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Where are all the good guitarists nowadays?

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shredguitar17  
4 Nov 2008 03:53 | Quote
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I agree there arn't many modern rock guitarists who display much talent. Maybe because the band they are in wants the focus to be the pop aspect of rock, so the singing and chord progressions. However, John Mayer, whom I use to dislike, I now respect and see him as a blues player. He is a decent guitarist, hell probably better than me. He does blues more than pop now, he even says he hates the poppy aspect of rock. Its on youtube in an interview.
telecrater  
4 Nov 2008 06:44 | Quote
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I would argue that most modern rock music now days are focusing on expression rather than technical ability. Look at The White Stripes, The Black Keys, going back tom and rage aginst the machine. Tom is one of the most expressive and experimental guitarist I've ever heard. What about Les Claypool of Primus, a very cool, good, yet unique band.

I'll take unique and expressive anyway over some technical shredder masturbating on the fretboard any day.

John Mayer is talented but lacks than self expression. He came out a Dave Matthews want-to-be and today is a SRV want-to-be.

Look it's tough to make a living in music and sometimes you have to "sell" to the consumer. beside if you don't like it don't buy it or should i say pirate it.
Ozzfan486  
4 Nov 2008 15:08 | Quote
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Zakk Wylde, Kirk Hammett, and Slash. All mainstream. All classified at the VMAs as hard ROCK.
Nutter166  
4 Nov 2008 17:13 | Quote
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hammett?? no offense but he dosen't put a scratch on Mustaine, I love both of them but Mustaine was just more...solid and flowy.

Anyway enough fanboy-ism.

'Rock' these days is getting to confused with metal, its beginning to annoy me personally, like Zeppelin (yes I can't spell it shame on me) is rock to me where as Metallica is metal,
So Page is a rock musician and Hammitt is a metal musician...though they can overlap yes.
Nightmare  
4 Nov 2008 17:17 | Quote
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'Nutter166, ah okay good to know, but i never heard anything for opeth that is black metal. I'm not also a massive fan of opeth, although they're not bad, master apprentice is my favorite.

'owensp well okay if u dont want to consider metal as a mainstream, heres some rock, alt. ,punk, etc.(mainstream) bands with good guitarists :
-Muse(who jcb3000 already mentioned)
-Airbourne
-Breaking Benjamin
-Escape the Fate
-Matchbook Romance
-Red Hot Chili Peppers (already mentioned)
-Rock n' Roll Soldiers
-Wolfmother
-Arctic Monkeys
and much more.. if u want some metal too just tell me, it'll be a long list though
note : a good guitarist isn't only a fast guitarist or a good sweeper,but also a creative guitarist who play good music.
Nutter166  
4 Nov 2008 17:34 | Quote
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For me a great guitarist would be able to play technically but with emotion yet not blatantly ripping someone else off, bit hard to do I know, theres always parts of your insperation coming through.
Crunch  
4 Nov 2008 18:00 | Quote
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I wonder how I forgot John Mayer. Well, as others have said he is a good, possibly great player, but not necessarily hyper-creative. I would generally consider him a "true" artist, though. I think he really cares about what he's doing.
Ozzfan486  
4 Nov 2008 18:04 | Quote
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Nutter166 says:
hammett?? no offense but he dosen't put a scratch on Mustaine, I love both of them but Mustaine was just more...solid and flowy.

Anyway enough fanboy-ism.

'Rock' these days is getting to confused with metal, its beginning to annoy me personally, like Zeppelin (yes I can't spell it shame on me) is rock to me where as Metallica is metal,
So Page is a rock musician and Hammitt is a metal musician...though they can overlap yes.


Oh crap, yeah Mustaine kicks ass. My fav at the moment too. Man I had a brain fart. =p
owensp  
4 Nov 2008 18:26 | Quote
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Nightmare says:
owensp well okay if u dont want to consider metal as a mainstream

metal isnt mainstream. just accept it. mainstream music is played on tv and the radio. most metal isnt. notice i said MOST metal. yes some metal is mainstream but not very much of it.
macandkanga  
4 Nov 2008 18:38 | Quote
Joined: 03 Oct 2008
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And any metal that is mainstream is not good metal either in my opinion. Even bands like Judas Priest, Metallica, Sabbath, and so on were'nt as good as their earlier stuff. If it's on the radio then it's tends to be poppy and not dark, evil, bad, whatever you want to call it, enough. It's not to say that a guitarist that has music on the radio is not quality, it's just not as interesting.
Ozzfan486  
4 Nov 2008 18:40 | Quote
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Megadeth will **in' rock ya man! I love them.

MUSTAINE 4 PRESIDENT!!!!!!

Ozz
Nightmare  
4 Nov 2008 18:58 | Quote
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aren't Bullet for My Valentine a mainstream? or how about Korn? Metallica are not a mainstream!!! and arent there some Rap Metal bands too??!!
Ozzfan486  
4 Nov 2008 19:06 | Quote
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Metallica is mainstream dude, at least in the states they are. They have radio, tv, MTV, and there was even a documentary on them in 'O1.
Nightmare  
4 Nov 2008 19:08 | Quote
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ya i know that Ozz, tell them.
macandkanga  
4 Nov 2008 19:23 | Quote
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At one point in the late 80's or early 90's we were hearing "Shred is dead". That's when the public decided they wanted to hear more aleternative, pop, hip hop, rap, crap, whatever you want to call it but definetly nothing interesting.

So, at one time, you can listen to the radio and hear metal or rock bands that played music with solos that sometimes went on forever. If you want to hear that stuff now, you have to go to the internet to find em, hear them, talk about em. At least we have that.

However, fusion was never really on the radio anyways and that's were you can find all the great guitarists. All of the greats are still out there producing music and touring and there are a lot of internet sites, like this one, where you can hear about them. Al DiMeola, John McLauglin, Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, Allan Holdsworth, Shawn Lane (he's dead but the music is alive), John Scofield. There's a great German band called the Jazz Pistols. Check them out!
brodyxhollow  
4 Nov 2008 19:48 | Quote
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No matter how you look at it, music is never going to be what it was in the past. You can say the best is behind us, but in reality, all that is doing is causing us to turn a blind eye to anything new.

If this is an expressive vs technical issue, I'd have to go with expressive. Just because a musician is more focused on their expression then their technical ability doesn't mean they don't know what they are doing.

I'm constantly being impressed by new guitarists and new bands. Yet, I'm also equally dismayed at the same time. There are a lot of crappy bands out there that don't get it. YOu can have someone who emulates the music of the past; and may be one of the best out there, but if he isn't expressive, it's nothing new to me.
Ozzfan486  
4 Nov 2008 19:53 | Quote
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@ Nightmare - Oh sorry man, I thought YOU said that they were mainstream. srry man.

@ Brody - Its good that music won't be the same, it needs to change, it'll get boring pretty fast if we go back to big hair and look-to-be *** rights activists dancing around a stage with pin mic stands in ricockulous poses. It was cool, its not now, cept some of their music, but most was just a copy-cat of the original.
BodomBeachTerror  
4 Nov 2008 20:04 | Quote
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brodyxhollow says:

If this is an expressive vs technical issue, I'd have to go with expressive. Just because a musician is more focused on their expression then their technical ability doesn't mean they don't know what they are doing.


yes, but most music on the radio today isnt expressive. its just some moron singing about how he doesnt fit in at school or some girl singing about getting banged...

well since some Slipknot is played on the radio i must say that Mick and James are the only guitarists on the radio that can "Shred" that ive heard. idk about people in the states tho.
Ozzfan486  
4 Nov 2008 20:20 | Quote
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theres Vinnie Paul's band Hellyeah, their guitarist isn't the most technical, but definetly good on the expressive end of things.
Nutter166  
5 Nov 2008 00:59 | Quote
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Fair enough if you know what your doing you can find anything on the radio, I've listen to Dream Theater, BFMV, Megadeth, Atreyu, Classic Sabbath (Into The Void, Symptom of the Universe, the good stuff :P), LZ and such on the radio mixed togther.

Its all just a matter of finding your station, or the time on the station. Hell you could always just try sending in a request for them, my step-dad sent in a request for Into the Void on Radio1 in the middle of the day and got it played.
Doz  
5 Nov 2008 14:23 | Quote
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When will ignorant people stop making absurd claims about the lack of good, popular musicians when they have no qualification to do so?

If you listen a bit closer, you'll find plenty. I'm going to bet that most of these guitarists in mainstream rock are better than most of us here anyway.
Nutter166  
5 Nov 2008 14:35 | Quote
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No doubt there Doz :P There will always be complaints about people saying theres no new 'good' guitarists, no why round it sadly =[
JazzMaverick  
5 Nov 2008 14:49 | Quote
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Damn right Doz, well said.
Ozzfan486  
5 Nov 2008 14:53 | Quote
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Tru Dat Doz.
jcb3000  
5 Nov 2008 16:07 | Quote
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Biffy Clyro...
Nutter166  
5 Nov 2008 16:26 | Quote
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Is a band, the guitarist is Simon Neil, good band though and good guitar as well =]
macandkanga  
5 Nov 2008 18:16 | Quote
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I'm qualified: I'm 45, Iv'e been playing since I was about 13, I've lived in the L.A./Hollywood area all my life where I've seen countless bands and musicians, I've been in two reasonably successful bands myself, I played a blues gig for a week on Bourbon Street in New Orleans when I was about 27, I have a collection of music on vinyl, 8 track, cassett tapes, from punk to funk that dates back to 1969 most of wich I bought myself when new, I studied music history and guitar in college....I could go on and on.

Trust me. The music that's played on the radio today is not nearly as good as it was in the 70's, 80's and even the 90's. I'm not saying there are'nt any great new musicians out there now, they're just not doing anything new.

And, I'm not one of those old guys with a closed mind. I'd love to hear about a band with a great new guitar player that's doing something so different and new, it blows me a away and I have to tell everybody about it. Like when my friend Lance told me that I have to go to his house after school and listen to this guy. He put on the album and what I heard was unbelievable! It was Eruption from Eddie Van Halen in 1978. I don't think I'll ever have a moment like that again.

"Ignorant" is being young and unexperienced and making claims you know what music was like at a time you did'nt even exist and have the balls to compare it todays music.
owensp  
5 Nov 2008 18:31 | Quote
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ROCK NEEDS TO GO THROUGH A PROGRESSIVE PHASE.
GRX40  
5 Nov 2008 19:03 | Quote
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owensp says:
ROCK NEEDS TO GO THROUGH A PROGRESSIVE PHASE.


Like Prog. Rock? Check out the band "Tool". They are considered "prog" and they get plenty of air time on the two main rock stations in my area.
macandkanga  
5 Nov 2008 19:22 | Quote
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O.K. I won't just ****. I'll contribute. Umphrey's McGee is a band I found on the net. They are an excellent jam band with two excellent guitarists. They are like a modern day progressive rock band like Steely Dan but beyond.

If your serious about "new" good guitarists, you gotta check them out. http://www.umphreys.com

Their site has a whole bunch of free stuff to keep you busy for days.
marsdemartini  
5 Nov 2008 20:12 | Quote
Joined: 15 May 2008
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This band is filled with excellent players. Band is called Protest the Hero. Recently heard them and freaked at their awesome-ness. Some people may be distracted by vocals when first hearing them so here is the instrumental version of one of their songs off their newest album, Fortress.

telecrater  
5 Nov 2008 20:15 | Quote
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I'm so not into that, I listened to a whole 7 seconds before i hit the stop button.
owensp  
5 Nov 2008 21:07 | Quote
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GRX40 says:
Like Prog. Rock? Check out the band "Tool". They are considered "prog" and they get plenty of air time on the two main rock stations in my area.

when i say pregressive rock i mean someone needs to do something TOTALLY different. but it should be something thats not a dead end. it should be something that could influence others to make something like it but a little different(thats what you call influential music and there is NO influential music being made right now). then someone else will take THAT and make something else out of it. that is progressive
BodomBeachTerror  
5 Nov 2008 21:10 | Quote
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yea i love pth
blackholesun  
6 Nov 2008 01:50 | Quote
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Check out the band Porcupine Tree, they are a prog rock/metal/psychedelic band from the UK. I think they're quite big in the states and in Europe, but they are quite small in the UK still. This is one of their most accessible songs:

Doz  
6 Nov 2008 05:21 | Quote
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macandkanga: Ignorant doesn't mean young and enexperienced, really. It can mean shallow and closed minded. And OK, you're 45. You've done all of that. How do we know you get it? We don't know how good you are at guitar? How do we know how good that gig actually went? How do we know that your taste just isn't bad?

I'm not saying it is, my point is that you may be qualified to tell yourself, but you still aren't qualified to tell anyone else, because you can't prove yourself a judge of modern guitarists.

I have to say, marsdemartini: Protest the Hero is full of brilliant players, and we just witnessed a person (telecrater) judge the quality based on music taste, which is subjective. I'm not saying he did it wrongly, but I'm saying he's missing some skilled and intense music because he doesn't really go for that type of sound. Some people do go for the sound, so it's fair to say that the only person you can judge this to is yourself.
macandkanga  
6 Nov 2008 12:39 | Quote
Joined: 03 Oct 2008
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Doz, you are absolutely right. I kinda went off yesterday! And I am sorry if I insulted you or anyone else. I guess it's because I am very passionate about the music of my time. Actually, the gig in New Orleans was horrible and I sucked out loud! I just like to tell people I did it! To boot, in college I learned a lot about theory but was so high I forgot most of it! To this day, I still can't read music by sight! I have always played by ear and obvliously I can read tab. I actually don't really have any other substantial talents except being a good husband and father and playing the guitar. I am actually pretty good. One day I'll put something up so you can see I'm not lying.

Anyways, I appologize again for being a tool. But seriouslly check out Umphrey's McGee. They are as different as they get nowdays and really good!
telecrater  
6 Nov 2008 15:20 | Quote
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I took another listen to Protest the Hero. It was very well orchestrated and but i don't think it'll listen to it again. I don't enjoy that music any more.

On the other hand Umphrey's McGee, i checked out a song they hand on their site and i really dug it. I'm going to check out some of their other stuff. Thanks for the recommendation.
Doz  
6 Nov 2008 16:27 | Quote
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Nah, no offence taken or anything, you didn't say anything negative against me so don't worry. It's just a really grey and debatable area in music. Actually, most topics on music are.
les_paul  
6 Nov 2008 17:17 | Quote
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I try to keep an open mind but there are some types of music I just don't like. To each his own I guess, if everyone liked the same thing music would be kinda boring. Five minutes ago I was jamin to hootie & the blowfish ; )
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