The Smiley Smile Message Board

What kind of effects are used for the guitars on this "Goin' On" backing track?  I'm thinking phase (I used to own a Small Stone phase shifter - those were quite popular in the late '70s - "Shattered" by the Stones, for instance).
Maybe also a little bit of Leslie on one of the guitars?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezvbBTXJHts

To me it sounds like a phase, like you said. But I also hear maybe some chorus on it?

C-man:  not sure I know the answer to your question, but I'm curious, do you by chance know what type of guitar effects pedals were used across the catalog?

Did the band ever use a delay pedal for guitar? Or an Echoplex? And did the band ever actually use a dedicated pedalboard for live shows, or was it just a matter of setting up/daisy chaining one or two individual pedals each time?

I'm guessing something like a Big Muff was never used (although maybe on BWPS's version of Fire?) But I'm wondering what type of FX they might've used to get that fuzz bass sound on Cabinessence and All I Wanna Do.

99% of the fuzz tones heard coming from an LA studio circa 1966 came from a Gibson Maestro FZ-1A (or less common, FZ-1). It's the pedal heard on Cabinessence, "Fire", etc. and anywhere else a fuzz guitar or fuzz bass was recorded on one of Brian's productions during this time. Same goes for most other garage/rock/psych sessions and soundtracks cut in LA and NY...there just weren't other brands of fuzz until the demand became huge for them. And that was around '67. If it were the UK, it was the Vox Tonebender unless they scored a Maestro FZ...which George Harrison did and apparently used in late '63 on some early "She Loves You" takes that are lost.

Other than that, the only option would be a custom-built pedal, a guy like Roger Mayer building his own designs not yet on the mass market.

At that time, it was common to record instruments flat, without effects.
Producers and mixing engineers wanted to have as many mixing options as possible. It could be that the guitarist didn't use pedals and  that an array  outboard effects such as delay, harmonizer, and phasing were used during mixdown. .... I don't know if I'm thinking of the same part as you...

"Shattered" was an MXR Phase 100 just for the record... :)  I always thought it was a Phase 90... ;D

"Goin On": At the ending coda and fadeout...I actually think I hear a talkbox on those single note descending lines. (Listen specifically to the notes around 2:46 to the end, and the notes at 3:12...sounds like a Talkbox hitting those notes)

The rest of the track, the guitar is sparse. I do hear a touch of phase. Perhaps a slight Leslie too in one of the later drop-ins. What's tricky sometimes is how the modulation type effects can be so similar, and when parts like this one are kind of buried and nothing really jumps out, it's a tough call.

That wasn't always the case with the guitar effects available in the 60's and 70's...a lot of the players wanted the sound on their part from the beginning of the process as a sonic hook, and to enhance or alter the way they played the part. The old MXR phasers like the Phase 90, and Keef's Phase 100 on "Shattered", they were touch-sensitive and the intensity of the effect would vary depending on how the player was attacking the notes, picking hard or soft. Same with Jimmy Page and his MXR "Blue Box" solo on "Fool In The Rain" - The charm of that pedal was how it could break up into static at any moment depending on the dynamics of how hard or soft you'd pick the notes, just like Page's part. You couldn't get that by a re-amping setup. You couldn't get the same effect by re-amping a clean track through a standalone pedal. It was up to the players too.

One guitarist though who I know 100% recorded direct into the board almost all the time in the 70's, clean, then added effects afterward was Nile Rodgers on all those classic Chic rhythm parts played on his Strat.

Side note, this song has to be one of Carl's most underrated vocal performances.

He almost sounds like Freddie Mercury on this one.  Powerful as hell.

Absolutely exquisite Carl lead that rarely if ever gets discussed.