The Stutter Button

Jeff Mead · From: London, England

Been talking on one of the Facebook forums about the stutter button.

I know it is something that is commonly installed on steels and some models came with them fitted as standard.

I hear people saying they are used to achieve/fake the effect Speedy used in a lot of his playing.

I know the effect they mean but I must confess that whenever I have heard it, it has always sounded like a bar crash/bar chatter or whatever you want to call it, made by rapidly bouncing the bar on the strings.

This could mean one of two things, either the stutter button sounds exactly like a bar crash (to my ears) or I have never actually heard the stutter button in action.

Could someone point me to a specific recording or (even better) a video, that demonstrates the stutter button in use, as opposed to the bar slam?

Thanks.

Todd Clinesmith · From: Lone Rock Free State Oregon

IMO Vance Terry was the best at using this effect. Tho I do not think he was necessarily trying to emulate Speedy's bar crash. I think he just used it as a staccato effect. He also was a master of the Tone/ Volume pedal. He used it like a trumpet player would use a mute .
No videos, but on youtube there is Jazz Me Blues , he uses a stutter button in his solo at 2:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mMlZTNxzmY

Also Lonesome Hearted Blues. Vance uses it lightly behind the vocals at :45. Again at 1:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnUUOi8mzMA

Stephen Cowell · From: Round Rock, Texas, USA

If you've got a multi-necked guitar with a switch you can use the switch to stutter... if you can keep the other neck(s) quiet. Works best on a triple, the middle neck gets a stutter going back *and* forth. Push-button guitars don't work, obviously.

You can stutter faster than you can bar crash... one way to tell the difference.
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Mylos Sonka · From: Larkspur CA USA

Todd owned the Bigsby Vance used in those recordings, so he would be the best source of info about Vance's stutter switch technique. I did play with Vance quite a lot from the early 80s on, when he was using his big pink double-11 Wright Custom. In those days he did the stutter effect with a controlled sort of chattering bar crash and did not use a button. He said that the trick was to stiffen his left arm so as to induce it to tremble.

Stephen Baker · From: Lancashire, UK

Just a suggestion of who you might want to chat to about stutter buttons. I remember Chris Cummings showing me a stutter button that he had that plugged into the input jack of a Stringmaster. In all the years I've known Chris, watched him play, played with him, recorded with him, the only time I've ever seen/heard him use it is that time he showed it to me. I'm pretty sure Paul "Rusty Steel" Crosby's Gibson CG520 is a '59 with a built in stutter button. Again, I don't recall ever hearing him use it but I wasn't at all of his shows. I built one into a ABM/ Harley Benton Slider 8. I didn't like the jack socket on the top so moved it to the side and just wanted to fill the hole. Again, I've never really used it.

Cody Farwell · From: Sunland, CA

Here's a video of Curly Chalker doing a great stuttering effect on his Fender quad (around 1:16).

https://youtu.be/CMMzwQi07vs

He's just using the tone knob & his bar, no switching. I think the sound in those earlier clips of Vance is very similar. Did he have an actual killswitch on his guitar?

Jim Fogarty · From: Phila, Pa, USA

For anyone interested, here's a non-invasive stutter button option. I use it with my Dual Pro.

Dane Carlson · From: Bay Area, California

Cody Farwell · From: Sunland, CA

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