It's All About the Solo!

[GT40Graham]

I went to the Penrith Guitar Show a couple of weeks ago and sat in on a lecture by a guitarist who's name I forget (which is a shame as he was very good). The tongue-in-cheek name of the lecture was "It's All About the Solo" and was about making the solo fit the song rather than just being a showcase for the lead guitarist's undoubted talent/fast licks/posing ability etc. This got me thinking about the different mind set of bass players vs guitarists.

I find that when I play in a band my ultimate aim is to get the band sounding it's best and therefore I try and get my tone and levels to fit in with the overall performance. Most (but not all) guitarists that I've played in bands with tend to only want to hear themselves, generally to the detriment of the rest of the band and consequently, the overall sound.

I know that this is a bit of a generalisation as I know that not all guitarists are like this and the guy giving the lecture described most guitarists as "knobs" in this respect. He did however, describe himself as an "ex-knob".

Does anyone else find this with their guitarists or am I just unlucky?

[Happy Jack]

In all fairness to our guitarist colleagues, I did once meet a lead guitarist who tried to be co-operative rather than "look at me, look at me".

He's in Broadmoor now, of course.

[GT40Graham]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='1367282' date='Sep 9 2011, 08:37 AM']In all fairness to our guitarist colleagues, I did once meet a lead guitarist who tried to be co-operative rather than "look at me, look at me".

He's in Broadmoor now, of course.[/quote]

[Lozz196]

I must admit, I`ve been in bands with both types of guitarists, and it`s so much easier working with one who wants to work with the band, rather than the band work for them.

The last band I played in as a guitarist, the pair of us really worked hard to get the sounds of each of our guitars right, for the material we were playing, as well as the solos and lead breaks. It meant both of us using sounds we generally wouldn`t use, but it was what was right for what we were doing.

A mate of mine came to see us, and said that out of the four bands playing that evening, we were the only band where you could clearly tell which guitar was doing what, whereas all the others just durged into one over-distorted, over-reverbed mess. He also said that the solos "fitted the songs" which I was very pleased with, as I consider myself a cr*p lead player.

Edited September 9, 2011 by Lozz196

[steve]

I'm in the fortunate position of being in a band with two guitarists who are focussed on the band sound rather than their own fretboard gymnastics. THey're both really good players too.

I think to some extent it might be the genre of music a band is playng too, we play mainly indie rock, so some songs don't have much in the way of solos, altho' we do have a couple of more staright up rock so the guitarists can stretch out a bit

Edited September 9, 2011 by steve

[Mykesbass]

Trouble is (IMO) that with some musical genres the punters lap up the whole "guitar god" thing, and if the guitarist can keep it to just a few "highlights" of the show it can work very well. But yes, I did once walk out of a Santana gig bored rigid by the worst form of OTT soloing.

[wez]

Our guitarist can be a bit like that, but in a stroke of luck last night his newly re-valved amp burnt out, smoke everywhere and for the first time in ages i could actually hear myself

[Chris2112]

To be fair, I don't mind playing with a guitarist who really has his chops together and can solo well. But only if everyone in the band is on the same page chops wise (think the Gambale Hamm Smith records). If you've got a trio playing and they're all on top of their game it can be amazing. But if the bassist and the drummer aren't up to it, the guitar god thing just doesn't work. No-one wants to hear fantastic soloing over a plodding 8th note bass line and a 4/4 drum beat. That would get boring quickly, because it's all about the interplay!