What makes a guitarist good?

[jacksoncsplayer]

Reading some of the other threads here makes me wonder what the general perception of good is here. I see some write about feel and not speed, I see some about tone and attitude, for me it's a package deal, they have to have feel, and some speed. Guys like Norum,Schenker,Jabs, and an unknown named Billie White from texas was certainly exceptional to me. They all have great feel, and that's primarily what I look for.

What makes a guitarist good to you?

[VitaminG]

guts. I've got to hear that fire in the belly, no matter the number of notes, the style of music, whatever. Or instrument, for that matter.

I like attitude and anger in a player. Not that it can't be pretty or mellow or melancholy or upbeat.

SRV had it. You could hear it all over his playing. Gary Moore too. Yngwie, back in the day. I still love so much of his playing on those first couple of albums. Rhoads, Lee, Lynch, Schenker. It's why, despite all the technically amazing players that have come & gone since, Adrian Smith is still one of my favourite players.

Not much of an answer, eh? But it's those intangibles that do it for me. You can hear some players totally nail the notes, have nice vibrato, faultless playing, but they can still leave you missing something.

[sonicsamurai]

very good question


i would say passion and good melody. if u can hear and feel his passion and the fire in each note, or each bend, thats a sign of a good guitarist, especially if connects with you inside, and makes something twitch or triggers a feeling and an emotion in you, whether its van halen where its immediately really fun and enjoybale to watch and air guitar along with, or whether it's david gilmour and that set of notes at the beginning of shine on you crazy diamond that triggers that huge wave of euphoria and immediatly immerses u in the song itself, or jimi as he goes into that final part of little wing, or jason becker on altitudes where each note pulls and pulls on you until it just explodes with that amazing sweeping figure and makes you just say... wow....

[dg]

Gary's post covered it almost perfectly for me. The only thing I'd add is that for me the guitarist has to have something interesting they're trying to get across. Chops are great, but they are just a tool for expression. You've got to have something worthwhile to express. I'd rather listen to someone with limited technical ability but with something great to get across than I would someone with all the chops in the world and no message. Too much of that out there right now, imo.

[GodOfRhythm]

All of which you said.

Best mix of all elements + the most fantastic sense of melody = Andy Timmons, hands down.

[Shawn Lutz]

being well balance for me and not overdoing one thing or another. A balance of speed, melody, execution, technique, rawness, attitude, pharasing and tone is a good starting point...not being a egotistical dickhead helps too

[Norton]

Good vibrato
Godlike phrasing
Long hair
Creating the "WTF?" impression

[~K~]

Well the whole speed thing is easily proven wrong .. look at Brian May .. He's very melodic, never overplays, great tone, good chops but he's not an incredibly quick player ...

[dg]

Long hair

Good call! Forgot that one. Spikey wrist bands too. Gotta have those or it sucks.

[kings31]

Hair And Clothes Look At The Glam Seen

[Lev]

A guitarist is 'good' when he can play what he wants/feels. Doesn't matter if anyone likes it or not

[Soap]

Not be misunderstood nor to seem difficult without cause.
To me, these type of threads seem silly.

[Newc]

I dont' care if it's blinding speed and a million notes per second, as long as it fits the rest of the song.

[Endrik]

big dick

[NextInLine]

First of all, to me a guitarist is a musician. A guitar player is a performer, so a guitarist is good only if he has good writing skills, doesn't matter if he's a great player or not Great examples to great guitarists who are not the best players around are Chuck Schuldiner & James Hetfield.

As for playing;

I think a guitarist is good if only he can play everything he plays really good. It's about having a high control on whatever you play. Like Lev said, it's about making the guitar give the feeling you want it to Those kind of players have lots of details in their playing. A good guitarist may not be able to play sweep arpeggios, tapping etc. and is better than that one who can sweep but doesn't have "that" control over the guitar a good player has. "imo"
Great examples to great playing guitarists are Criss Oliva, Alex Skolnick, Marty Friedman all of which are also incredible musicians imo

To me players like Rusty Cooley, Herman Li (or Lee?) are in no way great guitarists