those records which change your way of playing.

[Grandy]

This and also Zimbabwe Frontline vol. 1 and 3.

 

[68tele]

Okay, Marquee Moon was posted earlier, but their 2nd album was just as mind-opening...

 

[Old Plank]

Ventures - Walk Don't Run Volume 2
Beatles - "65"
CSNY - 4-Way Street; Neil Young - Harvest
Dead - American Beauty
Pat Metheny Group - 1st album
Miles - KOB

were all big ones earlier on for me that made me think more about what all I was trying to play!

 

[Peegoo]

Early Police stuff, followed closely by Marr's work in The Smiths. Using rhythm as texture really perked up my ears.

 

[jays0n]

For me it wasn’t an album but a concert. When I saw AC/DC on Rock Goes to College (late 70s) it made me want to start playing guitar. So I changed my playing then big time

 

[aging_rocker]

Many, many records changed my approach to playing, but if I had to pick one, probably this

 

[Flaneur]

All the old stuff......pre-1960.

 

[2HBStrat]

For me, it was the Allman Brothers Live At The Fillmore.
The playing was brilliant, but accessible to my teenage self.
Dickie and Duane were very inspiring, as was the rest of the band.

Same here. Back on the 70's I listened to that album every night for probably a year, or maybe more. VERY influential!

 

[tanplastic]

A weird one, but this Eno-produced compilation opened my ears to the abrasive potential of guitars. Changed what I wanted from my guitar at the time.

 

[Geoff738]

ZEP II
Roger the Engineer

Cheers,
Geoff

 

[tanplastic]

Okay, Marquee Moon was posted earlier, but their 2nd album was just as mind-opening...

I reckon those albums were vital to a lot of players at the time.
One of my favourites from their catalogue:

 

[monkeybanana]

For last few months it has been Big Star (love the guitar tones on the albums)


and The Pretenders (got me an EHX Small Clone Chorus now)


For the last year I have been really into Tom Bukovac's Corona Lessons/Homeskoolin' vidoes (got me some Gibsons now)

I really like this too (not getting a TK Smith anytime soon though)

 

[johnny k]

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime

Husker Du - Flip Your Wig

 

[Chicago Matt]

For me, it was the Allman Brothers Live At The Fillmore.
The playing was brilliant, but accessible to my teenage self.
Dickie and Duane were very inspiring, as was the rest of the band.

This was a BIG one for me as well. Also Humble Pie's live album during that same era. Both Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton were great on that. Later, Clapton's From the Cradle was a watershed.

 

[HaWE]

This was a BIG one for me as well. Also Humble Pie's live album during that same era. Both Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton were great on that. Later, Clapton's From the Cradle was a watershed.

I love the Les Pauls sound on the Fillmore East Album- not distorted , but very clear,kind of "snappy" and still a lot of gain...
my favorite song from that album is "You dont love me" from the second side ....and the guitar-solos in the middle of the song.

 

[MarshallHeart]

 

[Nogoodnamesleft]

The first album of The Cult I bought was Dreamtime Live at the Lyceum. That was a pivotal moment in my playing. I skipped so may high school classes listening to that cassette on my walkman in the art wing hallway, learning how to play Billy Duffy's riffs. I failed almost half of my classes that year and had to make up for it the following two years to graduate on time.

Between that record, The Police's first two records, and any postpunk I could get my ears near, hugely influential and a departure from what got me started which was The Beatles' early to mid career work.

 

[Matt G]

My playing seems to be driven more by genetics than any particular record. But there's one album that came out of left field and set me afire in all sorts of new and unexpected directions: Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life. The paradox is that it I don't think it's changed my guitar playing in the slightest. But the fretless bass sitting here right next to me . . . well, nobody expected that less than I did.

 

[teletail]

Clapton’s first album. It set me on the road to look at where he came from, Cream, Mayall, and then to his original influences. I don’t sound anything like him, but he was the first step in my journey to be a guitarist .

 

[ChicknPickn]

Band of Gypsies, Machine Gun