Very Important Hillage thread- what is this instrument?!

Share the music that moves you.......
User avatar
thomas
Old Hand
Posts: 910
Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 1:52 am
Location: N.W.Kent

#1 Very Important Hillage thread- what is this instrument?!

Post by thomas »

My apologies for yet more Hillage talk, but this is a question from deep within my psyche, troubling me since that momentous day in August '77 when I first heard this album, and is therefore very important.
.... Yesterday, whilst heating cathodes with young DTB I asked him what he thought was happening in the middle of Hillages' glorious solo, from 2.29- 2.58;



Y'see, I thought this bit might be some sort of 'TONTOed' electric violin? In the day, I even tried to play along on my violin... (bless!) but, funnily enough, I could never get it to sound quite like Hillage(!)....
So, anyone, any ideas what instrument is playing here? DTB shattered my illusions by suggesting it was a keyboard playing- surely not?!

I've always loved the sound of Hillages guitar throughout this record, from the very start of 'Hello Dawn' and Mr Bass informed me it was a specific guitar he used, sorry Dave, I've forgotten, what was it again?!

Please people help me out, here....!

Ta
Thomas

Testing 1-2-1-2
Last edited by thomas on Wed Dec 11, 2013 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
The Stratmangler
Shed dweller
Posts: 2890
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:50 pm
Location: Rossendale, Lancashire

#2

Post by The Stratmangler »

Sounds like it could well be guitar, with a rolled off tone and the notes violined like Rory used to do.
Jeff Beck has been heard doing similar to great effect.
Chris :happy3:
User avatar
Nick
Site Admin
Posts: 15708
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 10:20 am
Location: West Yorkshire

#3

Post by Nick »

Looking at the sleeve notes, Hillage is down as playing Guitar Synth (not sure which one), that would be my bet.

Give the time, maybe a GR-500
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
User avatar
Dave the bass
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 12273
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 4:36 pm
Location: NW Kent, Darn Sarf innit.

#4

Post by Dave the bass »



Like this Thomas! :-)

See the URL for the you tube linky? looks like this ""

To make a cool looking you tube link just copy the bit after the part in the URL ".....watch?v=XXXXXXXXXX" , which in this case is "8bp1jVqTyEw".

Back here on a 'post reply' window see the 'you tube' button? Click that once to open the brackets like this [youtube] then insert the bit of the url you copied on the You tube page.... eg 8bp1jVqTyEw then click the 'you tube button again to close the brackets, should look like this [/youtube] . So the full link here should look like [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 8bp1jVqTyEw[/media] but not in italics.

Preview the post and all being well you should see the link like the grown ups do!

Back to 'the sound' on the solo section you've highlighted at 2.29... I'm sure its a keyboard/synth played with judicious pitch bend. Sounds lush analogue to me but I'm no keyboard player so might be wrong, just an avid listener!

The acoustic guitar sound all over that album I think comes from an Ovation brand guitar. They have a very distinctive piezo pickup sound. They also often have a rounded rear composite body which also maybe contributes to that sound, see Joany with her's ?
Image


DTB
Last edited by Dave the bass on Sun Dec 08, 2013 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
User avatar
Dave the bass
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 12273
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 4:36 pm
Location: NW Kent, Darn Sarf innit.

#5

Post by Dave the bass »

Nick wrote:Looking at the sleeve notes, Hillage is down as playing Guitar Synth (not sure which one), that would be my bet.

Give the time, maybe a GR-500
OOoo, yeah, good point. I always forget about them. Could be.

The phrasing of the solo is that of a guitarist BUT.... the sound is 'synthy' TME (To My Ears).

DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
User avatar
IslandPink
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 10041
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 7:01 pm
Location: Denbigh, N.Wales

#6

Post by IslandPink »

..but but but....
This could have gone on the other Hillage thread - that I launched only about 2-3 weeks ago.
Sorry , I must have acquired a fetish for neatness all of a sudden :?
"Once you find out ... the Circumstances ; then you can go out"
User avatar
Dave the bass
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 12273
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 4:36 pm
Location: NW Kent, Darn Sarf innit.

#7

Post by Dave the bass »

One cannot have too many Hillage threads.

Note that down some one! :D

DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
User avatar
IslandPink
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 10041
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 7:01 pm
Location: Denbigh, N.Wales

#8

Post by IslandPink »

Too true, Dave , and it has drawn my attention to the fact I have a copy of Motivation Radio somewhere that I need to extract from the shelf.
I have heard that sound you identify from 'Green' also, to a lesser extent .
"Once you find out ... the Circumstances ; then you can go out"
User avatar
Greg
Social outcast
Posts: 3198
Joined: Wed May 23, 2007 11:14 am
Location: Bristol, UK

#9

Post by Greg »

Having listened, I think as Nick suggests it's guitar synth. Note the reverb on some of the long notes. Having said that, why bother? It's crap music anyway :wink:

Sorry, it doesn't do anything for me :roll:
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
Douglas Adams (HHGTTG)
User avatar
Dave the bass
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 12273
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 4:36 pm
Location: NW Kent, Darn Sarf innit.

#10

Post by Dave the bass »

Greg wrote: Having said that, why bother? It's crap music anyway :wink:
:shock: Ban him! Forever, or even longer! :)

DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
User avatar
IslandPink
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 10041
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 7:01 pm
Location: Denbigh, N.Wales

#11

Post by IslandPink »

Longer ! Longer ! Longer ! :x
"Once you find out ... the Circumstances ; then you can go out"
User avatar
Mike H
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 20157
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 5:38 pm
Location: The Fens
Contact:

#12

Post by Mike H »

Dave the bass wrote:One cannot have too many Hillage threads.

Note that down some one! :D

DTB
{* licks pencil *} "One ... cannot ..... have .... too ... many ..... Hillage .... threads"

OK done. :D
 
"No matter how fast light travels it finds that the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
User avatar
thomas
Old Hand
Posts: 910
Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 1:52 am
Location: N.W.Kent

#13

Post by thomas »

Looking at the sleeve notes, Hillage is down as playing Guitar Synth (not sure which one), that would be my bet.

Give the time, maybe a GR-500
Aha, thanks Nick, huh, these new fangled synths, eh?! A cursory google of GR-500 brings this up



(thanks for the tutorial, DTB!)

... and arguably, at exactly the 1.01 mark he makes a fairly similar sound.... my puzzle may at last be solved...
User avatar
The Stratmangler
Shed dweller
Posts: 2890
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:50 pm
Location: Rossendale, Lancashire

#14

Post by The Stratmangler »

The more I listen to the solo the more convinced I am that it's guitar, and not guitar synth.
Guitar synth technology at the time was not sufficiently evolved to track things like finger vibrato accurately.

The synth like sound could be reverse guitar ...

I found this out on the www., and both are done with the GR500

http://www.cedricwillems.com/mp3/Cedric ... _short.mp3

http://www.cedricwillems.com/mp3/Cedric ... _short.mp3
Chris :happy3:
User avatar
Dave the bass
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 12273
Joined: Tue May 22, 2007 4:36 pm
Location: NW Kent, Darn Sarf innit.

#15

Post by Dave the bass »

The Stratmangler wrote:The more I listen to the solo the more convinced I am that it's guitar, and not guitar synth.
Guitar synth technology at the time was not sufficiently evolved to track things like finger vibrato accurately.

The synth like sound could be reverse guitar ...
Maybe.

I still think its a keyboard mimicking a guitar solo because as y'say Guit Synth tech hadn't evolved that far as Thomas's vid link shows to pitch bend like the solo under discussion incorporates BUT....dot dot dot.... I believe keyboard based Synth's had. The sounds are simmilar but the expressive pitch bending isn't , which (to me) pull's the (not agressive!) argument away from guitar synths back to keyboard synths.

Backwards guitar, mmm, possibly but the attack and decay aren't quite there IMHO for that sound.

So there! *steps down off imaginary soap box!!!*

Ace thread BTW. Good work MrT!

DTB
"The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger"
Post Reply