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The New Guitar Gods


MCChris

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I saw a post on some BB where a guy had bought one of those '90s Strats that came with a factory-installed Tremsetter. He had never seen one before and had no idea what it was.

His post was something along the lines of "I just bought a Strat and there's this big syringe in the spring cavity!"

The first reply was "Did you buy it from John Frusciante?"

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I don't know which is more pathetic.

John Mayer or Rolling Stone.

I remember when that magazine at least made an attempt at intelligent journalism. It now resides comfortably on Jewel Osco checkout impulse racks right between TV Guide and the Bat-Boy tabloids.

If the criteria is talent, creativity and actual impact on the "state of the art", I'll take Trucks, give JF a nod as an interesting fringe contributor and substitute Jack White and John Bonamassa.

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I am sorry.

But I like John Mayer's live CD "Try" (2005).

Especially the song "Gravity". Pure pentatonic heaven!

And there is more. Maybe his music is too polite (is that the right word?) from the studio but live it's another animal.

Gabe :ph34r:

P.S.: I also like Duke Robillard's Guitar Groove-A-Rama, which I bought at the same time.

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Been watching Mayer on the Direct TV freeview. Don't know the song name, but one sounded way too close to "People Get Ready" without any acknowledgment. He does have a talented drummer behind a large Ludwig kit.

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Gabe, please take no offense. You are certainly entitled to your opinion and we all have our "guilty pleasures. Hell, I like ELO and Hall and Oates!

But, if anyone wants an example of why John Mayer needs to be banned (or at least dismissed as irrelevant),

watch his performance of "Gravity" on the DirecTV free concert broadcast this month.

All of the insipid, grating, horror-inducing Mayer elements are there. The "play three notes and contort your face like you're passing a kidney-stone" fake emotion, the vacant mouthing along of the words by the soccer mom and daughter JM fanclub audience, the pseudo intellectual haiku lyrics and the "why the hell can't you just sing like a normal human instead of that blatantly affected gargling thing you do" vocal delivery.

Yes I watched. For three full minutes. I still feel unclean.

Have I mentioned that I'm not a fan?

edited to add that Duke Robillard kicks ass!

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I like John Mayer a lot (as BD noted, no apoligies are necessary...thank you BD).

However.....

"Slowhand Jr.???????" I guess they need to sell magazines and get people talking on internet bulletin boards about how pathetic their choices were. I would have substituted Joe Bonamassa for JF. I think Derek Trucks will be up there with some of the greats one day. What a player! What a student also.

Duke Robillard is in another league from them all (Check out "Duke's Blues" and "Dangerous Place."). He's not new by any means though....now back to the subject.

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Guest Mike Lee

Duke Robillard is cool. I met him at the Detroit Guitar Show about 10 years ago at a Hamer display. The local Hamer factory rep had a small booth and he put a P-90 Goldtop in Duke's hands. He liked it a lot, but said the neck was too thin. Maybe he'd like the current necks better.

I've seen Derek Trucks live 3 times. He is the most impressive "new" guitarist I've seen in a long time. His only problem is that he doesn't sing lead and thus doesn't appeal as much to chicks and non-guitar people. But amongst guitarists, he's up there with Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, and Clapton. Buddy Whittington is up there in that group too but he's a lot older.

Rolling Stone has been lame for over 20 years. I remember in the 80's when members their pet alternative bands would always be selected as the best instrumentalists. U2 is a good band, but there is NO way that ANY of them should be selected as best drummer, or best bassist, or even best guitarist. I remember seeing that and going WTF? That was when Vai, Satriani, Billy Sheehan, Stu Hamm, and many other virtuosic interumentalists were at the top of their game.

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If there is a "New Guitar God," his name is surely Brent Mason.

+ 1 That dude is awesome. Covers every style and is one of the best. He's most definitely in the top 10 of players I'd like to jam with. I'm sure his resume is incredible.

Gotta also add Redd Volkaert (well..he's not new but neither is Brent--ha Redd makes the list anyway outta principle) and those two young guitar players from Avenged Sevenfold for the metal crowd.

Mayer is a lame and safe choice for RS to sell some mags..but good on 'em for throwing Derek Trucks in there. John Fruisuicopjkyuiououcate (sp?ha) is a great player.

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If there is a "New Guitar God," his name is surely Brent Mason.

+ 1 That dude is awesome. Covers every style and is one of the best. He's most definitely in the top 10 of players I'd like to jam with. I'm sure his resume is incredible.

Gotta also add Redd Volkaert (well..he's not new but neither is Brent--ha Redd makes the list anyway outta principle) and those two young guitar players from Avenged Sevenfold for the metal crowd.

Mayer is a lame and safe choice for RS to sell some mags..but good on 'em for throwing Derek Trucks in there. John Fruisuicopjkyuiououcate (sp?ha) is a great player.

Redd's the man! Bill Kirchen's new'un...Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods...kicks major butt as well.

I like John Fruisuicopjkyuiououcate myself, and Trucks as well. I saw Mayer on the Crossroads DVD; I guess he was all right, but BD's right about the hideous guitar faces!

I like that kid who plays guitar for Los Lonely boys as well.

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I'm a pretty big John Mayer fan, but I don't know if I'd call him a guitar hero. Still, in terms of being someone who inspires lots of folks to pickup a guitar, I guess I could see him and Frusciante as being guitar heroes (although I've never really though JF was anything particularly special). Of course by that standard, Kurt Cobain's a guitar hero. And what's with Derek Trucks? He might be a monster player, but I don't know that he has enough mass appeal among younger folks to be labelled as a guitar hero. I guess he's RS's attempt to appeal to their "musical elite" readers? :ph34r:

-Austin

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Brent Mason has an incredible instructional distributed by Hot Licks. I've watched about 3/4ths of it twice - I can't make it to the end without running into my backyard, dropping to my knees and pitching my fists into the air while screaming "I SUCK!" towards the heavens.

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Guest Mike Lee

And what's with Derek Trucks? He might be a monster player, but I don't know that he has enough mass appeal among younger folks to be labelled as a guitar hero. I guess he's RS's attempt to appeal to their "musical elite" readers? :ph34r:

-Austin

And how much of the general public knows much or cares about Jeff Beck? Jeff is a guitarist's guitarist, a musical genius, and one of the foremost innovators the instrument has ever seen. He was good when he played Teles, Esquires, and Les Pauls, but with a Strat he has found a singular voice that no one else even approaches. He's not the fastest, or most theory-literate, but certainly more musical than most.

Derek Truck's control of microtonal pitch with a slide approaches Jeff Beck's control on a Strat trem. I've seen Trucks with the Allman Brothers twice, and believe me there were plenty of young people there. The Allman Brothers are the elder statesmen of the jam band scene, and took over from the Grateful Dead after Jerry Garcia died 10 years ago. But they are young people who enjoy good music, not tabloid popularity and synchonized dance moves.

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yea, but who got to do the the *First Act/VW* commercial?

people listen to music w/ their eyes.

edited to say: of course, people don't actually listen w/ their eyes....duh. :ph34r:

hopefully my point was understood, notwithstanding, ....i am saying that good/better looking people often get more breaks/opportunities/chances in the COMMERCIAL arena than average looking people. And because of that, more exposure, and more fame and money...even tho there are often many, many, many people who can do their job better.

that's a sad fact in the world in which we live.

imo, there are at least, AT LEAST, 30 better players than JM just in thge last decade....maybe even 50 better players. ....but who do you more often see on TV, and getting the sweet gigs?

i didn't say it was fair, i'm just pointing out that that's the reality of it in the yr 2007 in America.

but there r exceptions to every rule.

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