Quote:
Originally Posted by rand z
bill frissell
he doesnt use one, but gets some wonderfully shimmering vibrato by slightly bending the neck while he is playing... almost after every phrase. very liquidy.
one can use this method. i use both the "bar" and neck "bending", but one has to be careful not to bend the neck too farrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
imho.
rand z
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You betcha--I love Bill's sans-vibrato-bar shimmer; in fact, it's probably one of the main reasons I love his playing.
Jim Campilongo--yet another great with his own trademark sound--applies a shimmering effect with his '59 Tele, a shimmer somewhat similar to Bill's. I once PMed Jim, asking how he bends the neck as he's playing--no small feat. (He doesn't do the old "grab the headstock" trick; one listen to his playing and you can tell that there's no way he could do that and simultaneously play the way he does.) He said that he didn't really know how he's able to do it--it's mostly a subconscious thing.
I'm a strong fellow, but I've never been able to do that with a Tele--not while playing, anyway. I have rather strong hands and fingers, and I use .009s, so I can apply up-and-down finger vibrato to whole chords and partials. With a delay, that produces a nice quasi-chorused sound; however, it just doesn't sound anything like Bill and Jim's neck-bending vibrato. My up-and-down vibrato produces an in-tune/sharp/in-tune/sharp/in-tune shimmer, whereas Bill and Jim's method produces an in-tune/flat/in-tune/flat/in-tune shimmer--which, to me, is a much sweeter sound.
Joel