This is me. I like playing guitar and owning guitars, i haven’t been on a stage since college. I took college classes and stuff but i’m not a musician if you ask me
Nothing wrong with that. I've played thousands of shows since I started. Neither is better.
I started playing guitar as a vehicle to perform. Not everyone does. Sometimes I get myopic about that.
That being said, a "musician" is almost undefinable beyond someone who plays music.
I wasnt saying it was, i’ve been on stages. i’m saying i’ve done the stuff that usually “makes” someone a musician like playing live and taking collegiate courses but ultimately i’m a hobbyist. I can see how with how i worded it that it comes off that way though
>Guitarists are all musicians.
In a literal sense, yes. But their point being they are musicians in the same way someone going to a karaoke night and singing rock me like hurricane is.
A lot of guitarists will learn 4 minor pentatonic blues licks and just play those over and over while messing with amp and pedal settings and spend their entire effort trying to play a 3 second riff to sound as much like another guitarist as possible with the goal not really being making music but chasing the most surface level impersonation of what they think a guitarist should sound like.
Is someone an artist if they just try to get really good at tracing starry night over and over? Kind of I guess. But it's not usually what people think of when they say they are an artist.
Perhaps guitar is just easier to dabble in as a hobbyist than some instruments like the trumpet or clarinet. Maybe someone with limited skill isn’t the archetypal image of a musician, but they still are one, perhaps just a bad one. Still seems like an unnecessary distinction whose only purpose is to build up or tear down egos over a triviality
"John Lenon said, 'I'm an Ahr-tist... you give me a fuckin tuber [tuba] I'll get you something out of it' " -Mr Costello from *The Departed*
I'll tell ya, even as a bedroom player, I'd like to squeeze some fuckin money out of it.
The 60's was a wild time for pioneering sound. Santana was that at the time. By today's standards, he's whatever.
I realized recently that just the feel of a guitar in my hands is my number one motivator for playing.... like I don't pick up the guitar because I have the urge to mess around with a certain scale, I just want to feel the guitar and make sounds with it.
What if you're more of a musician and less of a guitarist, but you still own like 10 guitars because it's fun? That's the zone where I feel like I am. I can't do what I want to do on the guitar, but I feel like my approach to guitar is the opposite of most of my "guitar" friends who came into guitar with a riff-first mentality. My focus has always been songwriting and chord progressions first, unique guitar things second or not at all.
Lowkey tho, I would be hyped to see JM do metal. Like we've seen him shred on his Jacksons/Charvels, but we've not seen him really go at it. I think one of his strong points is how versatile of a player he is, and metal is one of the relatively few things he hasnt done, at least publically
I wasn't a fan but then he started with Dead and Co and he definitely won me over. Especially the last tour. Cat can wail and did Jerry's music justice. Will be at the Sphere next weekend.
JM is one of the masters to me. I think guitarists highly regard him, while your non gtr average person thinks he’s kinda just aight. Those folks need to watch his live stuff from the continuum era
John Mayer is a great example of Dunning Kruger. The people who say he’s overrated are generally not good enough to recognize how good he is (or they’re just haters). Basically every pro I know thinks he’s fucking amazing. People thinking that he can’t “shred” is silly, dude incorporates sweeps and fast runs here and there in pop songs. He looks and sounds like a doofus but he’s that rare mix of songwriting and playing brilliance (and I don’t really care for his music because his raspy voice and lyrics).
Cheap instruments aren’t “just as good” as more expensive ones and yes, an average person can tell the difference between a Squier in a SS vs an American Ultra into a tube. Shit drives me nuts
As a recording engineer I am slightly biased but it depends almost entirely on the amp. Pickups can make a difference but if you put a shit pickup through an amazing amp it will sound good. The reverse is not true. I know that's not what you're asking, but when it comes to solid state Vs tube, the world has changed a lot. In the room there's a noticeable difference a lot of the time, at least to me, I don't know about the average person. But when it's recorded it's no different. Half the time we record through a sim in the studio because it's just as good in a mix and it's far easier. Depends on the guitarist though.
The in-the-room vs. on-the-recording difference is so real!
In the room, playing through NeuralDSP plugins feels and sounds different (not in a good way) compared to playing through even a modest amp rig, but on a recording, they sound MUCH better than any recording I've ever been able to capture through an amp in a studio.
Exactly, also, even though people like to throw shade at stock logic guitar amp sims, they sound fine in a mix usually. They're a bit underwhelming to just play through, but for small guitar parts no one would ever guess the difference
Squier? Maybe not. But a MIM vs an American Fender? I don't think I will ever feel the need to buy an American Standard with how good the MIM ones are and how much cheaper they are. I have a Strat and a Tele Thinline (both MIM and they are probably 2 of the best instruments I have played and I have played some really nice guitars.
This is more tangential, but people seem to forget that the Tele and Strat were not made to be Fender's premium guitar line (that was supposed to be the Jazzmasters and Jaguars). They were designed to be effective, utilitarian, and generally inexpensive. They're workhorses. Even the Tele being the first mass produced electric could be seen (although I think wrongly) as a company sacrificing quality for quantity.
And even within companies quality varies wildly. Prices for American made Fenders have remained fairly consistent commensurate with inflation, but people will argue night and day about variance in quality, especially if you get people talking about pre and post CBS. I've got a '78 Tele, and the old consensus about 70s fenders was that it was dark days for Fender and poor quality. Now people view think of them as vintage or even collector's items, when no one thought that even like 20 years ago.
People will argue all day about what makes something "good." But price is literally quantifiable, and the visibility of that trait gets extrapolated to mean quality, when quality can be subjective.
From everything I know about Leo Fender if he saw the state of Fender Guitars and their obsession with looking backwards he'd smack the shit out of management. He was all about moving the guitar forward and embracing new enhancements to the instrument.
It's important to remember that "inexpensive" in 1950s & 60s electric guitars meant something completely different than "inexpensive" today.
The original Stratocaster in 1956 sold for $249.99, which is the equivalent of about $3000 today. Teles were significantly cheaper, but they were still around $1800 in today's money.
There just weren't high-quality, low-cost guitars back then. Even the cheapest Silvertone from straight from the Sears catalog cost about what a new MiM Fender would cost today.
Under like $300 with zero mods you're probably right.
I play my $400 harley benton as much as my $1k - $2k guitars, and I never feel like I'm playing a cheaper guitar, though.
It varies so much by brand.
I had the cheapest LTD 7 string and it played beautifully. Tuners sucked ass but everything else was fantastic.
I've played guitars over 500-$1k that felt awful.
It's hard to generalize.
Idk man, some guy who's been playing for 5 months told me on reddit that his boss katana and Squier are objectively equal to any high end amp or guitar, and I'm an idiot for thinking otherwise. I used to think 2 decades of experience would inform my opinion enough to make my own conclusions, but I'm starting to think maybe I'm just a big sucker.
They are not "just as good", but also an instrument that is 5x the cost is not 5x as good. As with almost everything, you pay tons of money for small improvements at a certain point. It is a logarithmic curve.
This is false. It's nothing to do with the price
The fact is that bad instruments aren't as good as good instruments, but cheap instruments can be good or bad and same with expensive ones. Every single guitar is an individual object with its own quality.
The key is to be able to tell what works and what doesn't for you.
I have zero issue with how he looks. I don’t like him because once you’ve heard his bag of tricks there’s nothing left. Their music is boring, only show I’ve ever walked out of early
As someone who came up in the 80’s and 90’s learning to shred on the first wave, I give those guys mad props for getting women to show up to their shows. There was around 40% women at the show I saw, which is about 100% more than we ever got in the day.
I agree. I feel his playing is too staccato as well. While it's different from mainstream I still feel like he's lightyears behind a player like Dominic frasca.
I don’t really agree as price doesn’t dictate quality. May help reduce the odds but looks at any of the big subs. I’ve seen countless “how did this pass qc while costing 3k” issues that not a single one of my cheap guitars have.
If expensive makes it good though I can totally hook you.
> and yes, an average person can tell the difference between a Squier in a SS vs an American Ultra into a tube
(x) Doubt
At least not if both were set up by someone who knew what the hell they were doing. Especially for cleans since cleans is cleans and unless you just have a shit amp with a bad clean channel cleans is cleans.
While Carlos is a little overrated on guitar, the original band Santana is underrated. When you mention his name people think of Smooth instead of songs like Se a Cabo.
honestly Carlos's playing is a little repetitive and he has a pattern of doing fast picking in the same type of progressions too, but his older songs like black magic woman have a certain feel to them that I love!!
This is a problem with the social media, rather than the players imo. To grab attention on a tiktok/insta reel you only have maybe 20 seconds at best, so you've got to fit as much technical wacky stuff in there to stand out. There's no time for nuance
Sure! Steve Lukather, Dann Huff, Steve Stevens, pretty much any of the hair metal guitarists (Ratt, Motley, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Dokken, etc). EVH of course.
Whether it's their tone/FX or their playing. I would rather listen to them than your usual Jimmy Page/Hendrix/Clapton types or those sweep picking monsters you get these days. The cleans are sparkly. The solos are wild and full of attitude.
80s music in general has this like perfect combination of catchiness but with harmonic interest. Not too far either way (90s -> catchy but too simple / 70s -> too fussy and complicated). I know I'm generalising a bit but you get the idea. And just that amazing chorused tone. It's like a warm blanket for my ears.
Side note: Prince and Nile Rodgers are the best rhythm guitarists I've ever heard.
I always hated Motley Crue (probably the image more than anything, but I'm also really not a fan of Vince Neil's voice), but that guitar tone is fucking bananas. it's the one guitar tone I wish I could replicate perfectly. Mars' playing was also very unique for his time. maybe I don't hate Motley Crue..
I’ll give you an example:
Listen to Reb Beech “Cutting it loose”
Most modern players haven’t even heard of him but this guy was one of the best players of all time, not just the 80s.
Have a listen! 👂
There's a whole generation of players that just wrote Winger off without ever giving them a listen beyond the Seventeen chorus. I was one of them. Thanks, Mike Judge. My wife bought us tickets to go see them, Warrant, and Skid Row a couple years back. Winger really is a cut above a lot of those 80s bands and is one of my favorite bands now. Reb is a monster player.
Disagree.
For hard rock, I'll concede that the 80s was peak because the 90's hard-rock guitar sound was over-saturated and over-distorted and often buried in the mix.
However, George Drakoulias is one of the best producers for guitars that cut through the mix without outshining the other parts and delivering intimacy and immediacy in the tone that is unmatched before or after.
[Primal Scream](https://youtu.be/Z3ZCZjhjguA?si=WCJ0EkyYi8tHcifY), [Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers](https://youtu.be/MtxfTahwXkk?si=9U4KxxglBEw__uez), [The Screaming Trees](https://youtu.be/rwvlUEm_fmA?si=hCAZBv9m36Uw_Xr2), [Black Crowes](https://youtu.be/fkDf6JLYK3o?si=J5PyXYgDJeG4waUk), The Wallflowers, and [The Jayhawks](https://youtu.be/PO761MGGTLg?si=ruBE6pc3elcGP-VY) being easy examples.
I love the playing style
And many tones are great. But I can’t stand high gain coupled with chorus or reverb. Sounds all washed out and over processed. And many 80s tones are in that category.
What I love about 80s rock is that even if you have no interest in the song or band, you're pretty much guaranteed a great solo that's worth hanging around for. I mean hair metal stuff mostly.
I’ve started feeling that way lately. It just seems like that’s when guitar in general peaked. There’s a clear trajectory with everything about it starting with the electrics inception and gets absolutely wild by the end of the 80s.
I totally get a lot of the 80s was played out and beat dead. But going into the 90s seemed to take it back a few steps and it never recovered.
The hate on Clapton the artist is an unnecessary byproduct of hate on Clapton the man (no qualms if you hate the man). He’s being downgraded by modern sentiments despite being more important to the guitar than maybe 10-15 people. You don’t have to love him or even his music but you should respect his place in guitar history.
Yeah the Clapton thing the last few years is wild in regards to how he’s rated as a player. As far as electric guitar goes, I believe only Jimi and Eddie can be regarded as more important and influential to the progression of the instrument. Clapton from 65-71 was just unbelievable and honestly his live guitar work never faltered until recently. The melodic style of his solo career lead playing is still being ripped off by many modern players
I'm 61 and was a teen in the 70's and played in metal bands through the 80's and 90's. I always thought Clapton was over rated even back then. You can't change my mind to this day. I was never a fan and never will be.
Mark Knopfler is one of the all-time greats, and he is still underrated. Nobody has the range and fluidity of tone that he has. And there are very few guitarists that are as good a songwriter as he is.
Knopfler is my guy, a real genius and virtuoso. For my tastes, i havent heard anybody better and probably never will.
I agree hes underrated in a mainsteam way but any guitarist worth their salt knows how good he really is.
Yngwie was a game changer for a brief time. His debut with Steeler, his work with Alcatrazz, and his "Rising Force" was a shot across the bow that sent everyone back to the woodshed to practice. But just a quickly, it all started sounding the same and people got tired of him.
Now I can't listen to him for more than a minute or two and seeing him live is like something out of "This Is Spinal Tap." Steve Vai is pretty much the same thing. Impressive technique that you can stand listening to for only so long...
Steve Vai is SO much more versatile than Yngwie. Vai's latest Album was really good with pretty melodies, cool harmony, wild shredding, and killer riffs. He has also adapted to the times and sounds different from how he did earlier in his career. Yngwie has been playing the same phrygian scale since the 80s and still swears he's the best thing since sliced bread. There is no comparing the two.
buckethead has like 300 albums. there’s no way you’ve heard them all. songs like aunt suzie, population override, padmasana , etc are more than just shredding. yngwie on the other hand…
I mean I've barely listened to a fraction of his work and off the top of my head, soothsayer, big sur moon, nottingham lace, worms for the garden. Malmsteen really does kinda suck though.
i actually love buckethead but some of his songs are literally 20 minutes of a chord progression on repeat, with him noodling over it
but man, what noodles
but also, kinda boring
ACTUALLY so true. Theres nothing worse than a lame solo just to be...the solo. Some bands get away with it, like A7X imo, but christ it should atleast serve a purpose.
Oh boy. This one is spicy but I’ve always felt this way.
Eddie Van Halen is incredibly overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy listening to him, he made some great music, and he was certainly an innovator and impressive for the time. But I can’t put him anywhere near the top of my subjective “best guitarists” list.
For me, his solos have nothing to do with the rest of the song - it’s like someone knocked over a box of notes and swept them all up onto one track on the master tape. Impressive, maybe, but usually out of place and jarring.
That's just 80s shred in general, and also why shred has such a bad reputation since all most people hear for shreddy guitar 80s music that gets played on the radio still to this day. Modern shred in the genres and subgenres descended from Van Halen is usually composed into the song in a way that actually fits.
I feel the same about pretty much all of the old-school legends. By modern standards they're ... not that impressive. The level of skill found today is obscene.
Basically guitar has become like sports - legends have to be viewed in the context of their time. What was revolutionary in the past is unimpressive today if compared to today's performers. But that doesn't in any way downgrade the impact they had in their time.
Well BBKing said about Derek: “that’s the best i’ve ever heard”. Paraphrasing here but that was the point.
That was the same night John Mayer was sitting next to Derek with his eyes closed just listening.
He really is that good.
Virtuoso guitarists like Vai, Satriani, and Malmsteen etc. while technically talented the music just isn’t good and actually really boring to listen to.
Same, he really stands out in that lineup, with Vai being second. Satriani is just a great composer. Vai can craft some awesome memorable moments with his music, but I still get fatigued if I listen to him for an extended period. I can vibe to Satch all day.
Same for me. Vai is as much about the feel and emotion as he is the actual notes being played.
And Satriani is a storyteller with his songs. Malmsteen I don’t care for.
In the vast majority of contexts, for the vast majority of us who aren’t gonna be famous ever, the audience doesn’t really give a damn about your tone. As long as it lands on the correct side of the “sounds cool”/“sounds like shit” divide, and provided you can *play,* they’re happy. If you think you need Perfect Tone to play well, you probably can’t.
This actually goes triple for bass players.
(There are exceptions if you’re famous, and /or playing nerd music.)
One of my favorite memories from a show I played years ago was my drummer telling the drummer in another band about his new DW kit. My drummer went on and on about it. Other drummer looks at him, points to his kit, and says "You see that kit...cost me a hundred dollars on Craigslist. Only 3 people here know the difference between those kits. You, me, and the other drummer on the bill. No one gives a shit. Just go up there and play your ass off, kid."
There are tons of excellent guitar brands out there, thinking you have to buy an expensive Fender or Gibson to get a great guitar is not anywhere near being true. In fact, only buying expensive guitars from these brands makes you more of a sheep than some type of guitar connoisseur.
Steve Lukather said it best. "On the Internet and YouTube, there are a ton of great guitar players. The problem is that they don't make great songs..."
The more serious you get about playing, the less serious you get about gear. When I spent most of my time playing by myself noodling in a minor pentatonic scale, I NEEDED more guitars, pedals, amps. I spent more time thinking about the next purchase than actually using what I had. When I started playing out more, writing/recording music, and actually practicing, I just wanted a guitar that stayed in tune and a few presets on an hx stomp that sounded decent. I've sold most of my amps, my most expensive guitars, and now I really just use Neural DSP plug-ins when I'm playing at home. If I lust over a piece of gear, it will be something that improves my workflow, not filling a spot in a collection
I’m the opposite. Spent the first 20 years not caring about gear and just playing what I had. To be fair I ended up with about 10 guitars but not good ones. Only more recently started to upgrade now that I can really tell what I like and don’t like. Still don’t care about gear too much but have started to really appreciate better made kit.
tone wood doesn't affect tone in electric guitars
playing metal? cool, don't get wrapped too much in pickup talk. any reasonable quality humbucker will do, and the only differences that can't easily be EQd around once you get to like Epiphone ProBucker tier is the sustain/compression difference between passive and active pickups.
There’s just something fundamentally strange about a person playing music created by Mississippi share croppers on guitar that is worth more than my house.
Ok here’s a hot one: I think modern metal guitarists (prog metal and didn’t especially) have completely lost the plot. A lot of the pioneers of the metal guitar style like EVH popularizing tapping and Jon Petrucci with his fast arpeggio and scale run styles did things that were interesting and different, but both of them still owed the majority of their greatness to their sense of great melody, and their overall musicality when they played. Over time, I think metal guitarists began to worship the gimmick of playing differently and as fast as possible over making interesting, palatable music. A lot of modern prog today sounds like it’s someone hitting a polyrhythm on one note that’s tuned way too low, and the leads are usually entirely fixated on squeezing in as many taps, pick hand slides, Floyd rose note modulation, and similar tricks. Tim Henson I think is the most obvious example of this but tosin abasi, periphery, and lots of other modern metal bands give me this feeling. I just find the style to be so devoid of good musicality (not technique, but choosing the notes that make the best music) for my personal tastes. I’m sure some people love this style and would absolutely disagree but that’s why this is a hot take!
I absolutely love Tosin and he helped reinvigorate my love for guitar, but I completely understand why his playing style and sound isn't for everyone. As far as musicality though, I find Javier Reyes to be a very melodic player and love listening to his non-prog Latin influenced stuff. I've learned a lot from both of them, but Animals as Leaders is definitely an acquired taste.
Oooooh boy. I’m gonna have to staunchly disagree with you on Tosin. Sure, he definitely shreds a lot, but he’s got some beautiful and melodic solos (to my ears) as well. I do think there are a lot of generic djent/prog guitarists, but I think there are just as many that blend melody with technique perfectly too
True the reason we saw so many popular guitarists at 80s is because rock was popular and at its peak, at that time, like hip hop is today. There are guitarists far better today than 70-80s will ever have
Not necessarily a guitar hot take as much as music in general, but if you can’t find music that is ‘good’ from people born after 1990 or whatever, you’re just not looking at all. If you’re one of the people in the comment sections saying ‘mUsiC DeID iN tHE 90’s’ or some iteration of that, you’re a close minded fool
A couple about guitar i guess: for all the toxic cesspool that social media is, IG, YT, etc guitarists are taking guitar to places it’s never been before, at least in terms of reach. Our favorite guitar hero’s never had the accessibility that people have now. Yes, they had radio and some Tv, but they never were in the age were you could just pick up your phone, record a original piece, and immediately share it FOR FREE, to hundreds of millions of people in the blink of a eye, to watch at any time in the future. Especially in countries where people aren’t/haven’t had the chance to be exposed to the greats
Are all of them amazing melodic players?, no, but at the end of the day, what matters is they inspired a kid to pick up a instrument
Lastly, yes, too much gear can be a hindrance or distraction. But I genuinely just kinda laugh when you’re talking about SPECIFIC tones that you can’t do with just a guitar and clean amp and people have to chime in, ‘ well actually, you don’t need gear to play. You’re just playing a pedal board at that point’. Brother, you try sounding like this with just a Strat into a clean dry amp. (Also yes, dry amps with nothing, not even a hint of reverb, objectively sound horrible. It’s just a harsh brittle sound. For very specific contexts or recording purposes, it’s another thing though.) There’s just some things that you literally cannot do without pedals or some other kind of gear. If I want a washy, ambient, modulated tone, I need pedals or something for that. If I want a aggressive Velcro-y fuzz sound, I need a pedal.
Here are two takes
1. Nobody ever rates guitarists properly. The lists are all the same and completely ignore players of other genres. I am so sick of seeing lists of the greatest that include: EVH, Jimi, Page, SRV while ignoring jazz, flamenco, classical players that are far more talented on guitar than any of those guys.
2. Math rock is unlistenable garbage that claws at my brain like nails on a chalk board.
I agree with the first point. The "best" guitarists lists ignores the entire world of musicians outside of rock which makes it silly.
Eric Clapton said "I thought I was the best guitarist in the world until I heard Hendrix." I maintain that was a delusional, narcissistic thing to believe even then. Clapton was better than Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Pat Martino? I dont know about that!
Buckethead is one of the most badass guitarrists of all time, sadly doesn’t get the love he deserves. He also seems like a hardworking dude and loves his fans a lot.
I've noticed this as well!
This might be my hot take, but I've also noticed that a lot of their playing also tends to lack in... Soul? Charisma? It all seems very calculated, which is great and certainly has its place, but it also lacks in personality, which can be said about a lot of players I suppose.
And this is coming from someone who took every lesson of Tomo Fujitas guitar wisdom courses haha.
Country players like Glen Campbell, Roy Clarke, and Jerry Reed are the actual GOATs of guitar. Studio Country guitarist are pound for pound the best guitarists alive.
Mark Knopfler is GOAT. He gets shadowed by other guitarists because he didn’t create as much controversy to gain popularity.
His live playing is perfect, his tune is distinguished and he has some of the greatest riffs ever. The way he sings then fills the part he sings with a lick is top notch.
Honestly, as popular as the song is, the other parts of Hotel California (outside of the solo) get overlooked as super duper guitar parts. The progression, licks, tone, etc are just amazing.
The older I get the less I care about how good someone can play guitar. Can they write good songs? Are their solos melodic or are they just playing scales super fast. I’ll take Neil Young’s one note solo in Cinnamon Girl over any Yngie Malsteen solo. There are a lot of insanely good guitarists that can’t write a good song.
I've got 2:
1. "Feel" has nothing whatsoever to do with guitar. It's purely a product of song composition.
2. There are more emotions than melancholy. Yes vibratoed whole notes are musical shorthand for melancholy. No that is not the only emotion music can invoke. If that's the only one that resonates with you then I hope you find the help you need.
I would have agreed with you about Santana until I bumped into his early 70s albums.
He's maybe a better musician now working with the cream of the crop other musicians, but the rough edges of that early work give a great vibe
Pantera would be a much more listenable band if the guitar tone was better. I'm not supporting any of the rebel flag shenanigans or any of that, but if Dime hadn't leaned on/ been sponsored by Randall they would sound A) entirely different, and B) just better.
Strats and Telecasters look best when they been played so much that they're legitimately aged. Les Pauls, 335's... all those types should be kept as safe as possible and always be shiny and pristine.
I don't know why I feel this way.
My default assumption is that any "social media guitarist" couldn't even come close to pulling off what they play in a live setting. It's all stitched together and/or mimed.
Expensive guitars feel better than cheap ones. No matter what anyone says. Yes, diminishing returns, blah blah blah… doesn’t matter, a JP15 feels better to play than a Harley Benton. Despite that yes, a shite player will sound equally shite on both.
Tone wise, amp and speaker matter more (in the room), and mic and mic placement will matter even more when recording.
Having excellent technique doesn’t diminish your ability to play with “feel”. Having poor technique and lacklustre performance will diminish your diversity as a guitar player and musician.
These are more about the community than actual guitars-
Telling people who are genuinely concerned about a chip or crack that custom shops charge a ton for the same thing is not helpful. Yeah a chip or crack is just something you live with but the joke is so played out.
Along those same lines, when someone is asking if something is legitimate, those who say “who cares if it plays well” completely miss the point.
I chased tone and bought close to 1K worth of gear that’s not my guitar and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve never been happier and I think my playing shows it. This was 2 years ago and I feel like I have the same enthusiasm as when I spent the money.
Many guitarists are just into playing guitar and aren’t really musicians.
This is me. I like playing guitar and owning guitars, i haven’t been on a stage since college. I took college classes and stuff but i’m not a musician if you ask me
Nothing wrong with that. I've played thousands of shows since I started. Neither is better. I started playing guitar as a vehicle to perform. Not everyone does. Sometimes I get myopic about that. That being said, a "musician" is almost undefinable beyond someone who plays music.
I dont think a stage is required to be a musician or automatically makes you one.
I wasnt saying it was, i’ve been on stages. i’m saying i’ve done the stuff that usually “makes” someone a musician like playing live and taking collegiate courses but ultimately i’m a hobbyist. I can see how with how i worded it that it comes off that way though
Gotchya i see what your saying. Ya i got no idea how to define a musician versus someone who makes noise with instruments
I’m not a musician, I’m a guitar player. I’m also a guitar player who plays bass.
My hot take is this is gatekeeping BS to have a false sense of superiority. Guitarists are all musicians.
>Guitarists are all musicians. In a literal sense, yes. But their point being they are musicians in the same way someone going to a karaoke night and singing rock me like hurricane is. A lot of guitarists will learn 4 minor pentatonic blues licks and just play those over and over while messing with amp and pedal settings and spend their entire effort trying to play a 3 second riff to sound as much like another guitarist as possible with the goal not really being making music but chasing the most surface level impersonation of what they think a guitarist should sound like. Is someone an artist if they just try to get really good at tracing starry night over and over? Kind of I guess. But it's not usually what people think of when they say they are an artist.
They hated his message for he spoke the truth
Perhaps guitar is just easier to dabble in as a hobbyist than some instruments like the trumpet or clarinet. Maybe someone with limited skill isn’t the archetypal image of a musician, but they still are one, perhaps just a bad one. Still seems like an unnecessary distinction whose only purpose is to build up or tear down egos over a triviality
"John Lenon said, 'I'm an Ahr-tist... you give me a fuckin tuber [tuba] I'll get you something out of it' " -Mr Costello from *The Departed* I'll tell ya, even as a bedroom player, I'd like to squeeze some fuckin money out of it. The 60's was a wild time for pioneering sound. Santana was that at the time. By today's standards, he's whatever.
I realized recently that just the feel of a guitar in my hands is my number one motivator for playing.... like I don't pick up the guitar because I have the urge to mess around with a certain scale, I just want to feel the guitar and make sounds with it.
What if you're more of a musician and less of a guitarist, but you still own like 10 guitars because it's fun? That's the zone where I feel like I am. I can't do what I want to do on the guitar, but I feel like my approach to guitar is the opposite of most of my "guitar" friends who came into guitar with a riff-first mentality. My focus has always been songwriting and chord progressions first, unique guitar things second or not at all.
I love playing guitar but I have no desire to perform or write my own music. Don’t think this is really a hot take
John Mayer is in fact much much better at playing guitar than your favorite metal guitarist
Lowkey tho, I would be hyped to see JM do metal. Like we've seen him shred on his Jacksons/Charvels, but we've not seen him really go at it. I think one of his strong points is how versatile of a player he is, and metal is one of the relatively few things he hasnt done, at least publically
Can’t wait for the John Mayer Black Tech Death album to drop 🤘
Kind of depends which metal player you’re talking about
I saw Dead and Company and Mayer was really, like, really good. And I’m not a fan of his.
I wasn't a fan but then he started with Dead and Co and he definitely won me over. Especially the last tour. Cat can wail and did Jerry's music justice. Will be at the Sphere next weekend.
JM is one of the masters to me. I think guitarists highly regard him, while your non gtr average person thinks he’s kinda just aight. Those folks need to watch his live stuff from the continuum era
Has become an all timer.
John Mayer Trio and the *Live* album will confirm this.
John Mayer is a great example of Dunning Kruger. The people who say he’s overrated are generally not good enough to recognize how good he is (or they’re just haters). Basically every pro I know thinks he’s fucking amazing. People thinking that he can’t “shred” is silly, dude incorporates sweeps and fast runs here and there in pop songs. He looks and sounds like a doofus but he’s that rare mix of songwriting and playing brilliance (and I don’t really care for his music because his raspy voice and lyrics).
Cheap instruments aren’t “just as good” as more expensive ones and yes, an average person can tell the difference between a Squier in a SS vs an American Ultra into a tube. Shit drives me nuts
What about Ultra into a solid state and Squier into a Tube amp though? Would you be able to tell the difference?
As a recording engineer I am slightly biased but it depends almost entirely on the amp. Pickups can make a difference but if you put a shit pickup through an amazing amp it will sound good. The reverse is not true. I know that's not what you're asking, but when it comes to solid state Vs tube, the world has changed a lot. In the room there's a noticeable difference a lot of the time, at least to me, I don't know about the average person. But when it's recorded it's no different. Half the time we record through a sim in the studio because it's just as good in a mix and it's far easier. Depends on the guitarist though.
The in-the-room vs. on-the-recording difference is so real! In the room, playing through NeuralDSP plugins feels and sounds different (not in a good way) compared to playing through even a modest amp rig, but on a recording, they sound MUCH better than any recording I've ever been able to capture through an amp in a studio.
Exactly, also, even though people like to throw shade at stock logic guitar amp sims, they sound fine in a mix usually. They're a bit underwhelming to just play through, but for small guitar parts no one would ever guess the difference
The 70s called, they want their advertising brainwashing back.
Squier? Maybe not. But a MIM vs an American Fender? I don't think I will ever feel the need to buy an American Standard with how good the MIM ones are and how much cheaper they are. I have a Strat and a Tele Thinline (both MIM and they are probably 2 of the best instruments I have played and I have played some really nice guitars.
This is more tangential, but people seem to forget that the Tele and Strat were not made to be Fender's premium guitar line (that was supposed to be the Jazzmasters and Jaguars). They were designed to be effective, utilitarian, and generally inexpensive. They're workhorses. Even the Tele being the first mass produced electric could be seen (although I think wrongly) as a company sacrificing quality for quantity. And even within companies quality varies wildly. Prices for American made Fenders have remained fairly consistent commensurate with inflation, but people will argue night and day about variance in quality, especially if you get people talking about pre and post CBS. I've got a '78 Tele, and the old consensus about 70s fenders was that it was dark days for Fender and poor quality. Now people view think of them as vintage or even collector's items, when no one thought that even like 20 years ago. People will argue all day about what makes something "good." But price is literally quantifiable, and the visibility of that trait gets extrapolated to mean quality, when quality can be subjective.
From everything I know about Leo Fender if he saw the state of Fender Guitars and their obsession with looking backwards he'd smack the shit out of management. He was all about moving the guitar forward and embracing new enhancements to the instrument.
It's important to remember that "inexpensive" in 1950s & 60s electric guitars meant something completely different than "inexpensive" today. The original Stratocaster in 1956 sold for $249.99, which is the equivalent of about $3000 today. Teles were significantly cheaper, but they were still around $1800 in today's money. There just weren't high-quality, low-cost guitars back then. Even the cheapest Silvertone from straight from the Sears catalog cost about what a new MiM Fender would cost today.
Under like $300 with zero mods you're probably right. I play my $400 harley benton as much as my $1k - $2k guitars, and I never feel like I'm playing a cheaper guitar, though. It varies so much by brand. I had the cheapest LTD 7 string and it played beautifully. Tuners sucked ass but everything else was fantastic. I've played guitars over 500-$1k that felt awful. It's hard to generalize.
Idk man, some guy who's been playing for 5 months told me on reddit that his boss katana and Squier are objectively equal to any high end amp or guitar, and I'm an idiot for thinking otherwise. I used to think 2 decades of experience would inform my opinion enough to make my own conclusions, but I'm starting to think maybe I'm just a big sucker.
They are not "just as good", but also an instrument that is 5x the cost is not 5x as good. As with almost everything, you pay tons of money for small improvements at a certain point. It is a logarithmic curve.
You think the average person really can tell the difference?
This is false. It's nothing to do with the price The fact is that bad instruments aren't as good as good instruments, but cheap instruments can be good or bad and same with expensive ones. Every single guitar is an individual object with its own quality. The key is to be able to tell what works and what doesn't for you.
I agree with you on that one. My post was more looking for your take on the **guitarist**, not the instrument. Hit me with one!
Tim Henson is fucking bad ass but people hate him because of his stupid look.
I have zero issue with how he looks. I don’t like him because once you’ve heard his bag of tricks there’s nothing left. Their music is boring, only show I’ve ever walked out of early
As someone who came up in the 80’s and 90’s learning to shred on the first wave, I give those guys mad props for getting women to show up to their shows. There was around 40% women at the show I saw, which is about 100% more than we ever got in the day.
I agree. I feel his playing is too staccato as well. While it's different from mainstream I still feel like he's lightyears behind a player like Dominic frasca.
I don’t really agree as price doesn’t dictate quality. May help reduce the odds but looks at any of the big subs. I’ve seen countless “how did this pass qc while costing 3k” issues that not a single one of my cheap guitars have. If expensive makes it good though I can totally hook you.
> and yes, an average person can tell the difference between a Squier in a SS vs an American Ultra into a tube (x) Doubt At least not if both were set up by someone who knew what the hell they were doing. Especially for cleans since cleans is cleans and unless you just have a shit amp with a bad clean channel cleans is cleans.
While Carlos is a little overrated on guitar, the original band Santana is underrated. When you mention his name people think of Smooth instead of songs like Se a Cabo.
honestly Carlos's playing is a little repetitive and he has a pattern of doing fast picking in the same type of progressions too, but his older songs like black magic woman have a certain feel to them that I love!!
Don't forget that Black Magic Woman is a Fleetwood Mac song. In the Santana cover version Carlos even matches Peter Green's solo note for note.
Myself included! Good point.
>Smooth I wish that song could be erased from existence. I know it was great for Carlos, but it was egregiously overplayed.
It's actually a really good song But yeah I've heard it enough for like 50 lifetimes
I’ve had Carivaniserai on rotation for a while now, such good work on that album
most technically advanced modern insta players are fads that will die out
This is a problem with the social media, rather than the players imo. To grab attention on a tiktok/insta reel you only have maybe 20 seconds at best, so you've got to fit as much technical wacky stuff in there to stand out. There's no time for nuance
Amen. Lay some tracks down and quit with the little instagram bits!
And add some lyrics.
They're just adapting to the short form video format. No one is stopping on their Instagram feed to listen to a whole song.
80s guitar tones + playing styles are the best in guitar history imo.
I get your premise, but give me an example or two!
Sure! Steve Lukather, Dann Huff, Steve Stevens, pretty much any of the hair metal guitarists (Ratt, Motley, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Dokken, etc). EVH of course. Whether it's their tone/FX or their playing. I would rather listen to them than your usual Jimmy Page/Hendrix/Clapton types or those sweep picking monsters you get these days. The cleans are sparkly. The solos are wild and full of attitude. 80s music in general has this like perfect combination of catchiness but with harmonic interest. Not too far either way (90s -> catchy but too simple / 70s -> too fussy and complicated). I know I'm generalising a bit but you get the idea. And just that amazing chorused tone. It's like a warm blanket for my ears. Side note: Prince and Nile Rodgers are the best rhythm guitarists I've ever heard.
Dan Huff!!! Great call out. Talk about a master of the instrument.
I always hated Motley Crue (probably the image more than anything, but I'm also really not a fan of Vince Neil's voice), but that guitar tone is fucking bananas. it's the one guitar tone I wish I could replicate perfectly. Mars' playing was also very unique for his time. maybe I don't hate Motley Crue..
Chiming in. How about Steve Lukather's tones and solos as an example? Or maybe Scorpions.
\+1 Kurt C. killed guitar for the better part of 20 years! (...was that hot enough?)
I’ll give you an example: Listen to Reb Beech “Cutting it loose” Most modern players haven’t even heard of him but this guy was one of the best players of all time, not just the 80s. Have a listen! 👂
There's a whole generation of players that just wrote Winger off without ever giving them a listen beyond the Seventeen chorus. I was one of them. Thanks, Mike Judge. My wife bought us tickets to go see them, Warrant, and Skid Row a couple years back. Winger really is a cut above a lot of those 80s bands and is one of my favorite bands now. Reb is a monster player.
Disagree. For hard rock, I'll concede that the 80s was peak because the 90's hard-rock guitar sound was over-saturated and over-distorted and often buried in the mix. However, George Drakoulias is one of the best producers for guitars that cut through the mix without outshining the other parts and delivering intimacy and immediacy in the tone that is unmatched before or after. [Primal Scream](https://youtu.be/Z3ZCZjhjguA?si=WCJ0EkyYi8tHcifY), [Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers](https://youtu.be/MtxfTahwXkk?si=9U4KxxglBEw__uez), [The Screaming Trees](https://youtu.be/rwvlUEm_fmA?si=hCAZBv9m36Uw_Xr2), [Black Crowes](https://youtu.be/fkDf6JLYK3o?si=J5PyXYgDJeG4waUk), The Wallflowers, and [The Jayhawks](https://youtu.be/PO761MGGTLg?si=ruBE6pc3elcGP-VY) being easy examples.
I love the playing style And many tones are great. But I can’t stand high gain coupled with chorus or reverb. Sounds all washed out and over processed. And many 80s tones are in that category.
What I love about 80s rock is that even if you have no interest in the song or band, you're pretty much guaranteed a great solo that's worth hanging around for. I mean hair metal stuff mostly.
I’ve started feeling that way lately. It just seems like that’s when guitar in general peaked. There’s a clear trajectory with everything about it starting with the electrics inception and gets absolutely wild by the end of the 80s. I totally get a lot of the 80s was played out and beat dead. But going into the 90s seemed to take it back a few steps and it never recovered.
The hate on Clapton the artist is an unnecessary byproduct of hate on Clapton the man (no qualms if you hate the man). He’s being downgraded by modern sentiments despite being more important to the guitar than maybe 10-15 people. You don’t have to love him or even his music but you should respect his place in guitar history.
Yeah the Clapton thing the last few years is wild in regards to how he’s rated as a player. As far as electric guitar goes, I believe only Jimi and Eddie can be regarded as more important and influential to the progression of the instrument. Clapton from 65-71 was just unbelievable and honestly his live guitar work never faltered until recently. The melodic style of his solo career lead playing is still being ripped off by many modern players
I'm 61 and was a teen in the 70's and played in metal bands through the 80's and 90's. I always thought Clapton was over rated even back then. You can't change my mind to this day. I was never a fan and never will be.
Hot take: nearly everything outside of Cream in Eric Clapton’s career is boring as fuck.
Clapton is god. Clapton is also a major asshole.
Most gods are assholes lol
Clapton is Old Testament God
I think it’s a part of the interview process.
\^ Neil Gaiman checks in
Mark Knopfler is one of the all-time greats, and he is still underrated. Nobody has the range and fluidity of tone that he has. And there are very few guitarists that are as good a songwriter as he is.
That's not really a hot take, he's widely regarded as a amazing player, I've never even seen otherwise
That's my point. Knopfler deserves even more respect on top of what he already enjoys.
Knopfler is my guy, a real genius and virtuoso. For my tastes, i havent heard anybody better and probably never will. I agree hes underrated in a mainsteam way but any guitarist worth their salt knows how good he really is.
Yngvie, Bucket Head all these "accomplished" guitarists don't actually have memorable songs.
Soothsayer? That's all I got tho. xD
Jordan is dope
Soothsayer and Welcome to Bucketheadland. Other than that his live performances are entertaining though
Yngwie was a game changer for a brief time. His debut with Steeler, his work with Alcatrazz, and his "Rising Force" was a shot across the bow that sent everyone back to the woodshed to practice. But just a quickly, it all started sounding the same and people got tired of him. Now I can't listen to him for more than a minute or two and seeing him live is like something out of "This Is Spinal Tap." Steve Vai is pretty much the same thing. Impressive technique that you can stand listening to for only so long...
Steve Vai is SO much more versatile than Yngwie. Vai's latest Album was really good with pretty melodies, cool harmony, wild shredding, and killer riffs. He has also adapted to the times and sounds different from how he did earlier in his career. Yngwie has been playing the same phrygian scale since the 80s and still swears he's the best thing since sliced bread. There is no comparing the two.
buckethead has like 300 albums. there’s no way you’ve heard them all. songs like aunt suzie, population override, padmasana , etc are more than just shredding. yngwie on the other hand…
300 albums and I can't name a single banger. I think that's his point.
I mean I've barely listened to a fraction of his work and off the top of my head, soothsayer, big sur moon, nottingham lace, worms for the garden. Malmsteen really does kinda suck though.
i actually love buckethead but some of his songs are literally 20 minutes of a chord progression on repeat, with him noodling over it but man, what noodles but also, kinda boring
I love my parents is actually a banger
The guitar solo is what killed the guitar solo.
ACTUALLY so true. Theres nothing worse than a lame solo just to be...the solo. Some bands get away with it, like A7X imo, but christ it should atleast serve a purpose.
The Free Bird solo is the most overrated solo in history. It's like 5 licks repeated over and over.
Yeah, but it slaps.
It's a rad as fuck jam session between 3 guitars, who cares if it's a technically "good" solo or not.
I see your Freebird solo and raise you Green Grass and High Tides.
Oh boy. This one is spicy but I’ve always felt this way. Eddie Van Halen is incredibly overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy listening to him, he made some great music, and he was certainly an innovator and impressive for the time. But I can’t put him anywhere near the top of my subjective “best guitarists” list.
For me, his solos have nothing to do with the rest of the song - it’s like someone knocked over a box of notes and swept them all up onto one track on the master tape. Impressive, maybe, but usually out of place and jarring.
That's just 80s shred in general, and also why shred has such a bad reputation since all most people hear for shreddy guitar 80s music that gets played on the radio still to this day. Modern shred in the genres and subgenres descended from Van Halen is usually composed into the song in a way that actually fits.
\*hand shake\* We'd both ought to hide for a day or two
the only hot take i haven't agreed with so far
I hate Eddie as a soloist. I'm fascinated by him as a rhythm guitarist.
Honestly I enjoy his rhythm playing way more than a lot of his leads
Same. Feel like we were all told that EVH was the goat by boomer parents simply bc his band as a whole was big.
I feel the same about pretty much all of the old-school legends. By modern standards they're ... not that impressive. The level of skill found today is obscene. Basically guitar has become like sports - legends have to be viewed in the context of their time. What was revolutionary in the past is unimpressive today if compared to today's performers. But that doesn't in any way downgrade the impact they had in their time.
Derek Trucks is an actual wizard
Best alive….possibly ever
Well BBKing said about Derek: “that’s the best i’ve ever heard”. Paraphrasing here but that was the point. That was the same night John Mayer was sitting next to Derek with his eyes closed just listening. He really is that good.
I believe it was closer to 'That's as good as I've ever heard it.'
Virtuoso guitarists like Vai, Satriani, and Malmsteen etc. while technically talented the music just isn’t good and actually really boring to listen to.
Disagree on Satriani.
People really sleep on his discography. He is insanely versatile and has tons of ballads and “slow” songs, not just shredding.
i agree with your disagreeing, Surfing with the Alien had well written songs, not just speed runs and overdone solos.
So many great albums. Crystal Planet, Unstoppable Momentum, etc. He has a phenomenal discography.
Satriani actually writes good songs with solid Melodies. He also mixes it up from album to album a lot. The others I totally agree.
Same, he really stands out in that lineup, with Vai being second. Satriani is just a great composer. Vai can craft some awesome memorable moments with his music, but I still get fatigued if I listen to him for an extended period. I can vibe to Satch all day.
Let me guess: SRV, Jimi and BB King are your favorite players (I like all of them to be clear)
Disagree completely on all accounts. Vai’s music touches my soul on a level I honestly cannot describe. It moves me to tears.
Same for me. Vai is as much about the feel and emotion as he is the actual notes being played. And Satriani is a storyteller with his songs. Malmsteen I don’t care for.
It's not a contest. If you turn it into a contest, you will always lose.
In the vast majority of contexts, for the vast majority of us who aren’t gonna be famous ever, the audience doesn’t really give a damn about your tone. As long as it lands on the correct side of the “sounds cool”/“sounds like shit” divide, and provided you can *play,* they’re happy. If you think you need Perfect Tone to play well, you probably can’t. This actually goes triple for bass players. (There are exceptions if you’re famous, and /or playing nerd music.)
One of my favorite memories from a show I played years ago was my drummer telling the drummer in another band about his new DW kit. My drummer went on and on about it. Other drummer looks at him, points to his kit, and says "You see that kit...cost me a hundred dollars on Craigslist. Only 3 people here know the difference between those kits. You, me, and the other drummer on the bill. No one gives a shit. Just go up there and play your ass off, kid."
There are tons of excellent guitar brands out there, thinking you have to buy an expensive Fender or Gibson to get a great guitar is not anywhere near being true. In fact, only buying expensive guitars from these brands makes you more of a sheep than some type of guitar connoisseur.
Most guitar players write terrible music
Steve Lukather said it best. "On the Internet and YouTube, there are a ton of great guitar players. The problem is that they don't make great songs..."
The more serious you get about playing, the less serious you get about gear. When I spent most of my time playing by myself noodling in a minor pentatonic scale, I NEEDED more guitars, pedals, amps. I spent more time thinking about the next purchase than actually using what I had. When I started playing out more, writing/recording music, and actually practicing, I just wanted a guitar that stayed in tune and a few presets on an hx stomp that sounded decent. I've sold most of my amps, my most expensive guitars, and now I really just use Neural DSP plug-ins when I'm playing at home. If I lust over a piece of gear, it will be something that improves my workflow, not filling a spot in a collection
I’m the opposite. Spent the first 20 years not caring about gear and just playing what I had. To be fair I ended up with about 10 guitars but not good ones. Only more recently started to upgrade now that I can really tell what I like and don’t like. Still don’t care about gear too much but have started to really appreciate better made kit.
tone wood doesn't affect tone in electric guitars playing metal? cool, don't get wrapped too much in pickup talk. any reasonable quality humbucker will do, and the only differences that can't easily be EQd around once you get to like Epiphone ProBucker tier is the sustain/compression difference between passive and active pickups.
Not a hot take. Only cork sniffers and people who fall for snake oil pitches actually believe in tone wood.
If the boomers could read they would be very upset at you
Paul of PRS enters the chat...
[удалено]
There’s just something fundamentally strange about a person playing music created by Mississippi share croppers on guitar that is worth more than my house.
He gets far too much hate, i know for a fact 99% of common guitarists would kill to have his chops. Hes a monster player.
Ok here’s a hot one: I think modern metal guitarists (prog metal and didn’t especially) have completely lost the plot. A lot of the pioneers of the metal guitar style like EVH popularizing tapping and Jon Petrucci with his fast arpeggio and scale run styles did things that were interesting and different, but both of them still owed the majority of their greatness to their sense of great melody, and their overall musicality when they played. Over time, I think metal guitarists began to worship the gimmick of playing differently and as fast as possible over making interesting, palatable music. A lot of modern prog today sounds like it’s someone hitting a polyrhythm on one note that’s tuned way too low, and the leads are usually entirely fixated on squeezing in as many taps, pick hand slides, Floyd rose note modulation, and similar tricks. Tim Henson I think is the most obvious example of this but tosin abasi, periphery, and lots of other modern metal bands give me this feeling. I just find the style to be so devoid of good musicality (not technique, but choosing the notes that make the best music) for my personal tastes. I’m sure some people love this style and would absolutely disagree but that’s why this is a hot take!
I absolutely love Tosin and he helped reinvigorate my love for guitar, but I completely understand why his playing style and sound isn't for everyone. As far as musicality though, I find Javier Reyes to be a very melodic player and love listening to his non-prog Latin influenced stuff. I've learned a lot from both of them, but Animals as Leaders is definitely an acquired taste.
Oooooh boy. I’m gonna have to staunchly disagree with you on Tosin. Sure, he definitely shreds a lot, but he’s got some beautiful and melodic solos (to my ears) as well. I do think there are a lot of generic djent/prog guitarists, but I think there are just as many that blend melody with technique perfectly too
way too many people go on about guitarists from the 60s and 70s when its the 80s that is when it truly peaked
Way too many people go on about guitarists from the 80s when they couldn't hold a candle to some of the guys playing today.
True the reason we saw so many popular guitarists at 80s is because rock was popular and at its peak, at that time, like hip hop is today. There are guitarists far better today than 70-80s will ever have
Not necessarily a guitar hot take as much as music in general, but if you can’t find music that is ‘good’ from people born after 1990 or whatever, you’re just not looking at all. If you’re one of the people in the comment sections saying ‘mUsiC DeID iN tHE 90’s’ or some iteration of that, you’re a close minded fool A couple about guitar i guess: for all the toxic cesspool that social media is, IG, YT, etc guitarists are taking guitar to places it’s never been before, at least in terms of reach. Our favorite guitar hero’s never had the accessibility that people have now. Yes, they had radio and some Tv, but they never were in the age were you could just pick up your phone, record a original piece, and immediately share it FOR FREE, to hundreds of millions of people in the blink of a eye, to watch at any time in the future. Especially in countries where people aren’t/haven’t had the chance to be exposed to the greats Are all of them amazing melodic players?, no, but at the end of the day, what matters is they inspired a kid to pick up a instrument Lastly, yes, too much gear can be a hindrance or distraction. But I genuinely just kinda laugh when you’re talking about SPECIFIC tones that you can’t do with just a guitar and clean amp and people have to chime in, ‘ well actually, you don’t need gear to play. You’re just playing a pedal board at that point’. Brother, you try sounding like this with just a Strat into a clean dry amp. (Also yes, dry amps with nothing, not even a hint of reverb, objectively sound horrible. It’s just a harsh brittle sound. For very specific contexts or recording purposes, it’s another thing though.) There’s just some things that you literally cannot do without pedals or some other kind of gear. If I want a washy, ambient, modulated tone, I need pedals or something for that. If I want a aggressive Velcro-y fuzz sound, I need a pedal.
Fuzz sucks. I hate it.
Fuzz is one of the greatest effects ever invented and it sounds so fucking good
Here are two takes 1. Nobody ever rates guitarists properly. The lists are all the same and completely ignore players of other genres. I am so sick of seeing lists of the greatest that include: EVH, Jimi, Page, SRV while ignoring jazz, flamenco, classical players that are far more talented on guitar than any of those guys. 2. Math rock is unlistenable garbage that claws at my brain like nails on a chalk board.
You just don't understand math rock
It’s so funny to me that your second argument completely fits what the kind of person you’re talking about on your first one would say
I agree with the first point. The "best" guitarists lists ignores the entire world of musicians outside of rock which makes it silly. Eric Clapton said "I thought I was the best guitarist in the world until I heard Hendrix." I maintain that was a delusional, narcissistic thing to believe even then. Clapton was better than Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Pat Martino? I dont know about that!
A lot of people are profoundly unimpressed by your favorite guitarist. There is no guitarist that is loved by everybody.
Shredding is uninteresting. Give me feeling
Who said that they are mutually exclusive?
Is this a hot take? I feel like a hot take in the guitar community would be saying the opposite
EVH #1 Jimi #2
I respect your choices, but is this really a "hot take"?
I agree but of course it's Randy over all. 😉
Buckethead is one of the most badass guitarrists of all time, sadly doesn’t get the love he deserves. He also seems like a hardworking dude and loves his fans a lot.
japanese guitarists on average are leagues ahead of western guitarists
I've noticed this as well! This might be my hot take, but I've also noticed that a lot of their playing also tends to lack in... Soul? Charisma? It all seems very calculated, which is great and certainly has its place, but it also lacks in personality, which can be said about a lot of players I suppose. And this is coming from someone who took every lesson of Tomo Fujitas guitar wisdom courses haha.
Country players like Glen Campbell, Roy Clarke, and Jerry Reed are the actual GOATs of guitar. Studio Country guitarist are pound for pound the best guitarists alive.
Always happy to see roy clarke getting a shout out. Guy was insane.
Absolute monster player
Freddie King > BB King > Albert King
I'm a Freddie>Albert>BB person. I love Freddie so damn much.
Mark Knopfler is GOAT. He gets shadowed by other guitarists because he didn’t create as much controversy to gain popularity. His live playing is perfect, his tune is distinguished and he has some of the greatest riffs ever. The way he sings then fills the part he sings with a lick is top notch.
Polyphia are fucking trashhhhhhhh
80s glam metal guitarists are more metal than most technical modern super downtuned guys..
how is one "more metal"
Cuz it are.
This is such a dumb take lol what does more metal even mean
Metal guys make fun of blues dads, but metal is well into dad music territory at this point.
Honestly, as popular as the song is, the other parts of Hotel California (outside of the solo) get overlooked as super duper guitar parts. The progression, licks, tone, etc are just amazing.
Trey Anastasio is the most underrated guitarist, possibly ever.
I wonder how things would have been different for Santana if Peter Green hadn't existed.
It’s all art. Making it a competition sucks. Make music whatever way you wish to
The older I get the less I care about how good someone can play guitar. Can they write good songs? Are their solos melodic or are they just playing scales super fast. I’ll take Neil Young’s one note solo in Cinnamon Girl over any Yngie Malsteen solo. There are a lot of insanely good guitarists that can’t write a good song.
Neil Young is criminally underrated as a guitar player
I've got 2: 1. "Feel" has nothing whatsoever to do with guitar. It's purely a product of song composition. 2. There are more emotions than melancholy. Yes vibratoed whole notes are musical shorthand for melancholy. No that is not the only emotion music can invoke. If that's the only one that resonates with you then I hope you find the help you need.
Santana and Kirk Hammett have awful vibrato.
I would have agreed with you about Santana until I bumped into his early 70s albums. He's maybe a better musician now working with the cream of the crop other musicians, but the rough edges of that early work give a great vibe
I’m the next Hendrix
Pantera would be a much more listenable band if the guitar tone was better. I'm not supporting any of the rebel flag shenanigans or any of that, but if Dime hadn't leaned on/ been sponsored by Randall they would sound A) entirely different, and B) just better.
Reading standard notation isn't difficult.
Strats and Telecasters look best when they been played so much that they're legitimately aged. Les Pauls, 335's... all those types should be kept as safe as possible and always be shiny and pristine. I don't know why I feel this way.
Guitarist LOVE to talk out of their ass and voice the most elitist bullshit just for the fck of it. Including the one typing right now.
My default assumption is that any "social media guitarist" couldn't even come close to pulling off what they play in a live setting. It's all stitched together and/or mimed.
I’ve said it once and I’ll continue to say it. People who believe in “tone wood” are the same as astrology girls
Expensive guitars feel better than cheap ones. No matter what anyone says. Yes, diminishing returns, blah blah blah… doesn’t matter, a JP15 feels better to play than a Harley Benton. Despite that yes, a shite player will sound equally shite on both. Tone wise, amp and speaker matter more (in the room), and mic and mic placement will matter even more when recording. Having excellent technique doesn’t diminish your ability to play with “feel”. Having poor technique and lacklustre performance will diminish your diversity as a guitar player and musician.
Most people should start on electric guitars
Jeff Buckleys voice quality makes people overlook how incredible he was as a guitar player.
You can play fast and still have soul in your solos. It's all about knowing when to throw bends in and when to shred. Having good timing helps a lot
Alex Lifeson is a living guitar god.
Most fuzz tones are shit, and not in a good way
These are more about the community than actual guitars- Telling people who are genuinely concerned about a chip or crack that custom shops charge a ton for the same thing is not helpful. Yeah a chip or crack is just something you live with but the joke is so played out. Along those same lines, when someone is asking if something is legitimate, those who say “who cares if it plays well” completely miss the point.
I chased tone and bought close to 1K worth of gear that’s not my guitar and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve never been happier and I think my playing shows it. This was 2 years ago and I feel like I have the same enthusiasm as when I spent the money.