I know a few Strat guitarists that say that they have a sound all their own and have derived this sound without being influnced by any past or present guitar wailers. This is very commendable. However, I find it hard to believe that any of the great guitar slingers didn't have a bit of influence on their sound. (especially when you hear these guys play) If they truely didn't, more power to 'em.

Anyway I have a sound I consider all my own but I do have many influences. Some that only played a Strat a short bit of their career. Some that played a Strat for a great majority of their career. Some that never played a Strat.

And I feel my own personal sound has benefitted by this melding of influences. When interviewed most great guitarists will always list the big men that influenced their guitar playing. This culminates in a sound that is new and different and all their own but has flavors of all their influences, sometimes hidden, other times very obvious.

My question is:
Do you have an influence or influences that have really flavored your own sound. If so who are these guitar players? What do you take from their playing or sound and incorporate into your own tone and style? Are any of these guys the reason you are playing a Strat?

Curiously,
Russ

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'08 Amer. Dlx. Strat, '98 Amer. Std. Strat, '10 Squire CV Tele Custom, '96 Seagull S+6 Cedar
Deluxe Reverb RI, Tweed Blues Jr., Champion 110, Champion 600, Mustang I, Line 6 Vetta

I really don't like it when people say they didn't copy anyone and that they thought of all their signature licks without being influenced by anything. Because 99.99% of the time that isn't true. I spent my first three years playing guitar trying as hard as I could not to copy anyone. And it's only just recently that I've made any headway at all in sounding original because I've been letting myself be influenced by a lot of different people.

I don't really have a sound yet, and I'm trying to play what I want to hear but sometimes I'm not sure what that is. I listen to a lot of Texas blues (as you can probably tell by the username), a lot of other styles of blues, classic rock, modern rock jazz, funk, soul, metal, just whatever I can get my hands on.

I have several reasons why I started playing a Strat. My Dad played bass, and I thought that his sunburst Fender Jazz Bass was about the coolest looking instrument in the world and I wanted something that looked like that. I also had a friend who played a Fender Strat in her band. I was about 11 and she was in her early twenties, but she was like a big sister and she was one of the reasons I started playing. So my first guitar was a Squier Strat, and I got my Fender soon after.

Then I went into a hard rock/metal phrase and my Strats were under the bed collecting dust and I was into Les Paul style guitars. Until the day I saw SRV for the first time (on TV) and I literally ran into my room and grabbed my Strat before the credits had finished rolling. I'd forgotten how much I liked them, and I use my Strats most of the time now.

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I kind of find that a load of horsesh!t. For someone to say they were not influenced by anyone they would have to of been born on an island with a guitar and never heard anyone else pay in there life. I believe the guys you are talking about have found there own style and sound but when you start out you have to learn songs and licks from other players. When I was younger I went through my Hendrix,Clapton,Santana,Beck,Setzer,Vanhalen and so on and so on stages. The thing is you take a little from everyone and make it become you. I really loved the way Hendrix played rhythm so I spent a lot of time learning to play chords with all those embelishments and adding major and minor pentatonic fills. Santana taught me how to use the dorian mode. Vanhalen taught me tapping and I love his cool licks using open strings or how he thinks in groups of five and so on and so on. The more great players you listen to the more great ideas you will pick up and make your own. The pitfall a lot of players fall into is staying on one player to long and becoming a clone and never finding there own voice.

So far, I only sound like myself, and that ain't too good.

However, the players that influence me and whom I most want to emulate are as follows:

Billy Gibbons (The tone in "Blue Jean Blues" is my holy grail)
Mark Sproull of the Blue Hawaiians
John Lee Hooker
George Harrison
David Gilmour
Jeff Healey
Stevie Ray Vaughan

Admittedly, not all are Strat players...

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

Even though he doesn't only play Strats, if I can ever play half as well as Sergio Vallin then I will be satisfied. I'm trying to learn as many Mana songs as possible as it is, but the guy is just simply amazing and really has his own flavor drawn from the likes of Santana, Paco de Lucia, Segovia and American rock music.

If you don't know who Mana is and like music that isn't only in English, you owe it to yourself to look into them. Great Rock and World music.

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I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too.

Only one guitar player I've ever wanted to sound like, and he used to play a les paul. Pete Green.

He played a strat briefly at the demise of splinter group. Now he's onto one pickup, no controls guitars.

Hopefully one day my choice of guitar and penchant for always having hidden extra's will prove my belief that sound comes from the player. I have the Vintage Pete Green les paul copy. It plays and sounds great now, especialy when my neighbour plays it. I just cant seem to get comfortable with it. The frets and controls are all in the wrong place for me. I really like to ride the switch, volume and tone controls, that guitar wasnt designed for that. Also I keep ending up on the 2nd fret when aiming for the 3rd. I'm too strat'i'tized.

I like a few other players too, Billy Gibons, EC, knopfler, beck and hendrix. Some punk, metal, crossover and old jazz stuff. Just not enough to ever bother trying to play their stuff. Ofcourse theres obligitary stones and berry songs you have to play to function in any band. Thats about it for me and guitar players. I spend my guitar evenings sat next to the radio jamming along to big band or jive tunes. Suss the song before it ends, It really works your ears hard.

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No no and no

Clapton
George harrison
Mark Knopfler outaphase !
Stevie Ray
Duane Allman
Billy Gibbons
Kieth Richards
Jeff Cook
Keith Urban

I have always loved the ability and tone from Eric Clapton, especially back when he was with Cream (played an SG a lot then).

When I think of a player that plays Stratocasters (for the past several years anyway) is Mick Mars (Motley Crue). I know some will call me odd but I am amazed by his playing on a lot of songs.

I do love the blues of one Stevie Ray Vaughn


hotrod

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1983 Gibson Explorer 1 (main axe)
2004 Fender American Standard Stratocaster (Butterscotch on ash 1 piece maple neck and fretboard) (my baby)
2008 BC Rich Assassin neck thru(fun toy)
Peavey 5150 212 combo (early model) FREAKIN CRUNCH MONSTER!

I was a diehard Beatle fanatic un til I heard Jimi Hendrix,the raw emotion and passion that he expressed in his playing just reached out and grabbed me.I never tried to play like him(who could anyway?)buthis influence is evident in my playing to this day.I use the same scales he used and my style of bending was greatly influenced by Jimi .I guess if you listen to someone enough or too much some of their style is going to rub off.A real good fairly unknown Strat player is Philip Sayce he plays in the style of Jeff Healy,Jimi,SRV,and Buddy Guy he truly is making a name for himself,you can check him out on Youtube,you won't be disappointed.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

The only times I've sat down and tried to work out exactly what a given guitarist was doing because I wanted or needed to know for myself are all over ten years ago, so I guess they'd be my influences... although I couldn't tell you if anybody could hear any of it in my playing:

Sabicas, Rafael Riqueni, Joe Pass, Tuck Andress, Allan Holdsworth

These days the music I play tends to be dictated by the notes I have available to me from whatever my current position on the fretboard happens to be. I'd prefer it if I could just produce the sounds in my head, but to be honest I doubt there's much going on in there most of the time ! It's usually more like "Well, I'm playing this sort of spread out C7 voicing here, so that means I could maybe bend this note up a half-step with my pinky here... oh, hey, I've suddenly got some fingers free for other stuff, let's head off in this general direction..."

Sadly I can't process that quickly enough to blow over fast changes, so I'm in a mini jazzy-blues-during-lunch-break sort of rut at the moment. It's quite a nice little rut, on the whole; almost a groove...

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I had to think about this more than I would have thought. I like Beatles, but playing like Harrison doesn't fit my style, I like Clapton but I don't want to play like him, Santana doesn't public play a strat and he's been an influence so it doesn't meet the criteria for the OP. So what I came up with was David Gilmour and Joe Walsh. They're both very interpretive with their style and that fits what I like to do and the way I play.

My biggest influence is Dave Gilmour. The way he "feels" his solos and puts all of his soul into them is just amazing. Comfortably Numb was the song that took me from just playing guitar to loving to play the guitar and took my playing to a whole new level. By far my favorite guitarist.

I also have been pretty influenced by SRV and his rock/blues playing. At the local blues night we play Pride and Joy a lot and it is a blast to play.

The thing I like about Santana is he is spirited in his playing. Lately I realized great songs were what moved me; not a lot of guitar players write great songs all the time. Joe Walsh is funny, tasteful, and he loves playing music. I also love Jimmy Page's style - great songs and great guitar playing. That's hard to beat. Maybe John Mayer is the natural successor to all this great guitar stuff.

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Love my Telecaster, Stratocaster, and other guitars.

Apropos of this subject: My new guitar teacher told me last night, "The three things that will make your solos better are scales, arpeggios, and licks you steal from other people."

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.