Guitarist That Just Dont turn you on

[joeobrien]

We all seem to dislike the same type of guitarists. Would be interesting if this was converted into some kind of vote/poll The top 20 most disliked guitarists...


And then compare it with the top 20 most popular guitarists.


God, we're a fickle lot to please. Glad I'm not famous.


Erratum: I notice on one post someone mentioned Tom Morello. I think it must have been a typo. That can't be right.

 

[KSPaul]

We all seem to dislike the same type of guitarists. Would be interesting if this was converted into some kind of vote/poll The top 20 most disliked guitarists...


And then compare it with the top 20 most popular guitarists.


God, we're a fickle lot to please. Glad I'm not famous.


Erratum: I notice on one post someone mentioned Tom Morello. I think it must have been a typo. That can't be right.

No typo and no love for Tom Morello.

As the title reads, a guitarist that just doesn't do it for me.

 

[joeobrien]

No typo and no love for Tom Morello.

As the title reads, a guitarist that just doesn't do it for me.

Sure pal. No offence - just having fun. Sorry about that.

 

[L60N]

Gary moore

 

[Mattyc123]

Lets not turn this into a flame fest. List the guitarist that just dont do it for you. All personal opionions of course in no relation to their talent or otherwise.
Disclaimer: I/We agree that their all extremly talented


in no perticular order:

Albert Collins
Derrick Trucks
Trey
Robert Cray
Steve Howe
EVH



Just have to put this in...Dude from Avril Levene (OK hes not talented lol)

Brian May! i know a lot of people will go against me for this, but with the exeption of one song (I want it all, what an intro), i always found him incredibly boring. I hated that tone on "I want to break free, just sounds like a wet fart to me,urggh.

Other than that, Kirt Cobain is a definate bore off!

I try to apreachiate all guitarist, but some just put me to sleep!

 

[Mattyc123]

Gilmour

I know its all personal and all, and everybody has their own opinion, but how can you not like David Gilmore, i mean, i can understand how people dont like players like Vai (which i love) because of his relentless shredding etc, but i didnt think any guitarist on earth would say that david gilmore's playing doesnt do it for me....intresting

 

[Tim Fezziwig]

1. Clapton-Love Cream and Derek. Rest bland as skim milk!
2. Cray-Soul-less!
3.EVH-loved all Fair Warning and Atomic punk. Rest whatever!
4. Gilmour-Loved his stuff w/Roger and first solo. Rest leaves me flat.Dogs of war anyone!
5 Ritchie Sam-BORE-A- I worked in a white-trash factory when I was 19.All the hairy biker wannabes would go wild for Runaway and Livin on a Prayer. I would listen to Venoms' Black Metal at lunch to clear my head!
6. All the shredders except Gilbert and Satch!
7. All the jam bands. They think they are the Allmans' ,they are not!
8. Zach- All his muscle-man posturing is this music or the NFL!
9. Dimebag- RIP seemed like a nice guy. Never did it for me!
10.Johnny Lang- Saw him live. Taste-less. This was 13 years ago. Maybe he has learned!
11. Mathias Jabs- After Uli and Michael he killed Scorpians hard edge!
12. Def Leppard- Loved first album w/ Wasted. High and Dry was also good.After that over-produced drivel!

 

[EasyAce]

This.

One of the reasons the blues band I was in (as bassist) broke up was that the guitarist was a complete SRV clone, blues-wise (he played metal, too, and was good at it). His "originals" were thinly-disguised rips, and when I tried to get him into Bloomfield, Otis Rush, and even Albert King (!), I'd hear "That's weak" or "That doesn't do it for me." Had no time for "Polly Put the Kettle On" or other old acoustic chestnuts. I guess they weren't impressive enough to serve as a display of chops.

There's more to blues than "Cold Shot", and as much as I love Stevie's stuff, he's not the blues, he's only a bluesman.

I guess it all depends on what someone's definition of "displaying the chops" happens to be. If the gentlemen you mentioned didn't "do it" for your ex-guitarist, he should be pitied. If they were "weak" to him, he should be condemned.

I've just gotten a blues band working and, while we're aiming to become as much original material as possible, we're covering the stuff nobody else wants to touch. We're an electric quartet (drums, bass, keyboards, and yours truly on guitar) but we stumbled on a nice way to take on Sleepy John Estes's "Diving Duck Blues" by way of Taj Mahal's re-imagination---our arrangement kind of falls somewhere in the middle of it, and our rhythm section plays it more soul style, anyway. I don't worry about showing the chops, I worry about telling a story. (Someone should have told your ex-guitarist that that, at his absolute best, was what SRV tried to do---best example I know of is his version of "Tin Pan Alley." I wouldn't trade that for every known take of "Scuttlebuttin'" or "Cold Shot" or "Texas Flood" or "Voodoo Chile, Slight Return.")

If you're not trying to tell a story---and what is the blues if not a music that tries to tell a story---your "chops," actual or alleged, won't impress anyone in the long run. That policy causes me no end of grief at the club jams I go to to keep in playing and stage shape until my band is ready to gig seriously. It's very hard to play with deliberate pauses and emphatic bends and lines, as I try to do when I'm handed a solo spot, when some asshole two feet to your right has plugged into all the toys, or brings his own toy box and plugs the whole damn thing directly into the P.A. system, and thinks every damn last silence or pause is his cue to spit out a squealing-pig blast of shredded wheat to fill the silences or the pauses that weren't supposed to be filled in the first place. If this makes any sense, this guy has "chops" to burn---but he can't make music.

I went to a club jam the other night and kind of shocked a lot of people when I just plugged my R6 into a Fender Vibrolux Reverb (it was part of the house backline; there wasn't room for me to set up my Hot Rod DeVille, but so long as it was a Fender in the backline I was good for it---I absolutely refuse to play through any other amps!) and my volume pedal (I found that this pedal is way better for coming down in the volume without killing or flattening tone!) and played. They were amazed that anyone could or would dare play the blues without a boatload of distortion or special effects.

 

[Hamtone]

I guess it all depends on what someone's definition of "displaying the chops" happens to be. If the gentlemen you mentioned didn't "do it" for your ex-guitarist, he should be pitied. If they were "weak" to him, he should be condemned.

I've just gotten a blues band working and, while we're aiming to become as much original material as possible, we're covering the stuff nobody else wants to touch. We're an electric quartet (drums, bass, keyboards, and yours truly on guitar) but we stumbled on a nice way to take on Sleepy John Estes's "Diving Duck Blues" by way of Taj Mahal's re-imagination---our arrangement kind of falls somewhere in the middle of it, and our rhythm section plays it more soul style, anyway. I don't worry about showing the chops, I worry about telling a story. (Someone should have told your ex-guitarist that that, at his absolute best, was what SRV tried to do---best example I know of is his version of "Tin Pan Alley." I wouldn't trade that for every known take of "Scuttlebuttin'" or "Cold Shot" or "Texas Flood" or "Voodoo Chile, Slight Return.")

If you're not trying to tell a story---and what is the blues if not a music that tries to tell a story---your "chops," actual or alleged, won't impress anyone in the long run. That policy causes me no end of grief at the club jams I go to to keep in playing and stage shape until my band is ready to gig seriously. It's very hard to play with deliberate pauses and emphatic bends and lines, as I try to do when I'm handed a solo spot, when some asshole two feet to your right has plugged into all the toys, or brings his own toy box and plugs the whole damn thing directly into the P.A. system, and thinks every damn last silence or pause is his cue to spit out a squealing-pig blast of shredded wheat to fill the silences or the pauses that weren't supposed to be filled in the first place. If this makes any sense, this guy has "chops" to burn---but he can't make music.

I went to a club jam the other night and kind of shocked a lot of people when I just plugged my R6 into a Fender Vibrolux Reverb (it was part of the house backline; there wasn't room for me to set up my Hot Rod DeVille, but so long as it was a Fender in the backline I was good for it---I absolutely refuse to play through any other amps!) and my volume pedal (I found that this pedal is way better for coming down in the volume without killing or flattening tone!) and played. They were amazed that anyone could or would dare play the blues without a boatload of distortion or special effects.

Thats because most jam people are not experienced and do not understand to not over play.

Thats why I dont like any of the shredder guys. Yes it is impressive but I am not moved by their music. Satriani, vai, malsteem, any of the 80s shred hair metal guys. Im not a big clapton fan I do enjoy the acoustic stuff. Really any of the heavy metal guys, I like to listen to some of it but really doesnt inspire me at all. I never hear something and say "oh Im going to nail that" I just hear it and go about my biz.

 

[EasyAce]

Thats because most jam people are not experienced and do not understand to not over play.

I thought that to be the case myself---but when I started getting out to play seriously last year and hit the jams to keep in shape until I got my band, I found out to my surprise that a lot of those guys had been around a very long time. You'd think they would know better, though . . . Oddly enough, it was the inexperienced people who seemed to know the most about not overplaying and how to accompany, and how to make it matter when they got a turn up front. Very strange, you might think.

Thats why I dont like any of the shredder guys. Yes it is impressive but I am not moved by their music.

If I want a shredder, I'll hook up the food processor.

Really any of the heavy metal guys, I like to listen to some of it but really doesnt inspire me at all.

I'm old enough to remember when it was merely "heavy" and guys like Leslie West, Luther Grosvenor (Spooky Tooth), and Buck Dharma (Blue Oyster Cult) reminded you that it didn't mean a thing without taste and space. (And Buck Dharma could be considered a shredder in his own right, often as not . . . )

 

[ZeppelinManiac00]

I'm gonna get yelled at for a few I'm going to mention

Eddie Van Halen
Slash
Ace Frehley
Brian May

Allow me to explain a bit though

Eddie Van Halen=I'm just not a huge Van Halen fan. Personally, I think they're a bit over rated. And it's not that I don't think he's a bad guitarist, I just don't get anything out of it.

Slash=Again, I think he's highly over rated, but still good. Actually, I think Guns N' Roses is one of the most over rated bands to ever exist, but I can have an opinion right?

Ace Frehley=I'm just not a huge Kiss fan, and his playing just doesn't do anything for me.

Brian May=Now I'm a huge Queen fan, but his soloing, again, just doesn't do it for me. I love their songs as a whole though.

 

[Echevarria]

i don't like much of steve vai's stuff for some reason. I love most of the other shredders, especially satch, but vai just doesnt write good riffs imo.

+1

 

[Hamtone]

I thought that to be the case myself---but when I started getting out to play seriously last year and hit the jams to keep in shape until I got my band, I found out to my surprise that a lot of those guys had been around a very long time. You'd think they would know better, though . . . Oddly enough, it was the inexperienced people who seemed to know the most about not overplaying and how to accompany, and how to make it matter when they got a turn up front. Very strange, you might think.



If I want a shredder, I'll hook up the food processor.



I'm old enough to remember when it was merely "heavy" and guys like Leslie West, Luther Grosvenor (Spooky Tooth), and Buck Dharma (Blue Oyster Cult) reminded you that it didn't mean a thing without taste and space. (And Buck Dharma could be considered a shredder in his own right, often as not . . . )

I need the space and compression to be moved by music. The build up and not just a rush of string skipping mumbo jumbo. Leslie west is a bad mofo and like is tone too

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I guess it all depends on what someone's definition of "displaying the chops" happens to be. If the gentlemen you mentioned didn't "do it" for your ex-guitarist, he should be pitied. If they were "weak" to him, he should be condemned.

Yeah, that's why we didn't last. We had the talent, but both the drummer and myself knew we were in a cul-de-sac six months before it came apart.

(Someone should have told your ex-guitarist that that, at his absolute best, was what SRV tried to do---best example I know of is his version of "Tin Pan Alley." I wouldn't trade that for every known take of "Scuttlebuttin'" or "Cold Shot" or "Texas Flood" or "Voodoo Chile, Slight Return.")

I did, in a way. He asked me what I thought of a solo he had recorded one time (where it was front-loaded with speed and bereft of dynamics), and when I said, "Enh, it's okay," he was curious why I wasn't slavering over it or something, so I answered him, "It's like reading a mystery. It's no fun if you know how it's gonna go."

We just had, and have, different outlooks, and the two really didn't meet.

If you're not trying to tell a story---and what is the blues if not a music that tries to tell a story---your "chops," actual or alleged, won't impress anyone in the long run.

QFT.

 

[EasyAce]

I need the space and compression to be moved by music. The build up and not just a rush of string skipping mumbo jumbo. Leslie west is a bad mofo and like is tone too

He was (and still is) one of a kind. And he did everything he could with a tone he got practically by accident:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf9WRHMB-DE&feature=relmfu]Leslie West, "Fillmore Amps and Woodstock"[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQHUwS03l1c]Mountain, "Southbound Train" (live at Woodstock)[/ame]

If you can't say it, don't play it.---Leslie West.

 

[EasyAce]

He asked me what I thought of a solo he had recorded one time (where it was front-loaded with speed and bereft of dynamics), and when I said, "Enh, it's okay," he was curious why I wasn't slavering over it or something, so I answered him, "It's like reading a mystery. It's no fun if you know how it's gonna go."

On the other hand, you can take something predictable and shift its dynamic, its voice, and you have something completely individual and different even if you used the same notes or the same core lick. But when you're too deep in love with your own chops (actual or alleged), the concept of shifting dynamics and voicing tends to get wiped from your software, so to say.

 

[thedonal]

Malmsteen. Great playing skills. Says nothing. Absolutely nothing.

 

[Montrose]

I hear the crowds already shouting for my crucifiction....

Slash - Lame
Jimmy Page - Yawn
Jimi Hendrix - Snore
Gary Moore - Thief
B.B. King - Stand up will ya?
Kurt Cobain - Who?
Jeff Beck - Stale
Eric Clapton - Good in the early days, later ewww
Carlos Santana - Annoying
Steve Vai - No more notes please
Yngviyufhsnse Malmsteen - Change your first name please
Angus Young - Please learn more notes
George Harrison - Ew a beatle
Jack White - Gayyyyy
The Edge - Do I need to say anything?
Neil Young - Nyeh.
Robby Krieger - Why do people talk about you?
Stevie Ray Vaughan - I hate you because every demo on youtube plays your licks.

I can keep going...but the fan boys are erecting burning crosses in my yard.

 

[Texas Joe]

Eric Clapton

 

[Mattyc123]

I hear the crowds already shouting for my crucifiction....

Slash - Lame
Jimmy Page - Yawn
Jimi Hendrix - Snore
Gary Moore - Thief
B.B. King - Stand up will ya?
Kurt Cobain - Who?
Jeff Beck - Stale
Eric Clapton - Good in the early days, later ewww
Carlos Santana - Annoying
Steve Vai - No more notes please
Yngviyufhsnse Malmsteen - Change your first name please
Angus Young - Please learn more notes
George Harrison - Ew a beatle
Jack White - Gayyyyy
The Edge - Do I need to say anything?
Neil Young - Nyeh.
Robby Krieger - Why do people talk about you?
Stevie Ray Vaughan - I hate you because every demo on youtube plays your licks.

I can keep going...but the fan boys are erecting burning crosses in my yard.

Who do you like??