Is anyone else saddened to see Estranged in the set

[James Bond]

This is not meant as an attack at you, ssiscool, but I keep seeing this pop up all over.

Fair shout.

I explained in another thread that a guitarist can track as many guitar parts as they want in the studio. Welcome to the Jungle, for example, on Appetite has THREE guitar tracks going for most of the song, sometimes more (the clean part "When you're high..." springs to mind, two clean guitars, an overdriven guitar, and an extra overdriven guitar that lets a D chord ring). Generally, you have Izzy's rhythm on the left, Slash's rhythm on the right, and solos/fills mixed in the center. Live they were limited to just two players (Slash and Izzy/Gilby) so they made the songs work in that regard, as most bands in that situation do.

The current line-up HAS three guitarists, so not only can they faithfully reproduce much more from the albums, but it's going to sound more full because of the added sound. It's NOTHING to do with "two or three guys doing the work of one man" - it's not like it takes all three of them playing at once to play the November Rain solo accurately. They are all accomplished lead players and divide the solos evenly.

There's no doubt in my mind that Ron for example could play EVERY solo in the set, with say just Fortus on rhythm and no DJ. They are all humble players and recognize that they have a unique approach when dividing the parts because of the extra man on the guitar, so they take advantage of it. Makes it more interesting I'd say.

Slash is the reason I play guitar, but in no way does it take ten guys to play his work.

I don't doubt you that there are more than 2 guitar tracks on studio songs. That much is obvious. I should of been more clear. It's when it comes to the guitar solos and they split it between them that i ment it takes 2 to do one mans job.

Yes, 3 guitars make it sound more full

You've missed my point entirely. Splitting the solos does NOT mean it takes "two" to do the work of one man. The only solo where they literally switch off is Sweet Child, where DJ plays the first half and then Ron takes over. You could make a fair argument there, but other than that, it's one individual playing a whole solo. Fortus plays the whole main November Rain solo without switching off to another player, so in no way can you say it takes more than one player to cover say that particular solo.

November Rain is actually a very good example for this - this band has three guitarists, that song has three solos. Being all skilled lead players and to make it fair to each of them, they each take ONE of the solos. I don't see what's so hard to see that it's a matter of fairness and not a measure of talent.

It's also worth noting that if you listen to the studio version of Sweet Child O' Mine, Slash actually DOES trade off that solo, albeit with himself. He plays the part that DJ plays, and lets that ring out while he picks up with the Wah and fast parts. It shows that he did the solo in two takes, obviously to make sure he got it right on the recording. So, one could also fairly argue that in a way the DJ/Ron trade off is actually entirely faithful to the recording.

You also missed my point that if they really wanted to, someone like Ron COULD indeed play all of the solos. They don't do that, again, to make it fair. The work on Chinese Democracy for the most part required three or more players, thus why we have three guitarists in the first place. When it comes to the old stuff, obviously they had to compromise since most of the time only two guitars are truly needed in the song, and that's exactly what they did.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Three guitarists should be in no way a way of flattering or insulting Slash's skill as a guitarist. There was always a problem with having one lead guitarist as concerts because the sound wouldn't be the same as the studio and there was a lot of room for mistakes. This is why so many bands having backing musicians on stage to fill out all that is missing. I feel the reason bands like The Who and Zeppelin were so much on improv is because they were insecure about the shortcomings of one guitarist on stage. Jimmy and Pete could play lead and rythm guitars to perfection in the studio but can only do one thing at a time live. Slash also did rhythm parts with Izzy and he was unable to do it live. Axl added one more guitarist, problem solved.

[James Bond]

Three guitarists should be in no way a way of flattering or insulting Slash's skill as a guitarist. There was always a problem with having one lead guitarist as concerts because the sound wouldn't be the same as the studio and there was a lot of room for mistakes. This is why so many bands having backing musicians on stage to fill out all that is missing. I feel the reason bands like The Who and Zeppelin were so much on improv is because they were insecure about the shortcomings of one guitarist on stage. Jimmy and Pete could play lead and rythm guitars to perfection in the studio but can only do one thing at a time live. Slash also did rhythm parts with Izzy and he was unable to do it live. Axl added one more guitarist, problem solved.

Precisely! The sound being more full isn't because you have three guitarists all playing Slash's work at the same time, but because you have three guitarists in general. Imagine Iron Maiden with only one guitarist - you'd have all those sweet harmonies in the studio but you'd never be able to pull it off the same way live.

Another good example is when Queen + Paul Rodgers toured, Brian May added a rhythm guitarist (Jamie Moses). Even back in the day with Freddie, Spike (Queen's long time touring keyboardist) would usually come off the piano and do rhythm guitar on songs like Hammer to Fall where it was beneficial to have that extra guitar player to cover the song more faithfully. Even a song as simple as Tie Your Mother Down always missed something live because there was rhythm guitar behind the solo in the studio but live Brian had to kind of weave back and forth. Add Jamie, like you said, problem solved.