在我们第一次探讨电力与吉他之间的漫长而有趣的关系中，we caught up with Benjamin Franklin and explored the huge impact that George Beauchamp had on the history of our instrument。This time out I’d like to introduce you to another fellow whose name might not be instantly familiar to you – Samuel Clemens.
克莱门斯是19世纪中叶小姐ouri native who changed careers more often than Arnold Schwarzenegger (look, how many people can put年轻的大力神和“加利福尼亚州州长”在同一简历上？）。克莱门斯（Clemens）最初是一名密西西比河船飞行员，然后在同盟国民兵中担任第二中尉两周，然后与他的兄弟猎户座（Orion）一起抛弃向西走。
In Virginia City, Nevada Clemens tried and failed to make it as a silver miner, and eventually went to work for a local newspaper called theTerritorial Enterprise。This career, at long last, was the one that stuck, and Samuel ended up writing at least 17 books, some of which you’d probably heard of:The Adventures of Tom Sawyer，，，，A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court，，，，王子和贫民，，，，andThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn。
Yup. Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain, the father of American literature. Now, I can hear you already: “But, Josh, this isGuitar Magazine，，，，not文学评论– why are you talking about Mark Twain?” Well, I’m bringing up Mr Twain because, believe it or not, he had something in common with us: he bought a guitar.
One day in 1861, as he made plans to avoid the Civil War and head out west with his brother, he purchased a used 1835马丁Parlor acoustic for $10. He travelled the rest of his life with this guitar by his side; it was a constant companion
I’m not sure what first piqued Twain’s interest. Maybe he heard a particularly metal cover of迪克西orHark! The Herald Angels Sing(two of the most popular songs in his day). Maybe he wanted to impress his girlfriend. Maybe he wanted something to help pass the time during histwo-weekwagon ride to California. Personally, I like to imagine that just like me, he heard a song, he connected with it and he wanted to make that kind of music himself.
活着活着
当我14岁的时候，我听到了珍珠果酱’s活on my brother’s cassette player and realised that somehow, a guitarist in his late twenties had an open window into my ninth-grade soul. With the sound of that main riff and solo,Mike McCready可能还通过扬声器伸出援手并重新打动我的大脑。在那之前，我从未对音乐感兴趣，但是这一刻改变了我。我必须有吉他。我不得不创建那首歌中听到的声音。
在我的母亲缠住了数周之后，她终于带回家了一个美丽的韩国制作的同步Stratocastercopy, and suddenly I was part of a bigger story. I was Luke Skywalker, a young Jedi bursting with almost unlimited potential, part of an ancient and honourable order who held the world’s fate in their hands. And if that sounds dramatic, you obviously aren’t a real guitarist and I forgive you.
但是与我不同，26岁的马克·吐温（Mark TwainWonderwall，但吉他仍然吸引了他。他的马丁原声吉他的简单声音已经足够了 - 这本身就是宏观进化的一部分，其历史可以追溯到两千年以上，回到第一条弦的那一天。。我听到的声音来自Mike McCready和Stone Gossard吉他是同一声音的进一步发展。顺便说一句，如果您有兴趣了解通货膨胀和名人文化，那么吐温的10美元的价值是1500万美元in 2015. That’s enough to buy more than one million Synsonics Strat copies, and there’s no way my mom could have fit those in her station wagon.
Fantastic journey
So, how did we make the journey from Mark Twain’s acoustic guitar to Mike McCready’s莱斯·保罗? It’s quite simple: 134 years of invention. Martin went on to create the dreadnought acoustic,Gibson令人惊叹的archtop吉他,李尔王ned last time, Rickenbacker merged the primitive guitar of the time with a new and exciting force called electricity. The electric guitar’s new voice demanded a new audience and set the guitar on its course for world domination.
上个月，我们谈到了电吉他中最早的实验，但是在1960年代之前的电吉他世界中还有三项创新对影响恋人的影响至关重要。我们将下次放大另外两次，但是今天我们将探索每个人最喜欢的颤抖，纹身奇迹的迷人诞生：tremolo。
颤音的起源是清晰而模糊的。该术语的含义取决于上下文，但是从吉他演奏者的角度来看，颤音是音量调制。从更简单的角度来看，这意味着它是打开和关闭音量的声音。这与将音量旋钮放在汽车立体声上，播放歌曲并将其拒绝，向上，倒下，向上。
与1600年代的古典音乐作品最早出现类似的声音。后来，Horn玩家开始掩盖其乐器的铃铛，以暂时和节奏地静音，以迅速增加和下降。在1930年代，器官在其管放大器内包含了颤音电路，使器官具有动感，颤动的音调。甚至手风琴主义者都以他们操纵手风琴的波纹管产生独特的脉动效果的方式激发了颤音吉他。
正确的移动
Indeed, so popular was this effect that tremolo has the distinction of being the first-ever stand-alone guitar effect. Released in 1946 by the DeArmond Research company of Toledo, Ohio, it was called the Tremolo Control, model 601, and was designed by Harry DeArmond. Yup, the same Harry DeArmond who helped his brother John market the first-ever commercially available guitar pickup on the market, which they had created from parts found on a Model-T Ford.
About the same size as a shoebox, the Tremolo Control is perfectly simple, and rather familiar to modern guitarists: two control knobs called speed and increase, a handle, an input jack for your instrument, power cord and a pre-attached output cable that plugs into your amplifier.
Inside the enclosure it gets a bit more unconventional. The main thing is a canister that looks like a can of beans, which is full of liquid and also contains a little electrode. In use, a motor moves the can, which sloshes the liquid around, shorting out the signal whenever the fluid touches it, creating the tremolo effect. It might not pass modern health and safety standards, but it worked. Tremolo and guitar – friends forever.
The first known recording of a tremolo effect is a great deal more subtle however, listen carefully toSugar Babe Blues经过cigar-chomping blues singer Roosevelt Sykes in 1942 and you can just make it out in the background. By 1955 we were done with being subtle, and Bo Diddley put it front and centre of his smash-hitBo Diddley。这首曲目使颤音（Tremolo）闻名，并开始以沼泽，神秘的语气来塑造流行音乐。没有它，我们将没有一切Gimme Shelter经过The Rolling Stonesto骨头经过Radiohead- 很难想象。吉他第一次有人造运动和超出其自然声音的个性：这是新时代的吉他时代的开始。
Once I get my time machine up and running – which should be any day now – I’m going to visit our old friend Mark Twain at some roadside saloon, and we’ll start a Western Americana Grunge band. In the meantime, I’m confident that he’d be proud to know that he played a part not only in the renaissance of American literature, but in a story that connects millions of people from all across the world: the tale of the ever-evolving guitar.
For more from Josh Scott check outthejhsshow.com。