SRV - Cold Shot - How did he do it????

[rjfoster]

Ok - I've been busy trying to learn SRV's Cold Shot for the last couple of days, and there's a part of the rhythm that just has my brain rattled. I know all of the chords and notes to the song (and working on the leads...) but what has me absolutely baffled is the way he rakes the strings right before each note of the rhythm part. If you can't picture what I mean, then feel free to download and play the song from the link below. He starts doing it immediately in the first bar of the song.

I have tried and tried to duplicate that sound - I figure that he is muting the strings with his left hand, and then un muting it just in time to play the single note, then muting it again, playing the single note etct etc. I have tried muting with the left hand only, the right hand only, and a combo of the two. Cant get that sound.

Does anyone have a clue how he did this???

Here's the tune -

Cold Shot

Hope somebody knows!!!

Rj

[jimihendrix]

hey there...the link didn't work...but i think i know the sound you're talking about...it might have to do with the fact that he was using a vibratone amp...it has a rotating speaker effect...where the sound plays..then "re-attacks" again...

[rjfoster]

Originally Posted by jimihendrix

hey there...the link didn't work...but i think i know the sound you're talking about...it might have to do with the fact that he was using a vibratone amp...it has a rotating speaker effect...where the sound plays..then "re-attacks" again...

Sorry the link didnt work for ya - it's working on my end, and it is not hosted here on my computer, so it SHOULD work. Try again, and if it still isnt working let me know ok? (This is where I store all of my music related stuff - www.guitarmavens.com/music)

As for that sound - I understand what you mean about that amp, and I did take that into consideration, but still it seems that theres something to the technique itself that I am missing. I have a cybertwin here so I loaded up the best SRV tone I could get out of it and then applied the "amp tremolo" effect to get as close as I could to the SRV tone. It all sounds reall good except for that raking sound! LOL I may never figger this one out!

Rj

[rjfoster]

DOH! I just discovered that this amp has the vibratone effect built in! hehehehe Guess you can tell I havent had it very long. Too late to try it now tho - will have to check it out tomorrow. Maybe I'll record a bit of my "try" at this sound and see what you think.

G'night!

Rj

[jimihendrix]

hey there...the link now works...

as for stevie ray...i remember reading somewhere that he has six fingers on each hand...thus...he uses the extra digit to throw in tricky guitar parts...

seriously...

[rjfoster]

Well, I worked on it for a few this evening and gave it my best (cold) shot hehehe. Here's what I came up with so far. I'm not real proud of the leads or the mixing at this point - both still need serious work, but at least this gives an idea of the tone i'm getting and a bit of that "raking" sound as best as I can get it. Let me know what ya think if ya get a chance.

SRV Cold Shot Rj Style - DEMO

Rj

[jimihendrix]

yeah...yeah...now that's soundin' WAY better...fantastic fretwork...

[Rythameen]

Like Hendrix, SRV made great use of his left hand thumb, using it for chords and muting. I've got a lot of SRV videos, and basically when he is playing the A and the G notes on the D string, he is muting the E and A string with his thumb and muting the rest of the strings with his index and ring finger. And remember to keep up that constant up and down eighth note motion with your pick. Hope this makes sense and helps.

[outrider2k]

Yes , What Jimi said. He used a Fender Vibratone(Leslie speaker device). there are pedals that try to emulate the Leslie, check out the Univibe.