Hello Steemit !
I am signing today to share a guitar sound producing tip that i use very much , i'm thinking of sharing these tricks over the column ''a producer's toolbox'' , here i will be discussing over different solutions for recording , sound related , editing , share some of my favorite plug-ins , etc. rather than talking about musical concepts ( that type of information i will be posting under '' The Improv toolbox'' series . I'm still experimenting a bit on how to organize this information , but for the time being ''The producer's toolbox'' it is . ( hahaha )
This lesson is guitar centered ( as most of my posts since that is my instrument of choice , and my curse hahaha ).
Ok , on to the lesson :)
A couple years ago I co-produced 4 tracks for a Hardcore Punk band , to which I later joined for a short period , The band was called NH ( Nothing Happened ) , now it goes by the name of ''Nozin''. This band has a fast and aggressive and heavy style , pretty much ''in your face'' approach but with some pop song approach and pop vocals. The mix is quite interesting.
So , when i was called in to co-produce one track in particular the producers ( Fabrizio the drummer and Stanley the bass player) told me ''we are missing some driving force in this song , but we don't know how to get it '' . I kind of like this type of situations because I can get creative ...
Let's hear a snippet of the song before I continue:
Ok , the song idea is clear , but it is missing that ''power'' , it has riffs and solos and the drum is busy but there is nothing tying it together . '' It needs some heavier riffs , maybe some drop tuning can help this '' i thought . But I didn't have a particular sound in my head .
I don't have ''heavy '' equipment , meaning high gain amps and a guitar with high output humbuckers... my guitar arsenal pretty much consists of 2 stratocasters and 2 telecasters with slight variations between each one , i get all my tones with those 4 guitars ( at least the stuff I get called in as a session player ) I rarely have to ask someone else for a guitar ... ( i did have a Les Paul for a short period.... i miss that guitar... hahaha ) . And all I had in that particular day with me in the studio was a Strat...with single coils!
Then it struck me : ''Kings X '' , that's one of my favorite power trios , heavy , deep , with good lyrics , and Ty Tabor plays with a strat , that was it !
Such nice heavy tones coming from a strat , i love it
(Ty tabor with his stratocaster elite , in case you don't believe me ... he uses something else now , but for the time of that recording he was still playing some sort of strat guitar , with single coils.)
So , one more guitar player I have as an inspiration for this type of sound is Jeff Kollman , which I think invented this double drop C tuning , or at least that's where i got the idea from... He also uses strats and teles ,
Check an example from his work with Mogg/Way:
It has a very different vibe when using a low tuned , low gain guitar for these type of sounds... so i had these two guitar references in my head.
Ok , what is the ''Kollman'' tuning?
Well, this tuning goes as follows:
1st : E
2nd: B
3rd: G
4th: D
5th: G
6th: C
What you pretty much get is a regular tuning up until the 4th string , then you have the two lower strings tuned a fifth apart from each other , this extends the range of the guitar and also gives you an Open Cmaj9 chord through the whole guitar , a very ''lush'' chord in my opinion.
What i like about this tuning is that i only need to think of the new bass notes in my guitar , while i mantain my regular tuning on the top strings , this means i can use my regular voicings and soloing tricks as long as I don't use the two lower strings, it also puts me in a different mindset and i play differently . I've been using this tuning ever since that session for my own productions and music , 90% of the time as a secondary guitar , a little on the ''baritone'' side.
Here's two examples using that tuning , just messing around with amplitube presets on my telecaster , p90 on the neck , single coil on the bridge.
So.... what happened to the tune???!!
I'm sorry I took my time explaining the tuning and how I came to use it hehe , it is important to ''look for a sound'' in your head first , this is where all of our influences come in !
This is what came out applying this tuning and some of my indeas , inspired by Ty Tabor and Jeff Kollman :
https://soundcloud.com/linkingds/05-fue-mi-error
P.D : I did cheat on ONE note , there is a low B on a middle section , i tracked that part on a separate track tuning just the 6th string a half step lower :p .
Oh.. and just for the fun of it.. we produced a more ''radio friendly'' version , see how much a song can change just from a production approach :
https://soundcloud.com/linkingds/10-fue-mi-error-soft-version
Notice the similarities/differences?
What do you think about this tuning? and ''heavy'' tones using single coil guitars?
Thanks for reading and listening!
Signing off
Pechiche Mena