Is Bumblefoot the greatest guitarist of our time?

[EvH]

Jimb0, yes, could be. He can sound exactly like Slash sounds when playing very clean or in studio. Case in point: the first runs of the November Rain outro solo.

Satriani or Vai could kick his ass in terms of technical proficiency.

Alright. A professional transcriber said that transcribing players like Vai or Satriani isn't hard, but a player like Ron is the hardest because he has no idea where he is coming from. Not only Ron can play cleaner (his fretting hand is very trained due to several years of fretless playing) and much crazier (meaning harder technically) stuff at a much faster tempo. Vai struggles to get past the 12 nps mark while Ron can reach up to 16 nps, alt picking. Speed is relevant when discussing technical skills, that's why I am pointing this out.

I don't like to argue like some people said. I just point out inaccurate stuff.

Did you seriously described Satriani as merely a subject of study for a professionnal music transcriber? What a crappy vision of music if you ask me... And I'm not talking about fast shredding, good for Ron if he's the fastest. The thread was about the best, which means the overall best.

Fortus is a better fit for the band than him, anyway. And Satriani or Vai could kick his ass in terms of boyh feeling and technical proficiency.

BBF actually is on par if not superior to Vai and Satriani in terms of technical prowess and speed. Not in terms of playing with emotion though.

That's my point. Overall they are superior to him. Edited June 23, 2013 by EvH

[SoulMonster]

Super guitarist,glad he's in the band.He does seem too have "this is so easy"look when he's playing,especially the old Slash solo spots.

To me it looks like a "this stool is hard to pass". You know, feet separated, slightly squatting, back arched, head angled upwards, eyes closed and with a strained look on his face.

[jimb0]

Jimb0, yes, could be. He can sound exactly like Slash sounds when playing very clean or in studio. Case in point: the first runs of the November Rain outro solo.

I listened to early 2006 versions of NR earlier today and Bumblefoot didn't really get the Slash tone and sound back then. He is much better now. Almost indistinguishably from Slash. Being able to play music like other does is really a great sign of talent and skill.

Yes, he used waaaay more bending back then, especially at the european tour. Since 2009 he's doing it closer to the original.

Listen to the RIR lisbon recording - he's bending his ass off, lol. Then listen to rock am ring - he's still bending a lot, but he is doing less of it. Then listen to the Inland Invasion recording - he's way closer to the original solo, but still doing crazy runs.

To Me Slashes Playing Sounds Dirtier and Bluesier and not as neat.

On a side note Ron's 2006 Nightrain totally kills everything he's done on the recent tour. Why did he have to kill one of the best things he's done in the band.

Edited June 24, 2013 by jimb0

[Damn_Smooth]

Fortus is a better fit for the band than him, anyway. And Satriani or Vai could kick his ass in terms of boyh feeling and technical proficiency.

What's boyh mean?

All right, you should have read "both". That's what people call a typo.

OK. Typo it is then. Do you have proof of your statement? Or are you stating your opinion as fact?

Well the thread title itself and the first post are putting an opinion as a fact.

I know. Check the 2nd post in the thread.

[niceguy]

Did one of you idiots just try citing "notes per second" as proof of great musicianship? Are people really that stupid?

[axlrod]

I'm glad I read this thread where BBF is known to be a solid technical player, good and great.

Though he's not the greatest yet it's a good sign that people appreciate him. Good hit songs might bring him being the greatest of our time sooner or later.

[Bruno P.]

Did you seriously described Satriani as merely a subject of study for a professionnal music transcriber? What a crappy vision of music if you ask me... And I'm not talking about fast shredding, good for Ron if he's the fastest. The thread was about the best, which means the overall best.

Wait. YOU were the one claiming that other players were superior, I pointed out that you were wrong and then you tell me that I have a crappy vision of music for no reason. Guess what - I was pointing out inaccuracies in your own post, responding to your own points. If anyone is to blame, blame yourself. I told you that Ron's work is harder to replicate therefore he doesn't get his ass kicked by Vai or Satriani in terms of skill. Since emotion is a subjective personal internal experience I ignored that part because it's too... uh, obvious. You never mentioned musicianship in the first place.

Did one of you idiots just try citing "notes per second" as proof of great musicianship? Are people really that stupid?

No, we didn't. But apparently you, the smart one, pointed out something that never happened because your comprehension skills aren't advanced.

[EvH]

Did you seriously described Satriani as merely a subject of study for a professionnal music transcriber? What a crappy vision of music if you ask me... And I'm not talking about fast shredding, good for Ron if he's the fastest. The thread was about the best, which means the overall best.

Wait. YOU were the one claiming that other players were superior, I pointed out that you were wrong and then you tell me that I have a crappy vision of music for no reason. Guess what - I was pointing out inaccuracies in your own post, responding to your own points. If anyone is to blame, blame yourself. I told you that Ron's work is harder to replicate therefore he doesn't get his ass kicked by Vai or Satriani in terms of skill. Since emotion is a subjective personal internal experience I ignored that part because it's too... uh, obvious. You never mentioned musicianship in the first place.

Did one of you idiots just try citing "notes per second" as proof of great musicianship? Are people really that stupid?

No, we didn't. But apparently you, the smart one, pointed out something that never happened because your comprehension skills aren't advanced.

I'm not the one who used the stupid notes-per-second argument. You are. And I said Bumblefoot doesn't top those guys in terms both of technicity AND feeling. But you seem to only remember the technical part,that's the one you quoted by the way. You ended my sentence early only to keep the part you wanted to argue about.

I guess you should check your own posts before checking mines and at least be honest when you quote oter users.

Now back on topic please.

EDIT : Oh man, I didn't see your avatar. I got it now.

Edited June 23, 2013 by EvH

[ludsmotika]

Bumblefoot is one of the worst guitarists i have ever heard

[Bruno P.]

I said Bumblefoot doesn't top those guys in terms both of technicity AND feeling. But you seem to only remember the technical part,that's the one you quoted by the way. You ended my sentence early only to keep the part you wanted to argue about.

emotion is a subjective personal internal experience I ignored that part

So you apparently couldn't understand why I never responded to the emotion argument - because it's a personal experience, can't be shared or explained. It's a retarded and stupid argument at the same time because there's no way to claim as a fact who's got more "feeling" than other. So keep playing that "who's got more feeling" game with clueless posters.

However, speed is a key factor when we're discuss technical skills (being clean(er), playing more complex stuff at faster tempo means that said person is more skilled), and there are credible ways to count NPS and determine who's faster. So yes, hope now you understand why I only responded to the skills argument. Because I can prove you wrong as Ron plays much more advanced and complex stuff than both guitarists you mentioned. This is when our opinion don't matter - we're not talking about subjective experiences, we're talking about objective stuff. If a person's work is harder to replicate than another person's then it's pretty easy to know who's got more advanced/complex work. If someone like can play a Steve Vai solo on a fretless guitar (hint: it's MUCH harder to play on a fretless, that's why very vew virtuosos try the fretless - yes, even Vai himself doesn't do complex stuff here because he's terribly out of tune at times), I guess there's nothing he couldn't do on a fretted guitar.

Listen to this guy discussing Steve Vai's fretless playing. He's the owner of the Raleigh Music Academy (known for teaching and bringing in several world class musicians to do workshops and share their knowledge like John Petrucci, Paul Gilbert, Andy Timmons, Vinnie Moore, Mattias IA Eklundh, Guthrie Govan, etc) and a great guitarist.

I've heard this quite a bit but I only have one reservation about whether it's true. I've seen videos of him (Vai) playing really out of tune where it appeared that he could have adjusted and intonated better on the single notes etc. Of course, there could always been monitor problems etc. that we don't know about, so I'm not really claiming anything definitively. But every time we played with Bumblefoot, he asked to have his monitors turned off (vox and guitars) and he just relied on what he could hear in the hall or his own inner sense of where the pitch was. That's pretty confident to do that AND play fretless guitars while singing, lol.

So yes, I am proving my point and you're hiding behind your feeling argument. Since that it's invalid, I guess it's over.

I am discussing the thread, by the way. I'm not off topic.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Bruno Poeys

[Georgy Zhukov]

Been on a Bumblefoot kick. He truely does put a lot of feeling in his music, even his wild fretless guitar solos.

[Georgy Zhukov]

We should all agree that Bumblefoot is a great singer.

[Chris 55]

Bumblefoot is one of the worst guitarists i have ever heard

How so?

[trqster]

Bumblefoot is one of the worst guitarists i have ever heard

LOL

[Guest NGOG]

It may be a bold statement but in terms of being a virtuoso and the ability to play absolutely anything, Bumblefoot definitely ranks up there. Has he reached any Jimi Hendrix status in terms of writing however? I would have to say no.

[Teroz]

Bad joke, no he is not. He is a good player or course and a nice guy, but there are better players out there. Buckethead is far superior player, and also so far he has co-writter three songs to GnR (released ones)... The mystical magical next album will show if Bfoot can write stuff that is up to Axls par.

[brian0612]

Artistically, No

Technically, one of the best.

I personally like Fortus better as he seems to have more of a classic rock sound.

[jimb0]

Bumblefoot is one of the worst guitarists i have ever heard

You should check out this guy... his name is Robin Finck.

Artistically, No

Technically, one of the best.

I personally like Fortus better as he seems to have more of a classic rock sound.

IMO Axl has wasted the last 11 years by not collaborating on an entire album with Fortus. He is really missing the boat by not having made a great Rock album with the guy. I have more faith in Fortus to create a classic rock record than Bumble, Finck, DJ, Paul, Bucket and Tommy combined. Why he is so underutilized is just a crime against great musicians.

[Eu4ic]

4tus is def the best in the band and underutilized, but he has no signature licks or identity really. BH and Slash have a general pattern of notes that are THEIRS and everything else is just an extension of those core elements that are THEIRS.

4tus has some of this, just not enough, imo. But, would I love to see him and Axl do something? Absolutely.

[rockerman]

subjective opinion question:

yes if thats your gig in music.

No if its not.

Ive seen and heard blues players play three chords that could make you weep with the connection they made.

Ive seen shreddeders that can tear up a fretboard that could do the same...

I dont groove on the super technical superfast super duper musical scale precision bag. I had a guitarist that went to MIT under Paul Gilbert and a was a classmate with BH who could and still does play everything up and down the scale. When he came back from Hollywood, while his musical ability was monstrous it changed his inner expression and thus the whole tone and vision to our music. Our music became less fun, less emotional driven and much like the new Star Wars prequals.. way too much going on. When we wrote it was about precision and not breaking the rules..whereas a dissonate note or a raw chord added some "flavor" to the music before now it was precision and much of the new stuff ultimately became boring. Whereas some of our best stuff was born out of "happy mistakes" that had a connection and a vibe...the new stuff was all guitar all the time in your face and ultimately, looking back, boring after about 15 minutes of it. It took forever to get him to slow down and play with emotion and thought vs scale after scale after scale being thrown out there with vocals and bass and drums being more or less a distraction or an afterthought.

BBF is a great guitarist but*..Hollywood and particular the MIT grads of the late 80's and 90's guitarists are a dime a dozen and most of them took their music nowhere memorable as far as national or international fame or impact on the musical world.