Info about Alan Holdsworth harness?

[zionstrat]

I'm a Holdsworth nut and wondering if anyone is familiar with his "harness". It's definitely a power attenuator but I'm wondering if it has other properties and how it impacted his sound.

Haven't looked at utube vids.. figured I would start with the gurus first

[idsnowdog]

Somebody built a clone of one on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vvt1NVqkZU

[zionstrat]

Yeah there's lots of bits and pieces out there, even a two-parter..

But it's pretty unclear as to what it does for the tone and exactly how it does it...

Of course in a way that's understandable.. and intentuator doesn't primarily provide its own tone.. it just lets you get tone out of the amps that you're using, but this is apparently is a different creature..

[Securb]

If you are trying to capture Allan's tone, it is best to start with his use of chorus and delay. Allan used multiple guitars and amps, actually whatever people would endorse him for. The secret sauce is in the mod and delay not the amp.

[zionstrat]

Agreed overall... As a young guy, I spent plenty of time chasing his tone with whatever I could get... And when he went with magicstomps, I bought two of them to try to get some of his dual path stuff.

I'm not really chasing his tone right this moment... But there are lots of aspects that I never found and I remain curious.

Perhaps most relevant were his dark tones... To the uninitiated, a lot of those sounds seem to be neck and neck plus bridge with a decent amount of tone rolled off.. and that will duplicate his sound below the 12th fret and on the lower strings..

But those same settings provide a rather anemic sound up high... Missing the sustain in the singing tones he was famous for.

So if you push the drive up and roll off more of the highs you can get his upper register rather easily, but now the low notes are much too heavy and growly...

He used a lot of EQ over the years and I often wondered if dual path eqs were the answer... But when I look at the harness and realize he used it for a lot of his career, I've wondered if it could be a significant contributor to the secret sauce.

Of course I've been at this long enough to know there's 50 different ways to get just about any sound, and in truth, I've got more than enough to work with.

Thanks again for input come I could talk about Holdsworth all year!

[Mincer]

Funny thing about Allan, he seemed to hate every tone he ever got. I however, loved it. But it did get smoother over the years.

[zionstrat]

So true I would take any of them!

For some reason I had never known that UK UK was his first session... If I could have that tone and those chops I would have been happy as a clam for the rest of my life :-)

[Mincer]

He was recording before UK. I know at least 3 albums he was on before UK was released in 78.

[Securb]

He did a lot of session work before the UK. I remember finding "Velvet Darkness," which is supposedly an early Allan Holdsworth album, and being extremely let down. Later, I found out Rudy Van Gelder recorded and released a rehearsal session without AH's permission. That is why the disk does not have the polish of the other AH albums. There is some great playing on it, but I do not find myself reaching for it that often.

[Securb]

Here is some very early Allan, he doesn't sound like "Allan" but he sounds like some amazing guitarist.

[zionstrat]

He was recording before UK. I know at least 3 albums he was on before UK was released in 78.

Guess I got bad info... Thanks for the heads up!

[Mincer]

His post UK albums with Bruford are also must haves.

[Securb]

Anything by Bill Bruford is typically going to be good. Two drummers I always enjoy are Bill Bruford and Tony Williams, both of them surround themselves with amazing players. Allan is on this also

[zionstrat]

Anything by Bill Bruford is typically going to be good. Two drummers I always enjoy are Bill Bruford and Tony Williams, both of them surround themselves with amazing players. Allan is on this also

Yes, Buford is amazing.. over the years I flip between him and Peart as my drummer fix of the day... But Peart only had Rush... As you point out Buford played with everyone, so there's unlimited flavors available.

[Mincer]

I think Allan always struggled in bands, since he was so out there, he didn't fit in. Often, he wouldn't play until the solo, not playing conventional rhythm parts at all. You really start to hear his compositional voice on IOU and Road Games.
I am listening to Road Games today and man, what a terrifying album this is. I remember trying to work my way through the opening chords of 'Three Sheets to the Wind' and how difficult it is.