is achieved when its used directly above the Neck  mag PU, and the "growl" tone occurs due to interaction of the magentic flux between the two units.

That effect will not be duplicated , but certainly "infinite" sustain is certainly still possible when using an Ebow with a GK-3.


"Then I'd say the next thing that really moved the track along was Fripp's contribution. We already had Carlos's beautiful lines, like the bass line that was doubled on the guitar as well as the melodic part on the pre-chorus, and when Fripp came along about a week later he added a whole other dimension. He and Eno had already enjoyed a long partnership where Fripp would plug his guitar into the EMS Synthi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMS_Synthi_AKS

and Brian would just play around with it, so Fripp did exactly that and he came up with that beautiful line which everyone thinks is an E-bow sound, but which is actually just Fripp standing in the right place with his volume up at the right level and getting feedback.

"Everyone who's played the song with Bowie since then has had to use an E-bow to duplicate it, but Fripp had a technique in those days where he measured the distance between the guitar and the speaker where each note would feed back. For instance, an 'A' would feed back maybe at about four feet from the speaker, whereas a 'G' would feed back maybe three and a half feet from it. He had a strip that they would place on the floor, and when he was playing the note 'F' sharp he would stand on the strip's 'F' sharp point and 'F' sharp would feed back better. He really worked this out to a fine science, and we were playing this at a terrific level in the studio, too. It was very, very loud, and all the while he was playing these notes — that beautiful overhead line — Eno was turning the dials and creating a new envelope and just playing with the filter bank. We did three takes of that, and although one take would sound very patchy, three takes had all of these filter changes and feedback blending into that very smooth, haunting, overlaying melody which you hear."

--Tony Visconti, from http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/articles/classictracks.htm

DUNCANRIGBY

I should clarify...
I want to produce a regenerating sustain with my GR-55 to simulate an EBow.

gumtown

GR-55's PCM synth tones in the guitar tone category, used with the PCM "Tone Hold" function of the CTL pedal (hold type 3).

I have used the guitar feedback PCM tone in the past, strike a note, hit the CTL pedal hold, and play other parts with a sustained guitar feedback tone.
or depending on the Hold function type, every played note could be sustained.

probably not what you are looking for, but is an option.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

lespauled

I play the song without any eBow, using Cobalt 9s on either a Kramer Pacer or my ESP Lynch.  The strings give you a ton of sustain, and allow you to play that song easily.

Neardark72

Elantric, that feedback quote is awesome.

Lespauled, now I have to try those strings... Cobalt9s in my shopping list.

Thanks guys!