Getting down to Earth

From UK magazine late 70's

NOT so long ago, Joe Public had heard the word stereo but wasn't at all sure what it meant.  Nowadays a stereo record player is as much part of the home as the fridge and the cooker.

But stereo didn't stop at the home.  As soon as it became commercially feasible, musical instrument manufacturers developed stereo guitars and keyboards, splitting up the sound of the instruments via the pick-ups and playing the sound through the standard twin speaker setup, positioned at either side of the stage.  A gimmick or worthwhile technical progress?  As with record players, it took some time for the new instruments to become accepted, and there were problems - the cost, lack of flexibility and vague stereo image were just some.

Now a new stereo pick-up has been invented, which its maker, Mark Griffiths, claims has solved most of the difficulties. - Mark has been working on his project for the last year with Manfred Mann, who has been using the techniques the two have developed on his new album with the Earth Band, to be released "some time in February."  But Mark started out on his own before approaching. Manfred, after trying out split-sound Shergold Marathon bass in a music shop in London.

"'At the time I owned, a Fender Precision, but I immediately liked the feel and the action of the woodwork of the guitar, which was frankly 100 per cent better made than my 1975 Precision.  The split sound was amazing for the funky music that I was playing at the time, so I bought it there and then.  The next time I played with my band the sound that was so beautiful in the shop just fell flat in comparison with the projection of my Fender - the downfall of all English pick-ups seems to be lack of projection.  That left me with only one solution - to put the Precision pick-ups on the other bass.  I made up a new scratch-plate and changed the tone control for a double-ganged one, as, with the Shergold design, there was no tone variation available when one switched to stereo.  This arrangement did the trick and gave the bass good projection combined with a good, fast action.

Mark then turned his mind to the problem of designing a pick-up that would give a true stereo image spreading across the whole of the stage, as opposed to simple separation, without the need for complicated and ex-pensive electronics.  "I was very fortunate in achieving results at my first attempt.  I ripped the Fender pick-ups out of the Shergold and replaced them with a  pair of matching Vox bass' pick-ups mounted adjacently.  I angled them in opposite directions, connected them to the existing wiring and plugged the guitar hopefully; into my stereo."

Almost to his surprise, it worked beautifully.  The string came out of the left speaker, the A string from a third of the distance away from the speaker; the D string from two-thirds and the G stung from the right hand speaker.  "With the pick-ups in the bass position on the guitar body, they were also sensitive to any bending of the strings on the higher frets, giving me more control at my fingertips on the instrument I was playing, so I could move the note I was playing across the stereo image."

From there, Mark went to Stephen Delft, well known from his work making and repairing instruments, who gave him advice on patenting his innovation, and it was after this that Mark introduced Manfred Mann to the device and the two worked together at Manfred's studio in London's Old Kent Road.

"In the time that has passed, I've developed and put into practice some alternative ideas that have stemmed from the original concept.  Manfred is now using a Fender Rhodes piano that produced consecutive pairs of notes from alternative sides of a stereo set-up, and Dave Flett of the Earth Band can also be heard (on the new album) using a Fender Strat that plays consecutive strings from alternative sides (1,2 and 5 from the left and 2,4 and 6 from the right."

"That's particularly effective with lead guitar lines when bending notes.  The note being bent can start on the right hand side of the stereo and move across to the left and with ultra-light strings some notes can start on the right, move to the left and return to the right again!"

"I'm using a Fender Precision in Claire Hammill's band Transporter, which incorporates alternate string stereo with precision pick-ups, and Precision mono."

One of the main advantages of Mark's invention is the relatively small amount of work needed to convert a guitar to stereo ,and the fact that the alteration makes very little difference to the instruments controls.

"The Fender Rhodes has an extra two-way mono/stereo switch mounted alongside the existing controls and the Fender Strat remains the same apart from the substitution of a Gibson Humbucker in the bass position.  The Fender Precision has an extra three-way Strat-type switch and a pair of Fender Jazz Bass pick-ups added in the bass position, but the volume and tone controls operate as standard.  All the instruments operate normally in mono with one amp."

Manfred, busy mixing his album, took a few minutes off to demonstrate the piano and describe its advantages over conventional ones.

"The problem about things like this is that when you're told about them, you tend to think its just a gimmick, but when you actually start using it, it's much more than that.  I find it incredibly useful in the studio, particularly the complete separation.  That doesn't require any explanation, its immediately obvious, whereas Mark had to tell me what was going on when he played  the spreading effect for the first time.  One of the main advantages I've found is that it gives a much cleaner sound, as well as creating two separate sources, basically because you are using one amp for three strings instead of six, or half of the piano's notes instead of all of them.  The piano can be arranged in any configuration.  It doesn't have to be consecutive notes as I've got mine, but you have to have an equal number of notes on both sides.  Changing the configuration is very easy, just a matter of soldering the pick-ups to different keys."

Mark hopes to be able eventually to convert guitars on a production line basis, thus cutting costs.  At the moment he estimates that a custom conversion would cost about £60 for most instruments and the process is completely reversible if the owner is dissatisfied. 

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