by abstamaria » 26 Nov 2012, 08:19
I finally was able to read "Man of Meazzi," an article in the August 2012 issue of Guitarist. Many thanks to our colleague here who sent me the magazine. It is quite an interesting article, highly recommended for all Shadows fans. It underscored to me how careful Hank was with his sound and how involved he was with his echo equipment.
It seems from the article that Hank tried hard to find a replacement for the Meazzi, which he was quite fond of but got less reliable (and noisy) with time, trying Binsons, the Echorec, and a Roland RE-301. He liked the clarity of the latter best, but said it "lacked the character of the Meazzi." He didn't seem to find a suitable analog replacement.
In response to the question "So now we’re in the digital age [what] are you using now?" Hank replied "Well I used the Echoes From The Past system for a few tours and I thought that was absolutely brilliant because it seemed to be as close as we could get to the original recordings in terms of the exact placement of the multitaps, even to the extent of a little wow and flutter and all that – so it was very good."
That's quite a complement, coming from the man himself. I think, from memory, that Charlie ranked the Magicstomp and Alesis Q20 as sounding best with his EFTP programs, and that Hank used the Q20s for the Final Tour. Both are no longer available new, so we look forward to Charlie's new, custom-made box. I wonder what Hank will think of that; I assume he will like it as well. (I have no relation with Charlie's business, but do wish him well.)
Andy