Post by gthomson on Sept 24, 2010 12:11:16 GMT
Hello to all from a new member. I'll give you some background on me, and then I have a wee query which I wonder if anyone can answer.
I have been a fan of Hank and the Shadows since I was a very small child, largely due to my Dad having been a first generation fan in the 1960s. When I was five, my favourite piece of music in the world was Apache! Much of my childhood was spent listening to his LPS, of which 'String of Hits' and 'Another String of (Hot) Hits' were the latest, and added many new tracks to my favourites list.
At school, I started learning to play the violiin (or fiddle, as is my preferred term), and almost as soon as I'd started, I worked out the notes to Apache and Wonderful Land, and over the years have added many of the Shadows early classics to them, which I often still play at family gatherings accompanied by my Dad and Uncle on Accordions (shouldn't work, but it does!) and my younger brother on bass. But I always wanted to play them as they had originally been intended, and acquired an old student-grade spanish guitar as a teenager and learned fingerings to, of course, Apache, Wonderful Land, Cavatina, Foot-Tapper and others. From then, I always hankered (no pun intended) after a proper electric guitar to play them on.
Well, at Easter this year, I bit the bullet and purchased, for the princely sum of £130, a Squier Stratocaster starter kit, complete with SP10 amp. (It's in an attractive Sunburst, rather than the preferred red, but beggers can't be choosers!)
I've since added a Behringer DD400 delay pedal to the mix for £25, which affords a passable, Hank-esque echo, and a cheap swell pedal (specifically with Cavatina in mind).
I'm now enjoying playing and refining an increasing range of Shadows and Hank solo tracks, and have even started experimenting with interpreting some modern contemporary tracks (such as Robbie Williams' "Angels") in the general style of The Shadows.
A recent project is Turn Around and Touch Me, and this brings me (at last) to my query.
As members will know, the section immediately after the first 'chorus,' as it were, is played in the high register, peaking with an 'E' two octaves above the open top string. It wasn't until I started experimenting with this that I realised this note cannot be played, cleanly at least, on a 22-fret neck using standard tuning! I can bend up to it after a fashion, but the resulting note and slide isn't exactly pleasant to listen to.
So the question is, does anyone know how Hank himself achieved this note in the original recording? The only options I can think of are:
1) he tuned the top string up to an 'F'
2) he had a guitar with a 24-fret neck, or
3) he's simply much, much better at bending notes than me!
If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with it, I promise future posts will be nowhere near so long-winded, and I thank you in advance for any answers you can provide.
Regards
Grant Thomson
I have been a fan of Hank and the Shadows since I was a very small child, largely due to my Dad having been a first generation fan in the 1960s. When I was five, my favourite piece of music in the world was Apache! Much of my childhood was spent listening to his LPS, of which 'String of Hits' and 'Another String of (Hot) Hits' were the latest, and added many new tracks to my favourites list.
At school, I started learning to play the violiin (or fiddle, as is my preferred term), and almost as soon as I'd started, I worked out the notes to Apache and Wonderful Land, and over the years have added many of the Shadows early classics to them, which I often still play at family gatherings accompanied by my Dad and Uncle on Accordions (shouldn't work, but it does!) and my younger brother on bass. But I always wanted to play them as they had originally been intended, and acquired an old student-grade spanish guitar as a teenager and learned fingerings to, of course, Apache, Wonderful Land, Cavatina, Foot-Tapper and others. From then, I always hankered (no pun intended) after a proper electric guitar to play them on.
Well, at Easter this year, I bit the bullet and purchased, for the princely sum of £130, a Squier Stratocaster starter kit, complete with SP10 amp. (It's in an attractive Sunburst, rather than the preferred red, but beggers can't be choosers!)
I've since added a Behringer DD400 delay pedal to the mix for £25, which affords a passable, Hank-esque echo, and a cheap swell pedal (specifically with Cavatina in mind).
I'm now enjoying playing and refining an increasing range of Shadows and Hank solo tracks, and have even started experimenting with interpreting some modern contemporary tracks (such as Robbie Williams' "Angels") in the general style of The Shadows.
A recent project is Turn Around and Touch Me, and this brings me (at last) to my query.
As members will know, the section immediately after the first 'chorus,' as it were, is played in the high register, peaking with an 'E' two octaves above the open top string. It wasn't until I started experimenting with this that I realised this note cannot be played, cleanly at least, on a 22-fret neck using standard tuning! I can bend up to it after a fashion, but the resulting note and slide isn't exactly pleasant to listen to.
So the question is, does anyone know how Hank himself achieved this note in the original recording? The only options I can think of are:
1) he tuned the top string up to an 'F'
2) he had a guitar with a 24-fret neck, or
3) he's simply much, much better at bending notes than me!
If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with it, I promise future posts will be nowhere near so long-winded, and I thank you in advance for any answers you can provide.
Regards
Grant Thomson