Keen to distort your tone but can’t afford any fancy pedals? Well, if you’ve got an amp and something sharp, you’re in luck; according to The Kinks’ Dave Davies, killer raspy tones can be achieved in a flash with just the slash of a scalpel.
In a new interview with BBC Radio 4, the guitarist provides fans with a handy tutorial on how to recreate his distinctive tone. When the host, The Membranes’ John Robb, presents Davies with a scalpel and asks “how do I slash the amp?”, Davies instantly dives in and hacks at the speaker cone.
“That’s basically it,” he says, nonchalantly. Within moments, he’s strumming on a Fender Strat, distorted, gritty chords floating out of the speaker.
For years, fans of The Kinks have pondered why Davies would roll out a seemingly ‘broken’ amp for live performances. Back in 2022, he revealed that his slashed up gear was the secret ingredient to The Kinks’ distinctive sound – and it was all thanks to an impulsive outburst of anger.
“I’d had an argument with my girlfriend and I was full of rage and pissed off. Rather than slash my wrists, I thought I’d attack the speaker cone,” he told The Independent at the time. “I was quite surprised that it was still working, and it had this kind of raspy sound. I thought it was amazing, and I felt like an inventor!”
Davies’ decision to ‘attack’ a £10 amp with a razor blade proved to be the best thing he could have ever done. The sound went on to defines cuts like 1964’s You Really Got Me, and more.
As the clip of Davies shows, you hardly need a surgeon’s precision to achieve a Kinks-worthy tone. The guitarist isn’t the first rocker to bash up his amp while hunting for DIY distortion, either; ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Link Wray famously recorded the 1958 track Rumble with a Premier amp that had been repeatedly stabbed with a pencil.
Elsewhere, King of Rhythm’s Ike Turner totally changed the course of rock history when he recorded Rocket 88 in 1951. While the track was originally typical 12-bar blues arrangement, the band would get quite a shock when an amp tumbled out of their truck on the motorway.
While the amp suffered a damaged woofer and cone, it gave off a raw buzz – and the band loved it. The rest, of course, is history. Time Magazine even labelled the buzzy track as potentially the “first rock ‘n’ roll record” back in 2004.
With that in mind, pricy gear isn’t always the key to finding a unique guitar sound. There are plenty ‘happy accidents’ that could happen and provide you with tonal gold. So, go on – lob your amp down the stairs and see what it sounds like afterwards. Though, if it fully breaks, don’t blame us…
The post DIY distortion: Get Dave Davies’ Kinks guitar tone in seconds – you’ll just need a razor blade and an amp you don’t give a s**t about appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.