Recipe to prepare a guitar
May 2, 2019 5:54 PM Subscribe
What are the most intriguing and satisfying ways you’ve found to prepare a guitar?
I’ve fiddled around with weaving paper clips and toothpicks or wooden satay skewers into the strings, with varying success. Scotch tape can be fun too. What else works best that you’ve found?
This is on my mind because I’m working on playing kora music on the acoustic guitar, like this song, but I want to experiment with other kinds of timbres too.
I’ve fiddled around with weaving paper clips and toothpicks or wooden satay skewers into the strings, with varying success. Scotch tape can be fun too. What else works best that you’ve found?
This is on my mind because I’m working on playing kora music on the acoustic guitar, like this song, but I want to experiment with other kinds of timbres too.
Best answer: I'm a bass player and discovered in Tony Levin's 1998 autobiography Beyond the Bass Clef that he got the lovely muted bass sound on "Don't Give Up" on Peter Gabriel's "So" album by wedging a disposable diaper down near the bridge. Apparently, he brought his infant kid to the sessions with him and, thinking (for some reason) that there wouldn't be disposable diapers in England, he stuffed his bass case full of them before his flight from the states. Wanting to chase down a new tone for the tune, he looked over to his case, stuffed a "nappy" (British for diaper, I guess?) down by the bridge, and the rest is history. Apparently he refers to it as the "super wonder nappy sound."
Levin also plays using "funk fingers" - wooden sticks attached to his fingers that produce a really percussive, unique, slappy tone.
I don't know if there'd be enough string clearance to stuff a diaper down by the bridge of a guitar, but maybe doing some extreme palm-muting sounds with a piece of cloth or something down there?
posted by elmer benson at 10:15 AM on May 3, 2019
Levin also plays using "funk fingers" - wooden sticks attached to his fingers that produce a really percussive, unique, slappy tone.
I don't know if there'd be enough string clearance to stuff a diaper down by the bridge of a guitar, but maybe doing some extreme palm-muting sounds with a piece of cloth or something down there?
posted by elmer benson at 10:15 AM on May 3, 2019
(I love metafilter because my first thought was, "roasting it with herbs and spices, I guess?" and then put the snark down to do some research)
ty
posted by knownassociate at 10:22 AM on May 3, 2019
ty
posted by knownassociate at 10:22 AM on May 3, 2019
Watching some Fred Frith videos should give you some good ideas!
posted by TheCoug at 11:56 AM on May 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by TheCoug at 11:56 AM on May 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by starfishprime at 11:49 PM on May 2, 2019