Nuno vs Lynch vs Prince vs Steve Vai

  • Thread starter Thread starter MistaGuitah
  • Start date Start date
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything Prince has played made me think “wow”. Nuno on the other hand. Even his melodic solos like on Song For Love were perfect IMO
 
An old buddy of mine engineered his 1979 album "Prince". Cool album.

This solo has attitood and an emotional arc, but as you say, he's not Nuno:



Some funky rhythm playing on tracks like "I Wanna be Your Lover":

 
Fun fact:

Gary's so humble I only just learned now that he engineered that Prince album.
 
tallcoolone said:
Not strictly, but yes I would consider it a requirement of any "iconic guitarist" to have at least a handful of riffs/songs that have achieved widespread recognition. The true greats have a catalogue.

Is the end goal of playing the instrument to make music or do fingerboard gymnastics? If Prince wanted to play Eruption he could have. I'm no Prince historian for all I know he may have a shredder album out there but prob not. He was too busy playing tastefully and selling a bazillion albums. While Malmsteen and Gilbert were doing NAMM and local GCenter appearances.

Not negating at all. I appreciate the players you mention, I just do not hold them in the same regard as you. IMO they are the 'meat and potatoes guys'. Not enough creative talent so they had to lean on hours of practice and hard work to make up for those deficiencies with technical prowess.

Not sure you know what IMO means lol.
Click to expand...
So Malmsteen or Satriani don't have catalogs? These guys have made careers playing guitar based music. Gilbert crossed both boundaries, hit band with Mr. Big and a career as a soloist. I think anyone can agree if they weren't successful they wouldn't still be doing it. Prince level success obviously not but successful in their genre, yes.

End goal? Again you seem to confusing what you like and what you deem is relevant as the only thing that matters. As I've said repeatedly I'm not a particular fan of YJM or even Satriani but just because I don't care for it is extremely short sighted. Many do. Jeff Beck is considered one of the all time greats with a catalog but how many songs did he have that achieved widespread recognition as a solo artist outside the guitar realm? Not that many.

Further, "it seems" you are equating "mainstream" success with artistic success, that's two vastly different things. I'll be clear because obviously we disagree greatly and highly doubtful you'll ever understand what I'm trying to say...the majority of my favorite guitarist aren't just shredders. My favs are Scott Gorham, Neal Schon, Lynch, Sykes, Vivian Campbell etc... all song based players with lots of great tunes. That's been my influence for decades. But I also greatly respect those guys who are iconic players that have mastered the instrument, doesn't mean I have to like them. You stated "not enough creative talent" - creative talent isn't just being able to write a top 10 hit, it's also having the discipline to put in hours and hours to master your instrument and apply that to what you want to do.

Btw/ IMO means "in my opinion". Clearly we don't agree on much and that's fine. Nice discussion nonetheless.
 
Last edited:
MistaGuitah said:
Nuno's new album has caused a lot of hype lately. While I can respect his skill as a guitarist and accomplishments as a musician, his playing just doesn't sound that interesting to me. I hesitate to mention George Lynch and Steve Vai because some of their music and guitar solos are extremely tasty, but overall, I rarely listen to them.

Prince is another guitarist whose popularity I don't get. I used to hear people rave about his playing and revere him but I was under the impression they were joking at first. I listened to Prince play several times trying to figure out if he could play well or if there was some kind of obscure musical genius in his music but I have to say he's one of THE most overrated guitarists ever. I'm not trying to be mean, just that I tried but couldn't find anything of his that was good or interesting. He was very successful at it though, I'll give him that.

So what's the deal with Nuno Bettencourt? I know he's a good player but why do some people even hail him as the greatest guitarist ever? Do his chord progressions have some kind of secret genius? Is his phrasing somehow so elite that it can only be discerned by the finest jazz fusion guitarists? I really don't get it but would sincerely like to know so I can try to like some of his music.
Click to expand...

I'm late to the party but in short, Nuno has incredible lead skills. But more than that, he has insane RYTHM chops. He has a funky picking hand, has written some ferocious AND melodic rythms, and is very diverse in the types of songs he can write. If you look at those first 4 Extreme albums, it becomes apparent how musical he is as a player. In short, he is the total and complete package in my opinion.

Prince is an interesting case. His lead chops are not as great as everyone likes to make out but he is unique as an artist and wrote very unique music in his time. Nobody sounded like him and he fused his influences well.

Vai does little for me lead wise but I love his rythm playing. He's amazing at it and has his own thing going there which is instantly him or people playing like him and reminding me of him. ( Jason Becker's rythm playing is very Vai)

Lynch is great. Had his own unique style that punched and has an awesome groove. He's spontaneous so very hit and miss but always sounds like himself and nobody else can sound like that. For the most part, he always had great tone.
 
Also if you want some Nuno to check out, listen to his riffing and how musical he is with his leads in any of the following. He can go from sort of soulful melodic to all out mean from song to song ( with sick tone)



 
Via has most skill, but is basically unlistenable to most folks. Prince wrote and recorded the most songs that made impact. Nuno could be a great player....but who is Nuno? Lynch was a monster, but not in same league as Vai.
 
I think Nuno got dealt a tough hand. Extreme should have been bigger than they were. They got zero radio play in the days before the Internet and MTV had turned grunge by the time they got popular.

Porno and III Sides stand up still today. And WFTP has his best tones in my opinion.

Anyone who doubts Nuno should listen to those albums.
 
Prince played guitar? never left his videos on long enough to know. He would be promptly muted while we waited for the next Maiden video to come on during the MTV music years.
Prince was best known for slinging the guitar behind his back as far as I saw :checkthisout:
 
I like to think of these "vs" debates in an odd way I guess. I usually think (to determine overall guitar prowess/talent)..."If I asked Vai to play guitar in the style of Prince or Nuno", could he? I'm positive he can, at least a very respectable take on either of them. Same challenge for Nuno. Hell, we've seen both of those guys play some Prince tunes and I'm sure made him proud wherever he is. Now if you could ask Prince to play guitar "in the style of Steve Vai or Nuno"? Well, I love Prince's music big time but in no way would he have even come close to faking their playing style (rhythm and certainly not lead). To be be fair - could those two have written music in the style of Prince? Not a chance, but we're not asking that here.

That said, like others mentioned, all three dudes chose their own path and played the way the wanted to play, they wrote tunes and made music in a way that makes/made them happy and that's all that matters to me. I like all three for different reasons.
 
Last edited:
67mike said:
Via has most skill, but is basically unlistenable to most folks. Prince wrote and recorded the most songs that made impact. Nuno could be a great player....but who is Nuno? Lynch was a monster, but not in same league as Vai.
Click to expand...

Not sure how much more you want him to have done ? What is on Extreme 1 to 4 is as good as it gets and Pornografitti has already cemented itself as one of the best guitar albums of it's time. So who is Nuno? Well, he is Nuno and every rock guitar player between 35-55 knows who he is. So not sure about " could" be a great player because he has already " been" a legendary player.
 
Another notable thing about Nuno is the guy is the consummate all around pro.
Say what you will about her music, but you simply don't land 4 consecutive world
tours with a mega superstar like Rihanna without being a musician's musician in all
the important ways.

Wouldn't mind cashing those paychecks!
rihanna-in-concert.jpg
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Not sure how much more you want him to have done ? What is on Extreme 1 to 4 is as good as it gets and Pornografitti has already cemented itself as one of the best guitar albums of it's time. So who is Nuno? Well, he is Nuno and every rock guitar player between 35-55 knows who he is. So not sure about " could" be a great player because he has already " been" a legendary player.
Click to expand...
He was just another player, back in the day, as far as I am concerned. Keep in mind, I saw most of the big guitar guns live...in their heyday. Nuno was good, but certainly didn't stand out as special compared to the competition.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Last edited:
cragginshred77 said:
Prince played guitar? never left his videos on long enough to know. He would be promptly muted while we waited for the next Maiden video to come on during the MTV music years.
Prince was best known for slinging the guitar behind his back as far as I saw :checkthisout:
Click to expand...
I gotta agree on this.

Wasn't untill old age, that I realized the dood had chops. Knew he wrote killer songs, obviously.
 
marvcus said:
I think Nuno got dealt a tough hand. Extreme should have been bigger than they were. They got zero radio play in the days before the Internet and MTV had turned grunge by the time they got popular.

Porno and III Sides stand up still today. And WFTP has his best tones in my opinion.

Anyone who doubts Nuno should listen to those albums.
Click to expand...


I just don’t think they were “cool” enough
:dunno: like where skid row and others looked cool and hard a harder edged sound, Extreme look like dorks and their stuff leaned kind of on the lighter side. The rest in piece video posted is a perfect example, it’s just dorky lol
 
thegame said:
If there's any evidence to support that, I'm all ears. He could do many, many things on a musical level, and more than most, but that's not one of them.
Click to expand...
He's a good player but there are lots of good players. Many of my favorites are just good players. Again it's people buying into the aura that surrounded Prince and making him out to be more than he actually is on guitar. Case in point, again going back to the "Gently Video", as @CarlF said, if you close your eye's or had no idea that was Prince, it would have been just another good performance by a competent player, nothing more. A virtuoso ala EVH, Vai, Nuno etc... on guitar (which is all I have argued) he is not, nor did he need to be.
 
All this talk about what the guy couldn't do.

Dude could do the funk!

 
jabps said:
He's a good player but there are lots of good players. Many of my favorites are just good players. Again it's people buying into the aura that surrounded Prince and making him out to be more than he actually is on guitar. Case in point, again going back to the "Gently Video", as @CarlF said, if you close your eye's or had no idea that was Prince, it would have been just another good performance by a competent player, nothing more. A virtuoso ala EVH, Vai, Nuno etc... on guitar (which is all I have argued) he is not, nor did he need to be.
Click to expand...
It's weird, this phenomenon I've noticed. If the guitarist in question is also the main singer/frontman of the band, said player is often held to a lower standard (as pertaining to guitar skills only) than if the same player's role was ONLY being the main guitarist in the band, everything else being exactly the same. I can't remember who it was in the 80's but there was a pretty big name artist (who was also the lead singer/frontman) that received a lot of praise for their playing but was merely average/competent in actuality. Maybe it was Bryan Adams or Sammy Hagar (pre-VH). At any rate, that same player wouldn't have received nearly the guitar god minded accolades they did if they weren't the face of the group. I think a current example of this is John Mayer. Ok, he's better than average honestly but certainly not at the elite level many put him in. The same thing can be said of multi-instrumentalists. That is very impressive and enviable in itself but rarely are they a phenom level talent at any one given instrument, let alone many of them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top