McLaughlin Mondays # 16 – Expanding The Sound Palette
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As a guitarist, I will confess to having experienced “sound-envy” on occasions. Never more strongly than when synthesizers first became truly accessible to the masses. Overnight it seemed, our keyboard player could summon forth uncanny imitations of trumpets, saxophones and string sections as well as a whole slew of unearthly sounds that left me feeling, well, inferior! No wonder guitarists with the necessary means went in search of ways to “play” a synthesizer from their fretboards (or at the very least, be able to expand their repertoire of sounds) and as a consequence, the guitar synth was born.McLaughlin was certainly attracted to the idea, slightly obsessively perhaps, as illustrated by the lesser known but highly enjoyable 1976 album “Inner Worlds”, which contained the first recorded examples of McLaughlin exploring this then-nascent technology, wherein almost every track has some presence of a guitar synth on it (probably courtesy of a 360 systems unit like this one)….. 
Here’s a snip from a 2005 article in Guitar Player…“One of the many things that distinguished you both [ McLaughlin & Allan Holdsworth] from most of your contemporaries was your ability to get impressive results from early guitar synthesizers. How would you account for that?MCLAUGHLIN: I began experimenting with guitar synths back in 1974. Bob Easton at 360 Systems came up with a rig that used his interface first with an EMU module, and then with a separate Mini-Moog for each string, which was like driving an eight-wheel truck. I was always saying, “Ladies and gentlemen why don’t you chat amongst yourselves while I tune up my instrument.” It was kind of a joke, and after one major tour I gave it up. So, the problem was that the technology wasn’t very good in the early days. For example, the latency was terrible. I mean it was like 50ms on the low strings! But you’ve got to go with what you have, and that was the best technology available at the time.”Six Minimoogs! Awesome. McLaughlin has used various guitar synth systems since then, mostly on live sets (suprisingly, given the tendency of these beasts to “misbehave” at times). Ultimately, guitar synths have provided guitarists an interesting channel for experimentation and creativity, but have never come close to displacing the natural sound of the guitar itself.Here’s the opening track from the “Inner Worlds” album, “All In The Family”, which features McLaughlin trading licks with himself on regular electric and guitar synth. Listen very carefully and you will hear the occasional drop-out as the guitar synth loses track of the input from the guitar strings – one of the major issues with the early technology in this area, but it kind of adds to the charm.Enjoy.
Here’s a snip from a 2005 article in Guitar Player…“One of the many things that distinguished you both [ McLaughlin & Allan Holdsworth] from most of your contemporaries was your ability to get impressive results from early guitar synthesizers. How would you account for that?MCLAUGHLIN: I began experimenting with guitar synths back in 1974. Bob Easton at 360 Systems came up with a rig that used his interface first with an EMU module, and then with a separate Mini-Moog for each string, which was like driving an eight-wheel truck. I was always saying, “Ladies and gentlemen why don’t you chat amongst yourselves while I tune up my instrument.” It was kind of a joke, and after one major tour I gave it up. So, the problem was that the technology wasn’t very good in the early days. For example, the latency was terrible. I mean it was like 50ms on the low strings! But you’ve got to go with what you have, and that was the best technology available at the time.”Six Minimoogs! Awesome. McLaughlin has used various guitar synth systems since then, mostly on live sets (suprisingly, given the tendency of these beasts to “misbehave” at times). Ultimately, guitar synths have provided guitarists an interesting channel for experimentation and creativity, but have never come close to displacing the natural sound of the guitar itself.Here’s the opening track from the “Inner Worlds” album, “All In The Family”, which features McLaughlin trading licks with himself on regular electric and guitar synth. Listen very carefully and you will hear the occasional drop-out as the guitar synth loses track of the input from the guitar strings – one of the major issues with the early technology in this area, but it kind of adds to the charm.Enjoy.
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