Guitar Megathread II: Unleash the picking fury!!!

[Dominik]

Lol. Nothing makes one feel older than realizing you like dinosaur music

Guilty as charged and no shame about it. Jazz on an archtop with a warm tone is one thing but practically every guitarist I grew up listening to was bending the crap out of those strings, probably because they started out playing blues and being into Hendrix, the Kings, SRV, Eddie, etc. Holdsworth ditched the bends somewhere in the 70s but then he started wanking on the whammy instead.

Of course I get it, a lot of guitarists coming up today aren't good at it and if their vibrato on a fretted note sounds bad it's going to be worse when they try to apply it to a bend so they ditch it and concentrate on other stuff. Some simply don't have the ear for correct intonation and I guess bending leaves them feeling vulnerable. It takes a lot of practice to consistently get that intonation spot on across the neck since every string at different points has different tension.

There's a good reason why slide tugs as the heartstrings and that's what bending should do. I don't know why someone playing an electric guitar with distortion wouldn't want to develop a more "vocal" style and that's not happening without bending.



Cliffs: #dinosaur

[SwimToTheMoon]

Tosin Abasi and Tim Henson’s music doesn’t appeal to me at all but they are technically proficient with their instruments to be sure

The other guitarist in Animals As Leaders is pretty sick and has a different style than Tosin when he does his solo chit

[CherryPopinski]

The other guitarist in Animals As Leaders is pretty sick and has a different style than Tosin when he does his solo chit

Your YouTube video won’t come up for some reason, but my point is that Tosin, Henson, Misha, none of those guys are ever gonna be a Tony Iommi or Jimmy Page.

The music these days just isn’t memorable in my opinion. At least not in the same way as established legends of rock and metal are concerned.

EDIT: NVM the video works now

[rollerball]

Thanks man, I’ll take a closer look at it. I’m on spread with you. Appreciate it

meh, I listened to my video this morning and it sounds like complete chit to me, I'll try to record something better later

[rollerball]

Guilty as charged and no shame about it. Jazz on an archtop with a warm tone is one thing but practically every guitarist I grew up listening to was bending the crap out of those strings, probably because they started out playing blues and being into Hendrix, the Kings, SRV, Eddie, etc. Holdsworth ditched the bends somewhere in the 70s but then he started wanking on the whammy instead.

Of course I get it, a lot of guitarists coming up today aren't good at it and if their vibrato on a fretted note sounds bad it's going to be worse when they try to apply it to a bend so they ditch it and concentrate on other stuff. Some simply don't have the ear for correct intonation and I guess bending leaves them feeling vulnerable. It takes a lot of practice to consistently get that intonation spot on across the neck since every string at different points has different tension.

There's a good reason why slide tugs as the heartstrings and that's what bending should do. I don't know why someone playing an electric guitar with distortion wouldn't want to develop a more "vocal" style and that's not happening without bending.

Cliffs: #dinosaur

Applying vibrato to a note that's already bent 1 whole step can be tricky for me sometimes I admit. Often it works out but sometimes I just fukk it up royally and don't maintain the whole step pitch correctly while vibrato-ing.

It's funny how so many people try to copy Yngwie's speed but when it comes to his vibrato very few ever mimic it accurately

[Dominik]

Applying vibrato to a note that's already bent 1 whole step can be tricky for me sometimes I admit. Often it works out but sometimes I just fukk it up royally and don't maintain the whole step pitch correctly while vibrato-ing.

It's funny how so many people try to copy Yngwie's speed but when it comes to his vibrato very few ever mimic it accurately

Exactly what I was getting at and without that he would have been another 80s shredder.

Watch that Doug Rappoport video. He has complete control over his bending and vibrato and unlike some players with chops doesn't panic when he's got to fill the spaces with slower melodic lines. Makes it all seem effortless.

[rollerball]

Exactly what I was getting at and without that he would have been another 80s shredder.

His vibrato often reminds me of an operatic singer's vibrato.
Who are the best guitar-vibrato-ists in history? Gilmour? BB King? Halen? Clapton?

[CherryPopinski]

Applying vibrato to a note that's already bent 1 whole step can be tricky for me sometimes I admit. Often it works out but sometimes I just fukk it up royally and don't maintain the whole step pitch correctly while vibrato-ing.

It's funny how so many people try to copy Yngwie's speed but when it comes to his vibrato very few ever mimic it accurately

Yea a lot of rock and metal guitarists that I listen, once again referring to Tony Iommi and also Scott Gorham is worthy of mention. They both tend to use full step bends during fast solos but in addition they apply vibrato when doing bends and it sounds so effortless but when I try it I find it’s difficult to keep the note stable I still haven’t mastered the technique yet

[SwimToTheMoon]

Your YouTube video won’t come up for some reason, but my point is that Tosin, Henson, Misha, none of those guys are ever gonna be a Tony Iommi or Jimmy Page.

The music these days just isn’t memorable in my opinion. At least not in the same way as established legends of rock and metal are concerned.

EDIT: NVM the video works now

To be fair we're over saturated with music now,there are way more bands putting out chit.. Plus nothing is new anymore so that old school energy isn't possible to replicate.. I think if Iommi was a guitarist in a rock band now nobody would know who the fuk he is.. Pretty sure Jimmy Page would be bagging people's groceries at walmart

[rollerball]

I actually think the early polyphia chit had some great solos, this is my favorite tune of theirs by far outside of the overly enthusiastic double bass drums.
I especially like the solo at 3:12 as well the solo after that.

[CherryPopinski]

I actually think the early polyphia chit had some great solos, this is my favorite tune of theirs by far outside of the overly enthusiastic double bass drums.
I especially like the solo at 3:12 as well the solo after that.

[youtube]xtVx01HMR9/youtube]

Excellent guitar solo to be sure, however (just my singular opinion). I find their sound and especially stuff like this to be for a very niche segment of listeners.

Neither of these songs hit you like a classic Zeppelin tune, heck even Dokken stuff is more memorable than this. I’m really not bashing these guys cause they’re far more educated and successful than I’ll ever be in the realm of music. I just simply don’t see the appeal



Give me everything from the 60’s-90’s I just think it’s all better than anything new these days. New music doesn’t invoke emotion in me

I can listen to Paranoid by Black Sabbath and it’s like the 1st time I heard it every single time.

[rollerball]

Dokken stuff is more memorable than this.

So true, Dokken had such gravitas. Songs like this have really stood the test of time as eternally resonating critiques of society at large that motivated the masses to glorious revolution of the human condition.

[CherryPopinski]

So true, Dokken had such gravitas. Songs like this have really stood the test of time as eternally resonating critiques of society at large that motivated the masses to glorious revolution of the human condition.

[youtube]noLPhZvcBp/youtube]

That statement was about as pretentious as all the new age guitarists music these days Lmao

[rollerball]

That statement was about as pretentious as all the new age guitarists music these days Lmao

"Indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air—look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire—why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals."

- Don Dokken

[rollerball]

"The discipline of suffering, of great suffering—know ye not that it is only this discipline that has produced all the elevations of humanity hitherto? The tension of soul in misfortune which communicates to it its energy, its shuddering in view of rack and ruin, its inventiveness and bravery in undergoing, enduring, interpreting, and exploiting misfortune, and whatever depth, mystery, disguise, spirit, artifice, or greatness has been bestowed upon the soul—has it not been bestowed through suffering?"

- Don Dokken

[CherryPopinski]

"The discipline of suffering, of great suffering—know ye not that it is only this discipline that has produced all the elevations of humanity hitherto? The tension of soul in misfortune which communicates to it its energy, its shuddering in view of rack and ruin, its inventiveness and bravery in undergoing, enduring, interpreting, and exploiting misfortune, and whatever depth, mystery, disguise, spirit, artifice, or greatness has been bestowed upon the soul—has it not been bestowed through suffering?"

- Don Dokken

Maybe I should just break down this video on my guitar and speed up his phrases. That’ll get me closer to where I need to be probably

[CherryPopinski]

So I recorded myself below attempting an improvisation over a random youtube blues backing track. I definitely found myself struggling to maintain any type of fluidity as well as having difficulty accurately finding the notes I was hearing in my head in proper time. You can hear the part where I try to shoehorn some fast playing near the end but the timing is a bit off.
I realize that I have a very limited blues "vocabulary", few if any stock blues licks much less any type of phrasing to speak of. This all suggests to me that I need to diversify what I focus on - I've probably reached a point where I can stop concentrating so much on technique and start working on how to be more expressive.

I think I'm going to start trying to stockpile different blues licks until I can start amalgamating them in a more personally expressive way. It's just lame to have been playing this long and not be able to improvise over a simple blues progression in a smooth and convincing manner.

I actually don't think your note choice was bad at all, those fast runs at the end were exactly the type of stuff I'm looking for. You seem stiff about your blues playing for sure though. My strong point is improvisation. I can handle myself ok, I just struggle with lightning fast leads.

[rollerball]

I actually don't think your note choice was bad at all, those fast runs at the end were exactly the type of stuff I'm looking for. You seem stiff about your blues playing for sure though. My strong point is improvisation. I can handle myself ok, I just struggle with lightning fast leads.

Stiff is an accurate way to describe it. My improvisation just felt stiff and awkward almost the entire time, never really feeling fully in the pocket because I felt like I was mapping out the notes in real time instead of being able to rely on having a strong, contextual visualization of the fretboard already in my head. The fast stuff I attempted at the end is a lot more "diatonic" I think is the word, by which I mean that I play a lot more linearly with easy to play scalar lines that are easier to fit within the rhythmic pulse. Pretty much just metronome speed building stuff.

In your videos your lines have an un-forced fluidity/flow to them, nothing sounded awkward to me. And there's movement to the phrasing, not just stock licks being auto-piloted over the progression. Sometimes blues playing can be tedious to listen to when the player is too much on cruise-control.

[CherryPopinski]

Stiff is an accurate way to describe it. My improvisation just felt stiff and awkward almost the entire time, never really feeling fully in the pocket because I felt like I was mapping out the notes in real time instead of being able to rely on having a strong, contextual visualization of the fretboard already in my head. The fast stuff I attempted at the end is a lot more "diatonic" I think is the word, by which I mean that I play a lot more linearly with easy to play scalar lines that are easier to fit within the rhythmic pulse. Pretty much just metronome speed building stuff.

In your videos your lines have an un-forced fluidity/flow to them, nothing sounded awkward to me. And there's movement to the phrasing, not just stock licks being auto-piloted over the progression. Sometimes blues playing can be tedious to listen to when the player is too much on cruise-control.

Yea I don't really sit and grind out technical exercises when I play. A majority of the time I throw on a backing track and just go to town, but the problem is I only have a limited arsenal of phrases and licks so I run out of steam pretty quick.

[SwimToTheMoon]

So I recorded myself below attempting an improvisation over a random youtube blues backing track. I definitely found myself struggling to maintain any type of fluidity as well as having difficulty accurately finding the notes I was hearing in my head in proper time. You can hear the part where I try to shoehorn some fast playing near the end but the timing is a bit off.
I realize that I have a very limited blues "vocabulary", few if any stock blues licks much less any type of phrasing to speak of. This all suggests to me that I need to diversify what I focus on - I've probably reached a point where I can stop concentrating so much on technique and start working on how to be more expressive.

I think I'm going to start trying to stockpile different blues licks until I can start amalgamating them in a more personally expressive way. It's just lame to have been playing this long and not be able to improvise over a simple blues progression in a smooth and convincing manner.

Damn.. Your phrasing is worse than my vibrato..

[rollerball]

Damn.. Your phrasing is worse than my vibrato..

sigh a worse insult could not have been levied against me

[SwimToTheMoon]

sigh a worse insult could not have been levied against me

Real chit though.. Those fast runs were smooth as fuk, your right hand technique is getting awesome

[rollerball]

Real chit though.. Those fast runs were smooth as fuk, your right hand technique is getting awesome

Thanks mang, at least something is paying off in terms of practice

[bignpisst]

His vibrato often reminds me of an operatic singer's vibrato.
Who are the best guitar-vibrato-ists in history? Gilmour? BB King? Halen? Clapton?

If I have to pick one Ill go with B.B.. His vibe is angelic

[bignpisst]

I give you props rollerball, you put your **** out there good or bad. As far as your blues improv, I think you are just trying to play too much right now. Play a little less and learn the target notes right now then you can add more later.

[rollerball]

If I have to pick one Ill go with B.B.. His vibe is angelic

B.B.'s single finger vibrato is definitely impressive. It's expressive and hummingbird quick, I can't even really do it tbh.

I give you props rollerball, you put your **** out there good or bad. As far as your blues improv, I think you are just trying to play too much right now. Play a little less and learn the target notes right now then you can add more later.

Hah yeah I figure that I'll get much more useful feedback if I post a video of the areas where I struggle with guitar.
Agreed, I don't feel comfortable enough to have confidence in my "phrases" so I find myself jamming in too many notes to fill the space. Part of the difficulty is at times I hear really cool licks in my head but I just can't find the fretboard notes on the fly while improvising.

[CherryPopinski]

B.B.'s single finger vibrato is definitely impressive. It's expressive and hummingbird quick, I can't even really do it tbh.



Hah yeah I figure that I'll get much more useful feedback if I post a video of the areas where I struggle with guitar.
Agreed, I don't feel comfortable enough to have confidence in my "phrases" so I find myself jamming in too many notes to fill the space. Part of the difficulty is at times I hear really cool licks in my head but I just can't find the fretboard notes on the fly while improvising.

Maybe this’ll be of some use to you. I find that when I have a hard time with certain things the best approach is to go back to basics.

[rollerball]

Maybe this’ll be of some use to you. I find that when I have a hard time with certain things the best approach is to go back to basics.

Yeah when it comes to blues and improvisation it's clear that I'm missing some basics. I skimmed that video and there's definitely some stuff in there that's useful starting around the "3rd level"

[Dominik]

Yeah when it comes to blues and improvisation it's clear that I'm missing some basics. I skimmed that video and there's definitely some stuff in there that's useful starting around the "3rd level"

Play blues licks every time you pick up the guitar and it'll start to feel automatic.

Never bought into the NYXL hype before but decided to give them a go and they sound punchier than regular XLs.

[rollerball]

Play blues licks every time you pick up the guitar and it'll start to feel automatic.

Never bought into the NYXL hype before but decided to give them a go and they sound punchier than regular XLs.

what gauge? I'm thinking of going down to 9s