"Guitar Heroes"... listenable?

As guitarists, obviously we like listening to music that features the guitar prominently... a lot of us dig artists like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Roy Buchanan, Jeff Beck, etc- guys who basically just play guitar, and that's it. A lot of their music is instrumental- it's not just guitar based; it's guitar centric.

Now, my questions are- are we the only ones who dig this stuff? Does our preoccupation with "tone" and technique account for a big part of our love for it? If you didn't play guitar, wouldn't you get bored with instrumental guitar music, or just flat out not enjoy it? It's been a while since I've been a plain old, non-guitar-playing music appreciator, but I would think that most people just want to hear an accessible, relatable, emotional and/or danceable song with some nice vocals on it. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with either musical approach- they just seem to appeal to different crowds, or different parts of the brain or what have you.

Just some food for thought I guess. I wanna hear what you all have to say!

If it's guitar oriented instrumental songs like surf music I can listen to that all day.

The only modern guitar hero that I can listen to and love is John Frusciante.

I do like listening to music by guitarists but after a few cuts I feel like I've heard everything they can do. Gary Hoey is one whom I find to have a good variety of playing styles and can listen to for more than a couple of songs without being bored.

Other than Beck, DiMeola, and occasionally Johnson I'm not into instrumental "guitar music."
I may be a guitar player, but most of that stuff bores me to tears.

I've always preferred to hear guitar as part of an arrangement & song, not as the focal point.

I heartily agree with the 2nd and 3rd sentence of GP's post

I like to listen to music based on the song, the sound and the feel.

I find listening to most modern (let's say 1970-onwards) guitar-centric music rather tiresome. Yeah, surf music is cool.

You can't hum pyrotechnics.

I've had friends excitedly play me Vai, Hedges and DiMeola at which point I politely find some excuse to change the conversation....and more importantly, the track.

If it "works", I'd be happy to listen to somebody bang a rock off of a tin roof. Technique means very little to me and I find music that leans too hard in it to be tiresome.

Painting with too broad a brush here, imhp- Beck, Johnson, Wes, certainly, Vai, Satriani, etc...uh, no.

Hm, kind of funny, my guitar heroes are more along the lines of of Joe Strummer, Lee Ranaldo, Matt Pike and Kevin Shields. But hey, that's just me...

That said, outside of surf rock and stoner/doom metal, I get bored with guitar based instrumental acts. Maybe I have ADD, or something...

Yeah it can get boring after a while if there's nothing else

Then again, I've NEVER heard a song and thought, "wow, that's a great tone," I just decide whether or not I like the song.

Tone is a sales pitch.

Hey Purester, that's an awesome list of guitar heroes!



Big +1 for Kevin Shields

(and Lee)

(and Matt)

(and Joe)

I've never convince any of my non-guitar playing friends of how "Awesome" Satriani,Yngwie,Beck,EVH,Gilbert,Dimeola,Vai, etc. is. They usually just humor me and change songs after a few minutes. I find it easier for my non-guitar playing friends to get thru "Blues" guitarist's music, or at least let it play til it's over.

Painting with too broad a brush here, imhp- Beck, Johnson, Wes, certainly, Vai, Satriani, etc...uh, no.

Well I haven't heard much Wes, so I can't really say for him, but for the rest of them their music is centered on the guitar playing rather than the vocal or other features of the arrangement. That's the common thread among them- they might appeal to different tastes, but at the end of the day it's all guitar music. But yeah... I agree; give me Beck and Johnson any day over those two.

Other than Beck, DiMeola, and occasionally Johnson I'm not into instrumental "guitar music."
I may be a guitar player, but most of that stuff bores me to tears.

I've always preferred to hear guitar as part of an arrangement & song, not as the focal point.

Well said. I couldn't agree more.

I've seen Satriani (twice) & Vai live & loved the shows just from the view of being wowed by their ability but would i buy their albums>>>> nope :lol:

I've always found Buchannan rather unlistenable. JMHO

my guitar heroes are blues guys so i dont have that problem. but i can still listen to instrumentals

the second post mentioned something about John Frusciante and guitar hero in the same sentence, so I stopped reading the thread.

I don't like the Peppers, but Frusciante is a beast.





In a good way