Arguably the most danceable jazz band around gives us some insights to the gear they use to keep the audience grooving.
Michael League runs a MXR Cable from his P bass into a TC Electronic PolyTune Mini. From there, the signal hits a Boss OC-3 Super Octave, a MXR Bass Octave Deluxe, and a MXR Carbon Copy analog delay. A MXR DC Brick supplies the power. The pedals are connected by MXR cables and live on a modified cutting board.
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The author found this one-of-a-kind tremolo/vibrato/sound-altering modulation box at Quattro Music Company in Thomas, West Virginia.
Producer and roots-guitar veteran Michael Dinallo pens his unabashed love letter to tremolo, with fond recollections of vintage Fender and Gibson amps, Dunlopās TS-1, and a one-of-a-kind mystery modulator.
Tremolo is my favorite effect to modulate a guitarās sound (and I love vibrato, too). I love it so much that itās part of the moniker of the production team I had with the late Ducky Carlisleāthe Tremolo Twinsāas well as our Trem-Tone Records label. You might recognize Ducky from his many engineering credits, including Buddy Guy, or our work together on albums like Stax veteran Eddie Floydās heralded Eddie Loves You So, from 2008.
For me, the golden period of tremolo was the early 1960s. The brown-panel Fender amps of that period have astounding harmonic tremolo, as do the Gibson amps from that period. I have a 1963 Gibson GA-5T Skylark that has a tremendous tremolo circuit. I used that amp for all the guitar parts I cut on my new album, The Nightās Last Dance,as well as all the records Iāve worked on over the last four years, either as producer or player. My favorite, though, is the 1963 2x10 Fender Superāalso a brown-panel amp. It can be so soupy that, if multi-tracked, it can almost induce seasickness.
But there are so many choices and classic sounds. The Magnatone and Lonnie Mack jump to mind, or the use of a Leslie cabinet for guitar, which is another sound I love as both player and producer. Two of the most distinct and famous uses of tremolo, to my ears, are Link Wrayās āRumbleā and Reggie Youngās arpeggiating opening chord on āThe Dark End of the Streetā by James Carr. There is a shimmery quality to big chords drenched in a slow tremolo, especially if the part is doubled. From a production standpoint, it adds depth to a track, even if itās mixed way in the back.
Letās talk about doubling a tremolo part. Once in a while you can get lucky and have the amp cycle the wave at just the right time as you hit the record button. But most often not. Usually this is not a big deal and adds to the depth of the bed part being recorded. Sometimes, though, it has to be a tight double. Thatās when Iāve spent much time guessing at the cycling and trying to hit it just right. Itās a blast when you do.
One of my favorite experiments with tremolo was setting up two ampsāa brown-panel Fender Vibroverb and a brown-panel Fender Concertāin a V-shape. The amps were set to the same volume and approximately the same tone settings. Using a stereo mic in the middle of the V, we recorded it to one track. We had to keep tweaking the individual tremolo settings in an effort to not have them cancel each other out. But what a huge, lush sound!
āThere is a shimmery quality to big chords drenched in slow tremolo, especially if the part is doubled.ā
There are many tremolo pedals and recording plugins these days, and theyāre all good, but nothing quite captures the sound of an internal tremolo circuit. You can avoid chasing their cycles, too, if a pedal has a tap-tempo function. But what fun is that?
The one tremolo pedal, for me, that comes the closest to an in-amp circuit is the now-vintage Dunlop TS-1. Thirty years ago, I needed a tremolo pedal for my road ampāat the time, a 1994 Fender tweed Blues DeVille. I found Dunlopās big, honking purple metal box with ātremoloā written across the front in wavy yellow letters. You can get wide, sweeping tremolo or set it to a hard, choppy setting where the volume completely disappears. Iāve used both applications effectively. The hard trem is great for the last chord of a song, especially live, hitting like a boxer sparring with a weighted, hanging bagāespecially if youāre diving into a psychedelic ending. And, of course, mixing in other modulation effects, such as flanging or phasing, adds another twist.
I found the most unique tremolo/vibrato/sound-altering modulation box I have at Quattro Music Company in Thomas, West Virginia. Itās not a pedal per se; itās circuitry housed in a cigar box with so many knobs and switches and variations that I still have not exhausted all the possibilities. Itās a one-off. I was told it was the only tremolo box the inventor made. Combining it with a front-end boost and diming an amp produces otherworldly sounds. Iāve used it on a couple of recordings: āNever, No More (A Reckoning)ā by Keith Sykes and me, and āTime Machineā by the Dinallos (where we were joined by Nashvilleās famed singing siblings, the McCrary Sisters). With the latter, itās most obvious as a tremolo device, and on the former itās as a sound-altering gizmo that enhances the guitar leads.
Of all the toys in the arsenal that guitarists have, Iāve gotta say, long live tremolo!
Axis, Cutlass, Sting Rays, oh my! There were all those and more new stylings at the Sterling by Music Man & Ernie Ball both this year as we got a tour of all their affordable options that are out or will be coming out in 2025. We saw new stylings on signature sweets for James Valentine, Steve Lukather, Ryan "Fluff" Bruce, Pete Wentz, Tosin Abasi, Jason Richardson and more!
Sterling By Music Man StingRay Plus Electric Guitar - Black
The StingRay Plus takes the classic StingRay guitar to new heights with a roasted maple neck, versatile P90 pickups, and a built-in volume boost. A matching headstock and sleek block inlays complete the polished, old-school look. Experience the next level of tone and performance with the StingRay Plus.
The PRS Standard is one of the two models that started PRS Guitars back in 1985. It has been out of the line up for more than ten years and coming back for the 40th Anniversary.
PRS Standard 24 Satin Electric Guitar - Satin Red Apple Metallic
The PRS Standard 24 features many classic PRS specifications, including a 25ā scale length, Pattern Thin neck with a 24-fret, 10ā radius rosewood fretboard, PRS Patented Tremolo, and PRS Phase III tuners with unplated brass shafts. Under the hood, the PRS Standard 24 is outfitted with the all-new PRS DMO treble and bass pickups with volume and tone controls and a 5-way blade switch. PRS DMO (Dynamic, Musical, Open) pickups have a āwide openā sound with vocal character, meaning they deliver clear, pleasant-sounding tones across a wide range of frequencies (bass to treble) in each pickup. DMO pickups were personally designed by Paul Reed Smith and the PRS New Products Engineering team. From our own hands-on research into coveted vintage pickup models to advancements in signal analyzation and ātuningā technology, these pickups incorporate every detail of pickup knowledge PRS has gained in recent years of R&D.
John McLaughlin: From Miles to Mahavishnu and Way Beyond
Heās never stopped developing, and weāre covering our favorite highlights of McLaughlinās career: his acoustic (and later electric) take on Indian music with Shakti, his more traditional jazz projects, and much more.
Guitarist John McLaughlinās career has been long and winding. From his early solo records and work with Miles Davis, he possessed a unique approach to the guitar that encompassed jazz and rock vocabulary, played with a biting tone and stellar, virtuosic technique. Heās never stopped developing, and weāre covering our favorite highlights of McLaughlinās career: his acoustic (and later electric) take on Indian music with Shakti, his more traditional jazz projects, and much more.
There are lots of listening highlights in this episode and weāve covered as much as we can: Mahavishnu Orchestraās first two records are undisputable; Tony Williams Lifetimeās Emergency may be the birth of fusion guitar; McLaughlinās mid-career studies in Indian music are inspiring; his take on Coltrane in an organ-jazz setting is monumental. But we could still cover a whole other episodeās worth.