[quote=”1bassleft”]Now, on downright tackiness, that is definitley a contender. The “Rastafaraiiii!” fretboard markers, the photo-print Marley-face. Are there no limits to the depths that the epiphone name can be dragged down to?[/quote]

Check out my Fenix Charvelle type thing for a nice, sedate, sensible finish.

http://rocklogic-music.blogspot.com/

[quote=”Megadeth45″]For all of you who want to sling their guitar lower than regular guitarstraps….just find an old car, cut out the seat belt, attach some strap locks (you can cut off the old leather tips of your old strap as well as the little buckle thing) and you have urself a strap that can go extra long[/quote]

An excellent piece of advice for someone who’s knuckles drag along the ground…!!!!

[quote]What exactly is an ‘entry level/beginner’s’ guitar?

The most obvious initial distinction with entry level guitars is that they tend to be ‘cheaper’. However, does this immediately identify that a raw beginner will automatically be strapped for cash, or simply that it is anticipated that the instrument will be gathering dust in a wardrobe (the British equivalent of a closet) within a couple of months? Potential customers being more likely to gamble a couple of hundred £’s/$’s than 4x times more in case they don’t stick with it? [/quote]

There are several points here…

..and it depends on the level that you’re playing at.

The reason for using certain woods on an electric instrument can be tonal but also can be structural. Woods that are cut for the cheaper guitars are more prone to movement due to humidity, temperature, being left leaning against a wall etc. Cheap cuts of wood will tend to move more than a properly seasoned quater-sawn piece (thinking in terms of necks here).

The expensive guitars are more expensive to make and the makers will be working within much finer tolerances all round and are intended to be used in a professional capacity i.e. they have to be reliable, consistant and stable. They have to behave!

Now the difference in tonal quality might be slight but the feel and tone of the guitar WILL have a noticable effect on the player which WILL have a noticable effect on how that player feels which WILL have an effect on how that player plays which WILL in turn have a noticable effect on the sound that player produces which then goes round again. Unless, of course, said player is at a sufficiently low level where it doesn’t matter. The pro-level player has distinctions that the lesser player just doesn’t have.

Also, the “market” will determin the price (over and above the cost of production). This is called “perceived value”. There is, in reality, no objective value in the universe, only that which is agreed upon.

I live very close to Denmark Street in London and I often see old guitars with price tags of £5000. If no one agrees with this price then it won’t sell.

Les Paul himself once said that he thought the price people were paying for the old Gibsons was rediculous as the modern instruments were much better. But there was a time when you couldn’t give a Les Paul away and they didn’t sell at all when they were first introduced. The English blues and R&B chaps (Clapton et al) caused the revival of the Les Paul and the prices went up.[/quote]

[quote=”lee_UK”]Who covered the Commodores ‘Easy’ ? cant remember the bands name but boy what a stinker of a solo, maybe ive got it all wrong and it was meant to be a parody type thing?… anything by Mike Oldfield too. How can he justify reworking Tubular Bells 3 times?
Kerching!! sounds like the cash till ringing. :lol:[/quote]

Well. I know that this may be a tad controversial but Jeff Beck on the album “Blow by Blow” was out of his depth regarding playing over the changes that the others were laying down. There is a similar effect when Clapton is playing over the last section of “Leyla” (the bit that starts with the piano). The main fault is that there are some chord sequences that just can’t take a blues pentatonic. Beck’s solo on “Private Dancer” by Tina Turner wasn’t all that great, either.

Pat Mastelotto’s “Jeff Beck” story… Pat sees him at an un-named venue/location…

Pat Mastelotto: ” Hey Jeff…”

Jeff Beck: ” F**k off “

(Jolly decent chap, though..)

Some of Fripp’s solo on “Schizoid Man” from the Hyde Park concert was a tad suspect, I feel.

Phil Millar’s soloing efforts on various bits of “The Rotters’ Club” (in direct contrast to Dave Stewert’s dazzling musicalities) were lacking in Oomph!

(Jolly decent chap, though… sent me the chords ‘with diagrams’ to his magniff composition, “Underdub”)

And who can forget The Peddlars? Tab Martin’s bass solo on “Locksheen Pudding” sounded more like he was wrestling with the pickup that had fallen out of its housing and was rattling around and entangling itself in the strings. In fact, this is without doubt the worst instumental solo on record. (I just can’t proove it!)

Dave

[quote=”1bassleft”]Can’t compete with that! You mentioned another ivory-tinkler I think is hugely underrated – Pat Moraz. I remember he had an album with a “symbol” title, pre-dating TAFKAP (NKAPA) by a good decade. Much as Wakeman’s a key-whizz (and great taste in comedy), I think “Relayer” is Yes’ best album because Moraz’ restraint rubbed off on the others a little. Slotted into The Moody Blues nicely, too.

Oh, just thought of another reason for “Room 101″ing Steve Howe. That obnoxious, arms-spread “look at all my gear!” photo he had done. For anyone swimming against the tide of student grant, mortgage, wives with clothing catalogues, that kind of smugness does make the fists clench 🙂 .[/quote]

Don’t really know much about Patrick Moraz (he’s not a guitarist after all) but he should also join the others in room 101 for describing Close To The Edge as a “meenie seenphonie”.

And Steve Hackett should be released…. then put back in for saying that he wore a T-shirt and jeans on stage as it made him “…closer to ‘the kids‘..”
But he still tucked his jeans in to his shiny, leather boots.
(Damned fine chap though… he went to see my mates Genesis tribute band ReGenesis in the back room of a small pub {The Grey Horse} in Kingston-upon-Thames).

I took Richard Macphail to see them in the back room of a pub in Putney (The Half Moon). The next day he said to me that he’d closed his eyes during Supper’s Ready and when he opened them, he couldn’t believe that it wasn’t his mates up there on stage…. Praise indeed!! Steve the (original guitarist with ReGenesis) modified a Strat with a small piece of curved wood under the strings near the bridge to make a very passable electric sitar (for I Know What I like…) They were a bloody good band and one reviewer described them as “… a living, breathing experience..” and after thier first gig at The Astoria in London, a friend said it was the best gig he’d seen since Frank Zappa.

Dave

[quote=”lee_UK”]http://www.angelo.com/

I have it on very good authority that this is a WIG. Not that anybody would doubt it 😆 . But this is the guy who plays with 2 hands on 2 necks at the same time! shredding, a truely humbling expierience, but after the first song it starts to sound a bit like corned beef,( one song is the same as the other ) and all you find yourself concentrating on is the Ferret on his head, so he goes in room 101 for his davey crocket and not his guitar playing, he is a true Class A shredder on the fretboard.[/quote]

Having listened to the audio clip my assesment is.. “very impressive but devoid of anything that would have me engage”. As a fellow student said to me back in the 70’s.. “I’d rather a guitarist play one note and mean it”.
(Well he was the sort of person that was always feeling “hasseled, man” though he was actually English!)

Even as a massive fan of McLaughlin and Fripp, my two favorite guitar solo’s are Amos Garratt on “Midnight at the Oasis” (by Maria Muldur (sp?) and Ron Wood on “Maggie May” (Rod stewert). My favorite keyboard solo is by Dave Stewert on the Hatfield’s track “Share It” from The Rotters Club

Guitarists that need to go into room 101…

Al DiMiola
for playing total bollocks with Return To Forever. (“He was just a kid who couldn’t play the music..” Stanley Clark) And that classical/baroque guitar piece on his first solo album that was played so badly

Steve Hackett
for lying about why he sat down to play (early Genesis Melody Maker interview) as he was just copying Fripp. No one had asked him why, he just interjected..

Steve Howe
for his solo appearance and total crap acoustic guitar playing on the James Whale Radio Show one Sunday afternoon ages ago. And for playing the same descending and ascending riff from “Yours is No Disgrace” as the guitar line for the opening of “Close to the Edge”

Lee Jackson
for the total nonsense spoken towards the end of “America” by The Nice and for attending my school fete as the “celebrity” when I was the only one who’d heard of him (Jolly nice chap, though) Oh, and for wearing a cream suit jacket plus tie (at the Fairfield Halls with Patrick Moraz) whilst employing a large on-stage fan blowing to keep him cool.

And Bill Bruford (yeah I know..)
for (aledgedly) bursting into tears and not getting over it when Jamie Muir told him his drumming was boring… as Bruford still says “well I might not be the best technician but you can’t say that my drumming is boring” …Might be an idea to come from playing interesting drums rather than not playing boring drums. Ah yes, and for blowing cigarette smoke over me at the Crimson “playback” at a hotel in London some years ago. (Jolly funny chap though.. author of the phrase “Bra-less and Slightly Slack. )

Brian May
for wearing Anita Dobson’s hair and for only playing guitar solos that only constitute ascending scales and arpeggios. (Damned decent sort though, with celebrated and much praised restraint on the use of wha-wha on “Killer Queen”.. first class).

Dave