Personally I think the older he gets the more subtle nuances and his true style emerges...Tons of phenomenal guitarists but only a handful I think that you can listen to just a bit and without being familiar with the song etc you can tell immediately who it is..I have been a Clapton fan for decades and I still can not define what it is he has but I do know he makes the pentatonic his own..

_________________
Mona
"Music is What Feelings Sound like"

It can only be subjective:

So for me... no.

I don't think so

He doesn't sound too thin to me.

_________________
......it's a topsy-turvy world when noses run and feet smell...

He doesn't sound thin to me either and while he is definitely a very great guitarist I do not believe he is the greatest who ever lived or anything, so ... I say no. He's not too good for his own good.

_________________

Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

My opinion of EC is "tainted" by my attendance at a Cream concert in the spring of '68 -- I don't think his technique or tone was ever better than what's heard on the "Live Cream - Vol. II" album. I do enjoy some of his subsequent work ("Layla", "Let It Rain", "After Midnight", etc) but beyond that era I don't share the passion for Clapton that many feel.

JMOOC

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

I remember in some interview a while ago Eric saying he wanted to strip everything back and get back to the basics of blues music

I do not understand what you mean by showed him up. There is no competion and not one is keeping score. One guitarist might appeal to you more so than another but its all subjective.

Clapton has nothing to prove anymore. So, he's using less processing of his sound and letting other guitarists take the spot light. He rips off quick blazing solo's whenever necessary, but doesn't seem compelled to do it every song, expecially when he has a quest on stage with him. I was never a big Clapton fan, but have become more of one because of this type of behavior. If it was the opposite situation, we'd be knocking him for trying to out gun every other guitar player standing. What he's doing shows he has a grasp on his standing and life expectancy.

_________________
'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Agreed. I have a few friends who are about 8 to 10 years younger than I and they worship Satch and Vai and players of that genre and they frequently tell me how much better they are than my heros (Dave Gilmour, Warren Haynes, Doyle Bramhall II, Audley Freed, etc.) The term "better" is 100% subjective. Vai and Satch might be "better" in terms of pure athletic prowess but that doesn't make them better musicans. Great guitar music "can" have blistering speed and fantastic 7-fret-reach chord voicings but it doesn't "have to" have those things to be great music.

_________________

Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I saw him four or five years ago and while his playing was great, his Strat tone was indeed really thin to my ears, but just his Strat tone. I also agree with Arjay that his tone in 68 was incredible, way better than anything he has today.

_________________
Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Eric is overrated, way overrated. I mean come on you have to admit it. He plays the same solos and licks now that he did 40 years ago! only now we've heard them so often we're literally falling asleep. As a guitar player he has never adapted or changed or experimented he's just ploughed that boring blues furrow.

If i hear one more person mentioning blues guitar i swear i'm gonna throw up it's been ripped off, corrupted, sold, lent, hired and everything else under the sun and it is boring.

Guys like Paul Gilbert i admire because he's a great musician and can shred but he comes up with great sounding compositions with different sections and parts and he can play just about anything, almost any style.

What i find sad and extremely depressing is a thread like this 40 years after the event. We should be talking about other more exciting players coming up with cool ideas and sounds. Eric is way past his sell by date much as i admired him when he was at his peak.

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Q1. "Eric is overrated, way overrated. I mean come on you have to admit it." - opinion
A1. No

Q2."He plays the same solos and licks now that he did 40 years ago" - opinion
A2. No

Q3. "only now we've heard them so often we're literally falling asleep." - opinion
A3. No

As I said earlier, it's a subjective issue.

Clearly you aren't listening to his music enough to dissect the solos licks etc. But then why would you if you don't like the music, a bit like asking me to listen to a Jeff beck track all the way through to the end.
Take Crossroads as an example. Each year we have a completely different version but you have to listen to hear the results of his experimentation. He probably does it because he is bored with playing it so each tour we get a new version.

Far from falling asleep I haven't enough time to keep up with the new stuff he uses keeping his music fresh.

You obviously don't like him so why bother opening this thread and writing your drivel?

A4. Because this is a TROLL... I get it.

Eric is a boring player it's as simple as that really. Everything he does has basically been rehashed and redone ten million times over.

I'd rather listen to Edge or the guy from the Mars Volta or shred player Paul Gilbert. They come up with interesting sounds and compositions whereas all Eric can think of is rehashing the past.

As i said pretty sad in this day and age we're even talking about him instead of some new exciting players with fresh ideas.

It's just perpetuating this blues guitar cliche that's so dated.

_________________
Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Not a Blues Fan are you