I’m a huge blues fan, but the way the Brits played it really got to me. It was just the right blend of blues and rock ’n’ roll—two great American art forms blended into its own sound. So what is British blues? I’ll make a few generalizations here, so bear with me.
I’d say the Brit school is mostly influenced by Chicago blues—and the likes of B.B. King and Muddy Waters—so the sound is a bit more of a mix of major and minor blues scales, as opposed to the straight minor blues sound that’s associated with Texas blues. Basically, Brit blues is a bit happier. For an in-depth look at this sound, check out my column in the June 2011 issue [“The Composite Blues Scale,” June2011]. Mix that with all the great Memphis rock ’n’ roll sounds of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, add some loud guitar, and it all comes together.
The invention of the Marshall amplifier had a huge impact on the British sound. Cranking the volume on a Marshall generated overdrive and sustain that defines what we think of as British Blues. Eric Clapton basically invented that guitar tone in 1966 on John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton album. Don’t own it? Buy it now! What is cooler than a cranked Marshall and a Les Paul? This month, I want to share a few of my favorite licks from Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Peter Green. These aren’t difficult licks, but they do embody that British attitude.
Every time I play the intro lick in Fig. 1, it makes my big toe stand up in my boot. This is straight up Cream-era Clapton. I love his heavy vibrato on the tritone of the C7 chord (Bb and E), while the amp’s gain does the work for him with the ringing overtones. Another Clapton-ism that I have heard Robben Ford use from time to time is shown in Fig. 2. It’s based on a C minor pentatonic scale (C–Eb–F–G–Bb) with the 6 (A) replacing the b7. I like it because it adds a little bit of flavor to a blues. This lick can also be seen as coming from C Dorian (C–D–Eb–F–G–A–Bb), so make sure to try it out over a Cm7 chord as well.
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The rapid-fire Fig. 3 is a classic pentatonic lick. Have some fun with this one by playing it at different tempos and laying back a bit. For a cool Michael Schenker-vibe, try stepping on the gas. Take a minute to listen to the natural clashing overtones this lick produces. Once again, the advent of amp gain really added to the coolness of this lick.
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Let’s face it: Jimmy Page is the riff master. Where would rock or metal be without his influence? Fig. 4 is a Zep-inspired groove over an E7 chord that really exemplifies the British sound of mixing blues and rock. As with any lick you learn, try this one at some different tempos and feels, as it can fit in so many different places. It’s not so important that you learn the lick exactly—it’s more about how it’s played. Peter Green, the original guitarist for Fleetwood Mac, is one of my favorites. He had a great “out-of-phase” Les Paul tone and such a natural feel. Fig. 5 is a cool opening lick for a blues in C that incorporates some quarter-step bends. I must admit I have stolen this lick many times.
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I hope these licks give you some insight into the British blues players. There are many albums I can recommend, but if you are new to the genre I cannot stress how important John Mayall’s Blues Breakers album is. It’s the blueprint of what was to follow. Now crank that amp and get to it!
Jeff McErlainJeff McErlain is a New York City-based guitar player, producer, songwriter, and educator. He performs regularly in NYC and abroad with his trio and blues band. Jeff has a number of instructional DVDs available at TrueFire.com, and he is a featured instructor for the National Guitar Workshop. Jeff's latest CD I'm Tired is available on iTunes or at jeffmcerlain.com.
EBS BassIQ Blue Label Triple Envelope Filter Pedal
The EBS BassIQ produces sounds ranging from classic auto-wah effects to spaced-out "Funkadelic" and synth-bass sounds. It is for everyone looking for a fun, fat-sounding, and responsive envelope filter that reacts to how you play in a musical way.
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
