{"id":224,"date":"2011-04-05T16:44:38","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T21:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/?p=224"},"modified":"2011-04-05T16:44:38","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T21:44:38","slug":"the-acoustic-blues-sound-of-muddy-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/the-acoustic-blues-sound-of-muddy-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"The Acoustic Blues Sound Of Muddy Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 4th marks the birthday of legendary bluesman, McKinley Morganfield… AKA Muddy Waters.<\/p>\n

Having listened to many of his original recordings, and even more by other artists who have recorded his songs, my style and the style of most blues guitarists has been shaped by Muddy… either directly or passed down through others.<\/p>\n

The following is from Ted Drozdowski and can be found on the Gibson website at http:\/\/www.gibson.com\/en-us\/Lifestyle\/Features\/muddy-waters-0404-2011\/<\/a> but I’ve posted it here in its entirety.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

By The clich\u00e9 runs that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but trying to \u201cflatter\u201d the greatest of the great is no easy task. Especially when Muddy Waters, arguably the finest of the first generation of electric bluesmen, is the subject.<\/p>\n

\"\"Muddy\u2019s early hits for Chess Records like \u201cI Can\u2019t Be Satisfied,\u201d \u201cRollin\u2019 and Tumblin\u2019,\u201d \u201cLouisiana Blues,\u201d \u201cWalkin\u2019 Blues,\u201d \u201cLong Distance Call,\u201d and \u201cHoney Bee,\u201d defined the recorded sound of early electric blues: dirty, gritty, stinging, growling, sweet and supremely emotive. It\u2019s nearly impossible to get to that sound without vintage gear and a touch developed playing an acoustic guitar loud \u2018n\u2019 strong enough to cut the din of a Saturday night fish fry on a cotton plantation.<\/p>\n

To celebrate the April 4, 1913 birthday of McKinley Morganfield, who was given the nickname Muddy Waters by his grandmother, let\u2019s take a look at some of the basics required to start dialing in his classic, monstrously soulful guitar sound.<\/p>\n

Early on Muddy played an acoustic archtop guitar, like a Gibson L-5<\/a>, with a screw-on D\u2019Armond \u201cRhythm Chief\u201d pickup, through a small amp, such as a five-watt Gibson GA5 Les Paul Junior Combo. That gear would be close to a carbon copy of the equipment Waters first used in the Chess studios in 1946.<\/p>\n

Less than a decade later, however, Waters was famously photographed brandishing a 1952 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top<\/a>. That historic solid body model set on the rhythm pickup cuts right into the same territory thanks to the superb sound of its P-90 pickups, which were standard issue in the early and mid-1950s. With a small amp like the GA5 and some volume, the result is super-rich harmonic distortion.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a tip: don\u2019t use a pick; use your fingers. If you don\u2019t finger pick and you\u2019re looking for the early Muddy sound, well, now\u2019s the time to start.<\/p>\n

On songs like \u201cLouisiana Blues,\u201d where Muddy played nasty, keening slide, he\u2019d shift the D\u2019Armond pickup up to about 25-percent of the distance between the bridge and neck, up from the bridge. On a solid body, try the middle pickup setting to get into the same zone.<\/p>\n

Besides his dark, rolling, Delta-born finger picking single-note style, slide remained an essential and highly influential part of Muddy\u2019s bag throughout his career from his Chess years to the final trio of albums he made with Gibson Firebird<\/a> legend Johnny Winter: 1977\u2019s Hard Again<\/em>, \u201978\u2019s I\u2019m Ready,<\/em> and \u201981\u2019s King Bee<\/em>. When it comes to slide, Winter, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons and Keith Richards are among Muddy\u2019s high-profile disciples, although the two players who play closest to his keening attack were men who stood next to him on stage for years: former Muddy Waters Band members Bob Margolin and Paul Oscher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of anybody heavier and deeper,\u201d Margolin says. \u201cA lot of his guitar style comes from the fact that he transformed Delta blues from acoustic to electric guitar. He played simpler than a lot of Delta players. He liked a very distorted sound, and he\u2019d dampen it with his hand a little and use the volume control on the guitar. His slide playing in standard turning, or open A or G, was just devastatingly powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muddy used a small metal slide on the pinky of his left hand, similar to the pinky slide and signature Johnny Winter slides made by Dunlop. A small slide offers more control including more efficient deployment of effects like hammering and fretting, although those weren\u2019t a big part of Waters\u2019 repertoire.<\/p>\n

Unlike his fellow blues great Elmore James, Waters employed single note slide lines almost exclusively. To get that real Delta-via-Chicago sound, you\u2019ll need to try open A
\n(E-A-E-A-C#-E) or open G (D-G-D-G-B-D). Both permit searingly bright lines in the middle and lead pickup positions. A perfect example from Muddy\u2019s songbook is \u201cHoney Bee.\u201d On the many versions of this classic that Muddy recorded live and in the studio, he typically started the tune with bold, deep lines and built solos around screaming notes.<\/p>\n

Try this: place your slide on the 10th<\/sup> fret of the high B and D strings in open G and sliding \u2013 sharp and fast with some serious pressure on the strings \u2014 up to the 12th<\/sup> fret, and when the sound you hear coming from your amp starts to feel right, vibrate the slide over the 12th<\/sup> fret moving your wrist quickly left-and-right. Start with the top string at first, and then build some simple melodies by playing off both the fifth and sixth.<\/p>\n

One last factor to consider is slide vibrato that is achieved by shaking a slide back and forth. Muddy\u2019s slide vibrato was insane, both manic and controlled. That added to the excitement of his playing. And Waters, like his earlier Delta influences Son House and Robert Johnson, almost always slid up the neck and moved down only for radical sonic effects. Also, practice hitting notes accurately with a slide. To get deep into the Mud zone, your intonation has to be spot on. Slide is somewhat forgiving in intonation, because its fluidity is similar to that of the human voice. But Muddy was ferociously accurate, and the more accurate you are the more you\u2019ll sound like Muddy Waters \u2014 and like a badass.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I haven’t broken out my acoustic and my slide recently… I think it’s time we all grab the glass (or ceramic or brass) and play a little Muddy Waters style blues today.<\/p>\n