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Came upon an earlier clip on 'Caravan' live, a shorter version, where Nokie isn't quite up to the tempo and performance of Live in Japan 65 but neither are the rest of them.

On one of his guitar runs it just sounds like crap. If it was me playing, my friends would say your'e poop, and I'd say the guitar is poop cause the action is so low causing the strings to buzz, anyway, that is what I assume happened here, don't think Nokie just couldn't play that fast, perhaps just not on that Mosrite that night.

What do you guys think? Nokie's wasn't that good yet or he hadn't gotten used to the Mosrite yet? Or is it the sound?

Starts around 1:10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS28fwJ2-Gw

That's interesting.

I'm gonna go on a limb and say it's that guitar's setup. I've heard him play fast runs from that period and he executes them beautifully. Could also be the EQ settings, or the fact that the sound on the video is akin to listening to a 1930s' radio serial...

yeah, to me it's the guitar setup, either neck relief or action to low, but it sounds like he''s making too much contact with the frets for the strings to sound. It seems earlier than 1965 and we all know he got every single note right and heard on Japan 65, played faster than this and still on a Mosrite!

Maybe he just wasn't used to the neck and that is a pretty fast run....or maybe it was just the particular guitar?

Whatever the case may be -and the recording microphone(s) certainly play a role in the sound we hear-, Nokie's playing was up to scratch...ever since the age of 9.

I hear what you're talking about, but the part sounds pretty much the same on Live in Japan 65. I think it's a matter of the passage being a bunch of fast pull-offs that he's sort of "skating" over.

Personally, I've always found that part pretty cool. Nokie was creating alternate tones in other ways, too - the "seagulls" in Diamond Head, the ploinky glissandos in Driving Guitars, the picking behind the bridge in Bulldog, full step vibrato bends in a number of songs. Also, consider the "In Space" record. The album sleeve makes a point of stating that all the "unique, unworldly sounds" featured in the album's tracks were made with musical instruments, rather than with electronic devices. So while the first term to come to mind to describe Nokie's playing is rarely "innovative", he was pushing the envelope in his own quite and reserved way.

MWaldorf wrote:I hear what you're talking about, but the part sounds pretty much the same on Live in Japan 65. I think it's a matter of the passage being a bunch of fast pull-offs that he's sort of "skating" over.

Personally, I've always found that part pretty cool. Nokie was creating alternate tones in other ways, too - the "seagulls" in Diamond Head, the ploinky glissandos in Driving Guitars, the picking behind the bridge in Bulldog, full step vibrato bends in a number of songs. Also, consider the "In Space" record. The album sleeve makes a point of stating that all the "unique, unworldly sounds" featured in the album's tracks were made with musical instruments, rather than with electronic devices. So while the first term to come to mind to describe Nokie's playing is rarely "innovative", he was pushing the envelope in his own quite and reserved way.

I can say that I have the distinct pleasure of watching Nokie play up close and personal, along with some very accomplished guitarists, who marvel at what they see and hear. I'm still trying to get his imitation of a tremolo...on a guitar with no tremolo! He fingers the note (or notes) half, or a full step flat, and before picking the note, bends it to the desired pitch, picks, lowers and raises the note from the melody'd pitch to the flat note, and back up again... Close your eyes, and you'd swear that HitchHiker has a secret tremolo hidden away somewhere.