Pedals

These are my guitar pedals. There’s a compressor, a flanger, an overdrive, and a distortion unit. Because I’m an old timer, I refer to these as pedals but I guess that, really, they’re more like buttons, aren’t they?

I’m not by any means a great or even fair guitarist. I can play a few chords, plus the barre chords that offer a free pass up and down the fret board. I can also play a handful of riffs, including the introduction to ‘She Sells Sanctuary’, which I always liked because it sounded like Billy Duffy had ALL his pedals turned on. 

And, actually, that’s OK with me. Envious as I am of Dan’s facility with the fretboard, I’ve always been more interested in sound. Take The Smiths for example; I love ‘How Soon Is Now’ for lots of reasons but primarily because of Marr’s foundation of phased guitar, with the gorgeous slide layered over the top. As a rule of thumb, the less processed the guitar sound, the less I like their songs. 

Maybe that’s why electronic music - ‘electronica’ to you young people - is my grand passion. My favourite pieces of music, at least in terms of frequency of playing them, are Suede’s ‘Eno’s Introducing The Band’, and David Sylvian and Holger Czukay’s ‘Plight and Premonition’. But I could also point you to Wire’s ‘Illuminated’ or the untitled track that follows Mogwai’s ‘Black Spider 2’ on their "Zidane, A 21st century Portrait" album.

It’s not that I don’t like melody or more conventional instrumentation; I swoon at the flugelhorn break in David Sylvian’s ‘Orpheus’, for example. And it’s not that I don’t love - passionately - pop music: I’m bowled over by The Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’, The Breeder’s ‘Cannonball’, and Zoe’s ‘Sunshine On A Rainy Day’. 

Ultimately, the sound has to be right for me; that's the thing I love most. Consequently, I can sit at my amp, strumming a simple D, and marvel at the gorgeous wash of sound that comes from the combinations of these little, magical boxes.

Post script
My friend Manse - whom, sadly, I think I've only met face to face twice in my life - posted this reply on Facebook:

"My inner pedant, however, has to take Mr. Fenner to task for implying that How Soon is Now utilises phasing as an effect. It is actually the incredible noise of 4 Fender Twin 100w combos being played flat out, with the onboard tremelo providing the throbbing pulsing thrill. Johnny Marr controlledthe tremelo timing on 2 of the amps, with the producer looking after the other two. Amazing and wonderful sound."

I can't tell you how much I love people who know this kind of stuff.