"The Great Curve"(Talking Heads)ending solo

[andjar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW1IqW6kNdU
it starts at 5:29.Amazing tone.I wasn't crazy about the 80's sounds but this one haunts me.I've tried distortion+chorus+reverb but...neah...
Any ideas about how it could be reproduced?

[chervokas]

Ha! That was Adrian Belew at his most insane...a bright spanky amp cranked with some kind of OD for that saturated sustain -- not too much clipping, but a lot of gain...on that studio recording it sounds like there's some kind of short delay going on, maybe w/ the guitar multitracked with one dry track and one wet track, I dunno, that delay sounds like a studio effect not a guitar effect. Live on that tour I don't think he was playing that stuff w/ any delay or modulation....

BTW, that expanded editon of Talking Heads touring behind Remain in Light was one of the greatest rock bands and rock shows I've ever seen. You don't get to see Belew much on this vid, but you hear him and see a little of the technique -- he would stand in front of the amp, bang the guitar with his fist to get the strings vibrating and the ax feeding back, then shake the strat by the horn in front of the amp, do bends behind the nut, or by pushing down on the horn while pulling up on the neck etc...amazing thing to see. A lot of that tone definitely was in the technique.



You can see a little more of the technique in this vid:



BTW looking at the vids from this concert, look like Belew's playing a JC-120...so a clean, bright transistor amp.

[andjar]

thanks a lot chervokas! I did a bit of research(wikipedia) and i found out that Adrian Belew also used a roland guitar synthesiser during the recording session but i don't know for which songs/parts was it used or if it was used for that solo.I was hoping it could be done with some pedals because i'm not sure i want to invest in a guitar synthesiser just for that.I don't even know exactlly what roland guitar synthesiser was used or if a current production synthesiser could nail that tone.

[seiko]

For the heads tour he was using:

- mxr dynacomp (cranked)
- eh big muff
- mxr eq (mids cranked)
- eh echoflanger
- roland delay/chorus

[chervokas]

Originally Posted by seiko

For the heads tour he was using:

- mxr dynacomp (cranked)
- eh big muff
- mxr eq (mids cranked)
- eh echoflanger
- roland delay/chorus

Thanks for this...yeah, a lot of that feedbacky sustain he has that's kinda clean, not clipped, always sounded to me like a cranked dynacomp. That's very helpful.

[steven d]

Originally Posted by andjar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW1IqW6kNdU
it starts at 5:29.Amazing tone.I wasn't crazy about the 80's sounds but this one haunts me.I've tried distortion+chorus+reverb but...neah...
Any ideas about how it could be reproduced?

This is one the best solos ever, i believe it was his precious Foxx Tone Machine.

[seiko]

Originally Posted by steven d

This is one the best solos ever, i believe it was his precious Foxx Tone Machine.

Likely before the Foxx tone was acquired.