Tag: george harrison

How Ravi Shankar influenced some of the Best Guitarists

Ravi Shankar, who died on Tuesday will always be remembered for his virtuous sitar playing. As well, his influence to the pop world in the ’60s was quite notable on the playing and tone of some of the best guitarists including George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, and Robbie Krieger.

In 1967, Ravi Shankar was invited to the Monterey Pop Festival to play an afternoon raga. In the audience, Jimi Hendrix watched with concentration. Ravi’s exotic indian scales were coupled with his ability to create peace and oneness in the listener. In much of Hendrix’s later work, you can hear this influence of indian scales. There are even jams that Hendrix later recorded that featured sitars and tanpuras (an indian drone instrument).

If you look at Robbie Krieger of The Doors, there is lots of indian influence. This is most notable in the song The End. His solos have a very indian feel, along with the song having a 4-note mantra which repeats throughout in the composition, much like that of indian classical music. He even makes his guitar create sitar-like sounds in the way he bends notes.

With Jerry Garcia, he was a very experimental player who often mixed up blues, country, bluegrass, spanish guitar, and indian classical into a melodic transcending experience. According to Rolling Stone, he was also influenced by Ravi Shankar.

And of course I don’t even have to say how much Ravi influenced George Harrison. He even became his Guru in teaching him the sitar. George incorporated sitar playing on many well-known Beatles tracks such as Norwegian Wood, Love you to, and Within You Without You. The influence continues on other songs of his like The Inner Light and Krishna Gopala. George and Ravi collaborated on many projects over the years as well.

While Ravi Shankar may not have been the only indian influence to music in the west, he was certainly the one who brought it there. Not just Monterey, he also performed at Woodstock in  1969, and the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. His own music was so breath-taking and spiritual that it is oddly familiar to even those furthest away from indian classical music. May his music, love, and spirit always live on. Without a doubt, he was one of the most influential musicians of all time.

George Harrison’s Guitars in the Beatles

This article will show you which guitars George Harrison was using with the Beatles. Some of the most legendary guitar solos came from Harrison, not to mention the great tone he had. So lets take a closer look starting with the early Beatles. Continue reading George Harrison’s Guitars in the Beatles

’60s Guitar Tone

Today’s article will teach you how to achieve vintage guitar tone of the 1960s. In this era, some of the best guitar players ever came into the spotlight such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Jimmy Page, and many more. Not only are they incredibly talented players, they also had guitar tone that many today still desire. So lets look at elements of why their tone is the way it is, so you will know how you can get closer to that ’60s style tone yourself.

Guitars
If you are using Schecters or Ibanez guitars (with the exception of copies), most likely you won’t get that vintage tone. The guitars used in the ’60s include Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, and Gretsch. Of course there are many others, but these were very notable at the time, especially the Stratocaster and Les Paul. Also in this era, the electronics were different then they are today. So if you want to make your modern day guitar more vintage-sounding, try installing low-output pickups.

Amps
During the ’60s, digital didn’t exist. The amps used during this period were tube amps. In Britain, Marshall and Vox amps were very popular, specifically the Marshall Bluesbreaker and Plexi amps, and the Vox AC amps. You can find Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton using the Marshall Plexi amplifiers, while the Beatles were partial to the Vox amp (in the early ’60s). In the west, Fender Amps definitely were the most popular. These days, vintage amps can run you thousands of dollars. Check out old Traynor amps which replicated sounds of both Fender and Marshall at the time, but at a fraction of the cost. If you have a newer amp, you can change out the stock tubes with NOS tubes (new old stock) to get that vintage tone. While NOS tubes are expensive, you can with one pre-amp tube in V1 of your amp will have the most dramatic effect on tone. Mullard and RCA are among the best in the NOS tube world.

Pedals
Again, no digital pedals in this era. You want to look for analog pedals. Around the late ’60s, Fuzz pedals made their way onto the scene. If you want a 1967 style fuzz, which can be defined as warm, fat and creamy, look for a fuzz with Germanium transistors. If you want that more aggressive, in-your-face fuzz tone, go with the silicon transistors. Other pedals that became popular in the ’60s are Wahs, Octave, and of course the legendary Univibe.

So there you have it. Mix tube amps, with legendary guitars (with low output pickups), and pedals from this era, and you’ll get much closer to that ’60s guitar tone.