Can you play the blues on a pointy guitar?

[roodyrocker]

A couple years ago while visiting Niagra Falls there was a latin band playing at one of the touristy type restaurants. The guy played keys, guitar, and sang. His axe was a Soloist with pile o skulls graphic. Moral is play what you want on whatever guitar you want. If you play good and sound good I don't think anyone will care what you're playing it on.
BTW, IMHO the Tele is one of the ugliest guitars ever made. I love blues but hate Tele's!

Rudy

https://www.wickedrocks.com

[Phantom Hawk]

Bo Diddly had that box-guitar - it wasn't a "Blues guitar". He's now a God.

That popped into my head as soon as I read the thread title !

I have to agree with the people who've said the guitar doesn't matter, its what is in your heart. If you find a pointy guitar most comfortable to play, thats what counts, not the style of music. Me, I'm most comfortable with my Warrior, but that doesn't mean I have to pack it up and get out my old Hamer Phantom if I wanna play some bluesy stuff, Southern Rock, or Midsummers Daydream . If the axe fits, wear it !

[Sunbane]

I'd say it all comes down to how comfortable you feel playing the guitar for any given style of music. Some people are more image-minded than others, and may not feel "at home" with playing a Rhoads at a jazz gig. But as long as the guitar can do the music you want it to do, and once you have no second thoughts about its looks - just go for it.

[Robert Burns]

The Crossroads scene obviously shows that the Fender crushes the Pointy. Even in harmonic minor. The dude with the long hair even drops his Pointy trying!

*****************************************
Except we all know that VAI WON !! It was a movie... a bit o classical at the end , didnt make up for being SLAYED through 90% of
that scene!

[Robert Burns]

Exactly. Its liek people saying you cant play metal on a Strat. If you like metal and play it on a Strat more power to ya. Same for playing blues on an Explorer or Rhoads. Whatever floats your boat. Hell I play more blues on my Jackson than I play on my Tele

**********************
Remember One"...Metallica's 80's video with "johnny got his gun" playing
in the background? Kirk Hammit is shredding with an ESP with normal
single coils ala a Strat. I would say that was Metal?

[livebiz]

Not everything built by BC Rich was in fact pointy.

Pointy is a state of mind, ergo all my guitars are pointy.

[delt]

As far as the actual sound goes, no problem, I mean it's not going to sound like a tele, but what does?

If you can split coils on the pickups, you can get a pretty close sound. Anyway, i say: fuck image & play whatever guitar feels best for you.

And the DK's are not really "pointy" guitars... except for the headstock but they're basically strats.

[elrrek]

I think this might be appropriate at this moment:

How to sing the Blues

1) Blues can begin, "Woke up this morning..."

2) "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, 'less you stick something appropriate in the next line like, "I got good woman, with the meanest face in town."

3) The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right,repeat it. Then find something that rhymes . . . sort of: "Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got t*** like Madonna but she weigh 500 pound."

4) The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in the gutter, you stuck in that f*** gutter man ----ain't no way out.

5) Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Caddys and broke-down pick-up trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or 4WD Sport Utility Vehicles.
Most Blues transportation is a southbound train (which can pacify your mind) or a Greyhound bus (which sets ya down at the crossroads.)
Jet aircraft an' taxis ain't even in the running.
Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die and Goin' down Slow depending on 'the shape yo in'.

6) Teenagers can't sing the Blues. Adults sing the Blues.
In Blues "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric
chair if you shoot a man in Memphis, or spend a night with a big-legged woman.
7) Blues can take place in New York City or Memphis but not in Canada or any place in SE England. Hard times in Basingstoke or Tunbridge Wells is probably just clinical depression.
Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues. However, Biker, Westerhailes, Easterhouse and much of Leith can give you an authentic pale aquamarine at least.
You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain or snow or racism.

8) A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A bald headed woman certainly is.
Breaking your leg at skiing is not the blues.
Breaking your leg 'cause a alligator chomped on it or you fell down a protruding hole in the road while drunk, certainly is.

9) You can't have no Blues in an office, or a shopping centre, or Ikea – the lighting is wrong. Go outside to the car park where all the ciggy butts are, and sit by the skip.
Or wait beside that lonesome railroad track.

10) Good places for the Blues:
a) Highway
b) Jailhouse
c) Empty bed
d) Bottom of a whisky glass.


Bad places for the Blues:
a) Art Gallery openings
b) Womens Institute
c) Tory party coffee morning (if different from b)
d) Golf courses
e) bars like Cuba Norte

11) No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit,'less you happen to be a tramp or hobo who has slept in it.

12) Do you have the right to sing the Blues?
Yes, if
a) You older than dirt ( or dirtier than old)
b) You blind
c) You shot a man in Memphis
d) You can't be satisfied
e) yo' woman / man done you wrong

No, if
a) You have all your teeth
b) You were once blind but now can see
c) The man in Memphis lived
d) You have a PEP or ISA

13) Blues is not a matter of colour. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people can get a leg up on the blues (viz Johnny Cash etc).

14) If you ask for water and your darlin' give you gasoline,it's the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are
a) Cheap wine
b) Whisky or bourbon
c) muddy water
d) nasty black coffee stewing all day on a pot-bellied stove

The following are NOT Blues beverages:
a) Perrier
b) Chardonnay
c) Earl Grey tea
d) Slim Fast
e) alco pops
f) lager espec US Budweiser or Miller.

15) If death occurs in a cheap motel, a shotgun shack, a squat, ...it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back or shot in the balls by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die.
So is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken divan.
You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or getting liposuction or colonic irrigation.

16) Some Blues names for women:
a) Sadie
b) Big Mama
c) Bessie
d) Big Legged
e) Greasy Thighs
f) Juicy Lucy
g) Fat Fanny

17) Some Blues names for men
a) Joe
b) Willie
c) Little Willie
d) Big Willie
e) Blind Willie (but not Limp Willy)
f) Red

18) Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Julia, Tracy and Sharon can't have the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis or double Aftershocks they consume.
Similarly Kevin, Shane, Beau, Brad no matter how much stubble they acquire.

19) Make your own Blues name Starter Kit:-

a) Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, Big, Slim, Poxy etc.) or prowess (Howlin, Jumpin, Screwin?, Lazy, Lightnin'; Well-hung)
b) First name above plus name of ethnic product (Lemon, Lime, Corncob, Tattie, Catfish etc.);
or Place name eg Memphis, Mississippi, Peebles.
c) Last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.);
or royal title esp King,
or at a stretch any celtic name like McDowell, O'Toole, Williams(on),
but not English names like Wilkinson, Ramprakash, Rusedski etc.

For example, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Pegleg Mississippi Corncob Johnson or
Cripple Tattie Peebles, (Well, maybe not !)
(Also fails with Crawlin' Peanut Carter or Suckin' Sausage Clinton)

20) Blues euphemisms include rock (as in rock me baby all night long), organ grinding, backdoor man, sugar / honey pot, moneymaker, etc.
Four-letter words are not used in this context.
Women are usually referred to as 'baby', male lovers as 'man'.

21) Redundancy does not qualify for blues as it implies a steady job in the first place. Getting sacked for drinking on duty, or getting caught with the boss's wife are OK.


22) No matter how tragic your life, if you own a computer, or continue to work in an office you cannot truly sing the blues.

And I think I'll add:

23) if you BOUGHT your guitar, then you better have got it in a pawn shop!

[VEGETATHEPUPPET]

No matter what guitar do you have .. its what you can play on it that counts...

[jwoods986]

elrrek, that was hilarious! Thanks for the laughs at work. Which of course rules me out for singing the blues, since I work in an office and behind a computer (see 22). Oh well, I can't sing anyways

[GryphonGuitar]

Cool, that's in Swedish!

[shredmonster]

Absolutely not. Don't even try with a pointy.:ROTF:

[delt]

> If you're not retarded, you can play any style of music on any guitar.

I'd play flamenco on a Neal Moser Beastmaster, but i'd expect (retarded) people to look at me & say "wtf!"

... problem is, 90% of people are retarded.

[Bengal65]

This thread is:ROTF:
You can play the blues on anything, just play. If you get raised eyebrows give 'em a .


Jersey? I grew up there. I probably played those venues. I can't remember. I'm too old. The only one I remember was the Stone Pony in Asbury Park and a bunch of clubs in Edison, Green Brook and Somerville. I lived in Hillsborough and Toms River. I got out of NJ as soon as I could. Too many psycho's

[Sanctuary]

I'd play flamenco on a Neal Moser Beastmaster, but i'd expect (retarded) people to look at me & say "wtf!"

... problem is, 90% of people are retarded.

Only problem with your statement: It was a one-off. Neal produced the Beastmaster specifically for Brian Hoffman (and NO MORE will be built): http://www.nealmoser.com/mcsbeastmaster.htm