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Who Actually LIKES Their Guitarists?

#61
My 2nd guitarIST is primarily a sax player. He's a year ahead of me, but in the 1 year of jazz band (I've known him since Kindergarten), I have discovered he is an amazing instrumentalist. He can improvise tastefully over anything, on any instrument (However, when soloing in free-time, he can sometimes overstay his welcome.), and it transfers to any instrument he plays. The entire band is well aware that he's going places. At the same time he is overwhelmingly humble. I haven't seen him brag once.
 
#63
I play with two guitarists in my band.

One is a fine fingerstyle acoustic player, a great team player with tremendous musical sensitivity, and an excellent singer to boot. He's a walking encyclopedia of American songwriters, and is a good songwriter himself (although he's too much of a perfectionist in this area, and is way too reluctant to let his creations run free in the outside world... which is a shame, because he's written some solid tunes). He practices a lot, and always tries to really get a comprehensive understanding of what's going on in the music: harmonic structure, bass line, each of the parts of the vocal harmonies, rhythmic change-ups, etc. He's a complete musician who has earned my utmost respect. He's also a helluva nice guy and a close friend, and was even best man at my wedding last September.

The other is a so-so "lead" guitarist and a worse mandolin player than I am (my skills are rudimentary at best). He's in his early 50's with a 10-year-old daughter, kinda divorced but not really, no real job to speak of, with piles of personal issues that seem to always find a way of creeping in to the band dynamic (usually something to do with the latest girlfriend... they seem to change weekly). He pretty much thinks he's too good to learn anything new, which shows in his soloing, which is sometimes accidentally good but more often wrong, and always wrong in the same way. His musical philosophy seems to be that if we're "jammy" and having a good time, nobody will care if we make a bunch of mistakes (as something of an OCD perfectionist myself, I couldn't disagree more). He's still around because he's been a good friend of the other guitarist for ages, and because whatever personality trait he possesses that allows him to bed an endless string of women also seems to work for getting us gigs.

And BTW, our Zendrummer (he gave up kit a few years ago) is the nicest, kindest, most accommodating and ego-free musician I've probably ever known.
 
#64
Beginner Bass said:
Afterreading all these "guitard"-bashing posts, I think we should have a place to recall the silver lining of this gigantic storm-cloud. I'll start.

He's not actually my guitarist, but my brother, and in my opinion is actually pretty removed from the stereotypical teenage guitarist, and respect him as a guitarist far too much to cal him a guitard. He does not feel the need to shred everything, doesn't scoop his mids, and (Here's the kicker), said this: "I think all basses should have 5 strings." And he can't stand metal, too!

So let's hear your stories. Come one, come all, roll out the red carpet for our gems within the dirt.
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Both are like brothers to me we always say my brother from another mother!
Both are good friends and caring people what else do you need!
 
#66
My first guitard? Not so much. He was a good friend of mine when we decided to make the band, and he plays guitar crazy fast, and played stuff like Cliffs of Dover.

We decided we'd let him in.
That was a pretty big mistake. To him, there was nothing but blues and classic rock/metal. Our 2nd guitarist (now our only one, and an awesome guy) was messing with this dark Tool sounding riff when Tyler (the first guitard) said "Wait. Let's add a solo right there. Is that near any scales?" :scowl: He proceeded to look at the riff, take two whole notes out of it, and play an E pentatonic blues scale into a solo. That was everything.

Then we decided to start preparing for Battle of the Bands next year, because it'll take us a while to get up to speed. We wanted to do our progressive stuff -- Pink Floyd, Tool, etc. Keep in mind we only get 30 minutes. So, one day, I make up a preliminary set list and give it to everybody. He comes back later and says "You know, I don't really like any of these songs. We need to do some Van Halen, and some Led Zeppelin. Also, we HAVE to play Thunderstruck. I can play it with my teeth!"

To his credit, he could play it with his teeth.


Our current guitarist is pretty awesome though. We knew him before we really got into playing our instruments (I had just started guitar lessons). We call him Awkward Guy for a reason though :p

I honestly think our current guitarist is better than Tyler was. He's cleaner (well, he doesn't miss/choke notes) and he can pull off some crazy stuff. He's also really good with effects (amazing what he can do with a digitech Multifx pedal) and does all the pickslides/scratches/ switching between pickups to make weird noises etc. that you see in players like Tom Morello.


Yeah, we play metal, but we'd like to think we add some art to it. Oh, also, our guitarist uses a slide sometimes for metal stuff :p.
 
#67
ME! I love my guitar players! (I play with a few, various groups)

Example of how I connect to one well: I opened up some of my old piano literature and decided I wanted to learn Invention #1 by Bach on my electric. Three days later my guitarist texts me telling me he just learned Invention #1 and we should practice up a bunch of classical literature for shyts. :)
 
#70
My guitarist was a self centred egomaniac. As long as he got to put his guitar behind his head the gig was a success. He didnt learn songs, feeling that he was good enough to just wing them. This often resulted in him screwing up half the set and blaming it on the drummer. He was unreliabe yet jumped down everyone elses neck if they forgot about something. Above all else he thought how much a bassist knew about blues was how to determine their talent. Left the band today.
 
#72
Eh i dont like mine, he wont practice for months then decide to get all serious, brings horrible singers over to audtion, obviously does nto want to hang out unless we are playing, way into his girl friend, treats his 200$ beginner guitar like crap and has dragged it around years with no adjusting of the 1/4 inch action. Oh and plays horrible shred solos.


One day I will find a good guitarist, but there are also plenty of bass players that fit the description above, they just dont log onto bass sites.
 
#73
Just joined a band after jamming a few times with the guitarist (also knew the singer, bizarrely), and I have to admit we seem to click.

Note that we clicked on a personal level and that counts. We're both engineers and we both love motorcycles and both had a motocross stint.

Also the fact that he has no big ego but loves playing music is a good thing.
 
#74
Ok I have to throw in here:)
I was asked to join a band that has been together for 35 years last year.
I didn't know any of the members, my name was just passed on to them.
It has just been the best last year, just really cool guys that have made me part of their club:) The two guitarists have excellent equiptment and play harmonies without a glitch, they don't have to discuss anything,One of the guitarists bought me a new sansamp pedal for my birthday this year and the drummer refinished my alembic spoiler for me and
refused payment. I have played in several bands over the last 30 years but this group is like family. its what a band is all about!! Sounds sappy but after years of posers and attitudes its just awesome to play with some truly gifted musicians that know each other as well as their instruments and combine the two without thought, it just happens, gotta love it!!
 
#75
My Friends,

After, literally, years of dealing with difficult guitarists I am once more working with a guy I first worked with 18 years ago. He and I always got along famously - he is an incredible player with an amazing sense of melody.

What sets our working relationship apart from most is mutual respect - I trust him 100% to do the right thing musically, and he holds the same level of trust in my abilities. I can take a song idea to him and know that it will always be better for his ideas and contributions - we give each other complete artistic control over our respective instruments. THAT is what makes it work.

----
Kurt
 
#77
A-Step-Towards said:
Eh i dont like mine, he wont practice for months then decide to get all serious, brings horrible singers over to audtion, obviously does nto want to hang out unless we are playing, way into his girl friend, treats his 200$ beginner guitar like crap and has dragged it around years with no adjusting of the 1/4 inch action. Oh and plays horrible shred solos.


One day I will find a good guitarist, but there are also plenty of bass players that fit the description above, they just dont log onto bass sites.
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Stingray_EB said:
My guitarist was a self centred egomaniac. As long as he got to put his guitar behind his head the gig was a success. He didnt learn songs, feeling that he was good enough to just wing them. This often resulted in him screwing up half the set and blaming it on the drummer. He was unreliabe yet jumped down everyone elses neck if they forgot about something. Above all else he thought how much a bassist knew about blues was how to determine their talent. Left the band today.
Click to expand...

Don't post this here. This is not a guitar-bashing thread. make your own guitar hate-threads and post away. ut stay out of this one.
 
#78
I get along great with the guitar player in the band. Actually it's his band (an acoustic duo), I've just kindly been invited to play and record with them to fill out the sound. He was a bass player long before he picked up guitar, so there is no communication problem when we work out an arrangement or a performance detail.

We worked together for a while back in the 80s, both like the same kind of music, books, movies, cats, etc. and neither of us have out of control egos. It's been a very enjoyable collaboration so far and I hope it continues.
 
#79
I played in a thrash metal band a few years back with 2 guitarists, and these guys were a joy to play with. They never tried to out-do each other and were very democratic with each other and the rest of the band. They were happy to release their egos (to be honest, there wasnt any ego) for what would best suit the song. And they were also willing to listen to our ideas for riffs and incorporate them where they could. The only reason I left that band was because I moved interstate, which was very hard to do due to the fact that we were writing such killer material. Last I heard, they were still going strong. Makes you miss what you once had
Cheers,
Jordan
 

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