Mike Oldfield - Exposed - Tubular Bells Part Two Guitar Solo (cover)

David Bedford's analysis of Tubular Bells describes this piece as "Tune Q: long repeated chord sequence with solo guitars, with ground bass. Changes from minor to major." During the early shows of Mike Oldfield's extravagant 1979 Tour of Europe, Tubular Bells was performed much as it appeared on the 1973 album. Various changes were made to the programme over the course of the tour and one of the most enduring was to the penultimate section of Tubular Bells Part Two. While retaining the same chord sequence it was superseded by a more lively rendition introducing drums and percussion. The BBC Radio broadcast recorded on the 26th of April captured a developing version of the new arrangement. There were only seven shows remaining on the tour, in which time the solo and accompaniment were distilled down to the soaring showpiece that appears on the Exposed live double album. The new arrangement would be reprised for the 1980 "In Concert" tour in support of the studio album Platinum. During the interview included on "the Essential Mike Oldfield" video from this tour, Mike Oldfield states that he ad libs on this section of Tubular Bells Part Two. It seems reasonable to assume the particular solo appearing on Exposed was therefore unique. Since receiving an official title in the original format for the Tubular Bells 2003 release, the piece has become broadly known among enthusiasts as "Ambient Guitars". By popular request here is an explanation of the signal flow for the guitar sound: The guitar is direct injected into Blue Cat's Destructor in the DAW. The preset is: Guitar - Hi Gain / Into the Fire 4x12 and I cannot recommend this modeling sim highly enough for the price. It then goes through a digital amp/cab modeler (Convolution) with the Fender Bassman preset but there are other interesting presets which may work better for your guitar. Next a narrow band EQ boosting mids at around 500hz and 2K. Another broader EQ boosting low mids and up to 2k. These EQs are critical, it's surprising how much difference they make and I found it worthwhile spending some time tweaking these. Apart from Blue Cat's amp sim all of this is done using the effects bundled with Reaper. You can try Blue Cat's Destructor for free with some demo limitations and you can try Reaper fully functional for free for 60 days and that is also very reasonably priced. A great place to start if you've never ventured down the DAW rabbit hole and very nicely supported with free updates from the developer and excellent tutorials from Kenny Gioia.