baldyboy said:
dont know why bryant,but i expected your post on this one to be a tale of epic proportions.feel a bit let down now!lol.
for me-jeff waters.love the guys style
Hmmm..... I do love guitar and often love to talk about it, but at the same time I don't like to overanalyze it. I have a guitarist's ear when I am learning a cover or if someone is asking my opinion of a guitarist or a guitar part in a song, but in general I love music and all instruments (to include vocals) but maybe my training as a musician has given me a polyphonic ear, meaning I can hear all instruments at the same time fairly equally and the way they all work together to achieve the song. I love producers and engineers as much as musicians as well. I am more impressed by phrasing (the way a note as played) and choice of notes as opposed by speed or difficulty of the passage. I am also very sensitive to tone. These things aren't limited to guitar but to all instruments (again to include vocals) I think Michael Romeo of SX is a fantastic player, but it sounds like he is playing through a Sears ad Roebucks amp. His tone is shit, so he doesn't make my list and I listen to SX mostly because their vocalist Russell Allen is nothing short of incredible. Style is also bigger in my ears than technical prowess, though having the difficult chops gives you more ordinance in your arsenal.
Now, the reason why Wolf Hoffmann is my favorite guitarist is because he sounds the best to me..... First and foremost, he played in Accept so he was surrounded by four other fantastic musicians and two different amazing producers. Accept in their "prime" (which I consider BttW and Metal Heart) were able to sound both raw and aggressive while being extremely tight and technical at the same time. That's tough to achieve but they were the masters at it. They also perfectly blended power and melody with plenty of head banging, fist-pounding moments and heart felt emotic moments as well. Once again Accept set the standard for that.
Wolf had tone !!! His chords were as raw and powerful as AC/DC "Back in Black era, but Accept/Wolf also allowed his rythm player to have tone as well unlike AC/DC. I would give my left nut to know the formula wagner (the producer) used for Wolf's tone on BttW as to this day it has not been surpassed.
Wolf had style !!!! Yngwie plays classical, Angus plays blues. Wolf played both equally well. Wolf would often change rythms in a song to fit his solo, but it was always so well thought out it never disrupted the "flow" of the song. Wolf ofted would throw in a single note or basic power chords within a solo that other technically developed guitarists wouldn't do. I can't say WHY they wouldn't do that other than they think it's boring, but Wolf constructed his solos to SOUND the best not be the most difficult to play.
Wolf had feeling !!! If you have any friends that own Russian Roulette listen to a power ballad on that disc titled "Hard to Find a Way." Everyone has heard the term "the guitarist bleeds on this one." You would have to pull out some Stevie Ray Vaughn or something to hear a guitarist putting his soul into it like that. Wolf solos over the last verse aloong with Udo's singing and it's ..... well he never stops soloing after the "solo" but it doesn't cloud up the song. He purs it on.
Wolf had phrasing !!! Similar to "feeling," Wolf put more into his notes than most others. His right hand technique and left hand technique were used equally and he was a master of both. He loved pick slides, palm muting, pinch harmonics and other left hand techniques as well as being a master at Aeolean minor work like his Germen brethren, Schenker, Roth and Jabs.
Wolf had technical wizardry !!! While Wolf didn't fart around with things like two hand technique, when you combine his knowledge of blues, classical and teutonic licks, left and right hand technique it is hard as fuck to play his stuff. He puts so much into so many notes, there is no way to put his techniques into as many of the notes as he does. I can "play" a few of his solos when he was in his prime, but I can only play his notes. It doesn't sound like him..... it sounds like me playing his solo and I hae been trying for twenty years.
Wolf has no competition !!! Twenty years since "Metal Heart" I still haven't heard a guitarist that is the all around great he is. The closest I have heard is Jorn Viggo Lofstat, who is a 27 yo guitarist for a Norwegian band called Pagan's Mind. He doesn't consider Wolf an influence (and trust me, I have talked to him about it) but his style and technique is as close to Wolf's as anyone I have heard, but he's still not Wolf.
Is this reply a little more "up your alley" Baldy ?
Bryant
