By strumming up and down in a strict pattern rather than the usual random strumming you’ll get a much more defined melody and the chorus seems to flow better. It’s not known why Ritenour played the part but notice how the strumming follows the strings melody (ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba). All acoustic parts were played with an Ovation 1619-4 steel string with a so-called Nashville tuning or high-strung tuning, – the A, D and G string being the high strings from a 12 string set. While David played the acoustic guitar on the second verse and main guitar solo, session guitarist Lee Ritenour handled the duties on the chorus. Pick the B string and bring the arm back up to pitch. Pick the E first and simultaneously bend down the tremolo arm one whole note. Pick the E string on the 17th fret and the B string on the 19th. For this clip I’m using Fender CS 69 pickups > green Sovtek Big Muff > Boss BD-2 (modified) > Boss GE-7 > Boss DD-2 > Marshall 5210 50W solid state. I’m afraid my English is pretty bad but hopefully you’ll get the idea. David increases the volume on the delay just for this bit and then lowers it again for the rest of the solo. I’ve been doing it wrong all the time (thanks napnap1234)! Anyway, the trick is to use tons of delay to make it sound bigger and more dramatic.
I must admit that I just recently learned how to play this bit. One of the more familiar parts added in the mid 80’s is the so-called “waving part†at the end of the song just when the mirror flower opens up and shoots beams of light throughout the stadium. Still, he keeps some of the signatures and improvises around them. The main solo, in contrast, is a long jam piece where David brings out all the ammunition. The first solo is sort of a signature and David rarely goes beyond playing it note by note. You can really feel the guitar cutting right through your spine.ĭavid has always been fairly true to the album version when performing the song live. I often go back (or forward) to the film version of the song, which is mixed with even more presence and volume.
The track is doubled and slightly delayed making it sound like two guitars and the tone is compressed and gated to make it sound even more edgy and “in your faceâ€. It’s by far one of the most aggressive solos David’s every played but not so much due to his playing or technique but rather the mix and the sound of it. Perhaps it’s the beauty of a perfectly written rock song or the contrast between the gentle voices and the climatic end.
It’s hard to tell why a guitar solo becomes so famous and loved by so many. (…) Then I just follow the chart, whipping one fader up, then another fader, jumping from phrase to phrase and trying to make a really nice solo all the way through.†From there I just followed my usual procedure, which is to listen back to each solo and mark out bar lines, saying which bits are good. The Yamaha is mixed slightly lower than the Hiwatt adding a rich sort of undefinable character.ĭavid explained to Guitar World in 1993 how the solo was written: “I just went out into the studio and banged out five or six solos. The main effect of course is the Electro Harmonix “ram’s head†Big Muff fed into a Hiwatt DR103 head with a WEM speaker cabinet and a Yamaha RA-200 rotating speaker. Some sources also suggest that he used an Electric Mistress flanger but I’m having a really hard time hearing it.
The first demo recorded by the band – sans the orchestra – includes a MXR Phase 90 but this was ditched on the final version. There are different reports on what effects David used for the sessions. The guitar still had the DiMarzio FS-1 bridge pickup but was newly fitted with a custom Charvel maple neck. David used the Black Strat for the two solos and the power chords during the main solo. The guitars were recorded sometime early autumn 1979.
The demo from the first band sessions also includes David’s fuzz chords on the verses, which came back on the 1980s and 90s live version but was not included on the album. David though the first version was too sloppy and liked the second slightly tighter take. According to an interview with David from Guitar World in 1993 the issue was Nick Mason’s drumming. The recording of the song for The Wall caused a lot of tension between Roger and David. David far away on another planet in Amsterdam 2006.