winter college 2015 guitar pres
TRANSCRIPT
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Dr. Brian KirkmeyerKaren Buchwald Wright Assistant Dean for Student Success
& Instructor of CEC266 Metal on Metal: Engineering & Globalization
in Heavy Metal Music
Whitney RileyDirector, Corporate and Foundation Relations
How My Guitar Loudly Shrieks:The Technology of Electric Guitar
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Agenda
Guitar design basics
Guitar amplification basics
Guitar signal modification basics
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Early electric guitars were either electrified
acoustics or chop-shop specials
Over time, the designs were modified, customized, mass-produced, and otherwise advanced to allow every possible option that the musician could decide that he/she needed
Guitar Design
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Design Basics
www.gibson.com; www.fender.com; www.warmoth.com
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What design elements will we discuss?
Pickups
Bridges
Amplification
Signal modifications
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Pickups
Single coil Brighter sound, subject to hum/noise
Humbuckers Beefier sound, eliminates hum/noise
P90 In between sound, subject to hum/noise
Passive (no pre-powering)
Active (pre-powered via battery)
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Bridges
Hardtail Telecaster-style
Tune-o-matic
Vibrato (aka tremolo) Vintage six-point
Modern two-point
Floating
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Vacuum tubes
Older style
Warmer, more natural sound
Transistors
Newer style
Colder, relatively artificial sound
Hybrids
Tube-driven pre-amplifier, transistor-driven amplifier
Allows integration of amplification and signal modification
Amplification
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Signal Modification
Irreversible damage to the amplifier
Dave Davies of The Kinks, Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats
Permanently damage the speaker (slicing it, dropping the amp)
Overpowering the circuitry to cause distortion and feedback
Turn it up too loud, e.g. The Who, Blue Cheer, Led Zep, Hendrix
Impart signal interference due to magnetic field interactions
Overlay modified copies of the original signal
Studio effects, e.g. press on the flange of the recording reels
Apply signal filters to add/subtract parts of it, or induce phase delay
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What kinds of modifications?
Distortions
Overdrive, distortion, fuzz
Pushing the signal amplitude past its capabilities
Signal modulation
Flanger, chorus, phaser, tremolo, ring modulation, vibrato
Mixing or splitting signals to vary it over time
Filters
Wah, talk box, equalizer
Frequency-specific alterations of the sounds to boost or suppress
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What kinds of modifications?
Dynamics
Boost, compression, noise gate
Volume-specific alteration of the sound signal
Time modulators
Delay, reverb, looper
Replications of the original signal to create time effects
Pitch modulators
Harmonizer, octaver, pitch shifter
Shifting pitch up or down, either just the original signal or as a mixed signal
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Thanks for listening, and ROCK ON!!!