burny les paul is to heavy, should i route out the back?

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big-ace said:
basically saying if you can shred on a LP your the man (a la John Sykes, Doug Aldrich, Vivian Campell etc). most people bag a LP because they cant play one. i mean they have the tone, but alot of guys are not man enough to play a Les Paul.

John Sykes, Doug Aldrich, Vivian Campell! they aren't real men they just use tight trousers as a spine support :D

Regardless of whether you like them or not there's no denying they are all great players!
 
I love the way these heavy metal types talk about players who "can shred". It implies that all guitarists want to sound like that, but few can achieve it.

Idiots!

Has it never ocurred to them that the reason that so many of us don't play like that is that it sounds lame and rather sad? "Shredding" is the last thing I would ever want to do on a guitar, it's mindless, repetitive and inane.

You want a really great Les Paul player? Billy F. Gibbons, a real cool dude. Mind you, give Billy a Strat and he still sounds like Billy.......

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Not wanting to start a heated debate :wink: but

You can't 'shred' without good technique, and good techncal ability can surely only be a good thing, how you apply it is a matter of taste (or not).

I agree the 'million notes a second' approach is only impressive for about 3 seconds but having the ability to do it makes you a better player than someone who can't, given that you are equal in other areas.
 
JohnA said:
having the ability to do it makes you a better player than someone who can't, given that you are equal in other areas.

Even if that's true John (and I'm not entirelly convinced), having the restraint and the taste not to play lots of "widdly-widdly-screech" stuff is what makes you a better player to me, and lots of other people too.
 
Totally agree, but surely the player who has the taste and restraint not to "widdly-widdly-screech" is better than the player who can't "widdly-widdly-screech"
 
So what's the point of learning to do something you don't want to do? You could spend your time learning to do something that you would want to play. :-?
 
Doug Aldrich can play just as well on his strat as he can on his Les Paul, something other people cant do. the point is that alot of players complain about a LP because they are too heavy, too hard to play on etc. thats crap. the LP was designed in the 50's, way before highly technical playing (or shredding) was common, so the technically proficient players have just learnt to adapt and play well on them.
 
benrod said:
Hi guy's i am NOT joking! I bought it off ebay 9 years ago ( $400 u.s. ) , 1993 burny standard l.p. - its a great player, and it sounds great, but i cant take it anymore, its too heavy, 10.8 lbs. - No i dont want to get rid of her for a lighter one, I WANT to KEEP it and make it lighter- routing out the back? PLEASE any thoughts, do you think i am crazy for wanting to do it, will it sound the same? if I go ahead with it , I will post photo's .

yo benrod, it's been 3 months since you started this thread, and you have yet to post pics (we need to see the patient before you do the surgery)

Didn't Santa bring you a digital camera for X-Mas?

Come on now, let's see the goods buddy...........................
 
big-ace said:
Doug Aldrich can play just as well on his strat as he can on his Les Paul, something other people cant do. the point is that alot of players complain about a LP because they are too heavy, too hard to play on etc. thats crap. the LP was designed in the 50's, way before highly technical playing (or shredding) was common, so the technically proficient players have just learnt to adapt and play well on them.

What relevance does this have to this post? You can play fast on any guitar, whatever it's weight. So what exactly are you trying to prove?

I just don't get it man.... :eek: :-? :eek: :-? :roll: :lol:
 
Weighing into the debate here...
Whether you play in the pentatonic box...Dorian...whatever...once you get comfortable with what you do there's no reason that you can't shred it when you want to/have to.
Because I'm in a covers band it would be stoopid for me to shred at 100 miles an hour ALL THE TIME.
We do Floyd stuff which is more or less slow and tasteful and we do Gary Moore's oh pretty woman in which I get to shred.
If i didn't know HOW to shred I'd be stuffed.
The technical aspects of HOW to do it are not important...once you know where yo always seem to go on the neck you'll be able to speed that up in due course....after 30 or so years of playing lead you SHOULD be able to just take what you normally play and speed that up.
You don't need to learn the Yngwie widdly widdly stuff but if you can't take what you know and play it at varying speeds then you need to reassess that decision to put down the triangle and pick up the guitar :eek:
 
Ozeshin said:
We do Floyd stuff which is more or less slow and tasteful and we do Gary Moore's oh pretty woman in which I get to shred.

Presumably Oh Pretty Woman is the Albert King song? If so, I imagine Moore murdered it like he did every other blues song he ever touched. :lol:

Albert never played fast, I doubt if he even could, but he was one of the most soulful and magnificent guitarists I've ever had the pleasure of hearing.

Horses for courses I guess....
 
You tend to assume(and have also done in the past) that because a person likes Gary Moore's version of say an Albert King song...we cannot therefore appreciate the Albert King version :eek:
As you say..."horse for courses" but isn't a guitarist the more rounded if he can effectively play BOTH versions?
I believe that JohnA stated in one of his posts on the topic that the "better" guitarist(for want of a better term) is the guitarist who can do it all...play slow and tastefully but shred when he needs to.
I fully agree.
I can't do the Yngwie ****...I tried and failed dismally.
I can do a reasonable Satriani lol....who again is someone who plays beautiful melodic runs and then can shred his butt off.
We should be able to take the style that we play and step on the gas as need be....as I said...it's less of a matter of taste and more of a matter of if you can't do it then just put one's hand up and admit...."I hate shredder's coz I cannot do it" :eek:
I love danny gatton style chicken pickin but I can't do it for the life of me...but just because I can't do it doesn't make me anti-chicken pickin....
 
We're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one Oze. I freely admit that I cannot "shred", largely because I have no wish to, and have never tried. When Jimmie Vaughan starts to play like that, I might feel tempted, but not till then. :lol:

As for playing fast, I suppose I do (or try to) when we play Red House. It's not my favourite song, but it was in the band's set list when I joined, so I'm stuck with it. I'm no Hendrix, but it seems to go down quite well at gigs. Mind you, it's amazing how much a Tubescreamer flat out and a wah pedal can cover up - accuracy becomes less important, and subtlety flies out of the window (well it does when I play it!). But it keeps the punters happy, and I kinda enjoy it. It's been an interesting challenge to learn to busk that one.

I think the problem is that you cannot begin to imagine how much I hate Gary Moore. Sitting through his suport slot on B.B.King's final tour (what a terrible choice of support act :cry: )was truly awful, mainly because he claims to be a blues player, but he's not. If he claimed to be a heavy rock player who occasionally played a blues number, that would be fine. I hate his playing style, his tone, his volume, his band, just about everything really! He even sold the Les Paul that Peter Green sold him - what a ****!

I love Rory Galllagher, Billy Gibbons, Hendrix, I even think I would enjoy a Motorhead gig, but if anyone ever said to me "You sound like Gary Moore" I would want to shoot myself. :-? Or the person who said that to me....

Now, Danny Gatton or Roy Buchanan, that's something else. I would love to be able to play like that, but I'm just not good enough (yet). Mind you, I'd like to learn more jazzy chords, more of those country licks that Steve Cropper throws into soul numbers, more of the rhythm stuff that Nile Rodgers and Jimmy Nolen play, more of the melodic stuff that Ronnie Earl plays, etc. etc. I'm not short of things that I can't play but that I would love to learn. And maybe one day I'll manage it.

But I'll be happy if, when I die, I still can't shred.
 
Ahhhh .... Roy Buchanan, when i first attempted to play lead years ago I jammed along to "your not alone" it was an excellent choice for a beginner to play along with, I still have the album in perfect condition and it is still excellent to listen too.

Mick
 
When I first started playing guitar my number 1 idol was Ace Frehley.
I lapped up all things KISS...hence my owning a Paul Stanley model guitar.
Not the flashiest fingers had old Ace but for someone starting out as a lead player his licks were very accessible.
As time went by I was introduced to a wider range of music....I discovered RUSH around the same time....TRIUMPH....JOHNNY WINTER....and last but not least THIN LIZZY.
THIN LIZZY had the most impact on my style as a lead player.
The wide vibrato...melodic soloing...and the occasional speed appealed to me like no other band before.
At the same time and through the Lizzy connection I discovered Gary Moore.
I was at the famous Sydney Opera House gig in 1978(have it on DVD) and one Gary Moore was playing guitar.
This was in support of the Black Rose album.
I had already been switched onto GM via his work with the Webbers and "Variations" but this gig sealed the deal for me.
I went away and lapped up all that was Gary Moore...G-Force...Colosseum II even as far as the myriad of Japanese bootlegs.
As a database for learning to shred he was the bee's knees.
Now I was a massive fan until the day he decided he was a "total bluesman".
Still got the Blues album confused me at first but I could still see glimmers of his old self in OH PRETTY WOMAN so I cut him some slack and even bought the second album....from that point on he lost me I'm afraid.
A blues based shredder is what he is/was....NOT Robert Johnson reborn.
A blues based shredder is what I am and I make no bones about it.
I play tightly within the pentatonic box and chromatic shapes....I can play it slow or I can melt your face.
We,as guitarists, are the sum of our influences I believe.
Moore,Kossoff,Satriani,Van Halen,Gorham,Frehley,Meniketti.
These are the players that I took the most from.
Taste/speed/vibrato/feel.
I CAN and DO shred as the song requires....but I love the slow soulful sparse playing just as much.
Remember...I grew up playing alongside Angus et al in the pubs of the 1970's Sydney.
He developed his style by amalgamating HIS influences into his style...Berry,King,Collins,West etc.
Play for the song....if it needs slow and tasteful then well and good but if it needs speed and excitement why be only half equipped.?
 
Well one thing we can both agree on is that Moore is NOT a blues player. Even though I find him a bit cold and clinical, Clapton is a blues player, in comparison, but I'm afraid the best blues players still come from the US. The South in particular. And Texas, to be more specific. I wish I knew why, but it just seems that way.

At least I won't upset the forum moderator with that statement! :lol:
 

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