How To Incorporate Volume Swells Into Solos With Joe Bonamassa

Guitar World

TALES FROM NERDVILLE by Joe Bonamassa  SWELL TIME  One of the most expressive tools for electric guitar players is the use of the volume swell. An essential element in the arsenals of such legendary players as Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, Walter Trout, and, of course, Jeff Beck, a volume swell is produced by raising the volume of the guitar from zero to “on” after picking a string.

Transcript

00:00What's up ladies and gentlemen, Joe Bonamassa here for Guitar World magazine. Today we're

00:13going to talk about volume swells. Now I would like to explain this using the front pickup,

00:19but I will demonstrate what happens when a guitar sits around for too long. So we're

00:25going to talk about volume swells. And I'm going to use the only pickup that's working

00:30in a right now. And I use these a lot. I really like them. I think they're very emotive. I

00:37learned from, to me, the best was Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, and even Walter Trout was really

00:46stellar at it. And a lot of people have done a Jeff Beck and, you know, there's a bunch of

00:50people. But when you bring the dynamics down in a band, so if you're playing in C minor,

00:57you'll always get the crowd going. If you play something like this...

01:20So what you can do, and the technique is, is every time, you know, like you use your thumb,

01:42and every time you pick down, it's a counteraction. So your little finger is linked to the volume

01:49control. So down, down, up. So you see my thumb down, up, down, up, you know, and you just find

01:56the sweet spot on the guitar. Every guitar is different. You find the sweet spot. So...

02:00And you just kind of practice until you find this, you know, this place where you can either do single

02:21or no. And just watch the fans come up to you and say, hey, you know that part that sounds like a cello? I really like that.

02:39That was my favorite part of the night. You're like, but I play other stuff too. But that's my volume technique.

02:46And a little pro tip on the setup. It's nice to have a delay. Nice to have a reverb on it. I know this is dry and pretty honest.

02:54But if you put a little effect on it, and you can really get some cool sounds and with the volume control and these kind of volume sweeps.

03:07We'll see you next time.

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