Hello Steemit!
I've been wanting to share my top guitar player's list for a while , but I didn't want to list guitar players just for the fact that I like them but make it more of a personal list , what I mean , list guitar players that actually had some impact on me and made me took certain approach on the instrument ( or even pick it up in the first place ! ). To make it a little different , I want to trace back to the things I took from their playing and tried to mix them into my own way of approaching the guitar . They have changed over the years , but I guess these are my top 5 now !
1. José Antonio Mena
As I said , this is a more personal list , and this will be my number one influence of all time .He is my original guitar teacher , brother and also the one that built my dear strat ( alongside @meno) . I've been wanting to make him get into this platform , maybe someday he will! . He's got some ferocious technique , speed and precision that i can barely tackle . His alternate picking is near flawless. He can BURN! .
What I got from Him
Well , all the basic guitar mechanics , my first solos , chords and all that , but my biggest lesson came from his practicing methods , that i still think of until today!
He would make me practice alternate picking on every note , with a very dry and unforgiving tone , saying that practicing with delay or reverb was cheating , and all the note sustain and definition should come from the hands , no help from extra gear! I still practice this way , no effects , very low drive and my guitar's action is a little high so I have to dig in to get each note.
My alternate picking is a bit rusty these days , but I try to keep the note separation and clarity as much as possible.
2. Eric Johnson
Huge influence for me , and the one player that made me think about the guitar seriously . After seeing that ''Manhattan'' performance on the 97' G3 concert , I said to myself ''I want to do THAT!''. His tone , his solo lines and chordal work amaze me until today . He is the reason i mainly play a strat , why I got into fuzz tones and why I've worked on piano style voicings , so yes. Huge player for me!
What I got from him
His chordal work made me want to get into harmony studies , The melodic pentatonic approach and 2-note per string licks . His tone made me want to investigate on Fuzz pedals , though he uses a Dallas Arbiter FuzzFace and I am more drawn into the ProCo Rat , at least he inspired the search , as in the end it's impossible to sound like him . I even got my hands on a Tube Driver , the main drive he uses.. only to find out I sounded horrible on it!
3. Michael Landau
When I think tone , versatility and good taste , Michael Landau comes to mind , huge player ! He has recorded a massive amount of albums for very different artists. The perfect sideman , you can see him playing on some really advanced jazz fusion albums to playing with James Taylor some really simple ( but GREAT ) songs and equally shining on them. Also a big influence on me!
What I got from him
A lot of things , I've read interviews on his gear , recording approach and such and my way of recording guitars is very inspired by him . I use a Maxon SD-9 and a Rc Booster after reading those were his main overdrive and booster pedals . The chorus chord layers and swells on my recordings are from him , and also when I get into an aggressive solo I think of Landau , as he has that aggressive blues type of sound in his leads, kind of like a modern day Hendrix!
4. Wayne Krantz
This in an interesting one to include in my list , he is a killer player though I'm not that much into his music , he has some very modern jazz tunes , which rely heavy on improvisation. BUT His book: '' An Improviser's OS'' changed my whole approach on playing , it literally made me want to start again from scratch on my approach to guitar and it took me at least 2 years to get ''back'' to the place I was before , building it up again from his method . This also inspired my own method of improvisation , My Chord Visualization and Pentatonic Family approach came from the inspiration I found in this book. So , I definitely recommend it .
What I got from him
Well , his method changed my guitar playing completely , but I also really like his rhythmic and percussive style of soloing , something I like to add to my soloing in more up-tempo tunes .
5. Nicolas Ibarburu
From Uruguay, this a fairly new player for me , and not so widely known but I'm really liking his compositions , production work and guitar playing nowadays. He has a very straight-forward style , he can get fantastic and powerful results from simple melodies , good phrasing and a great sense of rythm . He also has a very simple setup , guitar --> couple pedals --> amp , but his tone is extremely good.
He has a very interesting sense of rhythm , inspired a lot from his candombe influences. Candombe is an afro-uruguayan style of music that has a very interesting swing to it. Jaime Roos , Ruben Rada and Hugo Fattoruso being some of the most important musicians in this style.
What I got from him
His sense of melody and phrasing , I'm trying really hard to get some of his melodic approach into my own improvisation , a lot of his ''build up'' licks I've been adapting into my playing. Finally , I've been paying close attention to his right hand technique , since he has this kind of ''snap'' when attacking the strings that I really like , and I think is one of the reasons he is very rhythmically accurate.
Well! This wraps my list as per today! These are my most influential guitar players! As you can see , a lot of their playing has snuck into mine , but I always try to give it my own twist , we want to study our heroes but certainly we don't want to be copycats! Eventually our own voice will start coming out , it just takes time! I'm certainly trying to develop mine over time !
I hope this was a fun read! Thanks for reading and listening!
Signing Off
Pechiche Mena
