ELECTRONICS: THE ‘VACU’ PEDALS

Vacu-Fuzz and Vacu-Trem

I have always been involved with fuzztones (brother Ben Miller used an “Arbiter Fuzz-face”, the type Hendrix used, in Sproton Layer). When I came to Boston, I had an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi unit. It broke, and when I tried to buy a new one I found that they had altered the components: now when you hit the pedal, the volume dropped. I was at a loss in early Burma.

Lou Giordano was a big fan from early on (I believe it is his semi-afro-haired sillouette on the back of the Acad/Max single). He was in an MIT band called The Vacuum Heads (no air-heads in that band). They were so-so, but we all liked Lou’s attitude. (He later produced the TAANG! tapes for release, and is a well-known producer: LIVE, Bob Mould, Fiona Apple, etc.) When he heard what I was looking for, he delved into his MIT electronic engineering chops and took apart a Big Muff Pi. He then proceeded to hyperize every component and enclose it in a metal box that could withstand a direct hit from a bomb. (Big Muff on steroids). It was, and still is, an amazing box. Smooth, yet producing exquisite feedback when wanted.

Tremelo units have always been less required: I’d used them off and on in bands I was in for their shimmering quality. My Peavey Amplifier had built in tremelo, and early on Clint wrote “Tremelo”, thereby making a tremelo effect mandatory (we couldn’t do the song without it’s pulse). When the Peavey amp mercifully died, I chose a 50 watt Marshall amp – which had no tremelo. Again, Lou Giordano to the rescue. In the same type of “hit me with a bomb, I couldn’t care less” metal box, he built a hyper tremelo unit. The two parameters, speed and intensity, were both maxed out. My later song, “Trem II”, was at a slow speed setting w/the intensity on full (becoming a strong on/off pulse). Lou had maxed the speed and intensity so far out that at levels of “11″ or higher, it sounds as if 3 or 4 chords are piled on top of each other about 1/16 step apart. Possibly used that effect on “Sing Along.” In early 1990 I asked Bob Weston to modify the unit: he altered a foot pedal to function as a speed control. It is difficult to deal with live (I’d rather run around), but it has interesting potential in a studio setting.

It is worth noting that, in keeping with a certain post-punk minimalism, both these effects only modify gain structure: tremelo turns volume off and on, and distortion unit piles one gain on top of another gain.

(RM)

GUITARS/AMPS

ROGER
“In Burma, I made extensive use of two effects, both custom made for me in the early ’80s by producer Lou Giordano. The Vacu-Fuzz (a Big Muff on steroids) and The Vacu-Trem (a tremolo unit on steroids – this unit can tremolo so fast that it actually amplitude modulates and it sounds like I’m playing three or four chords 1/16th step apart from each other…).

20 years ago I used a 50-watt Marshall amp in Burma.

“I’d been using a Strat in early Burma work, but, no matter what I did, the feedback and sound folded directly back into Hendrix (a God in my book), and I wanted to make my own mark. The Lead I came out in 1980, brand-spanking new. No one else had used it so it was like a virgin for me – love and lust at first touch. The only other player that I knew of to use one was Pat Place from the Bush Tetras.

I started using the Strat at the first recent Burma rehearsals, but it just didn’t sound/feel right, so I switched to a Lead I with a Seymour Duncan by the bridge. I also use a junky ’60s Kay hollow-body electric: it’s s_ _ _, really, if played normally. But I use three low E strings for the bottom three strings, and three G strings for the top three strings (tuned to a G#), so it has a sound that is very interestingly rich and the junkiness of the guitar is overcome by simplistic unorthodox barring. Amuses me to no end. I use the same guitars in the studio as live.”

[collected from MMR Magazine, Sept. 2002]

SWOPE & TAPE Martin Swope, tape loops

Martin used a Braun tape deck which had (if I recall correctly) 2 speeds, probably. During soundcheck, he would cut 3 or 4 tape loops, a couple feet or so in length (circular, of course, once he taped them together). They would always be blank.

During a performance, he would record material while the band was playing a song – usually these bits would be pre-worked out (a vocal bit, drum hits, guitar noise, etc.) Then, while we went on playing, he would feed this back into the mix at the appropriate time: sometimes he had twisted the tape half-over to make it play backwards; or drop or raise the speed the tape was playing at, whatever was appropriate. Sometimes he would use the tape recorder as a slap-back echo. One nice feature of the Braun is that when you changed speeds on the fly, it would “glissando” down or up to the next chosen speed. Thus the slowing down of the vocal loop at the end of “Red”. Sometimes the composer of the song would have an idea for Martin, and sometimes he’d come up with an idea and clear it with us. When we approached Bob Weston to fill Martin’s position, we told him he could use current digital technology (which accomplishes Martin’s antics in an easier fashion). However, Bob opted for maintaining the original integrity, and uses a tape deck. What kind? I don’t know {an Otari MX-5050, ed.} – I always see it in its case. Bob learned Martin’s parts as a starting point, but has added alot of his own gestures, especially in the new songs.

(RM)