Rebel Yell

[daveq]

I'm not what anyone would consider a big Billy Idol fan but I do like some of his stuff. I think Steve Stevens (spelling?) is incredible. Does anyone know how he does that wierd sound at the very end of the solo? It kinda sounds like a machine gun if you know what I mean. I've seen him use strange things like a kid's toy pistol (electronic type) and hold it near the pickups to make some interesting sounds but I don't think that's what it is in this case. It might just be some palm muting combined with heavy whammy bar usage - it's hard to tell.

[GEdwardJones]

That was a comcination of a harmonizer, an echo and something else, which I forget. I read it once a way long time in Guitar World (Steve on the cover talking about the Atomic Playboys disk). I might have it at home. If not, it's at my parents' house, and I won't have ready access to it for a good long while.

[daveq]

Is that for the entire solo or just the end part that I was talking about? It's really hard for me to describe the part other than it's the last thing you hear at the solo's end.

[GEdwardJones]

The "jigajigajigajiga" It's called "The Raygun Effect."

[Reaper]

That was a comcination of a harmonizer, an echo and something else, which I forget. I read it once a way long time in Guitar World (Steve on the cover talking about the Atomic Playboys disk). I might have it at home. If not, it's at my parents' house, and I won't have ready access to it for a good long while.

I'm guess that he probably had a touch of chorus on it as well...

[daveq]

The "jigajigajigajiga" It's called "The Raygun Effect."

So that was the toy gun making that noise? OK, for some reason I thought that was used on a different song. No wonder I couldn't come close to reproducing it. Thanks!

[Reaper]

The "jigajigajigajiga" It's called "The Raygun Effect."

So that was the toy gun making that noise? OK, for some reason I thought that was used on a different song. No wonder I couldn't come close to reproducing it. Thanks!

No, I think what he's saying is that it sounds like a toy raygun, but can be imitated on guitar. When I first heard it on Rebel Yell, I thought it was a sample dropped in... anyway.

[daveq]

No - he actually uses a toy gun and points it at the pickups. I haev seen him do it before but I just didn't think it was on that song.

[daveq]

Do you make that "ray gun" sound that is literally a trademark signature sound of yours (it appears in BLS, Dirty Diana) using the guitar?

Up till this time, I opened up ray guns and tweaked the potentiometers to get the sound I wanted. I then played it through the guitar pick up. My brother is helping me design an instrument that will produce that sound straight from the guitar.

I found an interview where he talks about using the ray gun (see above).

[GEdwardJones]

Over the course of his career he's used both extreme amounts of processing and toy rayguns to produce the effect. Obviously the easiest way is just to get the same toy gun that he used. But you can do it through processing, but I don't remember the specifics.

[darren wilson]

I seem to remember him talking about using an older Lexicon delay unit that allowed modulation of the delay to get a lot of the sweeping/filtering kind of ray gun effects.

[GEdwardJones]

Ok, I thought I was just making the Lexicon part up, so I didn't mention it.