Your favorite shredder?

braintheory said:
The problem is almost any shredder I’ve heard doesn’t have good/deep musical content they play during the shreddy parts. That being said, I’ll say Guthrie Govan. He’s a beast

I don’t really consider them shredders, but Randy Rhoads and Marty Friedman have always been my 2 overall favorite lead players. They actually care about crafting tasteful musical lines and phrasing
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Guthrie is a close second for me. For my taste they have to be melodic. I can't stand it when it sounds like scalar scribbling....
 
Andy James
Buckethead
Martin Miller
Michael Lee Firkins
Skolnick
Dimeola
Lukather
Gilbert
Vinnie Moore
Becker
Lynch
Kotzen
MaCalpine
Howe
Marco Sfogli
Guthrie Govan

Man..too many to name...
 
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Fusionbear said:
Guthrie is a close second for me. For my taste they have to be melodic. I can't stand it when it sounds like scalar scribbling....
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That’s almost every shredder though I’ve ever heard 😅. Guthrie though to me sometimes has these tasty, unique licks in there and great feel. Can’t argue at least with his skills

Some of these shredders to me sometimes have melodic or nice ideas thrown in there in some places, but once they start trying to play fast the quality/depth of the musical content tends to just go out the window almost immediately with a very obvious contrast

Even in classical, my main thing, it tends to be a thing. It seems to be harder to compose quality musical ideas that are really fast, but magical and super thrilling to listen to when it’s achieved and played well. Super rare finds imo like finding a Dumble or Trainwreck lol
 
Good question.

My favorites have always been:

Andy Timmons
Yngwie Malmsteen (up to Fire And Ice)
Marty Friedman
Kee Marcello (highly underrated)
Richie Kotzen
Michael Lee Firkins

Favorite technique is Paul Gilbert, but while I think he's an amazing rhythm player (amazing riffs) and great technician, his solos actually are just finger exercises.
 
braintheory said:
That’s almost every shredder though I’ve ever heard 😅. Guthrie though to me sometimes has these tasty, unique licks in there and great feel. Can’t argue at least with his skills

Some of these shredders to me sometimes have melodic or nice ideas thrown in there in some places, but once they start trying to play fast the quality/depth of the musical content tends to just go out the window almost immediately with a very obvious contrast

Even in classical, my main thing, it tends to be a thing. It seems to be harder to compose quality musical ideas that are really fast, but magical and super thrilling to listen to when it’s achieved and played well. Super rare finds imo like finding a Dumble or Trainwreck lol
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I recommend checking out Kee Marcello. I wouldn't say that he's doing interesting things at speed, but he's using speed itself as a phrasing tool to add tension and release





 
hard to imaging more intensely musical modern shred than this kid


but will always have a soft spot for the OG


and if this guy was a bit more engaging and charismatic, he’d be terrifying. Gambale + Holdsworth

 
BlueParfait said:
I recommend checking out Kee Marcello. I wouldn't say that he's doing interesting things at speed, but he's using speed itself as a phrasing tool to add tension and release





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The 2nd clip you linked says unavailable, but yes I know him and those 2 that did work and yes he is very musical and emotional. I wouldn’t really think of as exactly shred to me though, but I guess it depends. I’ve always loved that first solo you linked, but it’s basically to me very melodic with a few fast filler runs at the end, but that’s also still to me exactly the part where I feel it loses musical coherency to me in telling a story/taking me on an emotional journey
 
Fusionbear said:
For me it has been Tony MacAlpine for at least 30+ years.

It's not just his technique, it's his melodicism and song writing. He never bores me.

Too many shredders put me to sleep with barrage of notes. Tony's music is varied and dare I say? Beautiful?

Here is a comparison of old and new:



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I remember being in high school and I listened to Autumn Lords on a cassette tape and was blown away. It just sounded so different. Tony could do the piano and guitar which always put him in another Universe.
 
Fusionbear said:
For me it has been Tony MacAlpine for at least 30+ years.

It's not just his technique, it's his melodicism and song writing. He never bores me.

Too many shredders put me to sleep with barrage of notes. Tony's music is varied and dare I say? Beautiful?

Here is a comparison of old and new:



Click to expand...

Absolutely Tony. Amazingly he sounds more creative and modern than anyone even currently. This is my favourite from his last album:

 
Ron Thal. aka Bumblefoot. His musical vocabulary is sooo vast, coupled with incredible technique and creativity! I loved Early Yngwie too. Saw him in '83 with Alacatrazz. Mind blowing!
 
Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Steve yet..unless I missed it. Loved the lineup he had on this. Their live show was one of the best displays of ability and musicality I’ve ever seen.



 
DanTravis62 said:
Rad skills, does he play any cool music though?

Like is he in an actual band?
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he played guitar and was writing the Poppy stuff for a while, which is where i learned of him, then i searched him on youtube and seen that shit lol :dunno: :ROFLMAO:



i think this is him in the mask??

 
mentoneman said:
hard to imaging more intensely musical modern shred than this kid


but will always have a soft spot for the OG


and if this guy was a bit more engaging and charismatic, he’d be terrifying. Gambale + Holdsworth

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Great post. Mancuso is pretty killer. I've watched him develop some really nice, inventive, legit blues chops the past few years. I'm hard to impress when a shredder does blues but dang the kid is doing it. Guthrie Govan is also very impressive for a shred guy in that department when he wants to be. Undeniable talent there.

Cool of you mentioning Gambale too. I never cared for him until I watched him play clean. He makes it look more effortless than anyone I've seen. Most guys probably won't dig this but for me it was his delivery and smooth phrasing that sold it. I was inspired.
 
RaceU4her said:
he played guitar and was writing the Poppy stuff for a while, which is where i learned of him, then i searched him on youtube and seen that shit lol :dunno: :ROFLMAO:



i think this is him in the mask??

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So... that isn't a moonlighting thing. His band is poppy.

That's your favorite shredder?
 
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