impression on guitarist Harry Cody, a fact which quickly becomes clear on Shotgun Messiah's second release, 'Second Coming' (Relativity).

Cody unleashes a "Rebel"-like barrage of sonic oddities. And he does so at a fraction of Steven's budget.
"I can't afford effects, so I just use my hands." admits Cody.
"My copper picks are always chipped and when I rub them in a circular motion and accelerate up toward the bridge, I get that ray gun effect. It's a pretty good, very low-budget duplication of Steven's thing."

The Swedish native (he relocated to Los Angeles in 1988) stumbled across this clever trick accidently.
"I needed a screwdriver, and I din't have one handy," he explains. "So I used the pick. It got all chipped up and started catching in the strings and began making all these great noises!"
Cody, who may well be the Houdini of sleaze rock guitar, is also able to create the illusion of whammy abuse with his bare hands.

"I try to fake things," he says. "There are sounds on the album that would be very easy to do with a whammy, but are hell without one. Even when it sounds like bottleneck, it's just me and my Les paul."
Cody plays recent-issue Les Pauls, as well as a custom Jackson with an unusually flat fretboard which "simplifies bending." Cody also owns an early-Sixties 3/4-scale Melody Maker, with which he intends to play real slide in the future. But for now, he says, "it's just furniture."

Jeff Kitts