Yeah, but you probably also can't play your articulate clean ideas with
much heavier strings and higher action than you're currently using
Yes, I also can't articulate my clean
ideas as well with a bass guitar or a lute. What is the
point? Pick any electric guitar that is setup the way you like.
Play it clean, play it with lots of gain. That is the context I am working
with here. Test it. Test others. See how often the hypothesis is true.
--does that mean that your current instrument setup (whatever it might
be) is generating an illusion of technique? I don't think so.
No. In the case you bring up, the unusual string gauge and
action is just hindering me. Use the strings and action you are
comfortable with, then let the tests begin. Technique is technique. Create a
level playing field, and then you can either play the notes
fluidly and with accuracy, or you can't. A lot of distortion may
in fact conceal this on some cases, but it doesn't change the
fact. I can pickup an electric with high gain and race up and down the
neck with arpeggios, in that classic Malmsteen or Paul Gilbert fashion. I
can do this as fast as I can and it sounds fairly fluid, but I can't turn
around and do it on the electric with a clean tone. I have to slow down and
maintain more control over my instrument. The high gain, compression,
and ultra sensitivity allows a lot of things that one couldn't ordinarily do
with a clean tone while sounding just as controlled and articulate. I'm
really not saying much more than that here.
Whatever tools make it easiest to produce your desired end result, by
all means, use those, but the whole "make the young bucks play through a
clean amp" thing doesn't make sense to me. Is anyone surprised when
that sort of playing doesn't sound great through the wrong amp
settings?
Wrong amp settings? What does that mean? I am not talking about
what sounds "great" or "good", or what is "wrong" or "right". This is purely
a matter of technicality, and I dare not introduce what "sounds good" into
the conversation, because that is an entirely different and subjective
matter regarding taste. I am talking about pure physical technicality
and the raw ability to create notes with accuracy and fluidity with a clean
vs. high gain tone. You can perform the test with any guitar or amp.
Doesn't matter to me. And the easiest test to perform is to have
someone (could be yourself as well) who is very good at playing fast and
seemingly articulate on an electric with high gain, and then see if they can
do it with a clean tone. And it can be the clean tone of their preference,
with the guitar and amp of their preference. It is a basic test.
I performed it on myself, and could not play the same thing with a clean
tone. There is nothing wrong with that. It just means that I am taking
advantage of the high gain to do things I can't do on with a clean tone. It
does not mean I am a bad player, though I can say that I have aspired now to
be able to play only things that I "can" play with a clean tone, and
that has made me a better player. Now when I go back to the electric, I am
even more articulate. So, the crutch proved to be a useful tool. It
forced me to sit down for years with a clean tone and really gain control
over my instrument....though I am still working on this and it is a lifelong
process.
K-
On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 2:58 PM, Krispen Hartung
<info@krispenhartung.com>
wrote:
Yes, I understand where you are coming from,
and they seem like valid points. Though the points I made
still stand true to my own evolution as a guitarist. High gain
generated an elusion of technicality that could not be re-produced with
clean tone, regardless of who it touched, whether it was miced, or
any of the separate skills required to play the electric with high
gain (which I fully understand, having played the electric for almost
30 years). And I am sure I can sit down with 10 young bucks walking on the
streat who play screamin' licks on the electric, and test my theory
with a clean tone.
/K
