Small Hours (Echoplex) by John Martyn- A Playing Guide and Cover

A second cover version by me of John Martyns classic echoplex guitar piece, Small Hours, this time on Fender strat rather than acoustic. Like I did with One World, I recorded purely on audio and then made up a timed chord sequence, a la tutorial style. This piece is mainly (plus important 'fills'), the chords just 'hanging' (as Chris Blackwell said). Watch/listen to the real McCoy himself for further development of this piece, of course.
Repeated hammer ons/pull offs at points I believe simulate the cries of geese on the lake JM originally recorded by the side of, in the small hours, naturally. I believe there are essentially 3 different tonal key centres used in this piece of music (see movie for details).
[JM Guitarist afflictees: Used line 6 dl4 on autovolume setting. Also a volume pedal after the delay unit in series with it. Signal modulation about 75% max, signal swell time about 70% max. About 10 echoes before dying, and about 90 echoes per minute (set by ear and to the drumbeat). Implied music/Drumbeats I counted at ~ 72 per minute. Tuning I actually used here for this cover is one tone down from cfccgd, so I used BbEbBbBbFC. But note the movie shows chords in CFCCGD as JM played it in. Fender pickup switch on posn 2 (neck+ mid pickup) for 'off-phase' effect. If I've erred please comment or message...the chord sequences I feel sure about but maybe I listed the repetition of these incorrectly in the movie.]

Category:

Music

Tags:

• John
• Martyn
• Small
• Hours
• One
• World
• Echoplex
• Guitar
• Fingerstyle
• Fingerpicking
• Line6
• dl4
• Delay
• Effects
• Tutorial

[guysnape]

Brilliant, thanks so much for this. I just bought a pod xt live so I can connect my variax to the computer and simulate that weird tuning without the faff of restringing. Guess what the first thing I did with it was ...

Oh, and "Ian McGeachy", eh? Is your middle name David? ;-)

Great work, again, many thanks.

[ianmcgeachy]

@guysnape No, and my name (given name) is actually Ian, not 'Iain' ;-)

but I have had trouble wi mi right leg..if that counts.

Yes, just last night had mi hands on a variax line6 guitar...great things.

the pod xt..also line6..that has all the the dl4 ability built in then?

[Lastaccountgothacked]

Thank you, I love you, wow, thanks.

[ianmcgeachy]

@Lastaccountgothacked ..Ta....[err...don't suppose you're a sultry svelte bodied dark haired south american woman by any chance (the love thing)]...anyway..glad you found some use. -Ian

[willzer808]

Thanks for this. First time I've played this, tonight. Thanks to you're tab. Would have taken me a while otherwise, between tuning and tabs. Saw JM live twice in 2006 and 2007. Great to play some of his songs. Thanks!

[ianmcgeachy]

@willzer808 Most welcome ...glad you found it useful. Theres bugger all about for JMs stuff..yet he was a very important (and my favourite) musician in my book. I saw him live many times in 70s and also 80s till I moved from the UK..-Ian

[guysnape]

@ianmcgeachy ... (bloomin' character limit!) and your vids have been a big help again, so thanks once more.

[guysnape]

@ianmcgeachy No, I don't think the xt has as much functionality as the dl4 (on the delay front anyway) - it can simulate a few different delay types, but it doesn't stretch as far as being a looper. This technology stuff improves all the time so it's quite out of date now, but I'm still v. happy with it for the 130 quid it cost me.

Had a first crack at Jelly Roll today, I think I've got the first couple of bars figured out ... slow and steady does it. Not as impossible as I feared though!

[fivethumbsfrank]

Excellent Ian, thanks for this great work!

[ianmcgeachy]

@leon327 Welcome old bean...yeh...you use an e-acoustic?...JM used the mag pickupp (soundhole) for all his delay stuff...but youd have same problems with many modern units actually..(could use a mixer tho')..but the deArmond mag pickup he used had a volume knob on it...could set the output into the effects chain. Your cover is good squire...I still havent done this to my satsfaction yet...-Ian