Frightened City Question for the Experts

[Moderne]

I've never done it...

A tour de force...by Tony, in particular.

[dave robinson]

Okay I was thrown by the description when you said car horn, it's his fingers on the guitar and the echo emphasising it.

[Teflon]

Edge of the pick on the string. Im sure we have all done it.

Scott

Okay I was thrown by the description when you said car horn, it's his fingers on the guitar and the echo emphasising it.

LOL. The dodgy car horn comparison came about as the first time I heard it was through headphones whilst listening to the backing track without Hanks lead. The sound jumped out a little more, and I honestly thought it was a car horn sounding outside, further up the street

Nice to know there's a perfectly rational explanation for the sound though, but I must confess, I'm rather taken by the notion that somewhere in Abbey Road Studio 2, there was a chap with a whistle just itching to join in the fun. Perhaps it was Cliff trying to emulate his success with the Chinese drums

Cliff

[Iain Purdon]

I suspect that it's finger noise on a wirewound (roundwound) string

I thought flatwound strings were the norm in the early 60s? Is there any documentation of the strings used on their pre-Burns Fenders?

[Steve Coles]

I also hadn't noticed this sound on The Frightened City until last week, when I looped the solo in an effort to 'nail' the middle
fiddly bit.

I immediately recognised the extraneous sound as something I had experienced on one of my strats for a long time, which was caused by a bit of binding of the b string at the nut slot. As the friction suddenly gave way whilst playing, the it gave a 'ping' of energy; which is why it sounds like lightly picking the string behind the nut. It also makes sense because the b string will have just had a bit of a hammering during the solo.

During lockdown I finally got around to replacing the nut and the problem has been eliminated.

Regards

Steve

[RogerCook]

Didn't Hank have cigarette papers at the nut under some of the strings at one time? I wonder if that was on the guitar used for Frightened City? That might fit in with Steve's binding B string theory.

[Teflon]

Didn't Hank have cigarette papers at the nut under some of the strings at one time? I wonder if that was on the guitar used for Frightened City? That might fit in with Steve's binding B string theory.

I've certainly seen pics of Hank with some paper in the nut of (I think) 34346. As you say, that would tie in nicely with Steve's suggestion (assuming they hadn't changed to the rosewood Strats by then).

Cliff

[Iain Purdon]

There's a similar ringing sound at 1'39" into Breakthru but what might it have been? It certainly wasn't the same instrument.

[harrybob]

It’s the sound of the strings ringing slightly as Hank takes his hand off of the neck of the guitar.
And as Dave says the echo (and also the treble frequencies of the amp) are accentuating it.

[GoldenStreet]

There's a similar ringing sound at 1'39" into Breakthru but what might it have been? It certainly wasn't the same instrument.

That's well called, Iain. For the first time ever I've just listened to the stereo mix of Breakthru' on Youtube, having only ever played it before on my original mono copy of The Sound of the Shadows. I was never aware of any 'ring' previously at that point but, now listening out for it, it can be heard quite clearly in the stereo version. Certainly, Hank sounds double-tracked on this piece.

Bill