Gary Moore – Red House LIVE
I find something really hearing one of my favourite guitarists playing one of my favourite songs by another of my favourite guitarists. Here is the awesome gary Moore doings a great rendition of the Jimi Hendrix classic Red House.
Gary Moore – Video
January 27, 2009 by Chris
Filed under Bands / Musicians, Videos
Here is a great video of one of my idol's, Mr. Gary Moore, showing off some great licks, and answering a few questions. Three things jump out at me in this video clip.
- His use of the volume control is astounding. More people need to realise how much tonal variation is available without having to resort to pedals and effects all the time.
- He hardly uses his pinky. That makes me feel so much better because my pinkie is anaemic.
- His fast runs all tend to be in the one position. There are not a lot of rippping, neck climbing runs. Most of the fast stuff is firmly planted in one spot on the neck.
It reminded me that I had missed his latest album, so I've gone out and grabbed it. I'll review it shortly.
Gibson Gary Moore BFG
While I was looking up info on the Gibson Dark Fire, I came across this beauty.
I really loved the BFG's design sensibilities. For once they created a "modern" guitar that didn't have all those stupid design flourishes. It gives me faith in Gibson's future releases that they can release a guitar this simple yet forward thinking. The combination of the bridge humbucker with the neck P90 is killer, and now with some newly added features, the Gary Moore model is a monster guitar.
From Gibson:
Surface Texture and Satin Nitrocellulose Lemon Burst Finish
The body of the Gary Moore Signature Les Paul BFG is then given a Lemon Burst finish that closely resembles the finish on Moore’s historic, original Les Pauls. The neck is also given its initial finish, then hand-sanded to yield its own unique worn appearance. A smooth coat of satin nitrocellulose is then applied over the entire guitar, insuring less interference with the natural vibration of the instrument—producing a purer tone—and allowing the wood to breathe and age naturally and properly over the course of its life.
Gibson’s Burstbucker 3 and P-90
The Gary Moore Signature Les Paul BFG demanded a pickup configuration as radical as the man himself, and the pairing of Gibson’s Burstbucker 3 with the classic P-90 is as intense as it gets. The Burstbucker 3 arrived on the scene in 1990, and—like the Burstbucker 1 and 2—represents Gibson’s drive to capture and recreate the characteristics of the vintage “Patent Applied For” humbuckers of the late 1950s. On the shop floor of the original Gibson plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the earliest Gibson PAF humbuckers were wound using imprecise machines, resulting in pickups with varying degrees of output and tone. The Burstbucker line represents those variations, but with some modern appointments. The Burstbucker 3 provides historically accurate PAF tone with two slightly overwound coils, creating a raw, airy tone packed with enough punch to cut through any mix. The legendary P-90 black soapbar, introduced in the early 1950s, Gibson’s truly legendary singlecoil pickup, and offers the soulful, classic tone that only a P-90 can. It delivers more warmth than a standard singlecoil pickup, for high output and sweet treble response. Together, they are one of the most powerful pickup combinations on any Les Paul.
Gibson’s ’50s Rounded Neck Profile
No guitar neck profiles are more distinguishable than the neck profiles employed on the Gibson models of today. The more traditional ’50s neck profile — which is found on the Gary Moore Signature Les Paul BFG — is the thicker, rounder profile, emulating the same neck shapes found on Moore’s personal and original Les Paul Standards from the late 1950s. The neck is machined in Gibson’s rough mill using wood shapers to make the initial cuts. But once the fingerboard gets glued on, the rest—including the final sanding—is done by hand. That means there are no two necks with the exact same dimensions. So while it still has the basic characteristics of its respective profile, each neck will be slightly different, with a distinct but traditional feel.
Chambered Body
There’s something about playing a guitar with raw, powerful tone, balance, and weight. One of the ways the expert craftsmen at Gibson USA achieve this equilibrium is by carving carefully mapped-out chambers in the Les Paul’s solid mahogany back using a Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) router before the maple top is glued on. The positioning of the routes was established after careful examination of the resonant characteristics of the Les Paul. Gibson approached this process with the awareness that every change to the formula would have repercussions on the instrument’s sound. So, in addition to relieving the stress on a player’s back and shoulder, these lighter Gibson guitars also enhance the tone palette in a manner unique only to these guitars. The results are comfortable, lightweight guitars that are acoustically louder, with increased sustain and resonance.
Do you know what you want?
June 7, 2008 by Chris
Filed under Thoughts From Backstage
Please tell me you are a fan of Slash? He has got to be my favourite guitarist of all time. So I'm going to go on a rant here about Slash, but stay with me, there is a point to all
this.
When we think of innovation and talent in the guitar world, Slash is usually at the top of the list. With many years in the spotlight as the lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses, Slash left the band in
1996 to pursue a solo career after the band had musical disagreements.
Since then, Slash and two other members that left Guns N' Roses with him (Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum) have formed the very successful band, Velvet Revolver. If you want to know the whole story from the man himself than you should grab his biography from here.
Slash hated to replicate any guitarist, rather, he let their style influence his. That's why he wrote so many fresh licks, because he wasn't trying to be anybody but himself.
As far as scales are concerned, he relied many on the minor/major pentatonic scales in addition to some mixolydian and Dorian scales for his solos. This may come as a surprise to some, considering how
overused these scales have become. The trick to keeping your sound and solos original is to use a variety of techniques coupled with your own ideas.
Slash favoured vibrato and using hammer on/ pull off's to create speed. His right picking hand isn't used for speed. Instead, he uses his picking hand to add a percussive feel to his solos.
The more you change the rhythms in your solo, the more unique and intricate it will become. The solo will take on a life of its own. The bottom line is this: put your heart into the solo, add in some
ordinary techniques and cool effects and you have yourself a world class solo.
The key ingredient here is practice. Regardless of what techniques you use, you have to know how to apply them in such a way as to move your audience.
I know exactly what I want to achieve with my guitar playing. I would love to combine the blues rock of players like Slash, Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa, shred like Zakk Wylde, and have the quirks of
Jack White.
So, what about you?
Why do you play guitar? What makes you tick? What drives you to become a better player? What can help you get there? You need to know what you want before you can get it.
Think about that for a second...
YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU WANT BEFORE YOU CAN GET IT.
Sure, you want to get better at playing guitar. But what about your playing do you want to improve? You picking hand technique? Your fretting hand? What about a particular style - blues, rock, metal?
You need to sit down and think about that before you start to practice.
When you do know, then you need to find something that can get you there. There are plenty of resources out there that can help you. But don't bother looking till you know exactly what you need.
So before you do anything else. Sit down, relax and really evaluate where you are with your playing, where you want to be, and how you are going to get there. It's a long road, so you may as well start now.
Best laid plans…
Wow, what a few weeks. So busy and no time for anything. At least I got my new web site design solution business up and running with a snazzy new website (and if that sentence looked weird, I was dropping keywords for you net SEO savvy people). So after some delay I'm back with some guitar stuff.
As mentioned in a past post about learning my favourite guitar songs, I've hit a snag and had a rething. One song I cannot find a tab for, the other is in an open tuning and I would rather stick with standard for now, and the other is possibly a bit ahead of myself. So I'm changing the tracks. I'm still using the same guitarists.
Slash : was Paradise City, now Sweet Child O' Mine.
I love Paradise City, but this is such a memorable solo, I really just want to learn it.
Gary Moore : was midnight Blues, now Still Got The Blues
Again, an obvious choice, but for the same reasons as above
Rich Robinson : was Sting Me, now Hard To Handle
I can already play Hard To Handle, but I usually ad lib the solo with some references to the original. It's time I learned the way the solo should be played.
So there is the new list. I got my trusty GuitarPro fired up and ready to go. Now the fun begins. I've just got some new audio software so as I progress I'll record the improvements.
