Def Leppard "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" Isolated Guitar

Def Leppard is one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and their recordings are great examples of excellent production, thanks to producer Mutt Lange.

Here's an isolated guitar track from a hit off of the band's second album (High n' Dry) called "Bringin' On The Heartbreak." There are a number of things to listen for (it starts at 1:05):

1. You need headphones to hear this because it's barely audible, but at :55 you can hear the intro guitars on the left and someone giving the count ("one, two, three four") on the right side.

2. The verse begins at 1:05 with a doubled clean guitar that's spread left and right. Listen to how precise the picking is.

3. On the beginning of the B section at 1:55 there's a distorted guitar only on the right side, which turns into a big double distorted guitar spread left and right at 2:00. Once again, listen to how precise the picking is.

4. The chorus is interesting in that it's only a single note line. This is the same in every chorus.

5. Check out how the rhythm of the 3rd B section changes to increase the intensity.

6. Listen through to the end to hear a part that didn't make the record.

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Eric Clapton Isolated Solo "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

I posted this a few years back, but it's one of the posts I keep on getting requests to post again. It's Eric Clapton's isolated guitar track from George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" off the The Beatles White Album.

Didn't know it was Clapton playing lead? It was a loosely held secret for a while, but EC was one of the few ringers that The Beatles used on their records. Clapton was brought in because he was a close mate of Harrison's, and since George wrote the song, he felt he had more say in who played on it. Here are some things to listen for.

1) There's always been a question as to what gear Clapton used on the song, and none of the people at the session can remember exactly.

Here's what Ken Scott (who engineered the session) said in the book we wrote together Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust:

"The “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” sessions I’d really like to remember since I’ve been repeatedly asked about them, especially the Eric Clapton overdub session, but the only recollection I have is of mixing the song. Eric had been reluctant to play on the record because “no one plays on Beatle records,” but was convinced by his good friend George that the rest of the band would be okay with it. To his credit, he wanted to sound as far away from Eric Clapton as he could, so he insisted on not using any of his own gear and used The Beatle’s gear already set up in the studio instead (I wish I could remember exactly what gear he used). 

This wish to sound as un-Clapton-like as possible extended to mixing as well. In order to make it sound “more Beatley,” the ADT setup (see sidebar) was used to get the warbling sound that’s on the lead guitar and organ, since they were both on the same track. Chris Thomas was put in charge of manually turning the varispeed of the tape machine up and down during the mix to obtain the distinctive wobble. 

I thought it was stupid because it was such a gimmick, but that’s what they wanted because Eric didn’t want it sound like him. They wanted it really extreme so that’s what I did. I did that for hours. It was so bloody boring.Chris Thomas (George Martin's assistant)"

What you'll be hearing here is only Clapton's track, which was probably submixed to another track along with the organ to open one up for additional overdubs.

2) What struck me about the performance is how loose it is. It sounds like a single take as you hear EC switch between playing rhythm and lead. He never sounds sure of exactly what he's playing though, and you can hear the odd flub, especially in the B section and the transition between sections.

3) Listen for the toe taps as EC keeps time.

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Yes "Roundabout" Isolated Guitars

Staying with our Friday isolated tracks theme, here's Steve Howe's isolated guitar tracks in "Roundabout," one of Yes's most famous tracks. The song is off of their breakout album Fragile, which catapulted the band into a worldwide headlining act. It's a long song with a lot of parts, so here are just a few of the things to listen for.

1. Listen to the acoustic guitar harmonics on the left and electric guitar fills on right during the first verse.

2. On the second verse, the acoustic guitar harmonics are replaced with a strum.

3. A slightly out of tune electric guitar takes over in first chorus.

4. Check out the mis-fingerings at 3:08 and 3:17, something that we'd probably fix if the song were done today.

6. Listen for the chair noise on the second intro at 5:15.

7. On the last verse the electric guitar doubles the bass.

8. Check out the strumming guitar on outro at 7:50, along with tapping on the body for a rhythm percussion effect.

9. The ending guitar line (the same as the intro) at 8:18 is doubled.

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Paul McCartney "Maybe I'm Amazed" Isolated Guitar Solo

Here's the isolated guitar solo from one of my all-time favorite songs. It's "Maybe I'm Amazed" from Paul McCartney's first solo album. Paul plays basically the same solo twice in the song and you'll here them both back to back. Here's what to listen for.

1. I suspect this was played through some sort of Fender amp since you can hear the built-in reverb boing at the end of his phrases.

2. You can hear some slight mis-fingerings and undeveloped technique, but Macca makes up for it with an extremely lyrical solo melody. Most guitar players with better technique would probably just wail with a lot of notes instead, but this is a solo worth remembering. It's stands out as much as the rest of the song.

3. Listen to the string noise in between the phrases. We'd trim these in the workstation today so you wouldn't hear them, but you don't hear on the final record anyway.

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Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody" Isolated Guitar Solo

Here's the most beautiful and passionate solo that guitarist Brian May played on Queen's magnificent "Bohemian Rhapsody." He's always been one of the most underrated players, both for his soulful playing and for his smooth-as-silk tone, and this isolated solo track shows him in all his glory. Listen for:

1. The amplifier noise before the solo starts.

2. The string noise in between phrases. We guitar players sometimes obsess over getting rid of it, but you never hear it when the other instruments are added to the track.

3. How unprocessed Brian's sound is. What you hear is a man with a guitar and amp, with no special effects added. He obviously knows how to drive his gear very well.

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Guns n' Roses "Sweet Child Of Mine" Isolated Lead Guitar Track

Continuing with our isolated guitar themed Fridays, here's the lead guitar tracks from Guns n' Roses breakout hit "Sweet Child Of Mine." Here are some things to listen for:

1. Slash's distorted guitar intro line, as well as the interlude and solo, has a nice big medium length stereo reverb on it with not a lot of predelay.

2. In the verse, Slash's rhythm part goes from clean and dry to chorused. The sounds are considerably smaller than the intro/chorus/interlude/solo distorted part.

3. The second chorus at 3:10 is beefed up by distorted rhythm parts that are doubled and panned left and right, where they both play a different fill when it returns to the I chord.

4. The first part of the guitar solo sounds like it was written as it's very lyrical, while the second half Slash just burns on the wah.

5. Great guitar sound and performance!

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Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" Isolated Guitar Track

For all of you guitar fans who love history, here's a look at Jimmy Page's rhythm guitar parts from Led Zeppelin's classic hit "Whole Lotta Love." The song might've ripped off Willie Dixon, but it exposed millions of kids to maybe the world's most basic blues riff. Here are some things to listen for:

1. The riff is doubled (1958 Les Paul Standard through a 100 watt Marshall Plexi) but it's in mono. It's also pretty loose, as you can hear either one or both parts misplayed at a number of places in the songs. Of course, that wouldn't get by today, but did that ever bother any of us before?

2. The bridge begins at 1:24, but the guitar ad libs don't begin until 1:50. At that point the amp noise increases, perhaps as a result from switching in the delay.

3. Something that you don't hear too clearly in the final mix is the new guitar riff that begins at the outro at 4:40.

4. If you listen all the way to the end you'll hear two endings. The first is rather tame, but listen a little more and you'll hear a more wild ending from the previous take at 5:50.

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Rush "Tom Sawyer" Isolated Guitar

Staying with our guitar themed Fridays, here's Alex Lifeson's isolated guitar from Rush's seminal "Tom Sawyer," one of the most popular cuts from their breakthrough Moving Pictures album. What's interesting is that there's not a lot of production trickery here. It's just one man and his guitar; no doubles or stacking. The guitar solo is different from the rest of the song, but you'd expect that in almost any recording. Here are some things to listen for.

1. The guitar is heavily chorused, but the dry signal is panned to the center while the chorus is spread out left and right.

2. Check out the very long 20 second sustain starting at 1:27.

3. The guitar sound changes in the solo, with the dry signal slightly to the right with a short double panned to the left.

Rush is a band that can pull off their records live because they play it that way in the studio. This example is Lifeson and Rush at their best.

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Deep Purple "Smoke On The Water" Isolated Guitar

Here's another in a series of isolated guitar tracks from some big hits. This time it's Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water," a song that every young guitar player learned before anything else at one time. Here are a couple of things to listen for:

1. There's a nice short reverb on the Ritchie Blackmore's guitar. It fits just right for figures that he plays.

2. Listen to the single note phrases he plays in the verses and B-section. This simple part gets lost on the record sometimes. Also listen to the mistake he makes in the second half of the second B section at 2:40. Today that wouldn't be left in.

3. The solo (obviously an overdub that was cut into the example) features a different sound on the guitar (the Strat's neck pickup) that's not too distorted and also has a tape echo on it.

4. The figure that Blackmore plays on the outro from 5:18 is another part that frequently gets lost in the track (and is never played by bar bands).

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Guns N Roses "Welcome To The Jungle" Isolated Guitar

One of the things that many casual listeners frequently do is take some of the most basic parts of a recording for granted. Take a rhythm guitar, for instance, which can provide both the glue and movement to many songs. A good example is in the video below of the rhythm guitar parts to Guns n Roses big hit "Welcome To The Jungle."

In it you'll hear rhythm parts from both Izzy Stradlin and Slash on the left side only (the lead guitar is panned to the right side on the final mix). Listen for:

1. Izzy isn't the greatest player, but the part is played perfectly so you don't hear any inconsistencies with the rest of the track.

2. You can hear where Slash comes in at 1:36 where the sound changes and the playing technique is tighter and more fluid.

3. There are a lot of guitar layers that you don't hear distinctly on the record. Listen to the ending at 4:05 for a good example.

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Steely Dan "Hey Nineteen" Isolated Guitar

New York studio guitarist Hugh McCracken recently passed away, and he left a legacy of great playing on records by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, The Four Seasons, Hall & Oats and many more.

As has been the case with many musicians, some of Hugh's greatest moments came playing on Steely Dan and Donald Fagen records. Here's the near isolated guitar track from their "Hey Nineteen," a song from the duo's Gaucho album.

You can hear that this track was isolated using phase shifting techniques, as it's not as clean as many of the tracks you'll hear posted here. You still hear enough of Hugh's playing to appreciate his greatness.

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"Who Are You" - The Who Isolated Guitar

We haven't done an isolated track for a while, so here's the guitar track from The Who's hit Who Are You. The album, the last by drummer Keith Moon before he died, was released in 1978 and reached number 2 on the Billboard charts. An interesting aside, this was to be the debut of keyboard player John "Rabbit" Bundrick (who's been the band's keyboard player ever since), but he broke his arm falling out of a cab right at the studio door and never performed on the album as a result. Here are some things to listen for.

1) Quite the contrary to the precision of guitar parts in today's productions, there are lots of guitar noise, mis-fretted chords, and ghost notes in the song. We'd probably never let a lot of these things get by today, but it certainly didn't hurt anyone's enjoyment of the song in the 30 plus years since it's been recorded.

2) Pete Townshend's guitar has a nice long delayed reverb on it that really sounds good.

3) Listen to the dynamics of Pete's playing; everything from a whisper to a power chord, all on the same part. Once again, this is probably not the way we'd do it today, as we'd use multiple tracks with different passes and maybe even sounds instead.

4) This track sounds pretty much like a single take except for the audible punch at about 3;00 coming right before the bridge out of the solo

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"Carry On Wayward Son" - Kansas Isolated Parts

Here are the vocal tracks and a little more from the 1977 Kansas hit "Carry On Wayward Son." This particular video seems like it was an extraction of the center channel, since a lot of instruments besides the vocals appear. That's OK because we get to hear inside the track in a way that few have heard before. Here are some of the things that I picked up on.

1) In the intro line, I never heard the left hand organ of the organ doubling the guitar before.

2) The 2nd half of the verse speeds up enough that it starts to feel uncomfortable. It seems a little more so when you hear the vocal mostly by itself. It also speeds up a bit in the 2nd verse, but not as badly.

3) The 3 part harmony on the chorus is very tight, even during the turnaround and ends of the phrase. It wasn't uncommon in those days to have the harmony vocals follow along pretty closely only to break into unison at some point, mostly because the vocalists were harmonizing by ear. You can tell this vocal arrangement was worked out very well before hand.

4) The lead vocal sound is pretty good but gets a little gritty during the bridge and the end of last chorus during the loudest parts. I think it's Steve Walsh singing, and he really has a set of pipes! The reverb is pretty long and thick with what sounds like a very short 15ips tape delay in front of it.

5) My favorite part (being an old Hammond player myself) is the very end of the song where Walsh pushes in the lower drawbars leaving only the higher harmonics, and then turns the Leslie to high speed. Classic!

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"Hot For Teacher Guitar" Van Halen Isolated Guitar

Today we take a listen to Eddie Van Halen's smoking isolated guitar on "Hot For Teacher." For many guitar players this song is the ultimate in guitar dexterity, and even isolated, Edward does not disappoint.
The song was part of Van Halen's "1984" that was recorded at Eddie's 5150 home studio. It was voted the 39th greatest rock song by VH1. Here are a few things to listen to:

1) What can you say about Eddie's playing except "mind blowing." He's one of the true innovators of modern rock guitar and this song is an excellent example of why.

2) Eddie seamlessly goes between rhythm and lead during the song. Since this was done at home with presumably as much time as needed, I suspect that we're hearing a lot of takes comped into one. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this was one entire performance though.

3) The sound of the guitar is great for both the rhythm and lead parts. I'm not sure exactly what gear he used (I suspect it was his "Frakenstrat" and "brown sound" Marshall), but it's the sound that guitar players have obsessed over for years afterwards.

4) The studio sound of the isolated track is different from the original record (the video is at the bottom), in that it's in stereo with a short reverb and long delay timed to the track. While it's basically the same effects setup on the record, the dry sound is panned left while the effects are panned right, which is the same on most of the early Van Halen albums. It's also interesting how low in the mix the guitar is on the final version.

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"Uprising" - Muse Isolated Guitar

Last week we listened to the bass and drum tracks for Muse's "Uprising." Today we'll listen to the guitar tracks, although there are a number of additional overdubbed tracks also on this track.

1) The tom fills and handclaps that everyone missed from the backing track last week are on this track.

2) The vocal in the chorus is the delay-only signal. It's pretty long and timed to the track.

3) There are a variety of guitar sounds that really makes the song. One of the things that most young bands do when they first record is use the same guitar sound for every part in every song. Muse is obviously not a young band and you can tell just from the way they layer the different guitar parts and sounds (among other things).

4) The guitar drops out during the solo. I suspect that this track is a couple of the channels of a 5.1 mix and that the guitar drops out because it's being panned.

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"Sunshine Of Your Love" - Clapton's Isolated Guitar

Here's a real classic. It's Eric Clapton's isolated guitar track from "Sunshine Of Your Love," the song that broke Cream in America in 1967. The song was part of the Disraeli Gears album produced by Felix Papalardi and engineered by the esteemed Tom Dowd at Atlantic Record's own studio in New York City.

1) This is a guitar sound that you don't hear much anymore. It's the front pickup of a 1964 Gibson SG Standard with some of the tone control dialed back, played through a Marshall Plexi. The distortion of the song was a prototype for guitarists for years to come, as is still sought after.

2) The sound of the guitar solo is reported to be what Clapton called his "Women Tone," which was a very early Clyde McCoy model Vox Wah pedal placed in the bass position. I'm not so sure that it's not just the same sound as the rhythm guitar with more of the tone control dialed in. Notice how the rhythm and solo get panned in stereo during the solo section.

3) Clapton gets a bit ahead of the beat that you can hear in the leakage in the B-sections. He also hits a couple of "extra strings" during the final chorus. I never heard either of these before in the track (probably no one else has either), but if were done today you can be sure it would be perfect. Sometimes, all the character is produced right out of records today by going for that perfection, but as we've seen over and over in this blog, perfection simply doesn't matter in a hit. It has to be a solid performance, but not perfect.

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Bad Company "Feel Like Makin Love" Isolated Electric Guitar

I always like Bad Company records for their simplicity. There weren't a lot of overdubs so the tracks weren't hid behind any layers, and then there was Paul Rodgers incomparable vocals (and he still sings at least as well today). Here's an example of that simplicity on the isolated guitar tracks from Feel Like Making Love played by Mick Ralphs. Yes, there are doublings and overdubs, but not that many and they're well conceived. The guitars don't come in until about 12 seconds because the acoustic guitar starts the tune.

1) The clean guitars during the verse both have the same sound (using the rear pickup of probably a Les Paul) and are doubled very tightly with one playing the first position and the another in the 2nd position. One of the guitars is slightly out of tune - who knows if it's intentional to widen the track or just a sign of the times before guitar tuners.

2) The doubled distorted guitars in the chorus are so typically Les Paul/Marshall from that time period. The double actually works better with the big guitars than the clean rhythm.

3) The chorus guitars are played very on top of the beat and push the chorus as a result. You can feel the chorus itself speed up a bit like most did back in the days before click tracks, but the guitar is still on top of the beat. It does relax a bit with each chorus of the song.

4) The guitar solo at 2;42 is interesting. It's 3 moderately clean guitars playing harmony (so much for the simplicity, I guess). What does make them sound simple is that they feel like a single player could've played it in one pass, even if that's not the case.

5) There's a little stumbling of the double in the outchorus at 3;42, almost like he was caught off guard on the first pass and then tried to duplicate in (but couldn't) on the second. It happens again at 4;52 except one guitar plays the part correctly.

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"Panama" Van Halen Isolated Guitar Track

It wouldn't be fair to play only the backing track to Panama without hearing the really energy of the song - Eddie Van Halen's guitar. Here's the isolated track.

1) Eddie has a slight mis-picked note at :28 when he plays the harmonics. Never bothered me before though.

2) Ed is a great rhythm guitar player and he's really exceptional at going back and forth between lead and rhythm without the bottom falling out of the track both in sound and energy.

3) Once again, the guitar sound is signature Van Halen. There's a medium length delay on the guitar which in turn feeds a medium decay reverb. On other songs it's easier to pick up when there's a dry guitar panned left and the effect right, but it's basically the same thing.

4) I'm not sure if the very end of the track is cut off or if it was a slightly late mute for the vocal ending. Anyone know for sure?

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"Black Hole Sun" Isolated Guitar Track

In the last post we listened to the isolated vocal of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun." Today we'll listen to Kim Thayil's isolated guitar. Here's what to listen for:

1) He's a little out of tune during the clean intro. You never notice it in the track but it's a lot more exposed when isolated.

2) The song is performed in a Drop D tuning, which means that the low E string is detuned to D.

3) The most distinctive thing about the guitar track is the Leslie speaker effect used during the verse. A Leslie speaker, mostly used with organs (a Hammond B-3 and a Leslie model 122 is the classic combination), has a rotating treble horn and rotating drum around the low frequency speaker. It's been used with a guitar since the 60's, most famously in The Beatles "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." The Leslie has a slow and fast speed, with Black Hole Sun using the fast speed and recorded in stereo.

4) The distorted guitar in the chorus is also recorded in stereo, as is the wah guitar solo (which Guitar World magazine ranked #63 among the top 100 guitar solos) and outro.

5) Listen to the noises at the end of each part before the next part kicks in. These would certainly be cleaned up if recorded today.

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Oasis "Wonderwall" - Isolated Guitar

Once again from Oasis' Morning Glory album we'll have a look at the acoustic guitar part from the hit "Wonderwall." Here's what to listen for.

1) The part is very consistent, both in level (a slight bit of compression) and in sound.

2) Noel Gallagher is a great rhythm player. His tempo is great and he knows how to push a band. Listen to the second verse as his playing grows more intense and the acoustic part is doubled.

3) The playing of this part is great, but you can hear a slight flub at 1:30 and again at 2:20. You can also hear punches at 2:47, 2:56 (this is a bad one), 3:18, and 3:44. You'd never hear these in the track as they get covered by the double.

4) The sound is pretty much in your face with very little ambience (mostly it's just from the room).

5) During the break at 1:50 you can hear his foot taping, which I love to hear since it usually means that the player is really laying in.

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