The Guitar Thread

[ggalen]

Quote:That is some excellent playing you do. I like the tone. What amps and effects are you using?Thanks for the good words.Interestingly enough, that is direct through a Boss GT-8 into the sound board.There I am using a Soldano SLO 100 amp model and not driving the gain too much, with a 430msec delay and 2.6 sec plate reverb.It was Knopfler that drew me into electric. Loved the Dire Straits stuff, and the clear tone he can get. Like him, I have a strong acoustic fingerstyle background. I really do love those single-coil bell tones I can get from a the Strat. And with the right delay and reverb, it gives me a lot of enjoyment.

[ggalen]

Quote:My computer is too slow for videos, but I would love to hear some of your stuff if you can provide a link just for the sound. I am into the same kind of stuff. Knoppfler was a big influence. I've done a lot of development on these rolls. The key to Knoppfler is what I call interruption. The thumb and index finger keep interrupting each other on the same string. You probably know exactly what I am talking about.horace,You are right about the "interruption", and the single string technique Mark Knopfler so often uses. I figured that out after hearing him talk about getting a boogie rhythm on a single string with his thumb and finger. And then when listening I could hear it.I love his ghost notes and syncopation. I listen to guitar players fire out a machinegun of notes, and it does nothing for me like I feel when Knopfler puts that "bounce" into it! Man. Great stuff, eh?It reminds me of hearing the "bounciness" of Doc Watson's flatpicking compared to the stacatto style of some other flatpickers.

[aubreyz]

Quote:Hey, you guitar playing lads and lassies. Wouldn't it be nice if key changes on guitar did not destroy our grooves and riffs?Recently I had to make a key change in one of my songs to accommodate a female singer. You know how it goes. Some things are only possible because of certain open string configurations....This is something that I'm having to pay closer attention to. My primarily instrument is keys, but I play a little bass and quite a bit less guitar. However, I don't "think" the fretboard or open strings, there are black and white keys and chord shapes in my brain. I had Ponco replace the sampled guitars in a jingle/commercial recently and he said, "Aub you make guitar part like keyboard, this is impossible." Well, Ponch is skilled enough that virtually nothing is impossible, and he pulled it off. It seemed like such a simple part to me, but I think keys not frets-- and play power chords with one finger Aub

[dgolding]

Quote:I love his ghost notes and syncopation. I listen to guitar players fire out a machinegun of notes, and it does nothing for me like I feel when Knopfler puts that "bounce" into it! Man. Great stuff, eh?No argument here. I used to work in a guitar store, and 8 hours a day of listening to people playing their best 'wiggly wigglies' was more than enough for anyone. When you listen to Knopfler, and particulary David Gilmore, it's clear that they strive to make every note count. Each note has to have a reason for being there. Less is definately more .

[bc]

Quote:When you listen to Knopfler, and particulary David Gilmore, it's clear that they strive to make every note count. Each note has to have a reason for being there. Less is definately more . amen

[horacejesse]

Thanks for the settings, Glen. That sounded like Mark's tone dead on.When Sultans of Swing came out I was living in Colorado at 9,000+ feet. Everytime it came on the radio I had to pull the car over. I was that taken with the sound and tone. There had not previoulsy been anything else like that in rock music, I knew that for sure. Pollex interruptus was something I discovered by accident then realized that is what Knoppfler was doing a lot of the time, especially on grooves like "Walk of Life." When I play one of those guitar banjos using the correct inversions and ignoring non-banjo strings, you can't tell the difference between that and five string banjo.I also think knoppfler is a wonderful lyricist. The song "On Every Street" from the album of the same name is one of my all time favorites. Best album they ever made IMO. Goerge Martin producing.That was the album with all the steel guitar. But there is nothing Nashville about the steel playing. A unique sound instead. What was that player's name? Paul Franklin. He played several instruments of his own invention on that album. One was a baritone steel. Another was a dobro with pedals called a pedobro.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pjM9QKjPWI

[ggalen]

horacejesse,Thanks for that great YouTube clip of Paul Franklin's lead for On Every Street. That is one of my favorite Knopfler tunes as well. F-G6-D-Em-F-Em-Gsus-G...such a great progression, and sounds so nice when you pluck it as triads and get a piano-like tone.It's interesting that when Sultans of Swing was popular, I was heavy into more folk/acoustic guitar, and didn't care for it. Who knew that 20 years later I'd be a Strat convert, working on that banjo roll and lead that Knopfler does at the end!

[ernstinen]

Nice playing, Glen! That sounds great.Isn't it funny that as a guitarist and keyboardist, I can physically do certain things that need ambidextrous coordination, where as other things just don't come naturally. I gigged for years playing keyboards, left hand bass and singing all at the same time (people say I'm a great keyboard bass player ), but when it comes to guitar I CAN'T fingerpick worth a damn. My left hand is super fast on guitar, but my right is like dead meat. Very bizarre --- Ern

[ggalen]

Quote:Nice playing, Glen! That sounds great.Isn't it funny that as a guitarist and keyboardist, I can physically do certain things that need ambidextrous coordination, where as other things just don't come naturally. I gigged for years playing keyboards, left hand bass and singing all at the same time (people say I'm a great keyboard bass player ), but when it comes to guitar I CAN'T fingerpick worth a damn. My left hand is super fast on guitar, but my right is like dead meat. Very bizarre --- Ern Ern,That's interesting. But I wonder if you wouldn't get the fingerpicking with a hundred hours or so of focused, goal oriented practice.I think you would.I can tell you that some of the fingerpicking things that I can do now quite effortlessly once seemed impossible to ever do smoothly. Yet, it comes with repetition. And sooner than you think. Surprising, really.Thank you for the compliment on my playing. Very nice of you to let me know.

[drew]

In our southern rock cover band "Sultans" became one of our most requested songs, we do a pretty good version. Some of the folks at my church, having seen us play it, said it was a shame it wouldn't fit into our music services so I wrote a nice little Sunday morning story to fit the music, it has gone over well (even my wife loves the story it tells ). Nearly every time we have a music service, every 3 or 4 months, that song is requested and we love playing it. Only problem is that I have to sing it too. That's tough, I don't know how Knopfler makes it look so easy. When I try to convince someone that I taught him how to do it they don't believe me.Ern, my son, Jake, said he'd never be able to finger pick, after a year of working on it you should hear him playing a little of "Classical Gas", it's coming along real well. Makes a dad proud.