The Frightened City... the middle pickup?

[piotrek]

Hello,

It may have been discussed before, but I've just come across a live performance of The Frightened City from 1961. And to my surprise, Hank uses the middle pickup. It can be clearly seen around 1:45.
I thought The Frightened City was a clear case of the bride pickup. Strange.

regards,
Piotrek

Here's the link

[philbarker]

Piotek

An interesting observation. On other youtube postings and on the Final Tour he uses the bridge. He does this and changes his sounds regularly just to keep us on our toes - I'm certain of it!!

Previous discussions on the subject are at link;
charliehall.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=music&action=display&thread=3074

Phil B

[keithinalps]

Take a close look at the drumming the sticks are not hitting the skins, a lot of miming happened on Crackerjack !!!

[caddyshak6]

I was always convinced that Frightened City was played on the middle Pup that is where I play it and it gets closer to that original twang
Regards
Tony

[rockinscott]

Middle pick up, In the early days Hank used the other pick-ups a lot more than he does now.

Scott

[piotrek]

Hello,

Thank you for your replies. It seems that in this area, nothing should be taken for granted

regards,
Piotrek

[jastreet]

Hi Guys,

I followed the debate regarding which pickup was used on the original recording of 'The Frightened City'. In the final analysis, I guess we don't really know, but having tried both, I felt that the middle pickup gave the best overall tone and was a bit closer to the sound of the original. Here are links to my two sound files:

Bridge PU:
www.4shared.com/file/165735033/88962a50/The_Frightened_City.html

Middle PU:
www.4shared.com/file/165839541/9492123d/The_Frightened_City__Middle_PU.html

Cheers,

James

[rockinscott]

When i first started playing this one i automatically used the middle pickup. The same with The Stranger i always switch to the middle pickup after the main verse and back to te bridge pickup for the main melody. But ive seen a lot of players using only the bridge pickup for both these songs iirc theres a part in The Stranger where you can hear the pickup selction change, i may be wrong and have to check to be sure.

Scott

[franz]

Hi guys.
Frightened City is actually one of those singles where you can get the original sound pretty much nailed on with the middle pickup except for the chorus when the treble strings seem as usual to produce a thinner sound than the thick cream treble on the record, whatever you do with the EQ. If you use the bridge you get a thinner tone still. The best illustration I think that it is the middle pup (apart from your ears!) is to listen to the next single - Kon Tiki where the verse is unmistakeably played on the bridge. It's a completely different sound to Frightened City.
The Stranger is an enigma. There is a clear change of tone to the middle pu in what I call the answering chorus but I still cannot make up my mind after 40 years of pondering as to whether the bulk of it is on the bridge or middle. The last time I played it live I used the middle all the way through, picking behind the middle i.e. nearest the bridge changing to the other side of the middle for the chorus(excuse my ignorance of the correct musical term) . I suspect that this might have been the way it was recorded with liitle or no middle and bass EQ to obtain a relatively thin tone. Certainly if you then listen to Kon Tiki(again), The Stranger starts with a richer tone than is obtainable on the bridge.
Franz

[26rednef]

Hi There.

I have noticed that Hank has mowed a way from much of the settings and implementations made in the early days, it is a musicians privilege to make it different.

On my original record from 60/61 of the Stranger there is a change from bridge pu to middle pu every time after the stop on E, middle pu starts on EEEE- Fiss, then back to bridge after the whole sentence with start on gliss E - Fiss, second time start on C.
Frighten city is on middle pu all the way.

Kind Regards,
26rednef

[peterbower]

Apparently Hank uses the bridge pickup almost all the time these days because he said it cuts through better to a live audience.

Bruce told me many years ago that there was a lot more tracks recorded with the middle pickup than we realised. He didn't name any. He said what was used in the studio did not always work live.
Peter

[26rednef]

Hi.

Yes, it will be more treble in that sound and cut through better and I think Hank is also more connected to the sound of the Strat bridge pu. The Strat middle pu sound make me think more of SRV and Hendrix.

Kind Regrds,
26rednef

[Gary Allen]

I Think Gege uses the middle pickup up on this and its probably the closest sound out there...

[26rednef]

Yes, sound is close.

Even Gerry Taylors demo here is relay close and nice implemented, Backing UB Hank.

www.4shared.com/file/114743153/e4f76680/Frightened_City_mix_2_TVS3_Dem.html

Kind Regards,
26rednef

[Gary Allen]

Here s a version with bridge p/up( kinman)--eftp--kcp amp

[malcolm]

Maybe another contributing factor could be that in the early days Hank wasn't holding the tremolo arm constantly (going by watching early footage) consequently the hand rests naturally further towards the bridge, so if you were to use the middle pup it would sound more sharper, i have spent countless hours experimenting with tremolo arm lengths on my guitars and i have to say the results are very suprising, the first thing is that you don't consiously look at where you hold it, its just natural thus it follows that the pick hits the strings at the same position, in Hanks case just behind the neck pup, i replicated this on my strat and am very pleased with the result. On the other hand i shortened the arm considerably on my Burns so that i'm virtually picking above the middle pup and can get that deeper more "raspy" kind of sound. Sorry if i've gone slightly off topic but if you experiment only a few millimeters either way can make such a big difference.

[26rednef]

Hi there.

Of course the color of the tone is depended on where you pick the string.
The closer to the end of the string you pick it, the more overtones you will kick in and it will be noticed as a sharper sound, that's the physics free floating strings.

Kind Regards,
26rednef

[Deleted]

Hi Guys And Gals,

Yes gege,s performance is almost perfect(Ist Video). Middle pickup.

As for the Shadows--I wonder if more than one take was spliced together--(Iv'e only heard a few examples of this on Shads records--i.e. the last note on "Man of Mystery". but I do know that a lot of the Beatles records were Edited and tape spliced to get the Best Bits of all the "Takes".

Cheers

Tommo

[Deleted]

P.S--I think a wound "G" string helps to get the sound more accurate.

Tommo

[Deleted]

If Crackerjack was mymed it would'nt matter which pick up was selected so it would'nt be that important to get right when he went on camera, back then it would'nt matter as there were no anoracks scrutinising. To me the second video with the Kinmans sounds as though its the bridge pickup anyway.
You can only get near that sound using the middle pick up in my opinion.
Tony

[richie]

hi guys thought id join in on this post. i could be wrong on saying this but i all so think that to get that twangy sound. as well it sounds like hank is picking the string whil he has the pick in his hands when you look on that crackerjack clip as he is hitting them strings it looks likes hes picking them. and if so ive tried this on this track and with using middle pick up you do get to it close . am i making sence

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Richie,
I can't really make sense of exactly what you mean, do you mean that Hank tucked the pick in his hand and picked with his fingers? If so, then I don't think he did that, although he does use his fingers in conjunction with the pick when picking more than one string at the same time.
Regards,
Charlie

[richie]

yes it looks like hes picking the notes with his hands while using the pick

[peterbower]

I remember Bruce telling me years ago that he thought Hank used the middle pickup more than we realize on many of those early recordings. He couldn't remember specifically which tunes but some were more obvious than others if you listened carefully.

Peter

[shawbridge]

26 Rednef,
Hank may have moved away from the pickup settings of the early days but baring in mind that may not be the case in the studio which is were most of what we are trying to replicate took place.
cheers

Peter

[franz]

I think that the "picking" Hank did on Frightened city and a lot of the early stuff was to hit the string at an angle from slightly below and hard. If you do this with relatively heavy gauge strings you get noticeably more tone from the string. The best example is on the Savage where if you just stroke the string there is nowhere near the bite of the original sound. It helps to use a thick plectrum.
Regards, franz