Your Biggest Electric Guitar Influences and Favorite Players?

[reeve21]

@ Marley--well put!

[Monsum]

It was mainly Slash and Frank Hannon (Tesla).

When the Appetite for Destruction came out I learnt from the tabs all guitar parts from this album.
Which was a curse and a blessing because I can't unlearn these Slash's licks in my improvisations now.

I loved Tesla guitarists' more melodic approach to solos as well.
They played fast enough for me to be impressed by it but not too fast to loose clarity and sense of direction where the melody was going.

[M Sarad]

Marley, Uncle Jerry is ne of the few guitarists whose sound grew as the band progressed. From the Guild guitar on the first album to the SG on Live Dead, The Strat Europe ‘72, the Travis Bean years into a Boogie, and the Wolf, Tiger, and Top Hat years with a Twin pre amp into Mac 2300 and JBLS, Jerry’s playing became more inventive and inspiring to me.

His playing is one of my most powerful and important influences. He was influenced by both Don Rich and Roy Nichols around 1970.

[Marley]

Originally Posted by M Sarad

Marley, Uncle Jerry is ne of the few guitarists whose sound grew as the band progressed. From the Guild guitar on the first album to the SG on Live Dead, The Strat Europe ‘72, the Travis Bean years into a Boogie, and the Wolf, Tiger, and Top Hat years with a Twin pre amp into Mac 2300 and JBLS, Jerry’s playing became more inventive and inspiring to me.

His playing is one of my most powerful and important influences. He was influenced by both Don Rich and Roy Nichols around 1970.

No doubt! The guy was a pure guitar genius. What's always been interesting to me but never surprising is that with all of those guitars you mention, no matter what they all sound like Jerry. It's often said that the tone is in the fingers. I think Jerry proved this decade after decade with different guitars. Even the 60's stuff already sounds exactly like Jerry. That clean tone is there. Then he moves to the Strat, which simply sounded superb. Then to the Travis Bean, which many people claim to not like but again to me, it sounds like Jerry. Then Wolf, Tiger and the couple that followed them. He never wavered in his clean tone. Now his distortion got a little funky there at the end. Bob always seemed to be screwing around with crappy distortion at times too. I also happen to love Jerry's trumpet sound. It never sounded bad and always sounded good to me. I always felt it was a nice instrument to pick for him to try and emulate. I think a lot of it too simply has to do with his note selection and playing of that/those particular notes. His phrasing was incredible. It's a shame how he is viewed to some guitar lovers as just a burn out hippie who noodled around. Nothing could be further from the truth. This was a guy who Deadicated/Livicated his life to the guitar. He studied every modal and theory book he could get his hands on for decades. He lived with a guitar strapped around his neck. He lived and breathed the guitar possible more than any other human being ever has? Of course the heroin unfortunately probably made him put it down much more in the later years but whenever he picked it back up he sounded great. Not 100% of the time but who does? Even on many songs during those last shows leading up to his death he sounded incredible!

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Marley

No doubt! The guy was a pure guitar genius.

I’d never in a month of Sundays describe myself as a ‘Deadhead’, but I’ve heard, and loved, lots of their music over the years. Garcia was one of a kind.

In particular, among many examples, the solo on the album version of Touch of Grey remains one of the most joyously lyrical pieces of guitar playing that it has ever been my pleasure to hear.

[KevWind]

Never really a Dead Head per se. either ( the first album is the only one I ever owned) None the less in all fairness seems to me to credit Jerry Garcia is to also credit Bob Weir.
To my mind the "Dead Sound" was very much the cumulative juxtaposition of Weirs incredible expansive and diverse chord progressions rhythm playing that gave experimental license that Jerry was able to play over, and that combination was, in my mind the signature of the Dead.

[rwmct]

Originally Posted by Steel and wood

Real guitar playing for me started when I discovered for want of a better word "twang".

All of a sudden for this Australian, the sounds of all things Americana (which Americans might take for granted) were playing in my head and influencing the way I wanted to play guitar. (My playing started becoming just as much about pre-bending notes than simply bending notes, more about staccato than sustaining notes, more about "chicken picking" than shredding, more about playing clean than overdriven and more about reverb and to a lesser extent delay and vibrato than distortion).

You have some Aussie players who are plenty "twangy" from what I have seen. Saw (and met) Bill Chambers at the Fredfest in Bellows Falls, VT several years back. He was great.

[rwmct]

For me, Peter Green is my favorite. But I love Spencer and Kirwan too.

That said, my favorite guitar line up is Clapton and Winwood. When those guys get together, it is just magic.

[Marley]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

I’d never in a month of Sundays describe myself as a ‘Deadhead’, but I’ve heard, and loved, lots of their music over the years. Garcia was one of a kind.

In particular, among many examples, the solo on the album version of Touch of Grey remains one of the most joyously lyrical pieces of guitar playing that it has ever been my pleasure to hear.

It's such a beautiful solo! I totally agree.

Another thing about Jerry that does not get mentioned too much is how much of a fun loving guy he was. Smiling so much, laughing a ton with that great laugh of his. Never taking himself too seriously. He'd be willing to dress up and act goofy in situations where many people who take themselves way too seriously would never do. But in the end just that smile and that LAUGH! Interviewers had to love him because he was such a fun loving guy and not difficult. Now, if you tried to get him to quit using, he could get grumpy fast but the guy had a serious addiction which we all know just grips people. Jerry was also into scuba diving, as am I. I love seeing the videos of him diving and so happy.

[reeve21]

Here is a photo from the Dead's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jerry refused and/or couldn't attend in person. He died the following year.

Jerry just wanted to play, and it is a shame his career was shorter than it had to be. The man never ceased to amaze me, and probably never will. RIP Jerry!

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by rwmct

For me, Peter Green is my favorite. But I love Spencer and Kirwan too.

That said, my favorite guitar line up is Clapton and Winwood. When those guys get together, it is just magic.

Peter Green. Do you follow guitar provenance? Peter Green played a 1959 Les Paul and the middle pickup position sounded different than any Les Paul due to out of phase tone due to the pickups (magnets) being reversed. Anyway, Peter sold the guitar to Gary Moore for $300 who used it as his main guitar for years. Moore eventually sold it for about $1M. Then a few years ago Kirk Hammett (Metallica) bought it for about $2M and he gigs with it at Metallica concerts! How cool is it to take that guitar on the road.

Gotta love guitar provenance.

[kingofdogs1950]

My favorites are Ry Cooder and Lightnin' Hopkins.
I first saw Hopkins in 1969 and Cooder in 1970.
I was young and impressionable.
My thoughts at the time were,
"That's how I want to play!"
Cooder is still producing great tunes
after all these years.
I can't afford a D-45 like Ry's,
but I've been playing a J-50 like Hopkin's for years.

Mark

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by kingofdogs1950

My favorites are Ry Cooder and Lightnin' Hopkins.

Ry Cooder's work on John Hiatt's Bring the Family is just sublime.

I want this played at my funeral.

[Lockback]

Originally Posted by rwmct

For me, Peter Green is my favorite. But I love Spencer and Kirwan too.

That said, my favorite guitar line up is Clapton and Winwood. When those guys get together, it is just magic.

I remember reading an interview with Clapton talking about their days together in Blind Faith.
"I really had to bring my A-game to the studio," he said, "because Stevie is such a great player."
I think their dueling solos in "Had To Cry Today" are absolutely amazing.

[rwmct]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Peter Green. Do you follow guitar provenance? Peter Green played a 1959 Les Paul and the middle pickup position sounded different than any Les Paul due to out of phase tone due to the pickups (magnets) being reversed. Anyway, Peter sold the guitar to Gary Moore for $300 who used it as his main guitar for years. Moore eventually sold it for about $1M. Then a few years ago Kirk Hammett (Metallica) bought it for about $2M and he gigs with it at Metallica concerts! How cool is it to take that guitar on the road.

Gotta love guitar provenance.

Of course! I think every Green fan is familiar with the saga of the guitar. And there is another layer to it. I read an interview with him a few years back where I got the impression he felt that particular guitar had a malevolence to it, that it was better for his mental health that he be without it.

Of course, that was far from the only guitar he played, in studio and otherwise.

Green is like chasing a ghost to me, or a mirage. His lines are, in theory, well within my ability to play. Not a lot of hard fingerings or blistering phrases. But its all in the touch! He had such a wonderful touch. (I know he is still alive, but I saw him and the Splinter Group quite a while back, and he was not really the same guitarist.)