3 guitarists in a band?

[frakthygods]

I've always wondered how bands such as periphery improv 3 guitarists (excluding bass) in one band. I've been interested in what each guitarist plays and figured this would be a fun topic to discuss about. So please give me answers on how they achieve such tight riffs without getting messy and such. Cheers djentlemen

 

[MikeH]

A dickton of practice/playing to a click. Plus they EQ their rigs to not be muddy.

 

[Narrillnezzurh]

On the albums it's just a matter of proper EQing; they don't have any more tracks than any other modern metal band. Live it's a matter of very careful arrangement and tone selection.

 

[Lifestalker]

I've always wondered how bands such as periphery improv 3 guitarists (excluding bass) in one band. I've been interested in what each guitarist plays and figured this would be a fun topic to discuss about. So please give me answers on how they achieve such tight riffs without getting messy and such. Cheers djentlemen

And they sound so good live.

Saw them open up for the Deftones at the House of Blues.

 

[Shredderboy1658]

theres also whitechapel and chelsea grin

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I'm not sure why the notion of having more than two guitarists is so alien. I mean, bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Outlaws were doing it since the early 70's.

Not to mention tons of bands with one or two guitarists layer guitar tracks on albums so the recorded version of some stuff can seem like it has many guitarists playing.

 

[Osorio]

^

Maybe a slightly more provocative subject would be trying to identify why apparently 4 guitarists seems be too many.

 

[Trespass]

We've been layering instruments for a long time.

See: Orchestras, choirs, chamber groups etc.

All that literature is at your library. Just analyze what they're are doing, figure out what is transferable to your situation, and apply the concepts.

 

[devolutionary]

Let's face it, guitarists are kinda arrogant as a breed. We aren't as content to sit in the background and hold stuff together to the degree that most bassists and drummers are. It's hard to fit four egos (generalising here) in to one frequency range

There are big advantages to three guitarists however, even at the most simple level of rhythm + lead. Having two rhythm and a lead gives you a whole lot of bang in the rhythm area, and having 1 rhythm, 1 lead, 1 multi-purpose gives you someone to trade off on solos, which can dynamically change a shit load.

Check out some older rock bands and see how additional guitars can change things up. This is particularly true in acoustic sets. I recall The Eagles (who I am not a fan of) having a DVD a few years back where they had three or four acoustics, and it was an incredible thing to listen to.

 

[User Name]

i believe blue oyster colt had up to 5 guitar players at one point.

 

[ToMurderAMachine]

For a very short (roughly 3 month) period of time, I played guitar for a band called The Rise of Science. I played what they called "thematic" guitar. Almost like a second lead guitar, Although not as complex. My job was to play counter melodies to the vocals, and ring out ontop of the other two guitars. (basically, when you herd the music, the parts I played were the most memorable as far as guitars are concerned.)

We had three guitarists. A lead guitarist (His name was Aaron, he now plays for Apparitions), a rhythm guitarist (also the keyboardist and lead singer. played basic chords. not much else.) Then there was me, like I said, ringing out over everyone else by playing simple little melodies with tons of reverb, delay, chorus, and anything else you could imagine. Also, I took care of all the super fast crazy insane tremolo picking. haha. The right hand did tons of stuff whilst the left hand barely moved.

 

[MoshJosh]

doesn't Job For a Cowboy have three guitarists? and if so I'd like to know how all that works

 

[hk_golgatha]

inb4 periphery 3 guitarist good yes lol misha because djents


Three guitarists can be cool and is definitely difficult to pull off. Takes a lot of practice to be tight and can wreak havoc on mixes if you aren't careful with your EQs. But I think it's cool, you can get rhythm and harmonized leads and super awesome atmospheric-type overtone ambient accent stuff. If you can pull it off, more power to ya.

 

[Metal-Box]

Iron Maiden has been recording and playing live with three guitar players for a long time. It's really rather awesome.

 

[yingmin]

Three guitarists makes a lot more sense to me than two drummers.

 

[MikeH]

doesn't Job For a Cowboy have three guitarists? and if so I'd like to know how all that works

I think you're thinking of Whitechapel. JFAC only has two.

 

[JosephAOI]

Man, my band really needs to get stuff released

The way I write three guitars, sometimes we're all playing the same thing, sometimes L (left) and R (right) guitars are playing the same thing with C (center) guitar playing a lead. Sometimes C guitar is playing rhythm and L and R guitars are playing harmonized leads. Sometimes we all play different things. Just depends. Live though, it's just a matter of making sure all your tones mesh and work together.

 

[DespoticOrder]

Super cool 3 guitarist band that I found recently. Its kinda groovy and fast paced, but they all know how to play really well.
Mandroid Echostar (No idea how to embed here, so sorry)

http://youtu.be/U2wY6IhsjCs

 

[Dan_Vacant]

there are tones of ways it would be cool. have two rhythm guitarist to get the guitar to sound huge and one lead, or two leads each harmonizing. or two ryhtems guitar one plays something while 2 plays it an octave higher, and one lead.
they explain their use, which most members of this forum know of.

 

[DXL]

Iron Maiden, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Whitechapel, it's a really good idea if you either:
a) want to have a strong rhythm backing a lead
b) if you want to have a harmonized lead and still have a guitar rhythm