Players with unconventional techniques

[StudioShutIn]

I was just watching a video of Marty Friedman and noticed he has a really unusual right-hand technique..He holds his pick in a closed fist and cranks his wrist around at a weird angle, almost like he's trying to punch the strings, most of the movement coming from his wrist when he picks (especially when he's doing fast runs) I've also noticed that Zakk Wylde does something similar, but not quite as extreme. This made me wonder..anybody else seen players with unusual techniques that aren't "textbook" but seem to work for that player? In addition..does anybody here have unique techniques or 'tricks' that they've come up with?

[Gearmond]

Adrian Legg - the king of string bends and mid-song retunings

Adrian Belew - imagine the whammy madness of Steve Vai, but less shreddy and more atonal grooves

John Entwistle- the typewriter technique is inimitable

Derek Bailey - just youtube him

Quentin Berry - the dude plays bass guitar like a violin

Derek Trucks - never seen a fingerstyle guy do what he does. also the slide madness

Miyavi - not the first or only slap guitar player i've seen, and he seems like a bit of an arrogant dude, but he can play.

Kevin Shields/dream pop guitarists - holding the whammy bar when strumming to create subtle bends and textures within the chords

Eugene Chadbourne - uses hollowbody/microphonic guitars to make squeaky sounds (lick your finger and slide it back and fourth on the guitar)

Tom Morello - the obvious killswitch thing, and the sheer absurdity he does with a wah and a whammy pedal

Doug Wimbish - does this double mute slap thing on the low E with his thumb and index that sounds really cool. hard to explain, but you know it when you see it.

Percy Jones - aside from everything he does, he does this weird spidery thing where his entire left hand is on the fretboard, and he uses all 5 fingers in descending arpeggios that sound like Robert Fripp's nightmares

and of course this
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PECpA9a_2zQ[/youtube]


stuff on my own: when i was first learning bass, i was determined to do something new. i was obsessed with slap bass, and kept tinkering with how to get that tone without slapping because i wasn't good at it. turns out what i came up with was entwistle's typewriter technique, before i was aware he did it. guitar-wise i do the kevin shields thing, and use my bigsby to get middle eastern-ish bends, and occasionally spazz out on it to get this nifty tremolo effect. neil young does that sometimes.

[Monkeyboard]

Benn Jordan: Learned to play lefty with a righty guitar but never bothered to turn the strings around as well. So plays upside down.

Pat Metheny: Some weird ass inefficient picking technique that works like magic for him

Django Reinhardt: If you don't know this you need to learn some music boy

[Derelict78]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSLsCBU6DZY[/youtube]

[WWRRSS]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7651hIeGD8[/youtube]

[StudioShutIn]

In my defense, let me say that I new of several of these already
But, let me just ask...is the 'typewriter' technique the one where you get a 'slap bass' sound by exaggerating the finger-picking technique and 'smacking' the strings with your fingers, rather than resting your finger on the string and plucking across it?

[Gearmond]

basically. Tony Levin's Funk Fingers kinda get the same effect.

[Toonster]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7651hIeGD8[/youtube]

What kind of string configuration does that left guy uses? One bass and some guitar strings?

[devnulljp]

Marc Ribot
DaveTronzo
Albert King -- upside down, weird tunings.

And along the lines of Django, necessity being the mother of invention, CeDell Davis!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2FhDtndMJE[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9s8nOIqJBc[/youtube]

[hclapp219]

Stanley Jordan does some pretty cool tapping stuff to play. I couldn't find a good quality video on youtube though...

[devnulljp]

Stanley Jordan does some pretty cool tapping stuff to play. I couldn't find a good quality video on youtube though...

Good call.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3gHtPLXQOI[/youtube]

There's also Erik Mongrain
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnbdKMpM3f4[/youtube]

Andy McKee
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddn4MGaS3N4[/youtube]

There was another guy I saw years ago, vids at NAAM, where he played Kashmir and Stevie Wonder's Superstition by air tapping. Pretty cool. Can't remember his name.

These guys are fun...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4BYMvVvMg0[/youtube]

[Gearmond]

imo, enough guys do guitar tapping with a consistant enough approach that it isn't really all that unconventional

[devnulljp]

Tough crowd
How about Rodrigo y Gabriela ? Unusual technique, great rasgueado. I love these guys.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUYQMslOobw[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0CsLefLisE[/youtube]

Did anyone mention Robert Fripp yet?

Jeff Healey had a pretty unusual style.

[Gearmond]

they have awesome technique for sure, but its all really rigorous and formal flamenco stuff. not knocking R&G, i love 'em, i just wouldn't quite call them unconventional.


it should also bear mentioning that i am a technique snob in about every regard possible.

i'll add Stuart Adamson for his use of guitar effects and eBow in Big Country. prolly one of the most influential guitarists to me.

[Derelict78]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkB5fqcGEOo[/youtube]