How an accident revolutionized guitar sound

http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2013/08/04/peter-cooper-on-music-how-a-happy-accident-revolutionized-guitar-sound/

by shawndumas • 13 years ago

114 35 13 years ago

blogs.tennessean.com

pessimizer• 13 years ago

Not the first distortion, but the first distortion using transistors. Didn't revolutionize guitar sound, but did give guitarists something to step on rather than a switch to flip.

drcube• 13 years ago

The distorted sound of rock ’n’ roll guitar aggression was born in Nashville, in 1960.

That's not the way I heard it. Snoddy might have introduced the Fuzz-Tone in the 60s, but the distorted guitar sound began with Link Wray poking holes in his amplifier's speaker on "Rumble", in 1958.

Not to minimize the Fuzz-Tone's impact, by any means. Just setting the record straight. ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_(instrumental)

duggieawesome• 13 years ago

Agreed, I've read that as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucTg6rZJCu4

Nav_Panel4• 13 years ago

Although all of the comments here have been valid and interesting, I'm gonna poke this reply thread with a Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAqTrbuxCRI

James Cotton - Cotton Crop Blues, on Sun Records. Recorded 1954, with a guitar solo harder/heavier than most records up until the late 60s (with a few exceptions like Dick Dale). And it features distorted power chords. Pretty much the first really heavy track out there, I figure. It's my go-to point to show people the origins of heavy, distorted guitar music.

I also like to show them some Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, as he had a lot of electrified instruments (electric guitar, electric mandolin, pedal steel) and was a big influence on Chuck Berry and Elvis. Plus I love Bob Wills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_rock_and_roll does a pretty good job of covering the important records that led up to the explosion of rock music in the 60s. Not sure about how it is beyond that.

Pretty glad a musical topic came up here on HN, though. I'm more passionate about music history than I am about computer science (though there are no career prospects there, so CS it is).

GoodIntentions2• 13 years ago

OT, but that Cotton Crop Blues link is at 6575 views as of now. (19:25 6Aug2013 ) Very curious to see what an HN link does to it.

tehwalrus3• 13 years ago

that is wicked - and it's actually a good song too (the one in the article is a horrid crooner one, far too smooth.)

DavidBradbury• 13 years ago

I love learning new pieces of music history, and I'd swear that track was made by a time traveler. I've taken a number of music history classes (I originally wanted to major in music education) in jazz history, classical history, world history, and American history, and have never heard that track. Really appreciate it.

donretag• 13 years ago

A torn speaker was responsible for the rocking sound in Rocket 88, recorded in 1951.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_88

ricardobeat• 13 years ago

Yes, when the 60s came around, guitar distortion was already a pretty common sound. Just think Beatles, Kinks, Rolling Stones, and of course Chuck Berry before them. What the fuzz changed is that it was the first distortion pedal, a smart alternative to destroying your amp speakers.

Link to Rocket 88 (1951): http://grooveshark.com/s/Rocket+88/24PPYE?src=5

Rock a While (1949), featuring the trademark rockabilly riff: http://grooveshark.com/s/Rock+A+While/3pQhHy?src=5

devb• 13 years ago

This article covers a number of accidental "discoveries" of distortion:

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/the_history_of/accide...

pfraze• 13 years ago

Snoddy explains what happened by invoking tech-talk about tube amplifiers and insufficient wiring. But whatever happened inside that console...

He came at me with the mumbo jumbo!

Here's the song, for anybody curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCbIAmy6X0M

unclesaamm• 13 years ago

better quality: http://grooveshark.com/s/Don+t+Worry/450UFD?src=5

kevincennis• 13 years ago

It would really be borderline impossible to try to pinpoint the origins of the distorted electric guitar sound.

Well before 1960, most amplifiers would begin to distort at higher gain levels. And even if you only want to count "deliberate" distortion, there's the famous example of Link Wray poking holes in his amp's speakers in '58.

This is an interesting story, but it's kind of overstating the significance. Or maybe just oversimplifying the history.

ajross• 13 years ago

All amplifiers will go non-linear at high gain, so certainly the technical effect can be pushed well back into the 20's. I'm sure someone, most likely an engineer in broadcast radio, "heard" distorted audio long before this.

I think it's reasonable and interesting to ask how it became art, though.

rombdn3• 13 years ago

Not the first distortion but the first 'fuzz'. Distortion is created by amp saturation at high levels while fuzz is created trough transistors which produce nearly square waves (http://www.geofex.com/effxfaq/distn101.htm fig.4)

S_A_P• 13 years ago

I think that its a case where a lot of people had the same idea at around the same time. As recording technology advanced in the 1950s, people realized there was some creativity to be found there.

Many people attribute backwards recording to the Beatles and George Martin, but it had been done nearly a decade earlier (on purpose even) by André Popp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Popp with delirium in Hi-fi. Im sure this is not even the first instance.

Certainly there is significance here with the invention of the fuzz tone, and it definitely inspired a new wave of guitar effects, and most likely effects pedals. I think it demonstrates how the electric guitar is one of the most versatile instruments ever made and has a wider sonic palette than most any other thing out there when you account for playing styles, effects, and expression. Either way this was a great read, and I love to nerd out to audio, production and recording.

tmuir• 13 years ago

The "discovery" of distortion is an example of the idea that inventors are sometimes the first person to tell someone else about something, instead of the first person to discover the thing.

The electric guitar was invented in 1931. It then follows that guitars were being electrically amplified in 1931. Are we really to believe that it took 20-30 years for someone to turn up the gain higher than what would allow it to accurately amplify the input signal?

sehugg2• 13 years ago

Tube amps distort in a very gradual way when overdriven. The "fuzz" sound is a more severe form of clipping. This is why transistor-based stomp boxes were sought out; it's actually hard to get a tube amp to clip in this exact way.

sehugg2• 13 years ago

Another article at Gibson.com talks more in detail about "fuzz milestones": http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/who-cal...

The distortion in "Don't Worry" was a faulty preamp on the console, probably tube-based since the first transistor-based mixing board was made in 1964. The distorted guitar in the Beatles' "Revolution" was also an overdriven mixing board, but theirs was solid state IIRC.

But if you like country-flavored fuzz, WFMU has you covered with a retrospective: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/11/country-fuzz-sp.html

bbx• 13 years ago

This reminds me of the famous "Phil Collins sound", which basically is a gated reverb applied on the drums, and was discovered by accident during a studio session.

http://thecollectivereview.com/hugh-padgham/hugh-padghams-ga...

tehwalrus3• 13 years ago

in Music Technology lessons (yes, that was a subject for a few years in the UK, I think it's defunct now) they loved giving us Phil Collins to analyse - he used all sorts of weird stuff noone else has ever bothered with (gated reverb, reverse reverb, short time delay on vocals, all in the same song, almost as a matter of course.)

The endless repetition is why I still sit still every time I hear the intro to "in the air tonight" trying to find the beat before the vocals come in!

rombdn3• 13 years ago

Reverse reverb was also used by Jimmy Page on several Led Zeppelin tracks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_echo)

philjohn• 13 years ago

Ah, I remember doing Music Technology A-Level - it was a brilliant course, and it helped that our school had the funds to build a halfway decent digital recording studio.

Amadou• 13 years ago

What I took away from the article was that the patent didn't really help the "inventor." That sales didn't really start to take off until very near the end of his royalty period. But yet he was still very successful in the business with a long career.

Maybe it is just confirmation bias, but it sounded a bit like his invention of the fuzzbox did more for his reputation in the industry than it did for his bank account.

jolohaga• 13 years ago

Don't Worry's distortion is breathtaking in the context it's presented. I can see how it would make an impact in the industry. It's quite a unique sound, consistent square wave distortion, verging on not sounding like a guitar any longer. Can't say I've heard anything like it in earlier electric guitar recordings.

linker3000• 13 years ago

If that 'hack' story interests you, try this one about the amp found in a skip (dumpster) by Queen bass guitarist and electronics engineer John Deacon:

http://www.brianmay.com/brian/briannews/briannewsjun05.html

http://www.deacyamp.com/index.php?route=information/informat...

Link2 is to the slideshow of a booklet

walshemj• 13 years ago

I always like the story that when the Beatles went to the BBC to record a show the sound engineer (white lab coat and pipe) Flatly refused to allow them to use a feedback sound as this is the BBC we don't have feedback here!

rombdn3• 13 years ago

Another accidental discovery of distorted guitar sound was made by Dave Davies of the Kinks in 1964, who says he sliced is amp with a razor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Davies#Early_years_.281963...)

The Kinks - You Really Got Me : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXWKowSK3yY

How an accident revolutionized guitar sound

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