ok guys and gals I was just thinking on the way in to work today (yes I work this Sunday) about the different attributes of some of the greatest guitarists of all time. Then it got me thinking that if I could design the perfect guitarist what attributes would I take form the greats to put into this one guitarist to make him/her the best of all time.

So here is the game. If your creator (or equivelant) came to you and tasked you with building an amazing guitarist what attributes would you choose and from who? Imagine you are looking at a table with all the great guitarists different attributes layed out in front of you. What would you grab to add to your amazing guitarist.

Would you choose.....

BB King's vibrato?
Clapton's phrasing?
Jimi's bends?
SRV's tone?

and so on...

you get the idea

So lets hear it. Use your imagination and there are no perameters. How would you create one amazing guitarist?

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2009 Fender Strat MIM
2002 Squire 20th Aniv. Strat
30 year old Les Paul copy which is currently in the process of being rebuilt.

Perfection is boring, it's all the little imperfections and accidents that create awesomeness.

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Allman's slide
Montgomery's octaves

well definitely not the perfect or best.
more interesting than anything else.
srv with eric claptons tone

ok forget the word perfect. What attributes would you take from all the greats to create one amazing or interesting guitarist?

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2009 Fender Strat MIM
2002 Squire 20th Aniv. Strat
30 year old Les Paul copy which is currently in the process of being rebuilt.

I gotta throw my $.02 worth in here. For the record, this is JUST MY OPINION and nothing more so please use it only for what it is worth.

For the most part what I'm seeing here in regards to "attributes" mostly refers to certain aspects of a given individual's technique. To me the single greatest attribute of ANY musician is simply the love of music. Without a love and passion for music, the rest of this is really completely irrelevant. I think I fair analogy is something I've said for many years now about "speed demons" (ala Yngwie, etc)....yea, they can play a lot of notes really really fast...so? I've never been a fan of that stuff because most of it is so flat and lifeless that it's not worth listening too. Music, be it guitar, trumpet, piano, banjo, voice, etc., etc., is more than just notes and more than just technique or tone...it's how all of these elements come together from within an individual (or group of individuals) to create the music.

Another way to look at it would be this; I love the sound of Pink Floyd and respectively David Gilmore. While there are aspects of Gilmore's playing in my own playing because I've been influenced by David Gilmore, I, Jim Walczak of Lorain Ohio am NOT David Gilmore...or Clapton or Townsend or any of the other many people who have influenced my own playing. If I hear something I like that I think may work well with what I'm doing, I use it...it's simply as that. That said, while I may incorporate different aspects or different "attributes" of these various individuals into my own playing style, what comes out of me is uniquely me...the way these influences blend together in my own soul if you will...and without my love of guitar and of playing guitar to begin with, I wouldn't own a guitar (let alone several) and I wouldn't be playing so the rest would be completely and totally irrelevant.

Here's another way to think of it. As a person who does mostly cover material and plays in a classic rock cover band, one of my biggest things is for "the band" to have our own sound. There's people out there who spends hours and hours on end trying to sound exactly like "so and so". I've auditioned guys who've watched my play something like SRV's "Pride and Joy" and stand there stomping their foot yelling "You're playing it wrong!" and they don't seem to understand that I'm -NOT- trying to be SRV. I DON'T want my band's version of Pride and Joy to sound like SRV's version. When people come to see my band live, I don't want people walking away saying "gee...they sounded just like Fleetwood Mac when they played "Rhiannon"..." what's the point of that? I want people to walk away saying "I love Harper Blue's version of Rhiannon!". Considering all the Hendrix stuff going on round here lately, would ANYONE really have cared if Hendrix had of tried to play "All Along The Watchtower" exactly the way Bob Dylon did??? What about Manfred Mann's version of "Blinded By The Light"? Should they really have done it the way Springsteen did? Yuch!!! LOL!!! To me, being a musician isn't about trying to replicate other people's styles or sounds or tones, it about expressing myself...even when I'm playing other people's material.

"Tones", "bends", "slides", "octaves"...all of this stuff is completely academic. These are all things that can be learned. That said, my "creators", in other words my mother and my father, have already given me everything I need to create "the best guitarist" from my own vision...and that person is me. I'm not Clapton or Gilmore or Townsend or Yngwie or SRV, etc...I am however the best Jim Walczak around. And just for the record, those other guys...they aren't me either

Again, strictly my own personal opinion.
Peace,
Jim

My .02 cents I guess he has to play a Strat since you posted this under Stratocaster and not the Lounge

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Malmsteen certainly is not flat and lifeless. He is a sublime master. Vast musical knowledge. Not even influenced by other guitar players but more the great composers. Impeccable virtuosic technique. He's even written for the orchestra.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Lomitus

I do agree with most of what you have said. Although I would like to share a strange personal experience that I encountered while playing 5 years in a classic rock cover band, as the house band for a local club here in Ft Lauderdale.

We played every Saturday night, 4 sets, about 10 songs per set. When we first started this gig we definitely worked at making these "classic rock" tunes our own. We also wanted our audience to say "wow" Chain Reaction was great. Didn't you love the way they did Pride And Joy, or that was a great version of American Band or Honky Tonk Women. Sadly...the single most common feedback that we received was kinda like this..."you guy's were great but since you cover "classics" we would prefer that you play them the way we know and love them.

At first we ignored this concept, but one night, sitting with my wife watching another cover band play Ramblin Man....which they nailed note for note...she turned to me and said "that's what the people want to hear" they have grown up with this music and they know every lead and every note. They look forward to the upcoming leads and they expect them to be played the way they know them. It's fine musically when you "stylize" the song, but everyone really prefers to hear it the way they know it. This turned out to be very true. We started playing our sets just the way they were written, and the reactions were amazing.

I think it's great to express "your" style, and as guitarists we all have our own style of playing....but if a band does Pride And Joy, and the guitarist doesn't play it note for note, the audience usually thinks that he couldn't play it correctly and just did the best he could with it. I also kinda agree with this. We expect to hear the lead that we are familiar with.

IMO if we want people to experience our own style, we should do our own songs. When we listen to concert pianists play, they play the "Classics" exactly the way they were written. As a "Cover" band we tried to cover the song as closely as possible to the original and this was really well accepted.

Thanks
Noodles

John Mayer and his crazy faces he makes while playing

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2008 Fender MIA Standard Strat
1986 BC Rich Rave II (modified body)
G&L ASAT Classic
Gretsch G4510
Takamine D-51c WR Dragon
Tanglewood TW28 ST

John Sykes, Adrian Vandenberg, Doug Aldritch...
The kind of player in service of the song.

agree with above posts and throw a bit of Santana style into the mix

I am really really awesome then.

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Hot Rodded Am Fat Strat Texas Special (now featuring Kinman Traditional II pickups)
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agreed and in this case I am upset I wasnt mentioned on the top 100 guitarists of all times list.