Guitar players?

lucky8

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yea and ampblaster is right...theres really no comparing a Strat to an Ibanez..no offense to any Ibanez owners because ill admit i really want one, but Strats have the most distinctive sound out of any guitar, and there really is no comparing them to Ibanez's

o and AMPBLASTER...any suggestions on where i can find strings at those gauges!?!? ive been looking for really heavy gauges but so far the heaviest ive come across is .16. my axe is always tuned a down half step, and even those .16s rattle a little lol. i cant even imagine how much id have to tweak my bridge and neck for .6's lol! i didnt even know there was such a thing
 

psidom

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yes tabs i remember those.
we used notebook paper.

and yeah you could buy tabs by Prince.
you could learn "purple rain" or "when a dove cries"
 

B_Hickboy

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Anyone here play? How long? What do you like to play? Any stage experience? Studio experience?

I'm a gear freak too, let me know what kind of equipment you've got.

(Not "cock" equipment...but if you must, go for it)
Oh, let's take inventory... I have a Carvin jumbo body six string, an old, very assertive sounding Alvarez 12 string, both acoustic, a Powerhouse Strat, a Jazz bass, and various small amplification devices. I like the sound of the smaller stuff better, except for bass gear. I need a bass rig but have no place to put it. I'm looking at Aguilar stuff, but it costs the earth, so it'll be a while before I get any. I'll play through my little Bassman FTB.

I also record myself, so I have various microphones, preamps, mixers, effects pedals, maelstrom raisers and shit, but have not been in a band in over 30 years.
 

invisibleman

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Anyone here play? How long? What do you like to play? Any stage experience? Studio experience?

I'm a gear freak too, let me know what kind of equipment you've got.

(Not "cock" equipment...but if you must, go for it)

I play. Six years. I like playing rhythm guitar style--chording and riffs. I really do not like leads...solos. (I feel that lead guitarists aren't really doing the melody justice. I would like to hear better use of melody and more space. Great phrasing. I don't hear that these days.)

I have had about three years studio experience. My ex owned his own recording studio. I got to record in it for three years. He helped me setup my studio when I got my little studio together.

No stage or live performance.

Equipment: I use Dunlop Tortex pics. I have about three Zoom multieffects processors. A Dunlop Cry Baby wah. A VooDoo Lab MicroVibe. I have a really cheap Tele and a Silvertone Archtop. Alll of it is plugged into my mixer.

I am into textural rhythm guitarists and funk rhythm guitarists. Like Robin Guthrie. Bill Frisell. Nile Rodgers. Wendy Melvoin.

I would like to get a Roland guitar synth one day.

As far as the cock equipment is concerned, I don't use my cock to play my guitar. That may be a market for that though. Maybe Jimi Hendrix did that. You never know. :rolleyes: But considering how "sue happy" people are...I am not holding my breath for guys playing guitars with their dicks. :smile:
 
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66057

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yea and ampblaster is right...theres really no comparing a Strat to an Ibanez..no offense to any Ibanez owners because ill admit i really want one, but Strats have the most distinctive sound out of any guitar, and there really is no comparing them to Ibanez's

o and AMPBLASTER...any suggestions on where i can find strings at those gauges!?!? ive been looking for really heavy gauges but so far the heaviest ive come across is .16. my axe is always tuned a down half step, and even those .16s rattle a little lol. i cant even imagine how much id have to tweak my bridge and neck for .6's lol! i didnt even know there was such a thing

Generally, in my area, only the smaller stores will carry specialty strings. Chains like Guitar Center and George's Music are relatively useless for this, as Fender, Gibson, and Ernie Ball pay them alot of money to carry their entire catalog.

Check out some of your local guitar/music shops. You should be able to find DR or D'Addario specialty strings. They will fetch a few extra $$$ more, but nothing outrageous.

I play D'Addarrio Jazz Light specialty strings. They range .12-.54, and really give me a thick chime. .13-.60 is most often found in 'baritone' style. The strings will be threaded for a longer neck radius, but I imagine if you cut some length off and boil them that they would be fine for use on any standard setup.
 

B_ScaredLittleBoy

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Ah so when people say they taught themselves they just mean they didn't have formal lessons? But they read books.

My girlfriend's brother taught himself by ear, book and playing with other people. Apparently he's really good. I'm so good I snapped my guitar string last night! Bastard...I think the strings were old anyway :redface:
 

Hotrocker

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"And most people wouldn't be able to really distinguish the difference between say.... a vintage Hendrix- era Strat and a modern Ibanez Jem. This in consideration, the average listener probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between pedals being used and other assorted effects (including amps, mics, and recording equipment). To be honest, ***only us guitar nerds really care about that stuff :tongue:. right? "

I don't mean to be a dick, but that's completely false. I can guess a guitarist's Amp model correctly when I'm listening. This is purely dedication and ear training. I know what "watery" mean, I know what "thick" means, when describing tone. A lot of guys tend to throw those classifications around and say "This sounds smooth and warm," when they're listening to something that a true ear would call "Tinny and thin."

No one could ever make me listen to something and pass off an Ibanez as a 60's Strat on me. There's not a chance in blue Hell. Also, many pedals are simply designated single effects. If you know the sound, you can guess the brand. Again, this is dedication and ear training. I can pick up on flange, chorus, and all that good stuff, but it's equally as important to me to realize that the flanger sounds shitty because it's a digital Digitech RP50 effects processor rather than a 1975 MXR Flanger stomp with a 12AX7 preamp tube.

The difference in these 2 flangers would be phenomenal to a disciplined player. As I said, I'm a gear freak, and if you want to play, tone is half the battle.

***Even if you don't play guitar, I'm confident the average listener will at least pick up on the annoyance factor. People with shitty tone sound twice as bad as players, while slick tone gurus can sound like seasoned veterans even if they're not virtuosos. Take a lot of players like Malmsteen and McLaughlin who just play whatever they feel like playing as fast as possible. Malmsteen just picks every arpeggio and harmonic minor scale he knows and plays it through a scallop-neck Strat w/ Marshall JCMs...gain cranked and even through a distortion pedal. The guy sounds like a bunch of angry, buzzing bees coming out of the next room. McLaughlin is even worse. His sound literally clips; he has such distorted EQ dialed in that he often peaks his bottom end levels, making his guitar sound like popping static. These guys, while revered for their speed, are often put in the food chain guys like SRV who don't play their style but sound that much better while doing it.

Also, confusion about the tone write-up: I never said I sounded exactly like SRV, I just said I can play almost all of his stuff. I wrote down that rig overview for the other person who said they've been trying to sound like SRV. I don't think they want to sound like him forever either, they're just curious about why it sounds so damn good, like anyone else would be. This is where I'm at a fisticuffs with your Ibanez comment. You may be a Satch fan, but SRV wouldn't be caught dead playing one of those, and he would never have sounded the way he did without his Pre-CBS Stratocasters. Those things fetch more than 1000 of the Ibanez RG models added value. Some of the model year strats that Stevie played are worth upwards of $300,000 even if they hadn't had touched his hands. That means this is one sick instrument, with rare parts that aren't easily mimicked even in custom shops. Or how about how Gary Rossington of Skynyrd has a true '59 Les Paul Standard.? Valued at $250,000, even Warren Haynes had to settle for a Reissue, and constantly complains in interviews that it doesn't have a vintage sound because the wood isn't as old and doesn't age and expand the same way as it did resulting from construction back then.

I started off my post by saying his tone was unreachable, and the reason I said that was because of his equipment, AND his hands. Also, check out my rig posting earlier in the thread. You'll see a completely different setup than most guitars, and a more professional system than a lot of the guys that posted here. I have the gear I have, and have it hooked up that way, in that order, because that's the way I sound good and I know how to bring out the sound I'm looking for. I.E. - A Strat sounds ridiculous through solid-state...so even if you had SRV's own axes, if you're playing it through a MG100HDFX or something of that nature, you're going to sound like complete shit. This is stuff you have to account for. Stevie knew how much mids are produced in a Strat. He was fond of single-rail and hot-rod pickups to add presence to his top end. This was why he would keep his EQ balanced in a "smile." His tube screamers/pickup additions make a huge difference to his sound. If you were to throw stock pickups in his Strat, and take away his TS-1s, then his sound isn't as defining as you'd remember it.

I'm trying to make a point that nothing any company makes today is really of any relevance when trying to reproduce someone's tone. If you play an Ibanez RG through a solid-state amplifier, you are THAT much further away from achieving "______ sounding tone", because "______" uses a '62 American Stratocaster through a '68 Fender Twin Reverb fitted with 4 EL34 power tubes. If you want vintage, you have to go get vintage. Get on ebay for all that stuff, though.

This is the reason I own a '70's Les Paul Custom instead of some cheap-ass Epiphone Special or Studio, or whatever the hell kids waste their money on these days. Not to mention they don't even do real binding anymore. I have genuine ivory binding. Fuckin' elephants died for my sound. I could go on for hours about how much they've changed Les Paul construction over the past couple of decades, but why bother.

Who the hell would use a half stack to record? The best tone I've ever heard, in my humble opinion, was Petrucci's or David Gilmour's. I also think that a good Strat tone is unmistakable, but its also reproducible. You think that it isnt... but I'm sure you've heard a single coil guitar before and mistook it for a Strat when it could've been something completely different. In that situation, tone moves from the fingers, more to the equipment. But the biggest thing people hear as far as tone goes, is in the fingers.

I refuse to believe that vintage instrument are what people say they are. Its like referring to wine that "will make you believe in God" simply because its aged.

I promise you that I can make an Ibanez or a Jackson sound as good as a vintage Gibson with 59' humbuckers...
 

whatireallywant

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I took a few lessons, with a guitar my dad bought for me, but my hands are too small - I need a smaller or even "child size" guitar because of my TINY hands.

I did learn to play a few parts of songs that I could actually recognize, but unfortunately I haven't kept up with it because of the money and the hand size issue (and I'm not good at self-teaching... I need an instructor, at least at first.)

One of my favorite guitarists is Habib Koite...Here's a clip of him in concert. I have also seen him in concert 3 times. :smile:

YouTube - Acoustic Africa - HABIB KOITE Brussels - WASSIYE - Amazing!
 
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66057

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I promise you that I can make an Ibanez or a Jackson sound as good as a vintage Gibson with 59' humbuckers...
Sorry dude. I'm never one to down on other guitar players, but I just can't take you seriously after saying that. I've been playing a long time, and I've played tons of different equipment.

If you'd ever felt a'70's Les Paul Custom, which by the way is $3,899 new in 2008 models, you'd take this claim back immediately. My "vintage" guitar that you say sounds no different from a Jackson is the complete opposite craftsmanship of what a Jackson is supposed to sound like.

My Custom is layered with two solid slabs of wood, mahogany and maple. I have '75 dimarzio super distortion and p-90 pickups in it. My ax employs actual ivory binding, which hasn't been in product manufacturing for decades. All tuning peg casing is solid gold plating, as is my fret inlays real mother of pearl.

All these aesthetics you take for granted actually add to my sound simply because I got the good stuff that came from a good year. My wood is heavier and warmer because it's simply more expensive wood and it's aged over the years and expanded.

Sorry, but your Jackson is laughable next to my ax. It's valued at $5,300, and that's with half the paint missing off of the back of my body. You are using cheap materials that are on the assembly line in Japan, China and Mexico. If you're lucky. You get worse wood, worse metal, and worse construction. This is why your guitar is cheaper. Humans hands barely touched it.

And no, I don't mistake Jacksons for Strats. I also think that when you tell someone John Petrucci has the best tone, you need a little more opinion than "recording out of 2x12" gives the best sound.

That makes no sense. Anyone who records on a 4x12" can split their head or just power one side of their amp to one side of the cabinet, thus only using 2 of the speakers. Besides, it still doesn't matter, because my amp gets louder than yours with 4x12"s, and when I record a track, I can have 4 mics on in different setup placements around my 4 speakers. This only affects my tone in a good way. You don't even really mention what kind of cabinets or speakers, as if you don't know or don't care. I could hand you a 2x12" line 6 tolex box with 2 Celestion gt-75s in it and it would sound like a piece of garbage next to my cab with 4 Celestion Vintage 30's. There are limitations to what you can do with little money and limited access to professional equipment. I hate to use my love and experience of guitar related shit as some kind of bragging rights, but I just don't agree with much of what you said. Sounds like you're just trying to convince me you kick ass and shred, rather than have a good knowledge of tone.
 

B_ScaredLittleBoy

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I took a few lessons, with a guitar my dad bought for me, but my hands are too small - I need a smaller or even "child size" guitar because of my TINY hands.

I did learn to play a few parts of songs that I could actually recognize, but unfortunately I haven't kept up with it because of the money and the hand size issue (and I'm not good at self-teaching... I need an instructor, at least at first.)

One of my favorite guitarists is Habib Koite...Here's a clip of him in concert. I have also seen him in concert 3 times. :smile:

YouTube - Acoustic Africa - HABIB KOITE Brussels - WASSIYE - Amazing!

I think Prince uses a smaller guitar. And look what he does with just four strings :eek:

MySpaceTV Videos: Prince by smis

<3

I can't do jack shit on six strings!

PS see solo about 2/3 way through!
 
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66057

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True, Scaredlittleboy.

I actually consider Prince one of the most underrated guitar players. He's quite Hendrixian in his playing.
 

Qua

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I agree with SLB about the vintage tone question. Besides, the differences are SO subtle that the limits of recording technology elimate them. I actualy hold more for vintage pedals and amps than guitars. Particularly when playing behind a wall of distortion, or even relatively moderate amounts of gain, the tone of the guitar is really compromised in favor of the tone of the pedal/amp. Due to aging in wood an old guitar will sound better simply because it's old, not due to differences is manufacturing and materials as much as pedals and amps, as there have been more physical changes there than the guitars. And honestly? I bed he can get an old ibanez sounding as good as a vintage guitar. Case in point. Tender Surrender by Steve Vai. He went around searching for the most quintisseantially Stratty tone he could find, and despite obviously having access to nearly any vintage or high-end guitar, wound up finding a Squier strat that fit the bill best. Listen to the song and tell me that it honestly sounds like a Squier strat to you.

YouTube - Steve Vai - Tender Surrender

EDIT: and don't tell me it was a JEM due to the video; granted not all of it was a Squier, as those tremolo dives at the end sound Floyd Rose-ish. The beginning cleans are what I'm focusing on
 

Skull Mason

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First, EVH's tone on VH1 is the greatest tone of all. He got that with piece of shit equipment and a guitar he slapped together with random parts.

Why don't you post some of your shit so we can settle this tone war once and for all. Steve Vai's JEM tone on Sister is some of the cleanest shit I have ever heard.

Also, a lot of the above mentioned strats and les pauls are so pricey because of the name that is on them, it seems rather elitist to say that great tone cannot be achieved with much less, inexpensive stuff- talk to EVH and see what he would tell you.

"The JEM guitars are ultra-flexible. In fact, when you go for that tubey, single-coil Strat sound, the JEM sounds more like a Strat than a Strat. Ibanez guitars allow me to access any sound that I may need, without the tuning problems associated with other guitars." (GW - 4/91)
"There is a certain romance about picking up a Strat or a Les Paul, but to be perfectly honest, I'm not really interested in collecting vintage instruments. That stuff goes right over my head. What I'm really drawn to is the music." (GW - 4/91)
 
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66057

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Qua?, Squier Strats are popular by professional players. The thin wood they use for the neck creates a "tinnier" sound than a standard American Stratocaster would make.

Jeff Healey is a blind guitarist who uses Squier. They simply put very expensive pickups in there. Listening to Jeff Healey then switching to SRV is night and day. I think you guys listen to too many shredders.
 
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66057

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First, EVH's tone on VH1 is the greatest tone of all. He got that with piece of shit equipment and a guitar he slapped together with random parts.

Why don't you post some of your shit so we can settle this tone war once and for all. Steve Vai's JEM tone on Sister is some of the cleanest shit I have ever heard.

Also, a lot of the above mentioned strats and les pauls are so pricey because of the name that is on them, it seems rather elitist to say that great tone cannot be achieved with much less, inexpensive stuff- talk to EVH and see what he would tell you.

"The JEM guitars are ultra-flexible. In fact, when you go for that tubey, single-coil Strat sound, the JEM sounds more like a Strat than a Strat. Ibanez guitars allow me to access any sound that I may need, without the tuning problems associated with other guitars." (GW - 4/91)
"There is a certain romance about picking up a Strat or a Les Paul, but to be perfectly honest, I'm not really interested in collecting vintage instruments. That stuff goes right over my head. What I'm really drawn to is the music." (GW - 4/91)

I did post my stuff. Go back and check it out. You don't own anything that is comparable to my equipment, and I'm not saying this to be a dick. You simply are unable to sound as good as me because you're running a cheap, one-piece solidbody through a solid-state amplifier.

You seem way too obsessed with Steve Vai's tone. Why don't you go check out Greg Howe or Ritchie Kotzen? They are Ibanez players with good tone who I respect, but they still don't sound nearly as good as players like SRV or Warren Haynes.

They ain't got the feel or the gear. If you want to sound like every other 80's ripoff, alien-noise guitar blazer, then sure, go grab a JEM and turn your gain to 10 and crank away.

If you want to sound good, you look the other direction. Clarity and response, and electronics are simply pieces of shit these days. No digital effects processor or transistor can accurately reproduce your favorite tones. You say you like David Gilmour so much, how come your dumb ass doesn't know about his 60's Strat and tube amps?
 

Skull Mason

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I did post my stuff. Go back and check it out. You don't own anything that is comparable to my equipment, and I'm not saying this to be a dick. You simply are unable to sound as good as me because you're running a cheap, one-piece solidbody through a solid-state amplifier.

You seem way too obsessed with Steve Vai's tone. Why don't you go check out Greg Howe or Ritchie Kotzen? They are Ibanez players with good tone who I respect, but they still don't sound nearly as good as players like SRV or Warren Haynes.

They ain't got the feel or the gear. If you want to sound like every other 80's ripoff, alien-noise guitar blazer, then sure, go grab a JEM and turn your gain to 10 and crank away.

If you want to sound good, you look the other direction. Clarity and response, and electronics are simply pieces of shit these days. No digital effects processor or transistor can accurately reproduce your favorite tones. You say you like David Gilmour so much, how come your dumb ass doesn't know about his 60's Strat and tube amps?

I think you directed that post at the wrong person I am:

not obsesses with Vai's tone, (in fact I am with EVH)
never told you what rig I use, and have checked out greg howe and kotzen, however comparing their tone with SRVs seems kind of wrong, two different styles if you ask me. I am still just going to assume you weren't talking to me because your first paragraph would make you sound like a complete dickhead. Apparently EVH didn't own the kind of rig you have either and I'm pretty sure his shit sounded ten times better, its in the fingers and the skills, people get too caught up with the gear. If you are a good guitar player, you will sound good on anything.
 
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66057

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I think you directed that post at the wrong person


Oops sorry, def. did. You guys had similar avatars in my field of vision.

Back at Hot Rocker then.

Still, I feel like I'm arguing over this with a bunch of amateurs, in which I'll never win the battle of argument because you're all convinced that Steve Vai is the greatest guitar player in the world.

I just don't feel I need to explain too much of myself when some guy is telling me that his 2x12" 50 watt solid state combo will give someone better tone than my tubes. Ain't happenin' buddy. sorry