‘Natural’ sounds on records (acoustic guitar particularly)

I mean the squeaks and knocks I hear sometimes. Some of the Jordan Officer guitar parts on Susie Arioli cds have a lot of it.

Do you appreciate it as ‘authentic’? I ask because I find it a bit extreme, and annoying, on some of his tracks.

? Is this at all avoidable, or is it being emphasized by very close miking (if that’s the term for having the recording microphone riding the guitarist’s fingers)?

 

It's really not all that avoidable on the recording end. Pulling the microphones back will reduce the sound to a limited extent but it's just like using the "scratch filter" on your amp—ultimately it takes too much out. If the playback is really on, the fretting's noises will connect with the pitch in a way as to make the overall sound more "real." In many systems upper-midrange emphasis makes all the sounds of the left hand more like surface noise on an old LP, less like the sound of a real guitar.

 

I don't really like it. When I record classical and acoustic guitars I go to great pains to avoid any finger noise except perhaps slide noises. Even then I try to avoid it. Strings rattling against the frets are something I never let get by.
I have heard some classical guitar recordings where the slides are not annoying. I think classical guitarists can get by with more because in general classical guitar is entirely about the performance and not so much about an attempt to get a perfect recording.
But for the most part, as easy as it is to do punch ins now, there is no reason for them to exist. They are far too easily repairable. Crossfades on recording machines for the past 25 years or so have made punch ins invisible and easy.

The album I use as the yardstick is Teaser and the Firecat, which is by leaps and bounds the best acoustic and plastic string guitar recordings I have ever heard.

 

Close miking, compression, new strings and player technique all contribute to string squeak.

 

Do Glenn Gould and his (in)famous chair count?

 

You can (or at least used to be able to) buy a spray that makes your fretting hand nice and slippery and drastically cuts down on finger noise. I saw Roy Clark on The Tonight Show many years ago with this extremely intense look on his face as he ripped out an amazing solo. When Carson complimented him on the solo he said that before the song he accidentally grabbed his pick with the sprayed hand and could barely hold onto it while playing a tricky solo on national TV, thus the intense look on his face.

 

Monk’s vocals.

 

Almost all of it is the guitarist's hands. I can't read anyone's mind, but I think at times it's done on purpose or at least left in on purpose as some kind of badge of authenticity.

I do think if you see the part you recorded as one performance from beginning to end, and you want to keep the integrity of that performance, that's cool.

As Rockledge said, with punch ins and crossfades being as easy as they are now, if an artist or engineer doesn't want to hear this stuff, it's not hard to fix at all.

 

Linseed oil? I used to have a string cleaner that was made of linseed oil, and one of the advertised benefits was less string noise.

I saw Roy Clark on Hollywood Squares, in a little "name that tune" type segment, rip through some monster fretting with a similarly intense look on his face. Afterward, he said that he had to work extra hard to squeeze in that lick in the short amount of time he had.

 

I don't know. It came in a spray can and it was called Fret Ease or something like that.

 

Bob Dylan's jacket buttons are all over Blood on the Tracks. Emmylou took a similar role on Desire.

 

There have been a few different products over the years. Seems like I remember one called Gorilla Snot.
I dislike all of them.
I read years ago that I think it was Chet Atkins who rubbed the side of his nose with his fingers to get the skin oils on his fingers.
I would rather not put any kind of chemicals either on my hands or my guitars.
I also never liked the way any of them felt on my hands or the way they made the strings feel. One I tried was like putting liquid rosin on my fingertips.
I never felt that having slippery fingers increased my hand position change speed. I do a lot of playing where I jump from low on the neck to well above the 12th fret and never needed anything that is an aid to that.

There was one product back in the late 70s or so that came in a small can with an applicator inside, I think it was called "Fast Fret". I still have the can somewhere.

 

Fast Fret, that's what I was thinking of. I think. I never liked them either. Fret noise doesn't bother me and I can't say I have ever thought "gee, I wish my fingers were more slippery" when I was playing. Then again, I don't play like Chet Atkins or Roy Clark!

 

The ones I tried ( which is most of them) seemed to increase finger noise when sliding up and down wound strings.
I do a lot of Chet Atkins fingerstyle type of music along with other styles, and I never found artificial finger grease to be of any purpose for it.