Faking the keys for Won't Get Fooled Again

  • For the most part I'm kind of a grab it and go player. Dial up a profile, hit a chord, rock and roll. However, when doing cover band stuff you have various things to emulate. I currently find myself in a two guitar / no keyboard scenario where I'm thinking about faking the intro keys to the Who song. We could get away with just skipping it and dropping right into the song, but I thought it would be fun to see if I could come up with something that was, well, close enough for rock and roll.


    The phase / filter shifting shouldn't be too hard to come up with, but I was wondering if there are some tricks with any of the effects that would help me emulate the sample and hold nature of the part. In other words, hit a chord and let it ring, but the notes cut on and off with that sequencer kind of signature.


    Of course, I can accomplish this with the multi finger plucking technique on the guitar itself and probably get away with it, but the attack on the notes would be softer from the pads of my fingertips than the cutoff you get from synth style sample and hold, mod cutoff, etc.


    Any thoughts on how to achieve this? Surely I'm not the first guy to try to skin this particular cat.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • This probably isn't really what you are looking for but there is a pretty awesome (IMO) version of EVH doing this in the studio when Sammy was in the band. Easy to find on YouTube. Whatever Ed was doing, it sounded good to me.

  • You could try it with a Gibson style switch setup. Bridge (pickup) full volume - Neck Zero ... Strike the chord with switch in bridge position (i.e ON) then toggle to mid position (off) in tempo to suit.


    Something (!) like this ....


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  • Or let a keyboard player record the intro

    and then use it as a backing track , like The Who does ...... :/


    ( This is not a burn, it is a serious suggestion )


    Cheers !

    The adjective for metal is metallic. But not so for iron ... which is ironic.

  • Hey, guys.


    Thanks very much for all the ideas.

    This probably isn't really what you are looking for but there is a pretty awesome (IMO) version of EVH doing this in the studio when Sammy was in the band. Easy to find on YouTube. Whatever Ed was doing, it sounded good to me.

    I watched that and yeah, anything Eddie does is going to be awesome. That's what I was talking about with the finger plucking thing.

    You could try it with a Gibson style switch setup.

    Good idea, and a standard rock and roll trick. Unfortunately, my McCarty doesn't have the two volume knob setup of a Paul.

    It's an excellent notion, and is actually the way I would normally want to go. I had a project a few years back using Cubase, backing tracks, midi driven lighting, projection, etc. and that's exactly what I would have done. However, this thing is a very simple rock and roll band and all my techie tricks would be a bit out of place, hence trying to come up with a hack.

    Try a Tremolo with Rate set to 1/8, Depth to 10.0 ... and the rig tempo set to 136bpm.

    That sounds like what I was reaching for, thanks! After I add the slow phase shift / filter effect that might capture the spirit of the part.


    Appreciate everyone's thoughts on this. I'm sure there are things in life that I'm good at, but dialing in tones has never been one of them.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • That guy in video took 3 minutes to explain the kill switch technique that could be explained in 10 seconds. Reminds me of someone named "HW" but not as bad as that. LOL.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.