Rumble

  • Artist: Link Wray and His Ray Men
  • Label: Cadence
  • Year: 1958
  • Producer: Archie Bleyer
  • Studio: U.S. Recording Studios (Washington D.C.)

Notes:
Distortion
Played live, he'd massively overdrive the little Sears and Roebuck amps he used. In the studio, things were sounding too clean. The solution: punch holes in the cone of the loudspeakers with a pencil. Distortion becomes inevitable.
The sound was so intense, and the name so controversial, that the song -- an instrumental -- was banned in some radio markets for fear it would insight violence.

Tremolo
After the double-stop solo, on the second repetition of the head, amp tremolo is kicked in (at about 1:40). The depth is gradually increased to such an absurd level that, before the tune ends, it no longer sounds much like a guitar.


Sources

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