Steve Vai is possibly the greatest guitarist!

[Simo]

Ron,

Agreed that being in a band Ed has a lot more to worry about than Vai who can play a 10 song CD of just his guitar and can try anything as he is not restricted to basically having to have people enjoy 'music' its really only for showing off guitar skills. I have no doubt Ed was 1000 times more influential.

Ed to his credit did throw a lot of guitar pieces in amongst the CD's (eruption, spanish fly, cathedral, 3:16 along with some awsome intros such as mean street.......but something tells me I dont need to list his pieces for you!).

Ed was the first real 'tapper' i saw and was blown away but I think Vai does do some very complex and impressive tapping.

Ed looks to be doing about 6 finger tapping at one stage but I was actually a little shattered when I found out that the 'right here right now' concert is not 'live' it is dubbed over footage of 2 nights and you can catch it out in ed's solo when his fingers are still playing 1 part but the audio has moved on to his next part..... really really bad production there!

As for the G3 concerts, there are 2 that I know of, 1 that features steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson and the 2nd which features Vai, Satch and Yngwie Malmsteen live in Denver.

Id recomend the second as I prefer the songs they do at the end (Keep on rockin in the free world, little wing and another) and I also prefer to laugh at the bloated Malmsteen who still does these kicks and throws his guitar around like he is at woodstock at he thinks he is some kind of sex symbol.....its hilarious!

I got them at JB hi fi but have seen them in all the sanity type stores. They are common and you can get them for around $20.

BTW if you saw VH in Syd i was there aswell. Back row but hey i would have listened from the car park if i had to! ' A year to the day' was my fav of VH3 and at the concert.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

Agreed that being in a band Ed has a lot more to worry about than Vai who can play a 10 song CD of just his guitar and can try anything as he is not restricted to basically having to have people enjoy 'music' its really only for showing off guitar skills. I have no doubt Ed was 1000 times more influential.

Ed to his credit did throw a lot of guitar pieces in amongst the CD's (eruption, spanish fly, cathedral, 3:16 along with some awsome intros such as mean street.......but something tells me I dont need to list his pieces for you!).

True, but Vai was also huge influence on guitar players, i was actually hugely influenced by Satriani also, i remember when i 17 playing Surfing with the Alien & always with me always with you i thought i wa sthe shizzle, but the thing with Vai was that theortically he's the best, he mastered all the theory behind music and was a stand out when coming through the ranks that David Lee Roth picked him up and basically hasn't looked back.

My favourite VH solo is actually " Girls gone bad" probably my favourite VH song with " I'm the one" just brillant all the way though, and to forget Eruption...still love playing that song on the guitar even though i try not to play others material now and focus on my own.

Ed looks to be doing about 6 finger tapping at one stage but I was actually a little shattered when I found out that the 'right here right now' concert is not 'live' it is dubbed over footage of 2 nights and you can catch it out in ed's solo when his fingers are still playing 1 part but the audio has moved on to his next part..... really really bad production there

I remember hearing that and now that i listen to it i can see, i can't understand why they done this as live he is brillant still.

As for the G3 concerts, there are 2 that I know of, 1 that features steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson and the 2nd which features Vai, Satch and Yngwie Malmsteen live in Denver.

Id recomend the second as I prefer the songs they do at the end (Keep on rockin in the free world, little wing and another) and I also prefer to laugh at the bloated Malmsteen who still does these kicks and throws his guitar around like he is at woodstock at he thinks he is some kind of sex symbol.....its hilarious!

That sounds awesome, gotta laugh about Malmstein, the guy has always had an ego, i've got a pic at home of him and my sister in the 80's and you can just see it in the photo..and according to my sister he's an A-grade arsehole, brillant never the less, probably the master of classical fast guitar.

I got them at JB hi fi but have seen them in all the sanity type stores. They are common and you can get them for around $20.

BTW if you saw VH in Syd i was there aswell. Back row but hey i would have listened from the car park if i had to! ' A year to the day' was my fav of VH3 and at the concert.

Good old JB hifi, the one up here at Erina always serves me well, picked up VH 1 yet again the othe week for $12 and have ordered in Ratts Invasion of your privacy from Germany for only $18....it's range is just great.

I was on the left hand side up towards the stage, the thing i remember most about it was Garry Cherone going balistic on concert & Eddies solo's while on encore.

Somebody get me a docter was my pick for the night.

 

[Woods]

Still think Adrian Vandenburg is very underated, so to Nuno bettencourt.

Nuno Bettencourt and Paul Gilbert are the two greatest guitarists alive IMO. I saw Nuno at The Basement 2 months back and it is the single greatest gig i have seen in my life. The man is a f#cking God. And i have a DVD from Japan called "Guitar Wars" which has Paul, Nuno, John Paul Jones & Steve Hackett. It goes for 2 hours and its inspired.

 

[Simo]

Woods (are you the same woods from rleague a few years back who participated in some great music threads?? We discussed poison and blues saraceno (sp?) if im not mistaken),

Did you import that DVD or get it in Aus somewhere, sounds like a great DVD.
As for Nuno, i dont know much of his stuff at all, any recomendations, same for Paul Gilbert.

Im going to Sinapore soon, hopefully they might have it if its an Asian release only.

 

[Woods]

Woods (are you the same woods from rleague a few years back who participated in some great music threads?? We discussed poison and blues saraceno (sp?) if im not mistaken),

Did you import that DVD or get it in Aus somewhere, sounds like a great DVD.
As for Nuno, i dont know much of his stuff at all, any recomendations, same for Paul Gilbert.

Im going to Sinapore soon, hopefully they might have it if its an Asian release only.

Yeah, that's me. I'd say i probably did discuss Poison & Blues with you.

I got the Guitar Wars DVD at Utopia Records in Sydney. It cost me $95. You can order it from Japan but everywhere i tried woul've cost me upwards of $100

As for recommendations for Nuno & Paul, thats tough because i love everything they've done. Nuno's solo album 'Schizophonic' is brilliant and his two other bands Mourning Widows and Population 1 are great too. Check his website www.population-1.com for albums etc.

For Paul, go to www.paulgilbert.com Any of his solo albums is worthwhile, especially the last two 'Space Ship One' & 'Burning Organ'. He has a great new live DVD 'Space Ship Live' out in Japan too. And if you want to hear him shred check out Racer X www.racerxband.com or if you want to hear my favourite album of the year check out www.pintsizerocks.com which is an album which his mate Linus of Hollywood released. It Linues, his wife and Paul with assumed names. Paul is Dick Image. Classic stuff.

 

[Sean7]

Paul Gilbert is pretty amazing and he's not just a shredder either. He actually plays (and sings）a lot of pop-rock stuff that's extremely catchy and humourous at times too, then next he'll play a neo-classical piece. His live accoustic cd, "Accoustic Samurai" is great and so is "Flying Dog".

Gilbert was also in MR BIG.

I love Vai too. Not the new album though. It sounds like he had a creative block, but albums like "Fire Garden" and "The Ultra Zone" are great and if people think it's just mindless technical dribble, then that's only what they hear. I hear great - memorable music.

I picked up a great album by John Scofield fairly recently called "UberJam". It's basically a modern Jazz record which is not something I usually seek out, but it's great stuff.

I live in Shanghai, China at the moment and a lot of cheap CD's that I otherwise may not have given a second glance to just pop up all over the place. So I end up with a lot of s#$t and a lot of gems. One of the gems being Tak Matsamuto (spelling?). I have 2 of his cd's. One is self titled and the other is called The Tak Matsamuto Group" and it features Eric Martin (from MR BIG) on vocals doing a modern take on 80's/early 90's hard rock/metal (somewhere around bands like Ratt, Bon Jovi, Cinderalla, Mr Big. They don't all sound the same, but hopefully you can get some idea of the sound I'm getting at) and it's the best hard rock album of the year. It's actually quite heavy at times and it's as catchy as music gets. I never took to MR BIG, but there's no doubting the quality of the song writing, Eric Martin's vocal delivery and Tak's Guitar skills. The self-titled album is instrumental and has a strong Japanese influence. It's also amazing and incredibly atmospheric.

 

[hrundi99]

Sorry millers but waffle about guitar virtuosos is more deathly boring than endless anti-Islamic propaganda.

Give me some simple, catchy guitar lines any day of the week. Someone needs to dig a deep pit and throw the likes of Vai, Satriana and Van Halen into it, if for no other reason than so that I don't have to listen to their fans talk about them ever again.

Totally agree. Good musicianship is about soul, whether you're playing jazz or metal. Guitar playing isn't a sport.

There are plenty of virtuosos without soul, and their music suffers as a result.

I'd rather listen to a 20 minute BB King solo (if such a thing exists) than 10 seconds of Vai or his compatriats.

 

[madunit]

Brian May. The man has a sound and style all his own. Not too many guitarists possess such a thing.

 

[millersnose]

May was brilliant

moreso in the studio

but did more in his little licks and overdubs than these tripleteers like vai could ever do

and has the runs on the board to prove it

 

[m0j0]

I was on the left hand side up towards the stage, the thing i remember most about it was Garry Cherone going balistic on concert & Eddies solo's while on encore.

Somebody get me a docter was my pick for the night.

Ron/Simo, I was at the Newcastle concert, front row directly in front of Michael Anthony - managed to score one of his picks which I've got stashed away in the VH3 tin with my concert ticket. Anyway, I managed to get a copy of the Sydney concert sent to me from someone in the US who taped it off Satellite not long after the tour ended.

 

[m0j0]

As for recommendations for Nuno & Paul, thats tough because i love everything they've done. Nuno's solo album 'Schizophonic' is brilliant and his two other bands Mourning Widows and Population 1 are great too. Check his website www.population-1.com for albums etc.

Definately go for Schizophonic, an awesome album. As for other recommendations, if you're into 80's hair metal, he was the guitarist for Extreme. I'd recommend Pornograffiti and possibly the first self titled track if you want to hear more.

 

[Simo]

Brian May. The man has a sound and style all his own. Not too many guitarists possess such a thing.

Im not sure if it was a myth or not, but I heard May played with an English coin instead of a pick.

Great guitarist, I like a lot of his work.

 

[Ari Gold]

my choice goes to satriani, one of the few solo guitarists that doesnt make me go to sleep, and can play anything...

Malmsteen is a freak as well.

Hendrix=over rated ( not saying he is bad or anything, but definately not the best guitarist ever)

 

[CliffyIsGod]

I prefer Hendrix and Satch because they play guitar in a song context, not guitar wankering...

 

[m0j0]

Definately give it to Satch over Vai for pure listenability. Another guitarist I can listen to all day is Tommy Emmanuel. I saw him play at Newcastle Uni back in about 1987 and I still regard it as one of the greatest live performances I've seen. Some of the things he did just blew me away.

 

[Simo]

Definately give it to Satch over Vai for pure listenability. Another guitarist I can listen to all day is Tommy Emmanuel. I saw him play at Newcastle Uni back in about 1987 and I still regard it as one of the greatest live performances I've seen. Some of the things he did just blew me away.

Have you seen Tommy play with his brother Phil? I saw them in Tamworth and it was just unbelievable. Great aussie guitarists.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

Phil is better imo, i have a cd of his at home.

BTW

I heard that MTV done the VH concert in 97 in Sydney but i didn't know where to get a copy, i've seen unchained live from that concert though.

Roby-i like your taste!

 

[UndertakerMike]

For his time Ritche Balckmore by a mile.

 

[Simo]

Phil is better imo, i have a cd of his at home.

BTW

I heard that MTV done the VH concert in 97 in Sydney but i didn't know where to get a copy, i've seen unchained live from that concert though.

Roby-i like your taste!

Awsome, I would love to see that concert, I had no idea footage of it existed......if only I was able to get it some how....hmmm

Phil is definately better on the electric but I feel on the accoustic Tommy is pretty hard to beat.

They played this great piece where Phil was getting these unbelievable sounds from doing volume swells whilst tommy kept the rhythm on the accoustic, it was one hell of a piece of music they put together but just so well done live that it sounded like a studio recording.

They also do an AWSOME version of rhonda al turka (sp??) by Mozart... just great. I hope they play together again soon, im in the mood for it now!

 

[madunit]

Brian May made his guitar out of a fireplace and from what I can gather, he never ever used a pic, always used a coin.

His sound is so distinctive, I have a song where he appeared with the Foo Fighters, the moment the guitar solo started it sounded just like him, I looked it up and found out that was indeed him.

Kirk hammett and James Hetfield also have very very distinctive sounds, but not in the same league as May imo.