Never seen that. What flavour ice cream? Failing that, how about posting the clip? Easier to identify that way...

Wait a minute...

I think he used a Roland GR-50 Guitar Synth at one pont, so it's probably a Roland GK-1. Something like this?



Look closely and you might see the divided pickup between the bridge pickup and bridge. The bracket for the control unit fixed to the strap endpin, so it ended up very close to the back of the guitar...

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Never seen that. What flavour ice cream? Failing that, how about posting the clip? Easier to identify that way...

Vanilla! Of all the vid clips I have seen of Blackmore I have only ever seen him with a Strat this colour, sort of creamy butter coloured with a white pick-guard. Quite nice.
Will have a closer look at the clip, but I think you have it there.

Alan's got it, Blackmore used a Roland synth from around '84 (reunion, Perfect strangers) on:

Is there anything this man does not know?
?

Jack Flash Jr wrote: Is there anything this man does not know?
?

I propose a weekly "Stump Alan" thread in which we attempt the impossible... ?

Jack Flash Jr wrote: Is there anything this man does not know?
?

There's always a chink in the armour.

There was a fabulous episode of the Kumars at No 42 in which the guest was Stephen Fry. The Kumars tried their usual nonsense and Fry hurled it all back with interest. They even tried rephrasing or twisting previous questions...
Sanjeev: Ok, but how would Heisenberg express that in terms of the Uncertainty Principle?
Fry: Oh Heisenberg! Well you know that principle is very misunderstood but I think he would have said something like...

It looked like a rare case of a guest on the Kumars coming out on top then, with seconds to go, Sanjeev pulled this one out of the bag...
Sanjeev: Now I can't remember, but I'm sure you will. Who wrote "planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do"?
Fry: Err... umm....

So it's there, but it's up to you (us?) to find it.

[/quote]
It looked like a rare case of a guest on the Kumars coming out on top then, with seconds to go, Sanjeev pulled this one out of the bag...
Sanjeev: Now I can't remember, but I'm sure you will. Who wrote "planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do"?
Fry: Err... umm....

So it's there, but it's up to you (us?) to find it.
[/quote]

David Bowie

Luc wrote:

It looked like a rare case of a guest on the Kumars coming out on top then, with seconds to go, Sanjeev pulled this one out of the bag...
Sanjeev: Now I can't remember, but I'm sure you will. Who wrote "planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do"?
Fry: Err... umm....

So it's there, but it's up to you (us?) to find it.
[/quote]

David Bowie
[/quote]
Indeed ?

The point I was trying to make, but I fear I may not have, is that there's always something that they don't know, but it's up to the rest of us to find whatever it is. Sanjeev Kumar was clearly lashing out in desperation and serendipitously hit the target.

Oh, I'm easy to catch out - just ask me anything about sport. Or most things about cars - I can't even drive (although stay away from anything to do with clutches or brakes - I worked for Clutch & Brake Supplies for two years in the early '90s and I can still remember some things like the correct 10 digit part numbers belonging to master cylinder repair kits for specific cars. Funny what we learn in a lifetime... ?).

Now this may sound like a VERY silly question, and no, I'm not trying to catch you out Alan ?, but why would a rock guitarist want to 'synthesise' his or her guitar signal?

To get access to all the sounds keyboardists have. ? Great for deep purple stuff like Black Knight where you can have the main riff being played on a Hammond and the guitar in unison - all from the guitar. I often use it for things like string pads behind my nylon string too.

If you want, I'll post some clips later.

Hammeron wrote: Now this may sound like a VERY silly question, and no, I'm not trying to catch you out Alan ?, but why would a rock guitarist want to 'synthesise' his or her guitar signal?

Well why add fuzz or wah or flange? It's about extending the sonic palette. In the 70s keyboard players were having lots of fun with synths and guitar players wanted in on the action. Why should those ivory tinklers have all the fun?

All sorts of things could be done (in theory at least). You could double your guitar line with some other instrument. You could use it to add textures that you didn't need in every song and so didn't want to hire an extra player for.

Blackmore also experimented with the EMS Hi-Fli, as did David Gilmour. This was earlier than the Roland synth.

Some guys are guitar players, others are musicians who just happen to use the guitar as an interface.

Etc etc... lots of reasons for using a guitar synths.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: To get access to all the sounds keyboardists have. ? Great for deep purple stuff like Black Knight where you can have the main riff being played on a Hammond and the guitar in unison - all from the guitar. I often use it for things like string pads behind my nylon string too.

AAaaaaahh exactly. So in Blackmores case it had everything to do with melding the Strat to Lords Hammond.
Jack, this lad is better than even you imagined!

Actually, I'm not sure what Ritchie was using it for exactly. I'd think with Lord already doing those parts, Blackmore wouldn't need to. I do that 'cos I don't have Jon. Maybe he's using it for pads while Jon is soloing or something. Steve Morse uses a lot of guitarsynth for pads - especially in the Steve Morse Trio.

If you hear keys or synth in any of my comp entries, it's always done on a guitar. There are one or two where the synth is overlaying the guitar part, so I'm getting both sounds at once, but changing things up by using arpeggiators, step flangers or filter patterns (or other beat-synched effects) to make it sound like two different players.

Here's a few:
Heavy - I'm not really a heavy metal player, so I went with a very heavy feel instead of fast metal. Power trio style - one guitar, bass and drums. Synth sound is from the guitar with an arpeggiator.

Industrial - All sounds (including drums) from one take of guitar/guitarsynth. Serves to show what you can accomplish with a guitarsynth and a little imagination. I'm scraping the strings, leaning towards my laptop (for interference from the pickups), snapping strings against the fretboard and the synth responds in some unpredictable ways. You can hear the actual synth patch when the single note sustains.

Video Game Level - All parts aside from drums and solo done in one guitar part. Guitar 1 covers all the guitar rhythm, bass and keyboard parts in one (with a guitarsynth) - bass on the lower three strings and Hammond on the top three. Guitar two is just the solo and three is the harmony for the last part of the solo.

http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/ns-1/Dark_Step_Pad.mp3 - - A stepped phaser on a simple pad, creating a nice beat-synched synth part to overlay
http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/ns-1/Nylon_Nights.mp3 - Nights in White Satin cover. A good example of how the GR-55 can work in a cover setting. Cello on bottom three strings and string section over all six. I fade in the string section with the footpedal from the first chorus.

That knights in white satin cover is pretty impressive!

Thanks - that's with the GR-55 which is a great little box, well suited to my style/situation of playing. I love that I can mix modelled bass guitar on the low strings (without tracking delays - unlike the synth stuff), use a sampled pad (or two) across all strings and overlay the real guitar right over the top. Let's me do it all - aside from drums and voice.

I also find that when you split strings into different sounds, you start thinking about the guitar differently, with each string (or set of strings) being it's own voice (not unlike the classical player regarding bass and treble strings as two different voices). It makes you think more linearly - down the length of each string rather than across different strings - and often forces you to find odd chord voicings so the right notes are played on the right instrument.