Legendary: Appetite for Destruction Les Paul and day 53

Legendary: Slash's '59 Derrig Les Paul, AKA The Appetite for Destruction Guitar

Few people brought Les Paul back in "style" more than Slash of Guns N Roses.  Arguably no one has needed to bring it back since, as it has stayed one of the top guitars since.  The Les Paul has gone in and out of style as time passed.  It has looked too old before, and then became something that only pretentious rock millionaires used.  The story of Slash's Les Paul begins during the era after the 70's, when punk music had branded the Les Paul as gaudy symbols of wealth, and the flashy hair metal bands saw it as too old fashioned and apparently devoid of spikes and neon.  This can be seen in the picture below.  If you wanted to look the part, the B. C. Rich guitars of the time were the ultimate in boutique style.  Today they are overseas made budget instruments, in the early 80's they were the height of showing off.  Slash had other ideas though.

Slash's B C Rich guitars he eventually gave up

One of the big "we made it" memories with Guns N Roses was the day Slash brought home a Les Paul for the first time.  It sounded amazing.  The band played more jam sessions just to hear how well the guitar sounded.  However, by the time Appetite for Destruction was to be recorded, he sold it to pay his drug habit.  Slash claims that most of Appetite was recorded on B. C. Rich guitars, but when it came time to lay down the lead parts, they sounded horrible.  Their manager went out and found a Les Paul of the late 50's style, and brought it to Slash.  It had an amazing sound to it.  It turns out that this guitar was made by Kris Derrig, it is not even an original Gibson.  Slash has used this guitar on every album he's ever done.  He will do rhythm parts and small parts with others, but the Derrig Les Paul is his main guitar used for recording.

It shocks a lot of people to find out that he is not playing a real Gibson.  The deal was that he could keep Gibson on the headstock, and Gibson wouldn't bitch, but he was always call it a Les Paul.  Later Gibson would make copies and issue special "Slash" Les Pauls, but the "original" as Slash calls it, is only a replica made in the 80's.

The journey of this guitar is Legendary, but it has mainly stayed in the hands of Slash for decades.  What of that first Les Paul Slash had?  Its called The Hunterburst, and while not as famous, it has a very complicated story.  A story for another post at another time(maybe tomorrow?).

Day 53

Doing a big Guitarcade day since i'm playing sorta late at night.

Earlier in the day I did play outside of Rocksmith.  I was watching these interviews with guitar players where the interviewer asked about their techniques and stuff.  I have to say that every time I see Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top in an interview, and he's playing guitar, I learn something I use.  Just like Angus Young, Billy has this reputation for doing the same kind of "easy" blues rock over and over.  Billy was one of Hendrix's favorite guitar players.  Jimmy once said that Billy would be the next amazing guitarist everyone talks about.  I don't think many people realize the techniques he sneaks and works in.  Billy does tapping, he did tapping before it became a "thing".  Lots of people will crap on tapping as a cheap trick to sound shreddy and fancy, but if Billy Gibbons says it belongs in rock and roll, then it belongs in rock and roll.  Makes me want to study Dusty Hill a bit more and see what I can learn about bass from him.  All in due time I guess.

I really really like Scale Racer at the moment.  I think I always wanted to beat Rad Racer, but only ever got to the later tracks a few times... I probably haven't touched the game in a serious way in 20 years now that I think about it.  I really wish I'd push myself in Castle Chordead a bit more.  I keep wanting to stop before I get "too far ahead" of myself and haven't committed the chords to memory.  Maybe tomorrow I'll just go as far as I can get.

Spotlight Guitarcade: Temple of Bends and Day 52

Temple of Bends

The Temple of Bends is a game where a character walks along platforms.   You use note bends to extend down vines that allow the character to traverse the platforms and progress through the level gathering treasure a long the way.  While all of this is happening, the level is being flooded so that you are limited in time.

Temple of Bends reminds me of Pitfall at first, but also looks a bit like Donkey Kong Jr.  Its style is certainly in the games of that era, with appropriate music.  The problem I have with this game is that Bends are kind of wonky in Rocksmith.  I hear that this game is doable and fun, but the fact that bends are not detected well in practice sessions have soured me on playing this game very much.

Maybe the bend detection is too touchy?  Too precise?  I know that "perfect" bending is touted as something Jimmy Hendrix did spot on, but maybe there should be a bit more forgiving detection in them at the start.

Day 52

I have had an epiphany... perhaps not a jump in playing skills, no, but I realized why learning songs in the Rocksmith way rubs me the wrong way.

First, I have to say, the fault is for sure mine.  The solution is built right into the game's tools, I just got too frustrated to think of the solution while I'm learning a song.  The way Rocksmith teaches you a song is that they give you the whole song, and you plink away at pieces throughout the whole song until you get the whole thing down.

Why does this sit wrong with me?  At 75% of a song "mastered" you still can't play the song without Rocksmith and sound like you know what you're doing.  At 65% of something as simple as Knocking on Heaven's Door, the song still sounds like plinks, plucks and bad guitar playing.  You need that backing track to sound like you know what you're doing.

When I learn songs using Youtube, I learn the recognizable parts section by section.  I'm probably at, ohh, maybe 10% of Black Betty being able to play, but you can tell the song I am playing in by the 2nd chord.  So inside Rocksmith I can do the same.  I just need to listen to the entire song, pick out the parts and Riff Repeat those parts over and over, and ignore trying to learn the whole song in one go like a Guitar Hero song.

I read a lot of people love the Rocksmith approach.  They really see the "game" as a "game".  They say it makes them feel accomplished rather early into learning the song and it works for them.  The game offers a lot ways to learn if you dig and look.  I'm going to keep learning Knockin' on Heaven's Door in the general way because I made a commitment, but it'll be the last song I learn in that way.