Barry Cleveland "Arab Spring" (The $100 Guitar Project)

I recently had the opportunity to participate in the $100 Guitar Project, initiated by Nick Didkovsky and Chuck O'Meara. As they put it:

"On Oct 20, 2010, Nick Didkovsky and Chuck O'Meara (that's us) bought a $100 electric guitar from Elderly Instruments. We did not know what it sounded like or if it even worked, but we were charmed by its no-name vibe and single bridge pickup that looks like an old radio."

Soon, a long list of guitarists had signed on to spend a week with the instrument, composing and recording a piece of music using it, including Elliot Sharp, John Shiurba, Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser, Mike Keneally, Jeff Tweedy, Nels Cline, Alex Skolnick, Bruce Eisenbeil, Keith Rowe, Teisco Del Rey, and Chris Cutler.

I got the $100 Guitar from Hillary Fielding on March 30 and passed it to Ava Mendoza on April 5.

When I received the guitar it was tuned D, A, D, A, A, D (low to high), and I just left it in that tuning. As soon as I began playing it, melodic ideas on the combined 2nd and 3rd strings, working against a drone on the other strings, just popped out of the thing! (I got the impression that there are a lot of songs in that guitar.) When recording, I ran it through a Moogerfooger MuRF pedal to create a rhythmic pattern, and an Eventide TimeFactor set on Analog Delay to create some additional motion and ambiance. From there, the signal went into a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx Ultra on a clean setting for the basic tracks and overdubs, and a complex patch utilizing delays, harmonizers, and reverb for additional overdubs. I played using my thumb and the occasional finger—a technique I have never used before. I also used a Chinese erhu bow for orchestral string sounds and Masley bowhammers to slap out some low notes. The backwards melodies were played in real time using the Reverse patch on the TimeFactor. —Barry C.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• fractal
• axe-fx
• improvisation
• hologramatron
• bowhammer
• erhu
• timefactor
• murf
• moog
• ibanez
• Teisco
• moogerfooger

[juanpoe]

Cool sound and what a great use of the technology to let people in on the story and get a sense of how the piece came to be. It's a treat to see how the layering blend into the final version. A great argument against categorization or music into genres.

[MrRcheek]

all, the hands of masters have converted it to at least $125. LOL . very cool.

[tcopsonjr]

very cool! inspiring.... thanks for posting it Barry.

[CollateralTimbre]

a sleek phat groove dude! (soundtrack theme--where's the movie?)