Dumb technique-Did Rudy Sarzo invent this?

[PolkaHero]

I'm talking about playing with your fretting hand fingers over the fingerboard. I saw Yngwie Malmsteen last night and couldn't help but notice Rudy Sarzo playing almost entire songs like this! Is he the guy that pretty much originated this "technique"?

BTW, as soon as he had to double some of Yngwie's scalar runs, he quickly reverted to normal fretting technique!

[MCA]

Don't know if Rudy invented it - but he's been showing off this technique since the Quiet Riot days on MTV.

"Cum on feel the noize!" (insert the lick of Rudy playing over the top of the fret-board here)

MCA

[phxlbrmpf]

Hmm, I don't really get it. How does this technique work? Can anyone post a picture or link me to one?

[Mazinger]

I think he's talking about having the hand palm down towards the board instead of the usual palm up w/ finger pointing towards your face. I think......

[rickbass]

Saw Entwistle doing this during short passages just to make me feel so inadequate as a bassist way before Sarzo was even heard of.

[Plazbnickle]

My thought of this technique was that you could mute the lower strings with the first joint of your fingers while you playing higher strings, and that you could play higher fretts on lower strings easily... Does anyone no the real benifits of using this technique?

[hieronymous]

Originally Posted by MCA

Don't know if Rudy invented it - but he's been showing off this technique since the Quiet Riot days on MTV.

I think he was doing it even before then - I remember seeing him do it in a video of an Ozzy concert from the "Speak of the Devil" period (Brad Gillis, Rudy Sarzo, Tommy Aldridge and Don Airey (?)). Who knows, maybe he even did it during the pre-Ozzy Quiet Riot days?!!

Just remember, this is the guy that would lick the back of the neck of his bass!!! Not sure what the point of that "technique" is either!

[Subculture13]

His Peavey signature bass is pretty cool too. I just picked one up in amazing condition from an L&M out this way. They didn't really know what to do with it, so gave it to me for practically nothing. Neck through body, dual humbucker. Looks alot like a modern day Cirrus, but this thing must be at least 20 years old. I can't see him having a signature model these days, but what do I know.

[Jon Burnet]

he had a signature warrior iirc




also i mean

[ONYX]

Originally Posted by rickbass

Saw Entwistle doing this during short passages just to make me feel so inadequate as a bassist way before Sarzo was even heard of.

Ditto.

Saw Entwistle do this a number of times. I also seem to remember that during the mid 80's "hair metal" scene ( ), almost every bass player seemed to be doing this at some point.

I may have been guilty of it sometimes.........

[PolkaHero]

Originally Posted by hieronymous

Just remember, this is the guy that would lick the back of the neck of his bass!!! Not sure what the point of that "technique" is either!

Hah, now that you mention that, at the very beginning of the show he brought his bass above his head and with his right hand over his mouth made a "suggestive" motion. I almost died laughing right there!

He was using the "newer" version of his Peavey signature bass. It had the black 2+2 headstock with a multi-laminated neck. I don't think Peavey makes it anymore. Like I said, you couldn't really hear it as he was buried the entire night by the kick drum and Yngwie (9 Marshall heads powering 6 4x12 cabinets!). Rudy was "only" using a newer Ampeg SVT 8x10 setup.

[Wildside]

That stuff looks great when playing live, another cool thing was when rudy used to go bang his bass on tommy aldridge's crash cymbals during choruses. I remember seeing a live whitesnake performance and he did that during the two big crashes in the "Here I Go Again" chorus.

[MCA]

Originally Posted by renfield808

His Peavey signature bass is pretty cool too. I just picked one up in amazing condition from an L&M out this way. They didn't really know what to do with it, so gave it to me for practically nothing. Neck through body, dual humbucker. Looks alot like a modern day Cirrus, but this thing must be at least 20 years old. I can't see him having a signature model these days, but what do I know.

Yeah, Peavey did the Sarzo Signature bass about '89 - I wanted one of those in the worst way but did not have the coin to pay for one at that time. That bass had more bottom end than anything else that was around the music stores me and my friends used to hang out at in those days. My guess is the Cirrus evolved from that Sarzo model.

MCA

[hieronymous]

Originally Posted by Wildside

That stuff looks great when playing live, another cool thing was when rudy used to go bang his bass on tommy aldridge's crash cymbals during choruses. I remember seeing a live whitesnake performance and he did that during the two big crashes in the "Here I Go Again" chorus.

That reminded me, in the Ozzy video I saw Rudy would also hit the bass with his right fist, probably on something like the intro to "Crazy Train". I always thought he was pretending to hit the bass and actually fretting the notes with his left hand?

[PolkaHero]

Another Sarzoism I noticed last week:

He likes to lick his right thumb really quickly right in the middle of a song. No throwing the bass around his neck though like Yngwie.

How old is Rudy nowadays anyway? He's gotta be pushing 50, right?

[Matt Till]

Eh, I saw some guy in a bar band do that rockin' root notes. Not that impressive if you know what they are doing.

Billy Sheehan does it in the Yankee Rose video for a tapping bit. It's very hair metal.

[rickbass]

S long as we're into names, Ray Riendeau burns it up and has lessons somewhere on the web on doing it........can't remember where, though.