The Jerry Byrd "Boo-Wah" sound?

Tom Bradshaw · From: Walnut Creek, California, USA

In another post here on the Forum, efforts were being made to obtain the pot and hookup diagram for the wiring of a tone pot with a volume pot. The extreme tone variation available would allow for a player to re-create the Boo-Wah sound reminescent of Jerry Byrd's many examples of its effect ("Honky Tonkin'" on that Hank Williams' tune is a prime example).

Few players back then could execute that treble to bass range as Jerry could. I recall that I simply wired up two 500K Allen/Bradley Type J audio pots, either with a .5 or a .005 (I can't remember) capacitor between the center soldering lugs on the two pots and I got a sound pretty close to Jerry's. I executed this at first on an old Rickenbacker I had, a Fender Stringmaster (using my pinky finger on both those big tone control knobs), then later on one of those old Fender Volume/Tone control pedals that allowed for the tone change to occur by swinging the upper portion of the treadle's top from left to right.

This doesn't seem to work any more. I tried wiring up a couple of my 470K Dunlop audio-taper pots that way, but very little change in the tone was achieved.

I discussed this situation with the head electronics engineer at the Dunlop Company. He didn't know the answer, but said he would research it (Dunlop doesn't make a combo volume/tone volume pedal).

So I'm asking, does anyone have one of the old Rickenbacker guitars similar to what Jerry was using away back in the '40s and '50s, on which that extreme tone change can be accomplished? If so, could you check out the pots (and the capacitor) and let us know what they are and how they are connected to each other?

Thanks, ...Tom

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Not the same thing,,, but,,, on my Tele, I use a 1 meg pot for tone, instead of a 250K pot. Full bass to full treble in about 1/4 of a turn. Boo-Wah! Gatton trick.

Tom Bradshaw · From: Walnut Creek, California, USA

Thanks for the input. Is there a way to determine if the 100K pot has an audio or a linear taper? With only a quarter turn, it does sound like it is a linear taper. Next, does it have a capacitor in the wiring? If so, what is its value and how is it wired to each of the pots? ...Tom

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Gosh Tom! Wish I could be more help. It's in one of my Teles, and it's just a 1 meg ohm pot, with the standard Fender Tele cap. Tele pots are usually 250 k, so the 1/4 turn of the 1 meg pot equals the full turn on a 250 k pot. After that first 1/4 turn, the tone is full treble, and nothin' else happens if you turn the pot further.
I really don't think it's at all what you're lookin' for, but might be worth experimenting with.???
JB

Bob Kagy · From: Lafayette, CO USA

All my old guitars from that era did it well too. I'm wondering if the switch from single coil pickups in that era to hum bucking has anything to do with it. I noticed that when I switched to humbuckers that all my fx pedals I'd collected didn't work as well, especially the touch wah quackers.

J D Sauser · From: Wellington, Florida

This question has come up periodically many times.
I think, in part because all the potentiometer suggestions have not proven to resolve the bottom line question.

I have NEVER heard an UN-recorded (in other words, LIFE) example of a "booh-whah" sound EXACTLY like we hear(d) them on early Jerry Byrd or late 50's to early 60's Speedy West solo albums. Yes, I know, Jerry Byrd came CLOSE to his own whah-whah-blues (steeling the blues) thing in some late LIVE performances but only close to his recordings. Speedy did in ISGC performances not even get close to what can be heard on his Capitol Records albums (Steel Guitar & Steel Guitar Spectacular, which btw both are of excellent recording quality).

Being a fan of both, believe me, I've tried and tried and never missed an opportunity to hunt down any living player who'd have a history of having recorded that style or was around those who did. With little success... nothing to be satisfied.

Even when "vintage" equipment IS being used from the guitar all the way to the old tube amp's speaker... I have not been able to reproduce that sound or find anybody who truly could AS ON these recordings.

"This" or "that" pot and capacitor? Well guess what, Gibsons, Fenders and Richenbachers have all been recorded to "booh-whah" to your heart's delight... all of them with different pots and filter caps! Yes, results will have varied back then too... but it still suggests that just the "right" magical pot and filter cap may not be the sure fire ticket into "swobosh-booh-whap"-heaven.

Yes, AMPS and especially the reduced size of them (when compared to what most PSG players use today), contribute a LOT to the ability to get CLOSE to that sound..., too. The amp needs to be DRIVEN "hot", close or preferably right at the sweet spot of that singing harmonic distortion. Still, that will only get you closer to what you hear on old LIFE recordings... and them being old also has to be factored in as to how their limited recording technology and quality affects what we hear, which will most likely be quite different to what was really heard LIFE back in those days.

I have therefore come to believe, that while yes, the players did "do it" using their guitar's tone control, the RECORDED sound we hear on some of the most notorious albums (mentioned above) may have been edited to further ENHANCE/ACCENTUATE that effect, and maybe in more than one way.

When you do that on YOUR guitar, the first thing you will notice is that you loose DRIVE, PRESENCE and volume, EVEN if you compensate with your volume pedal. It takes a LOT of VOLUME compensation just to compensate for that decay.

I have come the closest by using an EQ-pedal (no, not a whah-whah... forget that too!), set to the "Booh"-part of the effect (the dark part) with the volume ajusted (raised) so that the drive is as equal as possible to the "open"/"natural" sound (-"wahh"-part of the effect). Interestingly enough, in order to get the "booh" sound with the best presence (not just a muffled/dead sound) it takes a little bit more than cutting all high frequencies, but actually pushing SOME MIDS (which furthers my suspicion that the nice man in charge of the final mix may have had his hands into making those recorded "booh-whah" sound sound so, erm... good?
Anyways, I keep BOTH outputs (natural AND EQ'ed) and go from one to the other using a mixing wheel. The result is a lively and fully pre-adjustable "booh-whah"!

I am away from my guitars so I can't demonstrate it now... but I might some day.

... J-D.

Anybody care for some "swobosh-booh-whap" TAB? Very Happy

Naw, jest kiddin'!
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The uses of Tablature is addictive and has been linked to reduced musical fertility.
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Jim Pitman · From: Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA

I had read or heard some place that the classic Boo whah was the result of wiring the pot backwards such that at one extreme of its' travel it shorts out the pickup. This means that the pickup output wire would be wired to the pot wiper not to one end as it is usually. The top of the pot would be wired to the amp input. The bottom end of the pot would be wired to both the other end of the pickup and the return (or GND) of the amp. BTW this really won't damage the pickup.
This lines up with my sensibilities about pickups/tone etc. As you apoach total short the pickups inductance creats a low pass filter with the series R of the pot whereby all the highs get suppressed.
One caveat though - I have never tried it.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

I have - that's not it. As the pickup progressively shorts it thins out but also loses signal- so instead of "boo-wah(ee) you end up with "boowyy....(a thin, low-output reedy sound). NOT the desired effect nor a usable one (in fact much more like two single-coil pickups with a phase switch and the volume cut to 25% - yech!)

The most-produced Tele-type circuit, slightly modified, works perfectly...but the EXACT sound that you hear on record is is a result of the guitarist's right-hand attack, manipulation of controls, *possibly* a well-coordinated manipulation of board controls at the same time, amp type/speaker(s), miking, use of no, spring, plate or room reverb, bla bla bla...

My point is it's rarely possible to duplicate a studio "trick" live. The late Clarence White (before the Stringbender was developed) had drummer/inventor Gene Parsons bend strings behind the nut on his Tele while he played in closed positions; it was never released but is an example of "Hah! Try to do THIS!" stuff that's done in the studio (another example, a snare enhanced by the sound of a car door slamming, triggered via MIDI, IS on record: Joe Satriani's "Surfin' with the Alien").

Here's the closest approximation you can get from a practical, cost-effective standpoint (and what players have done for decades - I didn't know it was even called "boo-wah" until I joined this forum, as it's SO common on Tele there simply IS no name for it!):

Volume - 250k, 500k or 1 meg pot
Tone - 500k or 1 meg pot
Capacitor - .1uf. Some say the type of cap is irrelevant, but I disagree; different caps shunt frequencies to ground in different ways, and although the value should determine exactly what's going to happen the physical construction and type (disc, Mylar, polypropylene, paper-in-oil) makes a difference just as it does when used as a bypass cap in a preamp circuit. I prefer old brown chocolate-drop caps (amp techs hate them - if you're one, send 'em to me!!!). Orange drops are fine, although usually pretty darned big).

Wire it as a standard Fender Telecaster volume/tone circuit; looking from the bottom with the tone cap at right:

Cap is connected to wiper (center) of tone pot and upper lug of volume pot, which MUST also be connected to ground.

Upper lug of tone pot is left unconnected.

Lower lugs of each are connected; lug on volume pot also has hot lead from pickup switch (or in the case of a single pickup and no switch, the pickup's hot lead) connected.

Center lug of volume pot is connected to hot side of output jack.

Ground of output jack is soldered to back of tone pot (scrape or sand spot first to remove oils and plating.).

It's also a good idea to solder a ground wire from the back of the tone pot to the back of the volume pot; if the guitar has a metal plate of some kind at the bridge, another ground wire from the back of either pot to the back of the plate is also helpful in noise reduction (it's not soldered; use stranded wire and just spread it out so wire-only, not insulation, is contacting the bridge plate.).

Tele players often install a cap/resistor circuit across two volume pot lugs (center and the one connected to the tone pot) to retain highs if the volume is turned down - I don't recommend it if you want to "boo-wah".

The cap value....1 uf...gives you a very short travel between full treble and "mud", but that's the point. It's easier to get the effect when only a small movement is needed. It DOES take more practice and more precise movement than with a lower cap value, so if it's too hard to control try a .068uf or a .047 (or .05 - essentially the same and Fender's standard cap for decades). The now-standard .022uf cap usually doesn't cut the highs enough and requires the entire travel to really "kick in".

That will get you about as close as you can get with low-output, low DC resistance pickups. The effect IS less with humbuckings - it still works, but not as dramatically. And with high-output, high DC resistance pickups (like those in modern steels) an active circuit like that in a Steeldriver works FAR better (as do most effect pedals, which need buffering/impedance matching).

Wah pedals do not do the same thing as they rely on use on an inductor (a specific type of wire coil) to change/enhance the tonal "center to create the effect, rather than a simple shunt of highs to ground.
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No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

John Billings · From: Ohio, USA

Jim,
That's the way I wired my Tele, but I just used the stock value cap. Will have to try the 1 uf cap!
JB

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

I see Bobby Ingano do convincing 'studio trick' quality boo-wahs all the time on stage, using nothing but a bar crash and precise working of the lap steel's vol. knob.

Clyde Mattocks · From: Kinston, North Carolina, USA

I have owned old steels that had "it", Ricks and Fenders. The Jerry Byrd boo-wah and the boo-wah on the old Faron Young records came from the guitar, no studio tricks. The engineers of those days only had level controls for the most part. Lots of records done in the early 50's were done with one mike only, levels being set by placing instruments and amps at varying distances and by performers moving in and out. The point made about amps of the day not being as powerful factors in too, I would guess.
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Lynn Oliver · From: Redmond, Washington USA * R.I.P.

Can you point me to any other good examples of Jerry's boo-wah, other than on Steelin' the Blues?

J D Sauser · From: Wellington, Florida

Ken Fox · From: Nashville GA USA

When 1/2 open a linear pot should be at 1/2 of the pots rated resistance.

A log/audio pot will be about 10 percent of the pots resistance rating

Lynn Oliver · From: Redmond, Washington USA * R.I.P.

JD, thanks for the links. It's pretty clear what Speedy West is doing, but it doesn't sound the same to me as recordings of Jerry Byrd.

Edit: I spent a few minutes trying to see if I could get close to the recorded sound with my Axe-Fx. I'm getting something similar using a low shelf filter with the frequency and Q controlled by the same expression pedal. The frequency varies from 207 Hz and up, and the Q varies from 0.55 and up.

Jussi Huhtakangas · From: Helsinki, Finland

"JD, thanks for the links. It's pretty clear what Speedy West is doing, but it doesn't sound the same to me as recordings of Jerry Byrd."

Different technique; Speedy slams the bar against the strings, Jerry usually strummed the strings while simultaneously using the tone control.

Mark MacKenzie · From: Franklin, Tennessee, USA

Ken Fox · From: Nashville GA USA

I got that backwards and corrected. The linear pot comes on very fast and the audio comes on much slower

J D Sauser · From: Wellington, Florida

They both sounded very different what ever they did.
Speedy favored a very bright sound, while JB apparently preferred a more mellow tone for a long time (maybe with the exception of the "Byrd of Paradise" record.

In any event, it is interesting, that while Speedy West was of the most famous for his extended "booh whaaah,swobosh bhah wheing" solos and used these techniques in many occasion, NONE I can find in "live" situations, comes anywhere near to the ones on his two Capitol Records LP of the end 50's and early 60's (Steel Guitar and Steel Guitar Spectacular).

... J-D.

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