I can always tell if Eric Johnson is playing. Combination of sound and style.
Before I start, this is meant as a “just saying” post, sorry if I’ve missed your favourite player. And It’s a shame they’re all blokes, oh well.
I’d like to suggest separating out imitating a guitarists’ sound vs. actually sounding like so-and-so.
Three lists:
- A few random examples of guitarists whose (main) sound depends on technology to some non-trivial extent:
Les Paul
Cliff Gallup
Hank Marvin
Brian May
Andy Summers
The Edge
David Gilmour mk1 (echo laden phased version)
(2) To less extent, coz mostly the ‘technology’ is simply gain and volume
Your man Hendrix mk1 (fuzz, wah, univibe, backwards tape version)
Clapton (‘woman tone’, is this like “Torn shirt" Kirk?)
Pete Townshend (basically playing very, very loudly)
(3) It’s all their fingers
Roy Buchanan
Albert Lee
Jeff Beck
Jimmy Page
Strat playing Clapton
Gilmour mk2 (still sounds like himself when DI’d straight into the desk)
Hendix mk2 (the clean Little Wing playing guy)
Honourable mention for anyone who played for Steely Dan
For better or worse I think a lot of the “shred guys” belong here (justification below)
If you know what kit to use you can imitate the sounds in list (1) and (2). For example play loud, get a wah-wah and a univibe play non-incompetent blues licks and you will sound at least a bit like Hendrix. Turn everything up to 10 (or indeed 11) and play an enormous open A5 (you have to have the singer yell “Yeeeaaaah!!!” here).
For list (3) I don’t think having any particular fx are going to do the trick. I remember reading in a magazine, want to terrify the average rock guitarist? Try dialling up Albert Lee’s tone, hand him the guitar, push him on stage and shout “Go for it!”
But, in order to actually sound like anyone I’ve mentioned you have to use their phrasing, their chord voicings, note choices and in some cases sheer speed. You don’t get to sound like Andy Summers just by turning on the chorus and delay. There’s more to being Hank than waggling a whammy bar. Les Paul and Cliff Gallup played some very clever stuff indeed, and just leveraged that (ha!) with some “tricks” (though in Les Paul’s case he did have to invent the technology first).
The “shred guys”. You don’t get to sound like any of them by tone (alone). Like their stuff or not you can’t sound like any of them without a lot of work on actual technique. Just getting a Tube Screamer and fancy hair* is not going to convince.
- I had a girlfriend remark on Steve Vai’s elaborate hair-dos. I hadn’t noticed, I wonder who he’s trying to impress? Satch, at least doesn’t have to worry about that any more.
But what about Shemp? Nobody mentioned Shemp! And what about Fake Shemp?
THAT GUY’S EYE PATCH WAS ANOTHER FACE!
Ok, I’ll control myself.
On topic, it kind of proves that at least I can’t really tell which guitarist is playing without their “signature” sound. That recording doesn’t really have either of their sounds on it, and if you hadn’t told me who was playing, I would have guessed an anonymous shredder.
Now, since I know who’s present, I can easily guess who’s doing which lead. But without some variation of the “Brown Sound” to tell me it’s EVH or May’s big sound, I wouldn’t have identified them. If I heard them play through that setup long enough, I might be able to ID them without a hint, but not on first listen. Similarly, Jimmy Page is famous for using a Les Paul live, but he’s usually playing a Telecaster on the studio recordings. As a result, live Led Zeppelin recordings always kind of sound like someone else is playing guitar to me.
Now, that’s not to say that I think guitarists should go chasing uber rare equipment. As Tamerlane’s link about Gary Moore owning Peter Green’s guitar shows, even people with the ultra rare instruments can find modern ones that are superior. And in the end, neither of them sounded like Mr. Green, and even he doesn’t sound exactly like that any more.
There are a few guitarists that I have been able to identify when they appear as a guest on other artists’ works. “Hey, that sounds like…” (Checks liner notes) “Yup, I was right!”
David Gilmour is one - his style is so distinctive that it just jumps out at you. Another one, oddly enough, is Joe Walsh.
[QUOTE=Melchior]
But what about Shemp? Nobody mentioned Shemp! And what about Fake Shemp?
[/quote]
Can someone tell me what the bloody heck he’s on about? (No-one in the UK has ever seen the fracking Stooges).
They were talking about imitators. So, naturally Fake Shemp factors into the discussion!
Where does Prince fit in?
After Curly Joe
It’s interesting that the Wikipedia quote doesn’t mention the Edge’s pick. I’ve read, in a number of sources, that at least part of the chiming sound he’s known for is commonly attributed to the fact that he uses a Herdim pick (which has a dimpled grip), and when he started using that style of pick as a young man, he held it wrong, playing with the dimples striking the strings.
I’ve successfully identified many this way guesting or sessioning on others projects without even expecting them. Specific ones that I recall as the liner note “Yup, I was right”…
David Gilmour: Many times, such as with Warren Zevon, Kate Bush, Berlin, and Roy Harper.
Joe Walsh: Eagles, solo instrumentals
EVH: Michael Jackson
Adrian Belew: David Bowie, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson
Eric Clapton: Roger Waters
In 31 posts, you’ve named most of the ones I would have, but I have a few more to add that are unmistakable to my ears.
Derek Trucks
Ry Cooder
Sonny Landreth
David Lindley
Johnny Winter
Muddy Waters
Bob Margolin
I came to say this. Another instrumentalist easy to tell is Pat Metheny.
I’ve always thought that Neil Young and Stephen Stills have very distinctive and identifiable styles, but on the sublime fifteen minute version on CSNY’s 4 Way Street of Southern Man, one is in the left channel and the other in the right duelling away, but, to my eternal frustration, I can’t identify who is who.
Yes, those things can be emulated with sufficient practice and talent. That’s true in guitar playing, singing, painting, or pretty much any other artistic endeavor.
There was an article on Brian May in Guitar Player (I think in January of '08), in which he described meeting a blues guitarist (I want to say that it was either B.B. King, or Buddy Guy).
During the meeting, they traded guitars, and played a few licks on each other’s guitars. As I remember it, May was expecting that his Red Special would still sound like his guitar in the hands of the blues guitarist, and was very surprised when it mostly sounded like the other guy’s tone (and, conversely, when May played the other guy’s guitar, it sounded like Brian May).
Besides those already mentioned I can spot Steve Morse and Alan Holdsworth just about instantly. I can pick out John Petrucci as well most of the time. Morse is interesting because he plays a ton of different styles, from classical to country to rock yet it always sounds like him.
Morse due to a couple things, his picking, tone and melodic choices. Holdsworth, well, cause he is Holdsworth and just an odd player (though awesome). There are more but my brain isn’t obeying me right now…
Slee
In the mid-1980’s, my friend was driving us somewhere and playing a new CD of keyboard instrumentals. When a song suddenly broke into a blistering guitar solo, I stared at the CD player and asked, “Who the hell is that? It’s incredible!”
“That’s the theme from Miami Vice.” my friend noted, “The guy is Jan Hammer. He does a lot of their scene music.”
“Wow!” I marveled again, “He sounds like Neal Schon on speed!”
Years later, when I was idly browsing around the Internet, I discovered,yes, it really was Neal Schon playing super-fast.
When Queen came out with their album The Miracle their song I want it All was the first track to get airplay. In the middle of the guitar solo, I called up my local radio station and asked who was playing guitar on I want it All. The DJ said, “It’s Brian May.”
“But that’s not a Brian May signature sound.” I argued.
“Nope. He just decided to do something different.” the DJ told me, “But it’s still the same guitarist they’ve always had.”
I wonder if that was after he met that famous blues-man.
Before I went out to spend real money on a real axe (as opposed to the cheap refurb I originally got in high school) I decided to go on-line and find out what kind of equipment my favorite guitarists use. Among other finds, I stumbled upon a site for a $7000 acoustic guitar – I don’t remember if it was Martin or Taylor or which manufacturer. Apparently the instrument was made exactly to Jackson Browne’s specifications and they provide a video and some stills of him playing the guitar. There’s also a quote on the site from him in which he basically says it’s not the instrument that makes a distinctive sound; he could put the custom-spec guitar in David Lindley’s hands and he would sound like David Lindley or he could put it in Greg Allman’s hands and the sound would distinctively be Greg Allman’s sound.
I kinda though that was an interesting thing for the manufacturer to include on the site because it’s basically saying ‘Don’t buy this $7K guitar to sound good; you need to sound good before buying this guitar.’
And I thought, Well, that means it’s designed by and marketed to professionals – which doesn’t mean me in this lifetime – and headed off to find other websites.
I stumbled onto a site that basically lists dozens upon dozens of guitarists and the FX chains that they use, both typically and for specific songs. SRV, EVH, Slash, The Edge, Jimmy, Carlos, Cobain, and others are listed there, each with a diagram and a ton of notes for typical settings. Of course, as has been mentioned in this thread and on other sites, the diagrams are a good start on imitating a signature sound, but getting your own axe to sound precisely right takes a lot of training/talent/skill and a great ability to sense (and replicate) the nuances in the original player’s style and technique. The site also noted that no guitarist will set a series of FX processors and just leave everything alone throughout an entire concert because FX are made to be adjusted and those adjustments need to fit the song. In fact, the site I stumbled onto basically notes on its index page that fans and wannabe axemasters can find good inspiration in the diagrams and settings specified on the various pages, but they really should develop their own style and use the pages to help set the basic sound to fit their original song and then make adjustments to make their song a truly original expression.
–G!
The guitarist of Everclear (I believe it was lead singer Art Alexakis) used a very distinctive rhythm in a lot of their songs. Each measure would have six chords (eighth notes) followed by a quarter rest. The rhythm would usually go "DA DA da da DA DA…rest…DA DA da da DA DA…rest… (The 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th chords would be a higher pitch than the 3rd and 4th.)
I’ve had this experience more than once with Peter Buck. His numerous side projects have a very distinct and immediately recognizable sound, an undercurrent that also exists in R.E.M. songs.
My niece, who loves progressive music, can pick Steve Howe’s guitar playing out of a crowd too.