Re: marimba, kalimba, steel drum sounds

[Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.net>]

On Wed, 22 Oct 1997 Dpcoffin@aol.com wrote:

> <<Any suggestions
> about effects that could be used to get these or related sounds from an
> electric guitar or violin?>>
> The VG-8 can provide excellent sounds of this type, as (I'm guessing 
>here,
> since I don't have one) can the various MIDI guitar rigs. You might also 
>try
> staccato notes into a ring modulator...

Try weaving a lamp-type ball chain in and out of the strings, in parallel
with a strip of felt or some other cloth damping.  To get a real tuned
percussion effect, avoid fretting notes... tune the guitar to the pitches
you want, and play open strings.  Alter your pick position or striking
surface (like metal versus plastic picks) to get different tonalities.  
Another thing that works really well for a percussive tone is something
stiff, like a pencil, between the strings and fretboard.  Start at the
12th fret, then move it around.  Try picking on both sides of the object.
Experiment!

Personally, I think prepared guitar sounds much more natural and true than
trying to achieve those percussive sounds with electronics. A little fuzz
or flanging can bring these things out, but ultimately the best sound
comes from the guitar itself.

-dave

By "beauty," I mean that which seems complete.
Obversely, that the incomplete, or the mutilated, is the ugly. 
Venus De Milo.
To a child she is ugly.       /* dstagner@icarus.net */
   -Charles Fort