Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Bickert
Kingalingus, this is in no way directed AT you. I just read all this stuff over and over from dozens of people and it drives me bonkers. I snapped! Lock me up...but here I go...
I think the whole, "the sound is in the fingers" is simply rubbish. Yes, there are certain nuances that can only be attained if the actual phyiscal playing are done in at least a similar fashion (try to emulate Wes Montgomery while using a pick). But I'll go out on a limb here, and smash that mythical Holy Grail to the ground in peices and say that virtually anyone can get any sound they want. The more populated the signal is with effects, the easier it becomes.
The Boston distortion, the Eddie van Halen distortion, The AC/DC crackiling overdrive, the mudded Metallica sound, the SRV sound, and of course, the Pink Floyd sound. Will you sound just like Dave when you play? Probably not. But will your guitar sound like it? Hell yes. Anyone who buys into the mythos that 90% of the sound is in the fingers either can't do it or doesn't have the money to try. Give Dave Gilmour a Danelcto with lipstick pickups and he won't sound like Dave Gilmour...just his playing. The "sound" is not magic. It's real. You can get it with enough money. Sorry to burst those bubbles.
Anyone see that Floyd cover band that had a concert in heavy ratation on DirecTV? THAT guy mailed the sound, nailed the style, nailed everything. Oh and of course it wasn't gilmour playing.
I have heard quite a few cover bands in my life and it's creepy how close they can get. The sound? Nailed it. But never quite the creative element. John Mayer could probably play a SRV solo note for note and you'd swear it was SRV.
But I digress. If you want to keep on believing in some crazy mystic mojo that will always be out of your grasp, then go for it. I used to beleive in Santa Clause and that was fun too. But Dave Gilmour is only human. Granted, amazingly talented, gifted, and fortunate. And though you'd be hard pressed to emulate his creativity or success...you can surely emulate something as definitive as his sound.
Flame on!  |
Hi Ed. Ok I can see what your saying about setup of the guitar and how its totally possible for a half decent guitarist to copy the licks of Gilmour, SRV or Carlos Santana and end up sounding almost identical to the real thing. The key phrase though in that instance would be "copy".
If you presented the above 3 guitarists with a piece of music they had never heard before and asked them to improvise around it for 3 minutes, you'd end up with 3 very distinctly different guitar solo's, and I'm pretty sure anyone with a decent ear could tell straight away which was which. Even if the setup on the guitar was exactly the same for each.
I'm 100% certain that if I'd never heard that particular song before and listened to that solo, I would have picked it as being Gilmour.
Anyway, cheers Ed.....I'm off to practice those Gilmour licks lol.