The Seymour Duncan humbuckers in Frank's Les Paul could be switched between single-coil, humbucking, or single-coil out-of-phase settings, and a toggle switch controlled whether the pickups were wired in series or parallel. A 9-position wafer switch afforded all the possible combinations.Other tunes featured a very different sound. Return of's "Pink Napkins" features a surprisingly clean, jazzy and phased tone. And Return of the Son of, the third album in the trilogy also has an usual tone on its final song-which sounds like an acoustic guitar run through a minefield of effects pedals.
Zappa was also not afraid to experiment with effects boxes. "Ship Ahoy" on Son Of sounds like a cross between a guitar and a sequenced synthesizer-because it is: Zappa ran his Les Paul through an early MuTron processor, to obtain the sound.
Mini-Compositions On Top of Mini-Compositions
Unlike many rock guitarists, whose electric wank-fests are built on simple blues progressions, Zappa's solos in the Shut Up 'N Play box sets were really mini-compositions, on top of mini-compositions underneath played by his large backing band. They originally served as long instrumental breaks connecting his more well-known numbers on tours in the in the late 1970s. Here they're highlighted as individual pieces, joined together as a unified whole on each CD by typically Zappa-esque disembodied voices and sound effects.
Always self-deprecating about his composing and his playing, Zappa said, at the time of Shut Up 'N Play Your Guitar's release:
There's no reason why someone should break out of the Van Halen mode. If you keep playing that way, you're always going to be assured of work. I don't recommend that anybody copy what I do or follow in that musical path, because what it's going to lead to is being outside of the framework where you can earn a living at what you do...That's the bottom line! Most of the people who read Guitar Player, I think, are interested in improving their career."Zappa couldn't have been more wrong. There's much for any musician to learn from him, as Zappa was the best electric guitarist who was also a skilled composer of 20th century classical music.
Article comments
1 - Brian Linse
Nice piece of work, Ed! Great music that desrves to be highlighted.
2 - Eric Olsen
Hi Brian! Yes, Ed, another excellent one, thanks.
3 - Bill Sherman
This prompted me to bring the Rykodisc set into work this a.m. (currently playing in the background, "Treacherous Cretins"). A great piece - even if I am too sonically pig-ignorant to make heads or tails of talk about "parametric filter circuits."
4 - Ed Driscoll
Bill,
Sorry if I got too technical--I think I was hoping that readers would at least get some sense that Zappa wasn't just a "plug it in and turn it up to 11" kind of player. As I understand it, a big part of his use of EQ was to "tune" the guitar's sound to the acoustics of the room he was playing in, so that he could be right on the verge of feedback, without having a sound that's so distorted, it would be mud.
Ed
5 - Bill Sherman
No need to apologize for my denseness. Your piece accomplished what it set out to do: get me reconsidering and playing Zappa’s music. And as you note, it also established that the man was no dolt (something fans of the later “dirty panty” songs don’t always recognize) when it came to his sound.
6 - Mark Saleski
for more information it's worth checking out The Real Frank Zappa book. the guy was obviously pretty smart. very funny too.
i loved his ideas about music.
7 - jason cook
i just got into zappa 3-4 months ago,i like stuff from iron maiden too wishbone ash-pentangle-king crimson-ufo etc.my friend mike had two or three zappa albums and i "liked them" he moved out(would rather get fucked up?)so i bought freak out!after that my friend jason moved in.he had overnite sensation/(')/jab-from l.a. and an awsome album called sleep dirt(wow!!!)i'm 10 albums short of all of his 60's-70's lp's!!!my favorites (right now) are hot rats-waka/jawaka-the grand wazoo-one size fits all and sleep dirt.my favorite song(forever)is black napkins(makes me want to cry and cringe.i just sent away for the shut up 'n playyer guitar series!!!and the albums i'm missing(i love tax time!!!)i can't describe my love for zappa and his music other than he's swell!! thanks for reading this.feedback is goog!bye
8 - John Hoaas
The Shut Up discs are about the only Zappa I can listen to. Most of his lyrics remind me of the fake advertisement tapes me and a friend used to make in junior high. Fake ads for jock itch medicine and zit cream. That kind of stuff. His lyrics just remind me too much of junior high bathroom humor. The kind of jokes guys at that age tell because their embarassed when they get a hard on in class, or they just start to notice that their getting B.O. or the girl down the street started wearing a training bra. Anyway, that's what his lyrics remind me of. But I absolutely love his guitar playing. I wish there were more in the Shut up series. I also love Inca Roads from You can't play that on stage any more. I love his long guitar solo work. It transports me.
9 - mayia
eiiii:D
great music:D