tone makers
In this issue’s Pedalboard Q&A, Jimi Hendrix’s effects guru talks Voodoo sounds, connecting to your track and shifting time
1What was the first pedal you built and how did the design come about? “When I first started building guitar effects, I was working for the government. I had friends like Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page and we were interested in producing new sounds. The first pedal I built was a treble booster using a germanium transistor that went on to become the [Dallas] Rangemaster. I also invented the Octavia circuit, which Tycobrahe copied, and that was first used by Jimi Hendrix on Purple Haze. A few of my early designs got, shall we say, ‘acquired’ [laughs].”
2What’s your best-selling pedal and why do you think that is? “I would say the Voodoo-1 and VoodooBass. They’re very versatile pedals. An awful lot of players use the Voodoo-Bass pedals. The Voodoo-Vibe pedal has done very well, too.”
3What is it that makes Roger Mayer effects unique? “Possibly their definition, quality and natural sound. We also use a technique called Feed Forward, which is where the player actually controls the sound – as you play, the pedal will sound unique to you. It’s feeding forward the signal in order to control itself.”
4Which notable players/bands have used Roger Mayer pedals? “Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Bob Marley, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Perry, Carlos Santana, Dave Gilmour, Gary Moore, Joe Satriani, J Mascis, Peter Frampton, Joe Bonamassa, PJ Harvey, John Squire…”
5What’s new on the horizon with Roger Mayer effects? “The Visage pedal just came out – that’ll give you a lot of the Jimi Hendrix sounds that were used on stage. Also, in the last year we’ve been spending a lot of time with the 456HD process, which is a proprietary process used for recording and performing. It gives the dynamics and sound of tape recording.”
6What’s your best tone tip? “If you’re recording, make sure your vision for the tone is listened to in conjunction with the part of tune that you intend to use it in. Don’t listen to it isolated – you’ve got to listen to it in the track. With Jimi, each tone that we used was designed and modified to fit that particular part of the song.”
7Name some common mistakes that guitarists make with effects… “They use far too many of them and assume that the public can hear minute differences – Jimi and I thought that maybe the public could hear only three different sounds [laughs]! If they [the audience] were enjoying themselves, it would be even more difficult for them to tell the difference!”
8Tell us a secret about effects you’ve discovered… “One of the most important things about effects is that you must keep the ends of the leads and jack sockets clean. The dirt on the connectors is the enemy – it affects the current flowing. It affects everything. Also, buffering reduces capacitance. If your guitar is connected to a cable, there’s a capacitance in the cable – this loses detail from the guitar and once you’ve lost it you can’t get it back. And make sure your guitar isn’t rattling with lose screws and parts – it needs to be set up properly and not be making any unwanted noise.”
9What’s your favourite vintage pedal and why? “I would say the Echoplex tape echo. They were interesting. I liked the sound of it; it was a very unique sound at the time. The most important thing is to realise that echo and reverberation, especially in the studio, is the one parameter that really sets the mood and the tone of the record.”
10What are your favourite effects moments on record and why? “I like some of the stuff that I’ve done, like Jimi’s backwards solo in Castles Made Of Sand. We figured if a progression sounds right going forwards, then it will sound right going backwards. It was to do with the concept of time – shifting time. Jimi listened to the track going forwards to get an idea of where it was going and then he used the concept to start at the end. The inspiration for playing those notes is still the same: all that changes is the way you perceive them. It’s like watching a backwards film – you see it going backwards, but it still makes sense. Like if you looked at a normal piece of printed paper you could say, ‘It’s obviously a piece of white paper with black type on it.’ That’s one way of looking at it. The reverse way of looking at it is to say, ‘It’s a black piece of paper with white printed on top of it’. We understood all those things.” [RB]