IDEALISTIC APPROACH OF BEING A "GOOD" GUITAR PLAYER

This post isn't going to be a review. Instead, I'm going to share with you something that I had in mind for some time that can hopefully expand the horizon of your guitar playing and tone chasing. It's about becoming a better guitarist. What's been driving me to write this post is actually the fact that in the last few days, I've been searching for a way to keep me motivated as a guitar player.

First of all, let's look at some of the top guitarists in the planet. They all have some things in common regardless of their genre. One of them is the willingness to learn; to be humble. They are willing to learn from other guitarists that inspires them and apply that knowledge into their playing. Take Paul Gilbert for example: he's considered a monster in the world of fast guitar playing, but to acknowledge the work of Johnny Cash in the realm of country guitar playing and applying it to his song writing techniques is just very humble and heart-warming; the result shows best during his live performances when he's able to balance between hard and soft songs.

John Petrucci also improved his technique by simply learning from other guitarists that had been playing with him together during G3 concerts. He's so used to alternate picking, he doesn't even consider putting bits of legatos in his playing; but by learning from other guitarists and acknowledging their great work really put Petrucci on the extra mile of his already amazing techniques.

Secondly, most of them are willing to learn many genres although they are known only for particular genres. Take Eric Johnson for example, he's known for his instrumental Rock and Blues but he can go far with some cool Jazz comping, Latin, Swings and Bossa Nova. Guthrie Govan perhaps is one of a few guitarists that can master many different extreme techniques ranging from shredding speed guitar to groovy funk rhythm playing. That kind of multi-genre thing really helps many guitarists to enhance their tone palette too! They will not just stuck with one boring overdrive sound; instead, they will investigate how to achieve many different and interesting sound for different types of moods.


Other thing is their view about their gears. This is a bit hard to apply for us because some of us are limited both financially and/or availability of gears. Andy Timmons really knows the details of his gear, he knows exactly every pedal, every tube in his amps, every cable, every speakers, everything! This really helps him to shape his unique tone that influence him to play in certain way that goes into his liking. On the other hand, some guitarists such as Mike Stern don't really go crazy with expensive gears but they rely on simple setups that are handy, don't require massive maintenance and produce consistent tones during concert.

More importantly, the main point that I want to say ultimately is try to rotate your concentration on different stuffs. Don't just concentrate on tone alone, don't just concentrate on techniques forever, don't just concentrate on gear all the time; try to circle between different stuffs. That way, you will avoid getting bored and you will also develop a bigger picture of being an overall good guitarists. Many young players concentrate only on playing as fast as you can as precise as you can; that's good but that's boring, if players start to develop ear for good tone, they will start tweaking and probably learning different techniques that suit different tones and that is exactly what many young guitar starters need!

I've just recently started to explore good Jazz tone. It requires me to get out of my good overdrive tone and start exploring ways to replicate a semi hollow guitar tone. It's not just about the tone, I'm also trying to learn how to comp in a modern Jazz music and it's really hard for me considering how comfortable I am in the world of Rock music. But the result is starting to show slowly and it's very rewarding to see yourselves develop some new and inspiring tone and techniques.

I hope you all enjoy this post. Reviews aren't going to be as much as before, but I promise to keep the blog interesting! Come back often and enjoy your time here.

Cheers and God bless :)

DUNLOP JAZZ III 1.68mm STIFFO VS DUNLOP TORTEX .88mm

It's time to discuss about some picks that I used and compare them. Pick/plectrum is the most underrated tool in tone chasing and they can alter your tone significantly when you use the right pick. I'm going to review two of my longest serving picks: Dunlop Jazz III Stiffo and Dunlop Tortex .88mm.

Jazz III

This is by far the most shred-friendly pick that I ever used. So easy to play fast with, so stiff that it transfers your picking energy to the string with lots of dynamics. When used on alternate picking licks, it will create short picking noise so this is very great to get the notes to ring clearly.

This one is used by many professionals especially shredders and jazz players. John Petrucci and Eric Johnson even had their own signature Jazz III picks. I personally used this pick most of the time because it's the most versatile one; you can play anything with this pick. It's thick so don't expect to get easy rhythm playing from this pick. It's also small and a bit slippery so do your best to grip it carefully.

Tortex .88mm

For you who don't really need a shred-based pick, this is a good choice. It's good for rhythm playing because it isn't too thick and too small, it has good grip, it's comfortable on your fingers and it has unique tone.

I watched Paul Gilbert used the orange Tortex which is not too different from this one and he can get a very good tone out of it. It's kind of mushy un-traditional pick sound. It's very good for strat because you can get more top end using this pick.

Beware, you can't really shred with this pick. I gave up on this pick because it's hard to alternate picking using this pick. It's also big so it requires harder string pluck to get a pinch harmonic using thumb; that's why I invented the method of getting a pinch harmonic using my middle finger haha! However, I get back to this pick frequently just to get something different out of my playing and this pick delivers a fresh unique tone very well.

Now let the fight begins!

Here's a sound clip of Jazz III vs Tortex on clean rhythm playing: click HERE --> Jazz III first followed by Tortex.

Here's a sound clip of Jazz III vs Tortex on crunch lead playing: click HERE --> Jazz III first followed by Tortex.

I must say that I love the sound of the Tortex when I scratch it on my muted strings! It really has a very defined attack that I am looking for. It's also good for rhythm. However, it's not easy to tame that green monster especially when I need to play fast lead solos. That's the time when I need to switch back to the Jazz III.

In conclusion, both are great but they really depend on what you want and how you play. The choice is yours!

Cheers and God bless :)