EMMONS GUITAR, INC.
Which guitar and amp did you use for the LP? I used the Blade push-pull and a Fender Twin amp.
Is the echo effect in Witches Brew an Echoplex? Yes.
How did you come up with the bubbling effect? What type of wah did you use? I originally established a melody through a rhythm pattern I discovered with the Echoplex. A few days prior to the session, I acquired a Gibson wah-wah pedal and by chance, used it with the melody. The bubbling effect added an entirely new dimension to the tune so I used it.
I didn't have a name for the melody until we ran a few rehearsals in the studio. The bubbling sound reminded pianist Bill Purcell of a witch's cauldron, so we kicked a few titles around and came up with Witches Brew.
What box did you use for the Brew distortion solo? I can't say for sure but I believe it was an MXR.
Is it actually a toilet being flushed in the studio with a mike run down the hall? Did Weldon Myrick really think of this? Yes, Weldon hung a microphone over a commode and flushed it during the fade; and yes, it was his idea.
It is you doing the witch laugh? I'm doing the laughing.
Did you play the 5th in Kicks to Boot or was it an effects box or some other form of trickery? The 5ths were overdubbed.
When did you first put the D on the top of the C6 tuning? I put the D note on while living in Downey, California, around 1971. I was using it off and on before I cut the Emmons Guitar, Inc. album but had written a few of the tunes that required a high G on the C6 tuning, so I used that tuning for the entire album.
Did you put the D note there for single string runs?
Yes.
To play the lines I wanted to play and be able to play them at fast
tempos, it was necessary to bridge the gap between the E and C note.
Later, I discovered it added some nice extensions to the intervals of
pedals five, six, and eight.
(The first string D was not
used on the black album. This question was about the guitar.)
