Rage against the machine trick

Stifler

in the video for "sleep now in the fire" what is Tom Morello doing for the solo?

Nidge

I'm not exactly sure what he is doing but unless he is taking the piss in the video i think it involves rapid movement of the pick up switch from one to the other. Although i'm fairly sure that that alone doesn't get you a messed up sound i think it is one of the elements of the sound.

NotMe

I'm not sure about the song in question but I know one of Morellos tricks is toggling the pickup on and off repeatedly.

Giblet

Sounds like a whammy pedal + turning one pickup off and rapidly switching the pickup switch.

po0k

yeah, afaik he has one or two pickups and uses the whammy bar while playing against the amp for a feedback loop.

Or something.

I have an interview recording of him where he explains it.

Bastardisation

Where could we get a look of it?

Nidge

yeah that'd be cool

The Passenger

Im pretty sure he uses a whammy pedal and toggles the pickup switch while **** his whammy bar.

feylya

I do believe he has a bottle neck (the thing you use for playing slide guitar) in his left hand, moving it over the pickups while he toggles his kill switch on and off. In fact, I'd place a bet on it.

Beekay

I heard he does a solo where he takes his lead out of his guitar
and just starts messing with it.

david

He fellates the strings behind the nut while working two whammys simultaneously and changing the speed and depth on his phaser AND delay pedals. Oh, and he uses the killswitch really fast also.

Nidge

Beekay wrote:

I heard he does a solo where he takes his lead out of his guitar
and just starts messing with it.

HA, i heard about that, he was about to rip in to a solo and his lead popped out and he still managed a great make shift solo. Although i don't think the lead falling out was part of the act...disaster

NotMe

Nidge wrote:

HA, i heard about that, he was about to rip in to a solo and his lead popped out and he still managed a great make shift solo. Although i don't think the lead falling out was part of the act...disaster

No he does actually take the lead out and tap it off the bridge for one of his songs.

*edit* "Bullet in your Head" That's the song.

feylya

freakonaleashx wrote:

He fellates the strings behind the nut while working two whammys simultaneously and changing the speed and depth on his phaser AND delay pedals. Oh, and he uses the killswitch really fast also.

He can't do anything to the strings behind the nut. He uses a locking nut and and vibrations from the strings won't travel to the pickups.

Doctor J

It was oh so different when he played the oul Telecaster back in the day

feylya

Bleh. Arm the Homeless. With a Floyd Rose!

Earwig Eddie

i can recreate this sound fairly well - one of my two pickups is broken so flicking between the two gives the on-off effect. much easier if your toggle switch is high up imo. you dont pick at all, just fret around hard with the left hand, the better the sustain on your guitar the better it will sound.

Nidge

NotMe wrote:

No he does actually take the lead out and tap it off the bridge for one of his songs.

*edit* "Bullet in your Head" That's the song.

Ok well that and there is actually a live performance where he really does accidentally step on the lead by accident and has to play a truly improvised solo.

feylya

Or if you have two volume controls on your guitar, turn one off and play with the selector switch

Earwig Eddie

feyla - i know what you mean, but this never seemed to give me the same on-off sound, maybe the "no volume" pickup is still somewhat active dunno mcuh about the technical side of things....

feylya

Nope. If it's wired correctly, absolutely no voltage should flow through the pot. At least, that's as far as I know. I've never done any in depth experiments.