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Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 5:47 pm
by Steve Sanders
Hey, I was just wunderin'....if a fellar had a Gretsch CGP guitar and one of those "octave pedals" could you run the bass side thru the octave pedal to get the bass sound and the treble side thru clean? Since most amps have at least two inputs maybe you could get by with just one amp for the whole shootin' match! It might be a good way to emmulate Chet's "invisible bass man" like on his "Solo Flights" album and a few others. That way you wouldn't have to mess around with special bridges and tuners for your guitar and maybe mess it up!! Have any of my fellow ChetBoarders tried this? Don't see why it wouldn't work. Be interesting to see and hear if anybody has tried it. Steve

Re: Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:16 pm
by pattie surman
Hey Steve. I've tried it ,but it did not work as well as I hoped. I think if you could just use the octave pedal on the 5th and 6th strings it would work , however that 4th string makes the whole thing kind of confusing. Stan.

Re: Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:05 am
by Norm
Of course the "Octobass" guitars solved the problem for Chet eventually. That's where he used bass strings on the fifth and sixth string but to do this requires some major alteration to the bridge and they are hard to intonate properly.

Still, Chet used it to great effect starting with "Drive In" and used a guitar set up that way from time to time for the rest of his career. Paul often used one when he played backup for Chet.

For modifications like that it's nice to have a major guitar company on hand to give you samples to use :D

Re: Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 3:05 pm
by Dean Peterson
That is what I have been throwing around. To me the pickup split 3 and 3 is kind of useless. I talked with the folks at TV Jones about making one 2 and 4 for me, but they were not open to the idea. I'm sure it could be costly to set up. If anyone has any ideas, let us know.

Dean

Re: Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 9:16 am
by Norm
Remember, Chet didn't have Ray make that pickup for "stereo" effect. He used it as a "secret weapon" to enhance his recordings and drive other guitarists nuts and make the buying public fascinated.

I think he shelved the octave effect on two strings only because of the technology of the day made it unweildly. The Ocabass does the job when he wants it done that way.

Seems to me there would always be an issue with a tricked bass string setup be it electronic or straight because those two strings would no longer be available for use in playing straight melody. It would work but only kinda and might be distracting

Re: Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 12:31 pm
by pattie surman
"Around 1957 an engineer named Bob Ferris and I developed an invisible bass man.Bob's deceased now,but he was a wild engineer. He was a terrific idea man.We had a divider on the A and E string of a guitar;it would play with you an octave lower. It gave the effect of a bass playing along with you. We thought we had a sensational idea and sent off for a patent search. It turned out that a guy in England had already done it in 1948." Chet's own words. Stan.

Re: Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 1:08 pm
by Norm
Chet was always on the lookout for something he could patent. He liked the long view of royalties coming in steadily.

Fellow who used to work for Gretsch, dan Duffy, said that Chet went to him once and picked a guitar string and put something, a coin or something, near the string to get that sitar sounding raaannggg we've all heard when we fool around with guitars. Chet suggested the guy come up with a way of doing that and Chet would invest in the idea for marketing...something like that.

Next time Dan saw Chet he called him over and said "I figured it outt" and did the effect the same way Chet did, meaning he hadn't. Funny story

Dan Duffy was the guy who played the finished guitars and signed those green inspection cards

Re: Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 1:13 pm
by Norm
pattie surman wrote:"Around 1957 an engineer named Bob Ferris and I developed an invisible bass man.Bob's deceased now,but he was a wild engineer. He was a terrific idea man.We had a divider on the A and E string of a guitar;it would play with you an octave lower. It gave the effect of a bass playing along with you. We thought we had a sensational idea and sent off for a patent search. It turned out that a guy in England had already done it in 1948." Chet's own words. Stan.



The "Dark Eyes" black 6120 was that very guitar. For Ferris's idea to work they needed to isolate the e and a strings so Ray Butts installed some pickup magnets in the fingerboard. They're still there although I doubt they function anymore. depends on whether Chet left the wiring intact

Re: Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 5:47 pm
by pattie surman
The Electric Sitar was invented by my old guitar teacher, Vincent Bell who was a very busy studio musician in New York City back in the 1960s. At one point he was on 32 of the top 50 hits.Also a great teacher,It was called the "Coral Electric Sitar'. and manufactured by the "Danelectro Co" Stan.

Re: Invisible Bass Man

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 9:50 pm
by Norm
I remember those but the music store I worked at never got one. It certainly looked intriguing but apparently never caught on. Those kind of things need a hit record to boost sales. Like Dan Duffy said... every time a hit came out where someone used a 12 string guitar, Gretsch had to make a run of them