"Knitting needles into amps."

[CTyankee]

Funny conversation on Morning Joe regarding the Kinks and how they stuck knitting needles into amps.

I had to Google what an amp looked like.Okay. How would sticking a knitting needles into them alter the sound of their guitars?

I am really ignorant about this. Can anyone explain the phenomenon to me...

[jpak]

1. Dope

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. Seems like a great way to get electrocuted. nt

[CTyankee]

4. I really don't understand how that could happen but I don't knit so...

[lapfog_1]

3. I think he meant speakers

which would tend to slow the speaker cone movement presuming one left the knitting "needle" in the cone material.

many bands without a lot of money for sound systems would buy a amp/speaker combo.

But I could be wrong about this.

[Hoyt]

5. Just saw this today, the truth from Dave Davies (Kinks guitarist).

Link to tweet

[DBoon]

6. early fuzztone involved punching holes in speakers

to get the desired distortion

[CTyankee]

7. do you have a pic of what the suzztone looks like?

[OneBlueDotS-Carolina]

8. Fuzztone is a tone...

It's fuzzy...in the 1960's before there were effect pedals and now modeling amps, players tried all sorts of tricks to find a new "tone". From overwinding pickups, holes in speakers, a banjo sting or two, all sorts of tricks with, boxes with speakers and mics inside, overdriven amps, you name it, someone tried it. Then like magic, one day someone came along with tape reverb and echo, then effects pedals. Many are still developing new effects, as some player is still searching for their perfect tone. These days, older effect pedals like the Klon are selling for thousands of dollars.

It could be that the knitting needle thing was actually a mother at their wit's end, trying to stop the noise....

[yonder]

9. I was about 13 when I found that by putting paper

between the speaker and its frame, I could sort of get the sound of a fuzzbox. My friends thought it was neato....I thought I was so cool.

[CTyankee]

10. It's interesting. I'm an art historian and in my new book I explore how painters painted the motion

of dancers. The monotype, early form of photography, enabled Degas to paint motion through the use
of this early form of photography. The monotone provided sense of motion in his famous ballet dancers and enabling him to express the "fragile gesture" he gets with them. It's art and it's exploitation of the technology that was available to him.