Early Influencers & Pioneers

JIMI HENDRIX

In the 60's the revolutionary guitarist .. Jimi Hendrix dug the path and laid the solid foundations for the rock guitarists in the 70's to pathe that the modern rock guitarist play along today. He made the biggest impact and change to rock guitaring in the history of modern music. In the 50's and early 60's Jimi started on the road gigging with the likes of the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and King Curtis, recording with each of those acts, but was unable to adapt to the discipline their performances required. Soon after he let loose with his own bands, his own music which made the whole world 'kiss the sky'.

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ALVIN LEE

Pioneer rock and speed guitarist, Graham Barnes aka Alvin Lee from Nottingham, England, began playing guitar at the age of 13, originally influenced by his parent's collection of jazz and blues records, it was the rock and roll of guitarists like Chuck Berry and Scotty Moore who provided his inspiration to form his band Ivan Jay and the Jaymen by the age 15. After local gigs and success in Hamburg, Germany the band moved to London and changed their name to Ten Years After. TYA had success with Europen and US tours, releasing ten albums. Alvin was very experimental and brave guitarist, enjoying new techniques. By 1973 Alvin felt held back by the band's style, so with US gospel singer Mylon LeFevre and a host of rock talents like George Harrison, Steve Winwood, Ron Wood and Mick Fleetwood, he recorded and released On the Road to Freedom, a highly acclaimed album that was at the forefront of country rock. A year later, Alvin formed Alvin Lee & Company to play a show at the Rainbow in London and released it as a double live album, In Flight, a very energetic mix of rhythm and blues and rock. He finished out the 1970s with his power trio 'Ten Years Later'. Alvin has gone on to record 20 albums, his most recent, Saguitar, released Sept 2007.
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JEFF BECK

Rock and speed pioneer guitarist Jeff Beck from Wallington, Greater London started as a guitar sessionist and played in his band Trident before joining The Yardbirds. They had most of thier hits the 18 months Jeff was in the band. 1967 sees him recording the one-off song "Beck's Bolero" with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Nicky Hopkins, and Keith Moon, after which he formed a new band, The Jeff Beck Group, which also featured Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Nicky and Micky Waller. The group produced two albums, Truth in 1968 and Beck-Ola in June, 1969. Both albums are highly acclaimed, and considered by many critics to have inspired the heavy metal genre. In 1973 while in US he recorded 2 albums with his power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice. He has gone on to play with countless artists as well as a huge solo career recording 15 solo albums. Jeff does not use a pick/plectrum but relies on his fingernails and thumbnail for his attack. He produces a wide variety of sounds by using his fingers and the vibrato bar on his signature Fender Stratocaster, although he frequently uses a wah-wah pedal both live and in the studio. He has been a huge influence and still is to guitar players and the music industry throughout long career.
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JOHN McLAUGHLIN

Guitar virtuoso John McLaughlin from Doncaster, Yorkshire is regarded by many as one of the most influential and technically gifted guitarists of all time, having over his long career mastered a remarkable range of styles and genres, including jazz, Indian classical music, fusion, and Flamenco. Initially inspired by blues and swing players he started on guitar when he was 11 and worked Tony Oxley and John Surman before moving to America in 1969. He played with Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Miles Davis and reputation as a session player grew, resulting in recordings as a sideman with Miroslav Vitous, Larry Coryell, Wayne Shorter, Carla Bley, The Rolling Stones and others. In 1970 he formed The Mahavishnu Orchestra which included violinist Jerry Goodman (later Jean-Luc Ponty), keyboardist Jan Hammer (later Gayle Moran and Stu Goldberg), bassist Rick Laird (later Ralphe Armstrong), and drummer Billy Cobham (later Narada Michael Walden). The band performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused eclectic jazz and rock with eastern and Indian influences. He has gone on to play and record dozens of albums with many greats of different genre as well as a busy solo career and continues writing, recording and touring.
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ALLAN HOLDSWORTH

Virtuoso Allan Holdsworth from Bradford, Yorkshire is one of a handful who pioneered the fusion of rock and jazz music with speed in the early 70's. His influences include Django Reinhardt, Jimmy Rainey, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass , Eric Clapton, and John Coltrane. Allen pioneered several techniques including using an eight-voice modulated delay to create a chorusing effect that, combined with unusual closed voiced chords, create a very piano-like sound from an ordinary electric guitar. He uses a legato phrasing technique with light picking that causes a distorted guitar amplifier to produce a reedy, clarinet-like tone. A third innovative technique is using a volume pedal to "swell" chords into a long delay/reverb effect, generating the impression of an orchestral string section. These three techniques were used by Allen to create the aural illusion of classical instruments, years before the invention of guitar synthesizers, and have been adopted by increasing numbers of guitarists such as Frank Gambale, Eddie Van Halen, Scott Henderson, Bill Connors, Steve Vai, Alex Lifeson and David Sylvian to mention a few. Allen has been a band member with Soft Works, Bruford, Gongzilla, U.K., Tempest, Soft Machine, Level 42 and Gong. He has played on 54 collaboration albums and to date recorded 18 solo albums. Sadly his work has been neglected by the media and the public as a whole, where as fellow musicians have held him in high esteem for over 35 years.
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ULRICH JON ROTH

Neo-classical guitar pioneer Ulrich Jon Roth born in Düsseldorf, Germany formed his first serious band, Dawn Road, while in his mid teens. At 19, in 1973 he was asked to finished a tour off with the up and coming Scorpians, later that year, this led to a new line-up for Scorpians of 4 former Sporpians and 2 members of Dawn Road, with Uli as lead guitarist. Although he recorded 5 albums with them, establishing them as a top band, Uli's soul, his writings, composing and guitaring, were heavily influenced by Hendrix and tendings toward blending this with the classical, a very different direction to Scorpian. In 1978 he formed his own band "Electric Sun" to pursue and showcase his hendrix-classical pioneering. Elecrtic Sun released 3 albums which opened the door and influenced all the neo-classical guitarists which followed, including Yngwie Malmsteen who later popularised neo-classical more with the media. Uli invented his own unique instrument the 6-octave Sky guitar to further his 'ever' evolving creations and techniques. Uli went solo in the late 80's and has since written 4 symphonies, 2 concertos, numerous songs, released 3 albums, done many world tours, guested with too many artists to mention, inducted into the Walk of Fame by Europe's only Rock & Pop Museum, which is situated in Gronau, Germany, and is currently working on a new full-length studio album "Under A Dark Sky", which is to be released next year, also for 2008 he has another World Tour planned.
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AL Di MEOLA

To many, virtuoso Al Di Meola is one of the most important pioneers of shred guitar, his 70's work opened up a new era of rock and influenced guitarists such as Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Jason Becker, Chris Impellitteri and many, many others. After attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Al joined the bands Chick Corea and Return to Forever before embarking on his solo career in 1976. His first solo album Land of the Midnight Sun, is noted for his technical mastery and extremely fast speed guitaring, complex guitar solos and compositions. He gradually introduced his love for latin and flamenco into his music. Al went on to explore a variety of styles, but is now most noted for his Latin-influenced jazz fusion works. He is a four time winner as Best Jazz Guitarist in Guitar Player Magazine's Reader Poll. In addition to a prolific solo career of 25 albums, tours and world appearances , he has engaged in successful collaborations with bassist Stanley Clarke, synthesizer player Jan Hammer, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, and guitarists John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía and guested on countless tracks.
(from:philbrodieband.com)

Warr Guitar

The Warr Guitar is a relative of the Stick in that it is designed to be used by tapping the strings. However, the body style and string layout is different. Mark Warr and Emmett Chapman (designer of the Stick) got into some legal disputes a few years back, but not over the instruments themselves ... rather, it was about business and marketing tactics. The rumors that it was about the "tap" aspects of the instruments is untrue, and the dispute was settled years ago. (Thanks to Jim Reilly for this info).

Warr Guitars come in 8, 12 and 14-string varieties (14-string Phalanx series shown). There is no "standard" tuning (or rather, there are a number of "standard tunings", though Warr encourages you to try new tunings for yourself). Needless to say, the experimental nature of this instrument makes it a natural for prog musicians.

Probably the most famous Warr Guitar player today is Trey Gunn, sometime guitarist for King Crimson, who has both a Warr Guitar model and a tuning named for him. Less well-known, but every bit as good, are Mark Cook (99 Names of God, The Minefield) and Adam Levin (Dark Aether Project).

SynthAxe

The SynthAxe was one of the early guitar MIDI controllers, built about 1985. In addition to a guitar-like fretboard, it also had a few keyboard-like keys and a pedalboard (which also held the power supplies).

Unlike modern MIDI guitars which attempt to detect the frequency of each string and convert it to MIDI data, the SynthAxe used a different approach. The strings of the SynthAxe don't create sound on their own, but are merely sensors which convert the guitarist's finger positions to MIDI data. It does not need to use different size strings for each of the six strings, so easily-stretched strings are typically substituted in all six positions. Both fret position and string bending are sensed, so the player can perform natural guitar pitch bends. Notes can be triggered from the second set of strings, strummed or picked like a guitar, or from the keyboard which was velocity sensitive and had polyphonic aftertouch. It also had a whammy bar which could be assigned to any MIDI function desired.

Users say that the whole assembly is so heavy that it's more comfortable to play sitting down than standing with the weight around the player's neck. Also, the non-standard spacing of the frets take some getting used to. However, there is no delay as there is in MIDI guitars that track string pitch ... bends, hammers, pull-offs and trills all respond instantly. However, these devices were very expensive and were only made for a few years before the manufacturer folded.

Famous musicians who used one, for a while at least, included Allan Holdsworth, Al Di Meola and Lee Ritenour.

THE 10 FASTEST SHRED GUITARISTS (with courtesy of Guitar One Magazine ~ NOT my list or choice)

No 1 . MICHAEL ANGELO BATIO

Michael invented the Dean Double-Guitar and was the first person in the world to successfully play it. AWESOME!! Michael started playing piano and composing at age 5, started playing guitar at age 10. Michael has performed over 1100 shows in 31 different countries since 1993. He tours the world performing guitar workshops, also records, tours and plays with various bands and solo. He also invented and successfully played the very first 'quad' guitar. However, the instrument was stolen during a Nitro show in El Paso, Texas, and only two of the four parts required for its assembly have ever been recovered. However, Dean Guitars recently finished production on a new quad guitar for Michael.
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No 2. CHRIS IMPELLITTERI

Chris Impellitteri is one of the most unique, intense, and dynamic guitarists in heavy rock today. His influences range from Al Di Meola to Uli John Roth to Edward Van Halen. Chris has been releasing some of the best progressive, neo-classical guitar work around since the mid-'80's, inspiring countless musicians.

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voted No 3. YNGWIE J. MALMSTEEN

When he was young, Yngwie didn't want much to do with music. Music was soft, a thing for wimps, and Yngwie was into all things destructive. An unruly child, Yngwie took delight in anything that went against the grain. But, one night while watching television, 7-year-old Yngwie saw guitar maestro Jimi Hendrix burning his guitar. Jimi's death had spurred the birth of a new guitar hero: Yngwie J. Malmsteen. He cites Jimi Hendrix, Uli Jon Roth, Brian May, Steve Hackett and Ritchie Blackmore as his influences.
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No 4. PAUL GILBERT

Guitarist Paul Gilbert has sold over three million records in the United States stemming from his brilliant work with Racer X, Mr. Big and as a solo artist. Long known as one of the top shredders in the business, Gilbert sometimes returns to his blues rock roots as on his Raw Blues Power album
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No 5. THE LATE SHAWN LANE

Lane began his musical interests very young, studying piano and cello from the age of four. He took up the guitar at eight, and it remained his principal instrument from then on. He quickly became a legend in Memphis' music scene as the feisty young kid, began his professional playing and recording career when he was 12. The teen wonder shocked and amazed audiences at stadium shows across the USA. Before becoming a world renown guitarist. Tragically Shawn died of a lung disease Sept 26th 2003 at the age of 40.
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No 6. JOE STUMP

Joe Stump is one of the leading guitarists of the shred genre. Having released numerous solo albums and four with his band project Reign Of Terror, Stump has a reputation of for combining guitar virtuosity with strong hooks and killer riffs. Joe is also Berklee School Of Music's head authority on shred guitar. His main influeneces in his career are Ritchie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix, Gary Moore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Schenker, Uli- Jon Roth, David Chastain, classical music too - Bach, Paganini, Vivaldi, Mendelson etc.
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No 7. RUSTY COOLEY

Rusty’s early influences included: Rhoads, Malmsteen, Becker, Gilbert, Holdsworth, Paganini, Bach, Vai, Gambale, Moore, MacAlpine, Taffolla, Friedman. He was also influenced by many styles including: Jazz, Classical, Funk, Blues and even Country. There where times when Rusty was pulled in so many different directions by music, he didn’t know if he wanted to be a Classical Conductor or a Jazz guitarist. “Remember play from your heart and never be swayed by the current trends.” Rusty Cooley
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No 8. BUCKETHEAD

Buckethead is one of the most bizarre and enigmatic figures in American underground. Real name Brian Carroll says he was raised by hens in a henhouse!. He got the idea of a bucket and mask one day when he was eating fried chicken. He stands about 7 Feet tall with his bucket on. He has robotic movements. Not much is known about Buckethead, but one things for sure, this greased lightin' is finger lickin' fast. Well the Colonel hasn't caught him yet! His bands include: Deli Creeps, Cornbugs, Praxis, Cobra Strike, Buckethead (Solo), Primus (Ozzfest 1999), Guns N' Roses.
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No 9. JOHN PETRUCCI

John Petrucci grew up on Long Island, Kings Park He started playing guitar at the age of 12 (After a brief fling at age 8 when he noticed his sister got to stay up late for her organ lessons. His little plan didn’t work out being that his guitar lesson was after school, and soon lost interest.) He quickly realized his influences and was determined to reach their level of ability. Some early influences include Yngwie Malmsteen, Randy Rhoads, Iron Maiden, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Yes, Rush etc. As the rise of thrash & metal hit John expanded his influences to include bands like Metallica & Queensryche.
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No 10. THE GREAT KAT

The Great Kat was born Katherine Thomas in Swindon, England (on a U.S. Air Force Base Military Hospital), moved to USA aged 3. After touring the world as a violinist, she realised that Classical music was dead, so she began updating Classical Music with Speed Metal and transcribed intricate violin solos to the guitar. The Great Kat is the only musician taking note-for-note authentic Classical Music scores (from Vivaldi, Beethoven, Bach, Wagner, Liszt, and Rossini) and re-orchestrating the entire scores with Shred Guitar virtuosity and mixing it with Speed Metal band and Classical orchestra.
(from:http://philbrodieband.com)

Jason Becker

Listen to Jaso Becker now :

Jason Becker, (born July 22, 1969) is an American neo-classical metal guitarist and composer. At the age of 16, he became part of the Mike Varney-produced duo Cacophony with his friend Marty Friedman. They released Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 and Go Off! in 1988.
At the age of 20, he joined David Lee Roth's band. While recording the A Little Ain't Enough album and preparing for the subsequent tour, Becker began to feel what he called a "lazy limp" on his left leg. He was soon diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and given three years to live. He could barely finish the recording, using low-gauge (thin) guitar strings and other techniques, which would make it easier to play with his weakening hands. Although he managed to finish the album he did not join the supporting tour due to his inability to perform on stage. He eventually lost the ability to speak and now communicates with his eyes via a system developed by his father. Although his ALS gradually robbed him of his ability to play guitar, to walk, and eventually even to speak, he still remains mentally sharp and, with the aid of a computer, continues composing. In the back of the Perspective CD case, Becker states "I have Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It has crippled my body and speech, but not my mind." Now in his 30s, his medical condition has remained stable since 1997.