You need to have a look at Freddie, B.B. and Albert King for that…
1990`s “In the Line of Fire” is a also a great later album.
Tag Archives: hendrix
Here`s English guitarist Robin Trower, formerly of Procul Harem, playing the title track from his 1974 classic rock album Bridge of Sighs. Robin plays his own signature stratocaster which is an EXACT version of the one you can buy through Fender, although, when playing live Robin tunes his guitar a full step down, to a DGCFAD tuning. Robin`s tone is achieved through playing into several Marshall heads at high, high volume. Hendrix comparisons have plagued Trowers work but anyone who knows their onions will notice that Hendrix` rhythmic legacy from his days playing with Curtis Knight and Little Richard for example is not present in the fluid legato and unhurried melodic content of Robin Trower`s playing.
You need to have a look at Freddie, B.B. and Albert King for that…
1990`s “In the Line of Fire” is a also a great later album.
You need to have a look at Freddie, B.B. and Albert King for that…
1990`s “In the Line of Fire” is a also a great later album.
You only have to listen to Axis Bold as Love and the Electric Ladyland album version of All Along the Watchtower to gain a vague idea of Hendrix fascination with Dylan`s oeuvre. Click here for more.
Hair metal poodles and spandex clad rockers beware..!
There are ways to burn on the guitar that far surpass the egocentric simplicity and slavery to technique of that whole guitar school, speed focused, sweep picking, notes for notes sake playing that occurs in a vacuum devoid of taste, subtlety and emotion. A while back I posted here about tasty solos and in a way all of these are shredders in the following sense:
The guitar as an instrument is emotive, not mechanical, slick or polished unless it needs to be as part of the expression – e.g. a Freddie King Lick, an Albert King bend, a Clapton phrase, the Leslie West tone, Hendrix` sustain etcetera…..What makes these kinds of players special is the integrity and honesty in the ability of their playing to communicate something very human and powerful – emotion, character, experience and individuality.
it`s a combination of melody or lack thereof, timing, timbre, attack, tone, technique and more; imperfection, humanity, frailty, strength, ambition, fear and glory. It`s ALL FEEL playing the guitar, nothing else, especially if you`ve a great song to do it with! J.J. Cale is a great example of a musician whose delivery, content, songwriting and even message seems to consist almost entirely of feel, and feel alone – incredible. Then again someone like Paul Gilbert really, really cooks up storm! Find what you like and mix it all together.
SO, it IS up to you entirely – there is an entire genre of speed/technique worthy of admiration ranging from neo-classicists such as Yngwie Malmsteen or Gary Moore (try the album After the War) – who has incidentally “reinvented” himself as a blues player – to the insane dexterity and sweep picking of Batio below….one day it`ll be so fast you can’t even hear it!! Mark Knpfler always seemed fast enough for me….
But if you feel good shredding, get down to it and have look at the video below especially between 1.40 minutes and 2.20 minutes. Michael Angelo Batio fast, very, very fast; or J.J.Cale…very, very slow…..mmmm
Cheers,
Jake Edwards
The future of the guitar – what is it?
Where is it?
We`re still using designs that are around 60 years old: Gibson Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster, Flying V, Explorers, Jaguar, Firebird etcetera. Commonalities include double or single cutaways, magnetic pickups, tone selectors, strings, tremelo arms, bridges, frets, tuning pegs.
All of the icons in the guitar world use guitars that adhere to these historic designs.
Last week I had a play on a small bodied Playstation III Guitar Hero Les Paul style controller and the whammy bar was incredible. Nice and light, easy to get around – small horns & good upper neck accessibility. Because the whammy bar ins`t sprung and there are no string it was dead easy to gain the level of control exhibited by trem master Jeff Beck – check out his track “Where were you” for a superlative example. I`ve seen Jeff Beck live three times and he is on another (tremelo) level altogether.
About 20 years ago I had a cheap Marlin stratocaster but it had a smaller than usual stratocaster style body, and this made it immensely light and easier to play (and throw around). Is the future of the guitar in fretless, stringless neck design where the mere tactility of fingers across a surface or through a laser beam creates sound? At the moment we value and prize the skill and agility of fingers across strings and personally I can`t think of anything worse than simulated feedback, crisp digital homogenised sampling and fake plastic sound. Here are some examples of the real thing.
| Praxis | Beck |
In terms of ergonomic usability guitar design is still in the dark ages some might argue. Johnny Winter uses an Erlewine Lazer, probably because it combines a hornless, headless, lightweight, slim highly accessible design with the basic core of traditional guitar design and construction – he gets all the right sounds with a new ergonomic design.
My old Les Paul weighs a f*****g ton, it looks beautiful and the sustain lasts forever but it makes your shoulder ache after half an hour. Changing the design materials obviously alters the sonic possibilities, range, feel and capability. We dont want to move too far away from what we`ve got…imperfection – again.
It`s the imperfection in the design of guitars that makes them so beautiful and awesome and capable as divining rod potentiometers for the range of human emotion.
If we clean up the circuitry, make them noiseless, digital, stringless, tactile surfaces then we`ll be taking the human aspect out of the instrument.
It would be a real shame to move away from strings, pickups and amps and the vast range of possibilities this old fashioned and simple combination of objects provides. It`s about moving forwards into the future but in the right direction.
Back in the late seventies, prior to the arrival of PUNK ROCK, with its garland of spit, safety pins, anarchy, rebellion and anti-authoritarian posturing, Steve Hillage took the psychedelia of the late 60`s and infused it with the kind of prodcution techniques it really deserved.
Towards the end of the 70′s Hillage’s progressive guitar-rock and psychedelic fusion leanings helped build a reputation that became synonymous with spacey, ambient soundscapes and “excursions”.
1978′s Green, co-produced by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason is an exemplary and landmark recording in this respect that, with both power and sensitivity focuses upon a pantheistic ecological message
HIllages “hippie” music was eclipsed by the D.I.Y. madness of anarchy, punk rock and “dissent” at the end of the decade.
The Hillage sound remained immortalised in the consciousness of a whole new generation by the UK “Festival” band The Ozric Tentacles. Ten years after Hillage released “Green” the Ozrics pioneered a new wave of trippy, techno space rock into the 90`s acid scene updated with hard pounding beats, shifting time signatures, the use of eastern and exotic modes and instruments.
After the collapse of Thatcherite ethics in the 80`s the British music underground, fuelled by political unrest and drug fuelled madness exploded across the media and across the country in revolutionary fervour.
Pedals never replace playing ability, groove, talent, technique, vision and expression but can really help having the brain of Hendrix sitting in a little box on the floor. At the end of the day its all in your hands and head.
If this has whetted your appetite for guitar signal destruction then head over here to try out some virtual BOSS pedals!!
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
SoundCloud
MySpace