jco5055
Well-Known Member
Let me first say that obviously this is just an opinion, so if one thinks Rick Graham is the correct answer that is it for them.
I thought this would be a fun little discussion. Which guitarists do you feel play with the best/most technique, while never going into the "ok this person must have no life to have gotten this good, and/or most of their solos are the equivalent of a massive Stephen King book that needs an editor to tighten up the book", basically not letting technique/guitar nerdery get in the way of the song.
What spurred me to think about this was like many of you I was quite the "bedroom" player but thanks to life (college/a real job,then also starting to invest in singing) limited my ability to practice for hours. As a result of this I actually think I became a better player, like with some loss of technical ability I thought more about phrasing/for the song because I didn't have as many options as before. Also with singing, there really isn't some kind of instrumental shred equivalent for singing so just in general (and coupled with finding out I'm a natural songwriter by approaching from a vocal starting point), a lot of the ridiculous guitar nerd stuff I was into before I kind of am not and look at it more from a "regular audience" stand point. I guess I kind of have a philosophy as "as simple as possible" though that's still pretty complex compared to a lot of limited technically players who say stuff like "anything more complex than Gilmour, Clapton, Page etc is overkill"
For an example, I would have told you years ago that someone like John Petrucci or Jeff Loomis would have been my answer, and though I still love a ton of stuff they've done, using this solo from Rock Discipline as an example,
I feel at ~0:30 when he starts playing the chromatic stuff that it doesn't serve the song at all, and that's not to mention how his Ibanez days he seemed much more tasteful overall.
My picks are I'd say a lot of thrash/glam era guys like Alex Skolnick, Dimebag, and George Lynch, as well as I'd say Joe Satriani.
I'd love to hear what you guys think, I'm always looking for new inspiration! Lateley I'm starting to explore Brett Garsed/more legato players, which is quite different from my upbringing of cycling between using Rock Discipline, Intense Rock, and Speed Kills haha.
I thought this would be a fun little discussion. Which guitarists do you feel play with the best/most technique, while never going into the "ok this person must have no life to have gotten this good, and/or most of their solos are the equivalent of a massive Stephen King book that needs an editor to tighten up the book", basically not letting technique/guitar nerdery get in the way of the song.
What spurred me to think about this was like many of you I was quite the "bedroom" player but thanks to life (college/a real job,then also starting to invest in singing) limited my ability to practice for hours. As a result of this I actually think I became a better player, like with some loss of technical ability I thought more about phrasing/for the song because I didn't have as many options as before. Also with singing, there really isn't some kind of instrumental shred equivalent for singing so just in general (and coupled with finding out I'm a natural songwriter by approaching from a vocal starting point), a lot of the ridiculous guitar nerd stuff I was into before I kind of am not and look at it more from a "regular audience" stand point. I guess I kind of have a philosophy as "as simple as possible" though that's still pretty complex compared to a lot of limited technically players who say stuff like "anything more complex than Gilmour, Clapton, Page etc is overkill"
For an example, I would have told you years ago that someone like John Petrucci or Jeff Loomis would have been my answer, and though I still love a ton of stuff they've done, using this solo from Rock Discipline as an example,
I feel at ~0:30 when he starts playing the chromatic stuff that it doesn't serve the song at all, and that's not to mention how his Ibanez days he seemed much more tasteful overall.
My picks are I'd say a lot of thrash/glam era guys like Alex Skolnick, Dimebag, and George Lynch, as well as I'd say Joe Satriani.
I'd love to hear what you guys think, I'm always looking for new inspiration! Lateley I'm starting to explore Brett Garsed/more legato players, which is quite different from my upbringing of cycling between using Rock Discipline, Intense Rock, and Speed Kills haha.
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