What is your favorite guitar solo and why?
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Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
Yes, Brian May of Queen fame.
Super share!He was truly an Icon in the music industry.
Caught Les a few times in the past on the air waves, and he was a "card", even in his elder years. Full of stories, full of history, along with a "crusty" attitude, with memories to match!
Q
He was definitely a unique personality. It's too bad I wasn't really aware of him beyond his fame for the guitar until after he passed. He was very much of a card in real life also (I literally can't share any of the real-life stories my friend conveyed). My friend is going to arrange for my son and I to meet Les's luthier at his home, likely sometime in Jan or Feb. We done some very heavy modding on two of my son's Les Pauls, so it will be interesting to see what he thinks of them.
I don't have too many regrets in life, but missing those weekly Iridium shows is definitely near the top of the regret list. I would have been there weekly. When I was in high school, we used to go to a jazz club called the "Village Lounge" at Disney Lake Buena Vista (no longer there unfortunately). The jazz musicians loved coming to Florida and staying in Disney accommodations, so it was always top notch talent like Clark Terry -- all very well-known names every week. This was long before Disney started charging $17 for toothpick
-- there was no cover charge, free hot mixed nuts at the table, I think either a $1 or $1.25 ice cold Michelob, and they rarely carded even though we were high-schoolers (my ID was "of age" anyway though ). Most of all, the jazz was amazing. We used to go about every other week and those are some of my best memories from my youth. The Les Paul gig at Iridium, between the who's who guest guitarists sitting in and his personality, would have probably topped that Disney jazz lounge experience.
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Yes Brian May from Queen. The funny thing is that Brian May is probably the only famous guitar player in the world, other than Les, who designed and built his own guitar. Brian built his "red special" guitar in 1964 with his dad when he was 17. The wood for the neck came from a 100 year old fireplace mantel. It had 24 frets (vs 22 on the LP) and a ton of electronics inside (there's a bank 6 switches to vary the effects), custom "from scratch" tremelo (wammy bar) -- no easy feat, a lot physics required for the strings to stay perfectly in tune after using it. Brian's guitar is also a hollow body, though he made it look like a solid body, but designed it so it doesn't have feedback (unlike most hollow bodies at rock volumes). Brian uses his own guitar on pretty much everything Queen recorded. It could be argued that Brian's design is in the realm of being as innovative as Les's.
It's been a while since I watched that video, but I don't think Les even talks about Brian's guitar at all. Not sure if he wasn't aware of it, or didn't like the "competition", or something else. He usually commented about people brining non-LP's to play with him. For example, Les leans over and detunes all of the strings on Steve Miller's Fender Strat after they finish playing in that video I posted earlier -- so it's likely he knew about it. In fact, I'd guess Les probably probably studied Brian's guitar privately since they were doing similar innovations. I'll find out when I get a chance to meet with Les's luthier.
Brian also has a PhD in astrophysics. Kind of a slacker
. I think he was close to finishing is doctorate when Queen took off, then he finished it in 2007.
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You have to look kind of close in the video, but Les also turns all the tuning knobs on Steve's strat at the end of the first song. Steve is pretty feisty himself (early recording contract negotiation, his words about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, etc.) -- I wonder he picked some of that saltiness up from Les. I knew the families were close, but had to look on Wiki to learn more about those early days -- Steve's parents were Best Man and Maid of Honor at Les Paul and Mary Ford's wedding, and Les was Steve's Godfather.
If you guys can tolerate one more post on guitar trivia
, the Gibson Derek is playing is an "SG" model. The SG was intended to be the next generation of the Les Paul guitar, with Les's name on it. However, Les did not like the SG at all. The SG was much lighter weight -- which was sorely needed because the original design Les Pauls are very HEAVY (12-15lbs) to play standing for a hour or more at a time. The SG "double cut" design also had much better access to the high frets. But the SG sound was distinctly different from the original Les Paul -- you can hear it in Derek's playing here and also in the sound of Angus Young's SG in AC/DC -- there is very little "bottom end" to the SG spound (like the bass knob, if it had one, was turned down). The difference created a distinct sound that could work very well in some circumstances, but it isn't as full as the original Les Paul guitar. You'd think the sound would get lost in all the distortion of amps, but that's not really the case -- it's pretty easy to tell an SG from a Les Paul most of the time, almost regardless of amp and pedals.Les hated the new design so much that he asked that Gibson remove his name from it and to NOT be paid his commission on any sales, so Gibson renamed it the SG. They continued making the original Les Paul in tandem with the SG, and the original has probably proved the more popular of the two, but the SG is still favored by some.
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Quadman2
Lunatic Member
If you guys can tolerate one more post on guitar trivia
Les hated the new design so much that he asked that Gibson remove his name from it and to NOT be paid his commission on any sales, so Gibson renamed it the SG. They continued making the original Les Paul in tandem with the SG, and the original has probably proved the more popular of the two, but the SG is still favored by some.
Interesting!
Q
gizzyman47
Addicted Member
The solo on Dio's Last in line by Vivian Campbell always puts a grin on my face!
Gilmore-Comfortably Numb, Time, Money are all great.
Hendrix- Greatest song/solo ever-Machine Gun!!!!!!!!!
Page- Too many to list
Beck!!!
Gilmore-Comfortably Numb, Time, Money are all great.
Hendrix- Greatest song/solo ever-Machine Gun!!!!!!!!!
Page- Too many to list
Beck!!!
Lo-Fidelity
Super Member
WTF? Five pages and no Neil Young?
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
Also the live version of "Mean Town Blues" track on Johnny Winter Live.
RVT1K
Super Member
David Gilmore's solo in Shine on You Crazy Diamond PtVI - IX is my favorite, single piece of music and can give me chills and make the hair on my arms stand up to this day.
I also love Ritchie Blackmore's solo in Highway Star and Kirk Hammett's solo in Metallica's cover of Stone Cold Crazy
I also love Ritchie Blackmore's solo in Highway Star and Kirk Hammett's solo in Metallica's cover of Stone Cold Crazy
jammonz
Active Member
I've always thought that this song was a sample of what guitar work he was capable of playing, although it is not his normal style.
My personal opinion of N Young's work is like a "hit and miss" in styles and lyric content. He has good talent but sometimes comes off as too simple and bland, IMHO.
Either I loved it or hated it and it could be a whole album like Zuma or the Live Rust Album or Harvest (loved these) or a few obscure ones that were only released in Canada (hated)..........YMMV.
