Shrapnel Records guitar shredders: S & D

Paul Gilbert was pretty good in Racer X but loses points for hitting the big time with an acoustic ballad.

Incidentally, don't you think it's hypocritical for the New Statesman to take advertising money from Boeing?

There were two guys who weren't on his label, but who were really, really quite fast--Shawn Lane and Buckethead. Then there were two guys, one of whom was a teacher and the other one was Nelson's guitarist, Brent something, who are both really good at legato lines. But for my money, the most interesting and weird one was definitely Richie Kotzen.

No, man... CACAPHONY!! Jason Becker and Marty something. Actually, I never heard them, but in high school somebody got me a subscription to Guitar Player magazine, and they were the ruling kings of shred at the time... And Tony MacAlpine?

The story about Jason Becker is so tragic! He seemed like the nicest guy too--phooey. Poor Tony MacAlpine, I guess the world wasn't ready for a black guy who had Poison's hair. There was also this guy who played stuff that sounded like slide, but on his cd, it was proudly proclaimed that in fact he used no such device. That was his claim to fame! Making slide sounds with a whammy bar?!!?! Looking back at the cds from my junior high years is so embarrassing, thank GOD I grew out of that phase upon entry into high school. Nowadays, being able to play the guitar is almost like being in Model UN in 10th grade.

Ever _used_ a whammy bar? Most players who use it just use it to add color, or make weird noises, but it has amazing potential. Jeff Beck, for one, can use it to play a line that sounds like a human voice. You have to have a steely ear for that kind of thing -- it's not unlike playing a melody by twisting a tuning peg back and forth. It's _very_ easy to sound out of tune and dreadful when working the whammy.

Well, I wouldn't go that far, it's not nearly as hard to use as you suggest--the whammy bar is a neat tool, and yes, I've heard many of the greats use it for different purposes, microtonal and all, but still, my point was that there was actually a guy on Shrapnel who's basic claim to fame was that he wasn't using a slide to make a slide sound. I mean, it's like Jan Hammer using a synth to sound like a harmonica--great! Why not just use a harmonica? Reminds me of all those David Torn albums where it says, "no synthesizers or keyboards were used." So what?