Guitar EDjumacation Thread

[jhale667]

Abuse the guitar with finesse. Just pretend the guitar is your bitch and slap it around until it screams and moans. It really is electric sex.

Ever notice the best, most admirable players don't baby their instruments at all? They're literally smacking the shit out of them. Players like Ed, SRV, Gary Moore, Lonnie Mack...their vibrato involved the whole neck of the guitar, not just one or two strings...

[ThrillsNSpills]

Ever notice the best, most admirable players don't baby their instruments at all? They're literally smacking the shit out of them. Players like Ed, SRV, Gary Moore, Lonnie Mack...their vibrato involved the whole neck of the guitar, not just one or two strings...

I left my G and L out in the rain once. Brought it back inside and the action was perfect. Carved a divot into the body with my middle finger from saw-picking on the thing for 30 years.
damn, I got issues .

[Nitro Express]

Ever notice the best, most admirable players don't baby their instruments at all? They're literally smacking the shit out of them. Players like Ed, SRV, Gary Moore, Lonnie Mack...their vibrato involved the whole neck of the guitar, not just one or two strings...

I really think that is the secret. I just got stuck playing bass in our band and had to focus on that and kind of forgot about the guitar and then one day I picked up a guitar and my approach was way different than it used to be. I really smacked the thing around and got good things out of it. You just have to eat your Wheaties and give her a mauling. I went to the Fur Peace Ranch and brought my Jack Casady bass with me. Jack himself taught the class and I wanted to get the sustain and ringing on my bass like he got so the man himself set my bass up for me. He set the neck perfectly straight and raised the strings quite a bit. I got the sound I wanted but man what a workout on the hands! So I played that setup for a few years and grabbed a guitar and man. Discovered something new.

Jack started off as a guitar player and then out of necessity got stuck playing the bass because the band he was in needed a bass player. So he incorporated melodic playing, finger vibrato, and chords into his bass playing. He approached it from a guitar player standpoint. You do that on a bass and then go to a guitar, WOW! You get a harmonic and resonance thing going that you just don't get playing the instrument with a lighter touch. You really have to build up your hands to do it though.

Eddie is basically playing funk on the guitar. Mean Streets is nothing but slapping and popping the strings like a bass player. It's harder to do because the strings are smaller but that is all it is. Ed uses a lot of bass trickery on the guitar and I just really started discovering that.

[Nitro Express]

Actually apply these funky bass techniques to your guitar playing and see where it takes you. You will come up with some cool shit.



See the slap funk technique in Ed's playing? He's slapping the shit out of those strings.

[jhale667]

Yup, IIRC Ed said in an interview he came up with the "Mean Street" intro playing around with slapping ala Larry Graham, Stanley Clarke or some other Motown bassist he was digging on at the time...

[rocknrolldork]

I really think that is the secret. I just got stuck playing bass in our band and had to focus on that and kind of forgot about the guitar and then one day I picked up a guitar and my approach was way different than it used to be. I really smacked the thing around and got good things out of it. You just have to eat your Wheaties and give her a mauling. I went to the Fur Peace Ranch and brought my Jack Casady bass with me. Jack himself taught the class and I wanted to get the sustain and ringing on my bass like he got so the man himself set my bass up for me. He set the neck perfectly straight and raised the strings quite a bit. I got the sound I wanted but man what a workout on the hands! So I played that setup for a few years and grabbed a guitar and man. Discovered something new.

Jack started off as a guitar player and then out of necessity got stuck playing the bass because the band he was in needed a bass player. So he incorporated melodic playing, finger vibrato, and chords into his bass playing. He approached it from a guitar player standpoint. You do that on a bass and then go to a guitar, WOW! You get a harmonic and resonance thing going that you just don't get playing the instrument with a lighter touch. You really have to build up your hands to do it though.

Eddie is basically playing funk on the guitar. Mean Streets is nothing but slapping and popping the strings like a bass player. It's harder to do because the strings are smaller but that is all it is. Ed uses a lot of bass trickery on the guitar and I just really started discovering that.

I 100% agree. Playing bass totally changed the way I play guitar now. I even moved up to 11s on the sg and tele. still like 10s on strats and lps

[Coyote]

Ever notice the best, most admirable players don't baby their instruments at all? They're literally smacking the shit out of them. Players like Ed, SRV, Gary Moore, Lonnie Mack...their vibrato involved the whole neck of the guitar, not just one or two strings...

Can't get a decent "ricochet" pinch harmonic (á la Sykes or Wylde) with a feathery touch...

Once you get that going on a bass, you're solid.

[Nitro Express]

I think it's easier to do on bass because the strings are bigger. I can get great pinch harmonics just going off the tip of the pick and letting the string hit my thumb. It's a feel thing. I have the advantage of being a classical guitar player and also playing finger style bass 98% of the time. I have a lot of strength and dexterity in my right hand. It's helps.

[rocknrolldork]

I think it's easier to do on bass because the strings are bigger. I can get great pinch harmonics just going off the tip of the pick and letting the string hit my thumb. It's a feel thing. I have the advantage of being a classical guitar player and also playing finger style bass 98% of the time. I have a lot of strength and dexterity in my right hand. It's helps.

There are some great harmonic overtones for some of the higher runs on bass. Anthony Hamilton's bass player is a monster at getting those tones. Still a work in progress for me.

Nitro.... I was trained in classical as well. I'm finding that I use the classical guitar right hand style more than the proper bass hand technique. Do you do this as well or have you adapted your right hand technique to the bass style over the years? Also... did you mod your epi head to gig bass through it? I tried it and it just completely distorts and doesn't grab the low like it should.

[jhale667]

New Stuff BUMP.

Recently got asked to do a series of articles for Seymour Duncan Pickups. Pretty frickin' stoked and honored. So here's the 1st one:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/ti...while-playing/