Rate Ashba's guitar playing ability on a scale from 1-10.

[DR DOOM]

He's good at playing his own material. He sucks covering Slash. 5 seems to be fair.

I'd go with this.

I don't like Beautiful Creatures or Sixx AM at all but from the clips I've seen of them DJ doesn't struggle playing his own stuff.

As far as GNR goes though, he's fucking abysmal.

[Broskirose]

See, like when people say "he's not atrocious" I just shake my head. That's the thing! He is atrocious.

He's just not a good musician. He really isn't.

[sweetness]

Feels a bit generous bit I'll give him a 4. The main reason I can't stand Ashba is because his creativity is about as exciting and interesting as being stuck in traffic, he gets points for being a somewhat capable player.

I'd consider 5 and above skill levels that not every guitar player reaches, and use 4 as a bench mark for what any guitarist who takes their playing seriously should be able to play at the very least. As a professional touring musician 4 is pretty disgraceful considering all of the other professional guitarists out there, I mean there's a ton of really talented guitarists out there, I know guys playing in bands around town who shit all over Ashba and these are guys who will probably never make it as far he has. Ashba does not stack up well among professional guitar players. He's like a mediocre local cover band guitarist, and it doesn't get any more mediocre than that. He's perfectly capable, he has the tools to be a decent guitar player, but with all of his mistakes and general retardation when it comes to gear he doesn't strike me as the sort of person who is doing this for the music, which is why he's so creatively uninteresting and technically sloppy.

It's hard to fault any guitar player for making mistakes, all guitarists do, the thing that separates great guitarists from guys like Ashba is they're able to take their mistakes and play them off seamlessly on the spot. Ashba is out there completely chunking strings, playing in the wrong key... because his head is elsewhere. I mean its clear as day, it's all about image and status, using the guitar as a musical instrument comes second to fashion with this guy. It couldn't be any more obvious in that interview with him and his guitar tech from whenever, where he's just talking about the tacky designs and stupid fucking mini replicas he has on sale and how 4 knobs confuses him, I mean what the fuck kind of guitarist is this chode?

[ChristmasFnatic]

LOL at 10s.

[Evil Ernie]

I'll be nice and give him a 7. He's not as bad as many say.

I would say Slash is only slightly better than him. And I mean slightly.

[RockerRoller]

I'll be nice and give him a 7. He's not as bad as many say.

I would say Slash is only slightly better than him. And I mean slightly.

Really dude? When I saw him all he could do was fuck up solos and stare up at carrot top n that other dude. Loved the show but dj is too much for me, slash is a much better player. I respect your opinion tho of course.

[magisme]

I'm not entirely sure what the numbers are intended to represent, so I'm gonna say it's 1-10 based on professional guitarists, in which case he gets a hard 1.

And to anyone who chose 7 or above, I'm embarrassed to be from the same species as you.

[Broskirose]

I like how HGH always starts thread like "rate this guy" or "what do you prefer" or "post your desktop" yet he never participates in the thread himself.

[DR DOOM]

I'm not entirely sure what the numbers are intended to represent, so I'm gonna say it's 1-10 based on professional guitarists, in which case he gets a hard 1.

When you put it like that (based on professional guitarists), a 1 is fair.

[SoulMonster]

I dunno, there are professional guitarists (guitar players in various bands where technical guitar playing really isn't warranted and all you need to get by is the ability to play a few chords in rhythm with no lead playing) who are much worse than Dj (but it doesn't show because they never have to play anything half as challenging to what Dj plays). Dj is not a session guitarist who will be hired because of him skills, but he is still able to play fairly advanced guitar with lots of different techniques. If the 1-10 is for professional guitar players I'd give him a 4 if it is for anyone (and 1 being a person who have never touched a guitar before), I stick to my 6.

[Bobbo]

I'd say 4. To me, he plays the old stuff much better than Robin ever did. But creatively I've seen nothing but shit. And if his take on Better is any indication of what will probably come if Axl gives him the green light...yikes.

I've seen the argument quite a few times that "Oh, well Axl already has technical handy men, he doesn't need another." and "Ashba's a strong songwriter ( imo); Axl needs one..." Ok, fine. But then don't give him a job he's barely capable of doing when you have two other guitarists that are beyond capable of doing it instead. He's shit on lead guitar compared to Ron and Richard. Absolute shit. If there's really no ridding him, and Axl really feels he needs him, stick him, and everybody else for that matter, exclusively to their "strengths". Put him on rhythm and let him help with songwriting if the time comes.

I mean, I of course don't even want him to go that far with his involvement. But let's not make a bad situation any worse than it has to be...

[Voodoochild]

I gave him a solid 2. And that was because he was actually nice to me when I met him, haha.

He just is not able to play a full bend (meaning a full note up). He is lazy in hi approach and often fuck up a lot. And Ashba's tone is really overly EQed, sounds overly sweetened.

His playing on old songs are not better than Robin's IMO. And it says a lot that he learned the old songs using the Live Era versions instead of the original studio records. Seems like he's not capable to rework Slash's solos aside from simplifying the tricky parts (or just leave them to Bumblefoot like in SCOM).

In the other hand, he reworked all of Robin solos, and they were all for the worst. I won't say anything about TIL because we all know already. But Street of Dreams and Better all sound fucking awful.

What about Ashba's own work? All tacky IMO. Its like he always chooses the most obvious and easy notes. I know at least a few dozen other average guitarist both personaly and on YouTube that would be a way better choice for the band.

[cooker]

I'll be nice and give him a 7. He's not as bad as many say.

I would say Slash is only slightly better than him. And I mean slightly.

You serious?

[Terzyo]

I like Ashba music style, 8 for me.

[TeeJay410]

Depends on the scale. Of guitarists in general, including people at home as well as rock stars, 5 or 6. But as a professional guitar player/rock star, 3 or 4. A lot of people sitting online posting on this board could do what he does on guitar or better.

I just want to know what mouth breathing dolts gave him a 10. I hope 2-3 of them were being ironic.

Edited July 6, 2014 by TeeJay410

[justmike66]

cannot rate him as the scale starts at 1 ... please readjust scale to start off in the negative ... thank you . #conquerteenagegirlssqueezedacash.

[EvH]

4.

[jman2000]

I RATE IT #CONQUERTHEWORLD

[Forsaken]

I like how HGH always starts thread like "rate this guy" or "what do you prefer" or "post your desktop" yet he never participates in the thread himself.

Yeah I was going to mention the same thing the other day in the desktop wallpaper thread in AG

[Bruno P.]

2009/2010 - 5/4.5

2011/2012 - 3.5/3

2013/2014 - 2.5/1

He's getting worse each year. I've noticed what VoodooChild said when I heard Ashba's original work - he plays it safe. Always the note that will sound good to most ears. He's the pinnacle of generic guitar playing, that's why many of his solos (not in Guns, keep that in mind) are listenable/decent. He sounds like another million bedroom guitarists. There's no perfect playing from him live either - be sure that he WILL fuck up his solos at some point - be it a bad sounding bend or a bunch of wrong/inaccurate notes, he doesn't play an entire solo accurately.

[Randy Jesus]

DJ #SWAGBA is off the charts.....

-10

But still makes more money than all of us...

[Gackt]

If I remember correctly, there's been around ten guitarists that have come and gone in GnR. Ashba is in at least the bottom three of those in terms of skill and talent, so he's in the 1-3/10 range.

[TeeJay410]

Regardless of how you feel about Slash as a person or his role in the breakup, you cannot objectively say DJ is even close to as good as Slash in a technical or even creative sense. Slash's discography and accomplishments with Guns and VR, as well as his recent playing being as good as it has ever been, speak for themselves. Scoreboard.

[T-Minus]

Abysmal. That is a better descriptive rating than any number. Truly, fucking awful.

[Guest Gunns]

Buckethead, he pushes the limits of the guitar and makes the guitar sound like not even a guitar or any other instrument (in a good way).

Dj ashba, he pushes the guitar to its limits by making it sound like a dying cat being ran over by a 4 tonne semi trailer over hot coals, and then reversed back over . To use the analogy in the real world situation, just like his patience solo...

Edited July 7, 2014 by Gunns