[Harp-L] Ripped speaker cones



This same lo-tech method for obtaining distortion was employed by Carlos Santana. I saw him talk about it in a smokey basement in N.W. Washington, D.C., I think it was like 1968 or '69, it's all so fuzzy... but as I recall he made a couple or few slashes - over the gasps and initial objections of his rotund plank spankin' cuzz, whose name I don't recall, but I think it was the band's name, Zapata.

I seem to recall the few cuts were radiant, rather than lateral, or parallel to the rim or driver, but can't be sure thirty-six years later. I do remember we thought it was easy and reckless for a seemingly rich rocker to slash cones, but a garage band couldn't so easily afford to replace them, and I think they had much shorter usage lifes, shredding not so long after the "modification." But again, it's all so darned fuzzy...

Sounded great though!

Harp content: I wasn't playing harp at the time, I was like 13 years old and running cables and rolling papers. But I was preparing myself spiritually to play the blues.

-Dave Fertig

At 05:12 AM 1/14/2006, you wrote:
From: John Frazer <jfrazer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 29, Issue 34
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 15:08:55 -0800

Spirit in the sky was played using a speaker with a rip in the cone.

hj




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