Guitar solos in 'She Dreams of Fires'

alec · **Posted:** Fri Mar 30, 2012 3:50 am

Bill,

I keep thinking about the 'flicker' guitar featured in a particular track called 'She Dreams of Fires' from 'Fancy Planets'.

I'm referring to the staccato broken-up guitar located at 2:08 - 2:14.

This effect is achieved via switch being physically flicked in real time, on-off-on-off?

From 2:55 - 3:27, the guitar solo is rather C&W pedal steel.

From 3:48 - 4:03, a two-note.

From 4:04 - 4:19, a bottleneck slide?

Alec

MG · **Posted:** Fri Mar 30, 2012 4:12 am

I must listen to this again after your analysis.

Bill Nelson · **Joined:** Sun Apr 03, 2005 4:40 pm **Posts:** 8459

alec wrote:

I keep thinking about the 'flicker' guitar featured in a particular track called 'She Dreams of Fires' from 'Fancy Planets'.

I'm referring to the staccato broken-up guitar located at 2:08 - 2:14. This effect is achieved via switch being physically flicked in real time, on-off-on-off?

The 'flicker' effect was created by first of all playing along with the track in a fairly straightforward way but not actually recording it to the multi-track recorder. Instead, I captured it in my Boss looping pedal. I then rewound the song's backing track to the section where I wanted the solo to sit, put the multi-track into record and triggered the loop, (by hitting the Boss looper footpedal switch,) starting the looped solo at the first bar of the section.
As the looped solo played back, I used both my hands to manipulate the various controls on my Line 6 Pod 2 guitar processor/effects unit, rapidly switching through several different pre-set sounds, some clean some with different levels of distortion, some with chorus or flanging effects and so on. The extreme rapidity of the switching between all these sounds gives the solo the 'flickering' effect you're referring to.

The reason I played the solo into the looper first, of course, was to free my hands up from the guitar so that I could manipulate the Pod's controls in real time as the loop ran the solo.

The concept behind making the solo sound like this was to suggest 'fire,' as if the guitar was somehow burning and crackling as it played. :wink:

wonder toy · **Posted:** Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:47 am

I was right!

'Joy Through Amplifier Modeling Algorithms'

Great idea, Bill.

Super fun, too.

alec · **Posted:** Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:11 pm

Bill Nelson wrote:

The reason I played the solo into the looper first, of course, was to free my hands up from the guitar so that I could manipulate the Pod's controls in real time as the loop ran the solo.

And thus a new creature is born.

Bill Nelson wrote:

The concept behind making the solo sound like this was to suggest 'fire,' as if the guitar was somehow burning and crackling as it played. :wink:

alec · **Posted:** Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:11 pm

wonder toy wrote:

I was right!

'Joy Through Amplifier Modeling Algorithms'

Great idea, Bill.

Super fun, too.

Mmm.

Oliver Wendell Douglas · **Posted:** Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:05 pm

alec wrote:

wonder toy wrote:

I was right!

'Joy Through Amplifier Modeling Algorithms'

Great idea, Bill.

Super fun, too.

Mmm.

You know.... I could be happy with everything up to this point.
As I've said, there are a tone of great , zippy tunes and a cornucopia of guitar sounds and fx... but I know Bill keeps coming up with new things all the time , so I'm spoiled AND greedy

.JTA might turn out to be a special treat , and we expect no less.

GettingOnTheBeam · **Posted:** Sat Mar 31, 2012 6:44 pm

"Fancy Planets" is a classic..I can't stop playing it. I was going to burn a copy for a friend of mine...but couldn't bring myself to thievery, so I ordered him a copy through SOS.

This cd should be released on a major label, in my naive opinion.

G

alec · **Posted:** Sat Mar 31, 2012 7:39 pm

GettingOnTheBeam wrote:

"Fancy Planets" is a classic..I can't stop playing it. I was going to burn a copy for a friend of mine...but couldn't bring myself to thievery, so I ordered him a copy through SOS.

This cd should be released on a major label, in my naive opinion.

G

Doing the same thing, GettingOnTheBeam, ordering through SOS for friends.

It's cover and packaging seems ideal for vinyl LP, too, as do so many of these SOS-availables.

major snagg · **Posted:** Sun Apr 01, 2012 6:43 am

I got a very similar sound once, but it was due to a faulty lead, so I deleted it.

This was quite a while before I heard the brilliant She Dreams of fires by Bill. Yep, Fancy Planets is one of my favs too. Really looking forward to the new CD.

www.billnelson.com

Guitar solos in 'She Dreams of Fires'

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