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Author
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Topic: Auto tuning guitar and Sonny Landreth
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Jesse Pearson
Member From: San Diego , CA
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posted 17 September 2003 09:25 AM
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I was looking on the net to find out Sonny Landreth's tunings and ran across this Auto tunning acoustic guitar that came out at the 2000 Namm show ($14,000.00, LOL!). Sonny was seen in Germany gigging with some kinda auto tunning slide guitar on his Les Paul and on his Fender Srat the last couple of years. It would be nice if the price came way down for this stuff, I bet we'd see a few lap steels with it.
http://www.kleinguitars.com/transperformance.htm Sonny plays slide in standard and in open E,D, and low C , which are all the same tuning intervals. He also plays in open A, G and F#m which are the same tuning intervals except that F#m is has the major 3rd dropped down to a minor 3rd. This is what he used on other peoples recordings, he must have some special tunings he is using on his solo stuff. Sonny uses a tuning called a "melodic tuning?" and also has "Asus tuning". I think he is gigging live alot with the transpose device to cut down on the number of guitars on the road. Sonny says he started out on Lap steel and played trumpet all the way into collage.
[This message was edited by Jesse Pearson on 17 September 2003 at 12:38 PM.] |
Travis Bernhardt
Member From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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posted 17 September 2003 02:38 PM
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I didn't know Sonny Landreth started out on lap steel. I'd love to hear him play one some time--see what kind of interesting textures he could draw out of it. I wonder how well his right hand technique would adapt to the lap steel. Oh, and man would I love to have an acoustic guitar with one of those Transperformance bridges... Say, do you know if you can hook up a foot switch to one of those to toggle between tunings? So that you could quickly and easily toggle between open G and G minor, for example, or perhaps even more radical changes? I'd love to be able to get an acoustic guitar tone with some of the flexibility of a pedal steel. Not to copy pedal steel licks, but to create a new sound. Just imagine what you could do with the ability to instantly change your tuning with a simple foot tap... -Travis |
Jesse Pearson
Member From: San Diego , CA
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posted 17 September 2003 04:27 PM
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Here's the TransPerformance system by Neil Skinn:
http://www.selftuning.com/news/n_con.html At that price, it's got a heck of a ways to go before it would be practicle for your every day guitarist. |
Travis Bernhardt
Member From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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posted 17 September 2003 05:56 PM
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Ah, I see that you can in fact use a footswitch. I will now proceed to drool on my keyboard.-Travis |
Chuck Fisher
Member From: Santa Cruz, California, USA
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posted 17 September 2003 06:01 PM
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I the good fortune of meeting Sonny a couple of months ago. I sat about 5 feet fom him during the show, his right hand technique is really amazing. He used a LP with the Skinn-TransPerformance device all night. He said he used 8 tunings that night, the device is too cool.
What blew me away was I called Skinn up as I was envisioning a lapsteel like you guys, he told me Sonny' s guitars are de-fretted and have maple inlays put in the grooves! Oh my God he plays fretless behind the bar!!!BTW he used a dumble amp w a single Marshall 4x12 cab, I couldn't make out the stompbox he got echo-reverb out of, floor monitor was in the way and I was stupefied by his playing. |
Jesse Pearson
Member From: San Diego , CA
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posted 17 September 2003 06:42 PM
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Here's Sonny's equipment rundown as found on his home page. It's cool that he shares so much for other musicians to learn from and the free mp3. downloads are a cool idea to see if you want to buy his CD's.
http://www.sonnylandreth.com/gear.html Wow, his site didn't say anything about his Les Paul being fretles, he's definately not afraid to try new things. |
Chuck Fisher
Member From: Santa Cruz, California, USA
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posted 17 September 2003 08:16 PM
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I didn't notice the fretless thing when I saw him, but Skinn did modify/make the guitar, so......He did harmonic stuff with chords and distortion that sounded like there was a squeezbox behind him, he played trio, him bass and drums. He is truly an innovator, an amazing player, and a realLY nice guy. CF |
Terry Farmer
Member From: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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posted 17 September 2003 10:30 PM
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I read an article on Sonny's bottleneck playing a while back in one of the guitar magazines. (Guitar Player - July 2003) He said he had a breakthrough in his playing when he realized he could "fret behind the bar" In other words if he had a major chord lined up with his bar he could simply press the third of the chord down behind the bar with another finger. The string would go below the bar and sound along with the rest of the barred chord but a half step lower. He realized he could make minor chords (among other things) easily with this method. One of those A-ha moments! Cool, huh? |
Steinar Gregertsen
Member From: Arendal, Norway
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posted 18 September 2003 01:07 AM
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I saw a TV show with Joni Mitchell a couple of years ago, and we all know she usually has a special tuning for each song.
On this show she played a Parker guitar through one of those Roland guitar synths, and there she had every tuning she used pre-programmed.
Nice system, your strings stay at the same tension but with different tunings..PS - I believe Greg Leisz played steel guitar on that show[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 18 September 2003 at 04:22 AM.] |
Jesse Pearson
Member From: San Diego , CA
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posted 18 September 2003 07:22 AM
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AAAAAAh-ha, I just played a minor triad and a dim triad on the top three strings at the 5th fret of Open G tuning, fretting behind the slide while still having the slide sustain notes. Wow Terry, thanks for that insight, now I see what Sonny was really talking about. Man, you can play a substitute minor triad with this approach to play a non root Dom 9th chord (G minor = C9), or a sub Dim to get C7 (E dim = C7). Thru triad subs you can get larger sounding composite chords just like on non pedal steel!!!Too cool...  [This message was edited by Jesse Pearson on 18 September 2003 at 07:39 AM.] |
Travis Bernhardt
Member From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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posted 18 September 2003 11:30 AM
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I have nothing useful to add here, just wanted to say that Sonny Landreth is amazing, and the fact that he has a fretless guitar just kills me. I wish it were possible to get his sound out of a lap instrument. Alas, it is simply impossible (although you can get close on a couple of the sounds).-Travis |
Chuck Fisher
Member From: Santa Cruz, California, USA
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posted 18 September 2003 12:42 PM
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Y'kno, a light bar and a lowered action would possinly work on lap |
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