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Eric Clapton must be readying Guitar Forums


tazzboy

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I think he was implying that all you need to play electric guitar is an ELECTRIC guitar and some sort of amplification...

 

For example, all Angus and Malcolm need to talk is their guitars of choice and their Marshall/Wizard amps of choice!

 

Alex Lifeson could definitely play with no or minimal effects (first four Rush records! Plus All The World's A Stage! [thumbup] ), but he likes to have his refridgerater of effects to help him convey his messages!

 

I myself like some grease on my wheels, but sometimes, it's fun just to go straight in and crank it up!

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I could at least respect your opinion if you were an acoustic purist. How is electrifying an instrument necessary, but not taking it one step further with modulation? Instruments evolve.

 

JohnnyRamone.jpg

 

Sup?

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](*,) Oy!

 

Not this again.

 

How does Eric get his Cream tone as opposed to his Journeyman tone? Did he change his fingers, or did he use more pedal driven gain, sustain, and chorus through a Strat equipped with lace sensor pick ups as opposed to his cranked Marshall with an SG.

 

And how did he get that tone he uses on White Room? Is that his fingers or a Wah-Wah pedal? It's a freakin' Wah-Wah pedal!

 

Pinch harmonic = In the fingers

Flanger = Not In The Fingers

 

 

Although I'm sure he means that the art of it is in the fingers, the ability and intangible "It" is in the fingers. But still.....

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An important point made about F1...

 

So much technology now...it's almost lost it's way

 

The cars won't start without a computer

 

And tyre choice from minute to minute can be too critical

 

Good to see Eric at the race... [thumbup]

 

V

 

:-({|=

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I think the point is that a good guitar player can plug a cheap piece of **** guitar directly into a home stereo or something, and still sound better than a talentless twit with an expensive guitar and a gazillion pedals and effects.

 

you can have as many pedals as you like, but you'll still sound like **** if you can't really play.

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Whatever,

 

We live in the age of people "subscribing" to philosophies, they hear a one-liner, they like it and subscribe to it. He also says that it may all be in the brain but no comments there.

 

I like Eric Clapton's tone in some records but not in others, are his fingertips inconsistent then?

 

When it comes to acoustic tone I am sure it does not hurt to have Eric's $3,000 Martin.

 

I play better when I am concentrated in playing for instance, when I get into it, when I am distracted I sound like crap, same hands.

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All kidding aside, I got talked into putting some stuff on Youtube a cupla years ago by fellow forumites.

 

All three are the same guitar, same strings, same amp and same settings on both guitar and amp. Yet each piece sounds different in terms of tone.

 

Our technique makes more difference than most of us want to admit. Where we play on the strings with our picking hand, the manner in which we excite them, the way our left hand frets and releases... all these variables are involved in "tone."

 

I'll also agree, however, that the electric guitar is an instrument of two parts. In fact, in terms of recording that sound, I'd suggest it's virtually an instrument of three parts - the guitar, the amp and such electronics including stomp boxes, and the mode in which it is converted to a recording and/or sound heard by an audience.

 

Even putting the same mike in front of a given amp at different differences and angles are matters of discussion by those who know it does make a difference.

 

Frankly, most of the time I prefer a pretty plain amp setting for what I'm doing nowadays, and mostly to get the guitar sounding like the kind of guitar it is rather than some other instrument. That's nothing against the guys with all sorts of stomp boxes, 'cuz at times I've used a Leslie (or emulator) and volume pedal to sound as much like a B3 as I can. But...

 

m

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](*,) Oy!

 

Not this again.

 

How does Eric get his Cream tone as opposed to his Journeyman tone? Did he change his fingers, or did he use more pedal driven gain, sustain, and chorus through a Strat equipped with lace sensor pick ups as opposed to his cranked Marshall with an SG.

 

And how did he get that tone he uses on White Room? Is that his fingers or a Wah-Wah pedal? It's a freakin' Wah-Wah pedal!

 

Pinch harmonic = In the fingers

Flanger = Not In The Fingers

 

 

Although I'm sure he means that the art of it is in the fingers, the ability and intangible "It" is in the fingers. But still.....

 

There are some players that with only one note regardless of the gear used you can tell who it is. Santana is certainly like that. It's that thing they have that comes from how they "touch" the instrument. Eric sounds like himself wheather he is playing an acoustic or electric, Strat or ES335, Les Paul or Tele. It always sounds like him.

I was just looking at some tab for Cream's live version of Politician and trying to copy some of these licks and dag nab it Eric comes through the gear or "tone" to sound like himself. Compare that to say Cocaine and it still sounds like Eric. If you added a flanger it would still sound like him. That comes from his fingers not the gear.

 

When I eat a piece of chicken it still tastes like chicken regardless of the spice I used while cooking it.

"

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Jax...

 

Buchanan... Yeah, and I always note what the guy can do with that volume knob, too... flatpick and fingerpicking and...

 

I'm personally convinced that the foundation of guitar playing, regardless acoustic or electric, is in the player recognizing how to get different tones with technique. An electric and amp offer literally, not figuratively, an infinite variation in tone on top of what one does with just an acoustic guitar.

 

Then if one wishes the guitar to become something of a different instrument, one can start messing with various add-ons ranging from use of the volume knob on some instruments and a volume pedal on others. That changes attack and sustain beyond what is inherent in the instrument and an audience's ears.

 

To sound like yet other instruments, acoustic (saxophone) or otherwise, one can mess with other add-ons. As I've noted, I've found use for a B3 emulation.

 

But if the basics haven't yet been developed to have an idea of what one is doing, it seems to me that too often "younger" guitar players (not age, but experience and/or attitude) will use various electronic add-ons in an attempt to sound like something their technique won't otherwise allow.

 

Clapton, who's a cupla months older than I am, has far more talent and technique than I have, but one might consider that if an exceptional longtime pro and an old weekend warrior have long since come to the same conclusion... there just might be some truth to it.

 

The guitar is an odd instrument in that it does lend itself to many types of playing and many types of sounds. I remember crossing bass strings and using a rasgueado to emulate a snare drum on a classical guitar, for example.

 

But the bottom line is that one might wonder whether many guitar players are seeking the basics or rather to evade the basics through electronic enhancement that may or may not really be as much guitar playing as electronic playing. I'm not making a value judgment at all - just an observation of what instrument one actually is playing to get certain types of sound with a guitar and various electronic enhancements.

 

m

 

Edit: Cowboybillybob... yeah, chicken tastes like chicken regardless of spices unless... there's so much spice that it no longer tastes like anything resembling chicken.

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