231–240 of 343 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I'm downvoted on HN for mentioning Nickleback now? If you listen to the whole of their albums and not only the commercial hits, it's a really solid rock band. Now give me some of the other examples of rock bands that regularly make it to the top 10.
Foo Fighters?
Naive question: Do these various electric guitar models (Gibson, Fender, etc) actually sound distinctive? Or is it all about brand cachet?
OTOH, there is definitely brand cachet/snobbery. A Gibson Les Paul will almost always get more respect than a Les Paul copy from another brand.
What I'm less aware of, except from perhaps a few niche guitar makers I know, is brand snobbery of the form of, "Well, Fender are better than Gibson and Gretsch because blah", or vice versa (people do tend to be a bit snobby about Ibanez though, for some reason).
Most people I know buy premium guitars (and that's a loaded term in itself) for the sound rather than the brand... except that, as I've already suggested, they will often prefer a well-known brand over a "knock-off" or lower end brand: so "serious" musicians will generally buy Fender rather than Squire (low end brand owned by Fender).
Different genres of music can lead to different brand preferences. More "classic" music genres tend to favour Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, and so on, whereas newer or more experimental genres tend to favour Ibanez, ESP, PRS, Jackson, etc. This is more of an observation than a hard and fast rule though, and there will always be exceptions, like the Fender Jaguar which has been a firm favourite of some more alternative bands since the late 80s.
Hopefully that rather rambling answer makes some sense.
I think it's a bit naive to believe that guitar heroes can bring the interest for the guitar back. People look back at the guitar heroes time with a nostalgic fondness for a time that doesn't exist anymore. This was already visible in Wayne's world and became more than obvious in school of rock. Guitar-heavy rock has become a geek genre. Pop has moved on. There are obviously various reasons for this: 1. Technological…
> 1. Technologically the instrument ran its course. While the tech was still innovative in the 90s with the new digital effects, it hasn't changed much in 20 years. This is... whilst not exactly incorrect, it's not the whole truth either. The article touched a little bit on this with the robotic tuner thing, but didn't fully explain why. In my experience partaking in internet guitar forums over the decades, the vast…
It's already happening. A huge proportion of young guitarists are playing metal, which is a hugely progressive scene in terms of technology. The coolest young guitarists are playing Strandberg Bodens, Kiesel Vaders and the weird and wonderful stuff from Ibanez's Iron Label. 7, 8 and 9 strings, fanned frets, headless, active electronics, carbon and titanium reinforcement, it's all on the table. They're abandoning valve amps in favour of Helix, AxeFX and Bias. They couldn't give a toss about Hendrix and Clapton - they revere the likes of Tosin Abasi and Rob Scallion.
The baby boomers have disproportionate influence because they've got a ton of disposable income, but big changes are afoot in the guitar business.
The future of guitar looks very much like this:
Instruments decline in popularity. It happens to everything. I play several instruments of rather low popularity: Highland Bagpipes, tin whistle, bodhran, and pipe & tabor. The last (pipe & tabor) is a medieval instrument pair of a three-holed pipe played in the left hand and a small snare drum hung from the left arm and played with the right hand. Its popularity died out several hundred years ago, yet some people st…
I think it's a bit naive to believe that guitar heroes can bring the interest for the guitar back. People look back at the guitar heroes time with a nostalgic fondness for a time that doesn't exist anymore. This was already visible in Wayne's world and became more than obvious in school of rock. Guitar-heavy rock has become a geek genre. Pop has moved on. There are obviously various reasons for this: 1. Technological…
> 1. Technologically the instrument ran its course. While the tech was still innovative in the 90s with the new digital effects, it hasn't changed much in 20 years. This is... whilst not exactly incorrect, it's not the whole truth either. The article touched a little bit on this with the robotic tuner thing, but didn't fully explain why. In my experience partaking in internet guitar forums over the decades, the vast…
Really? Are people using their guitars as hammers? I think it's pretty damn hard to break a headstock off. Much more common damage to a guitar is denting the frets, distorting the neck or busting the tuning pegs. I'd put "breaking off the headstock" as the 99th percentile of common ways people materially damage their guitar.
Rock is what's really dying, the guitar will survive this. The canonical 4 piece band is in decline, as is music that highlights the electric guitar with riffs & a guitar solo. Mass consumption of electric guitar music is what is in decline. Instrument sales are only a symptom and byproduct of changing cultural music tastes. And there's no way to fix it, you can't control what's popular. As a guitar player, I think e…
> you can't control what's popular. Artists don't, but someone does.
Publishers certainly have some limited influence over which specific artists get traction through promotion and marketing. They can milk extra sales of declining genres for a while, but no amount of promotion and marketing can ever make renaissance or classical or ragtime or doo-wop appeal to the young mass pop-music consuming market again. Rock will eventually be part of that same past.
No amount of money can be spent to create a new style of music that will be guaranteed to be popular. Nobody has the ability to restore the electric guitar to it's former prominence by design. It could happen organically, but it can't be forced.
Naive question: Do these various electric guitar models (Gibson, Fender, etc) actually sound distinctive? Or is it all about brand cachet?
BUT a lot of guitarists also forget is sound is as good as the weakest link in the sound chain.
A $10.000 electric guitar will not sound good on a shitty amp.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
LOL, you've just named the top 4 Mayer covers in my son's regular gigging set. I must say when I first saw Mayer play "Neon" with just the acoustic guitar on "Where the Light Is", I was floored and thought that he must have to have two brains to be able to achieve that. [0] When my son said he wanted to learn to play that song solo, I told him it would be nearly impossible. But he learned it and plays it just like Jo…
Singing / playing requires a split brain. If you think the chord + bass on Neon requires a split brain, check out Charlie Hunter. I just picked one of the first videos that I found on youtube, but he always plays guitar & bass at the same time: https://youtu.be/-B7btsk6ASE?t=1m
Or Mike Dawes, same deal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYksCAhjthk
Most of the people Candyrat Records sign, really.
Instruments decline in popularity. It happens to everything. I play several instruments of rather low popularity: Highland Bagpipes, tin whistle, bodhran, and pipe & tabor. The last (pipe & tabor) is a medieval instrument pair of a three-holed pipe played in the left hand and a small snare drum hung from the left arm and played with the right hand. Its popularity died out several hundred years ago, yet some people st…
I would have thought "Oregon Trail" was solidly Gen-X? I think I played that in the mid-1980s?