Zappa.com

"and most of zappa's solo's sound like he recorded another track on top of his live sound. you can clearly hear a wah-wah track, and a distorted guitar track playing in unison. (willie the pimp part 1 and 2 for example)"

Isn't that a remixing trick rather than overdubbing? (a typical FZ tactic: rather like the artificial flange added to all those '81-'82 solos or the artificial harmonizing added to RB's solo on Purple Lagoon/Approximate?)

I was at the Fillmore East in 1970 (3rd row in front of Zappa) and his guitar sound sounded pretty much like the"Willie The Pimp" guitar solo on the "Fillmore East 1971" album. He had this layered sound like another guitar playing in the background. I remember I was struck at how the heck is he doing that???
I remember seeing was his wah-wah pedal on the floor connected to another box and that was connected to this weird-looking amp with a P.A. horn speaker sticking out on top. And he was loud!

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"The largest land mammal is the absent mind" (Don Van Vliet - 1971)

hey, i know i said that, but i was going by what my ears told me. i wasn't there.

i would like to know how he was able to double track his guitar sound live. it seems to me that it would be easy in 2010, but difficult in 1971.

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Who's this dude with his hair straight back?
His new white socks, 'n his pants all black
His T-shirts rolled His watch is gold
A '55 Chevy that his brother just stoled

Zappa's guitar sound for some time was built on two channels of sound. I don't know how far back that goes. Effects units use a mix of raw sound with effect sound, but what he did was use two different setups playing at the same time. There are several guitar magazine type articles that give details on this stuff. That was how he got some of those really filthy type sounds still coming across with crystal pitch clarity.

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The way I see it Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

Correct. As far as I know that would have been very easy to do with his setup. At times he had 3 amps with different effects going to each amp. Most likely the Aucoustic 270 and a Marshall for the FE album. Id do this too if I had a roadie

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