# Are you a copy cat or are you unique?



## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

Just wondering what the musicians of guitarscanada.com try to accomplish when considering a new amp, effects or guitar. Are you trying to create your own unique tone are are you trying to copy your guitar idols? Or maybe a bit of both.
Over the years I have bought amps to closely match guitar greats I was in to at the time. Gibson L9 Lab series (Ray Flacke). Music Man (Albert Lee). Of course even then you never truly get the sound as there is more to take in to consideration. String gauge, effects used, guitar used. Even when all of those are equal the one thing that is the hardest to emulate is technique and feel of the guitarist. Still I see so many people putting so much effort in to copying their guitar idol. 
In the country scene I see it so predominately with young guitar hopefuls spending so much time and effort to copy Brent Mason lick for lick. Anyone who hasn't heard of Brent Mason would do themselves a favor by giving this guitarist a listen. No matter what type of music you prefer this guy is a phenomenon, being touted as the most recorded guitarist in history and is on about 95% of the recordings that have come out of Nashville in the last 15 years.
To copy his style takes an amazing amount of effort to copy exactly and youtube is full of videos of people doing it mostly bad. I don't consider having influences as being a copy cat. So do you spend your time trying to emulate these guys whether it be Eddie Van Halen or Yngwie, or do you spend your time trying to find that unique sound?


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## Warren (Mar 2, 2007)

I'm too old to worry about copying anyone. I probably do it all the time inadvertently due to all the music I listen to. 

As far as copying Brent Mason, I don't have 5 lifetimes of 25 hours a day 8 days a week practicing time just to try to be able to sound like him at 1/2 his speed.

Paraphrasing a quote by Jeff Berlin: In my 20's, I listened to Jaco once, he was so good and I wanted to be able to play and sound like him so badly that I took the record off and never listened to him again.

On the other hand Redd Volkaert has an instructional DVD called "Stolen Riffs".

Cheers


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

Warren said:


> As far as copying Brent Mason, I don't have 5 lifetimes of 25 hours a day 8 days a week practicing time just to try to be able to sound like him at 1/2 his speed.
> 
> Cheers



Exactly my point I guess. I have done the copy thing. My phrasings are never the same and I sometimes just frustrate my self trying. What I do like to do, however, is grab bits and pieces of riffs from these players and put my own spin on them or add them to my own inventions. I find this much more interesting and fun then copying particular pieces note for note.


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## Wheeman (Dec 4, 2007)

I don't want to be and I can't be like *generic famous guitarist*. I have friends who can emulate the *generic famous guitarist* to the tee. When I try to play like somebody else it just comes out wrong. My phrasing and tone is usually off making it hard to play like the music. 

BUT... the problem is my friends only want to hear and play covers. Its so aggravating to try to play something different only to have them become disinterested and shut off their ears, so to speak. Part of the problem is trying to remember how a song goes (bad memory for the loss). Its getting to the point where I don't want to play in front of them.

/endrant

...People aggravate me...


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## Vincent (Nov 24, 2007)

I copied a lot of my favorite players for years and learned their songs however it came to a point where I stopped learning other peoples music and started writing my own...I hope its unique in my own way...Im influenced by so many types of music I never know what will happen when i write.

At some point a musician becomes more seasoned and tries to take their own path from influences along the way.


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## Tarl (Feb 4, 2006)

My influences range from Zeppelin to Neil Young to Bill Monroe and blues greats such as Son House and Muddy Waters.
I,m sure I have copied all of them to some extent. I can not play or sound exactly like any of them so hopefully my style is a mixture of these influences and a big dollop of me.


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## zinga (Apr 22, 2007)

*I'm done*

I'm done with the copying thing, but i will take a riff from songs or chords as for sound i hope i have my own by now lol, wheeman i know just how you feel same with my freinds play this play that. now i just don't care i play something and tell them i wrote it if they like it fine if not who cares not me i gave up trying to please ppl a long time a go lol. :food-smiley-004:


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

I don't mind channeling some player or another, but I really just want to be me. I took up guitar to express myself not to express someone else.

Peace, Mooh.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

guitarman2 said:


> Just wondering what the musicians of guitarscanada.com try to accomplish when considering a new amp, effects or guitar. Are you trying to create your own unique tone are are you trying to copy your guitar idols? Or maybe a bit of both... or do you spend your time trying to find that unique sound?


A lot of the responses are on playing style rather than what guitarman asked--but that's been interesting too. So I'm okay with that.

But to answer the question about amp, effects, guitar.
None of my gear was bought because I was trying to soundlike somebody else. I bought because I liked it.

Guitarwise my main electrics are: 
an Iceman--only Paul Stanley & Steve Miller used these that I knew of when I bought mine over 25 years ago-Both of them used different models with different pickups, and play different stuff than I do. I liked that when I went to jam I'd have a different guitar than anybody else.

a Mustang--It had nothing to do with Kurt Cobain--Nirvana wasn't even a band yet when I bought it. I didn't know of anybody who used one. I love the out of phase sound--I use that about 95-98% of the time. It was different. I love the sound and it's fun to play.

a Les Paul Custom-but mine is hardly stock--it wasn't when I bought it, and I changed it back more like it was originally--but only because the sound it had wasn't me. I wanted to try something different--and as I mentioned elsewhere I had each humbucker wired series/parallel. I didn't know of anybody else who had that at that time. If I was trying to sound like somebody I'd have left the neck pickup in--and sounded more like Neil Young. It had a different pickup than his, but it was closer.

Plus I play a 12 string, a classical & bass. But again none of those copy anybody's sound.

My main amp is a Roland JC-60--because I like the sound and I got a good deal. Everywhere I look I see Marshalls, Fenders, etc. Nice amps, but the Roland is more me. The closest I came to copying somebody's tone is wanting a Legend--because I love the sound I've heard others get--but since I don't play like any of the Outlaws' guitarists or others I've heard use one, I'd still sound different.

As for effects--Boss DS-1, DF-2 & PH-1 & DOD FX53. Who uses those? I also use a Rockman Stereo Echo rackmount, but I use is it & the PH-1 judiciously or I will sound like others, or else bad copies. (I especially have to watch the echo--I sometimes sound like a poor imitation of Jimmy Page or Brian May.)

So my gear is to reflect me, the guitars, the amp, the judicious use of effects--other than distortion.

Me, I sound like a poor imitation of Albert King mixed with Neil Young and something else when I play leads--well not really--I sound like me. Nobody else hears the King & Young influences.


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## Vincent (Nov 24, 2007)

Yeah when i posted i posted more on my playing style because Im not really a gear head (no offence to anyone)...I basically have not bought any gear to copy anybody's sound...Im still trying to find the sound I want though...I like a cleaner distortion sound and a nice brown sound for the distortion side with bottom end and not to much treble...I want kind of the same for the clean side of things as well...hard to find exactly what I want with the little to no money I have.

So to answer i dont copy other players sound or tone...just trying to find the one my ears like the best.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I try to find a sound i really like for whatever style of music i want to play. right now i have my metal distortion, punk distortion, and clean.

every now and again i'll actually sit down and learn a new song by a band i like. before, i learned songs more often because my band had a new song to cover. i also learned a bunch of songs for high school musicals i've played in (2 musicals, both covering songs from the 60's to current) and tweaked my amp to sound like the song i was playing (minus fx).

I just try to find a good tone and go with it for whatever style i like. so far so good!


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## zinga (Apr 22, 2007)

as for sound i have tranyor ycv 40, fender with two tex mex pups and perly gate pup also boss-me30 a lot of my sounds are banked i just keep playing tell i get my sound for the song i'm writing at the time.


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## Warren (Mar 2, 2007)

Vincent said:


> Yeah when i posted i posted more on my playing style because Im not really a gear head (no offence to anyone)...I basically have not bought any gear to copy anybody's sound...Im still trying to find the sound I want though...I like a cleaner distortion sound and a nice brown sound for the distortion side with bottom end and not to much treble...I want kind of the same for the clean side of things as well...hard to find exactly what I want with the little to no money I have.
> 
> So to answer i dont copy other players sound or tone...just trying to find the one my ears like the best.


I was thinking of the artist copy thing also. I don't think I'm a gear head but (_un_)fortunately in my quest to find what I want I've become one.

Over the years my gear has evolved more & more to what I hear in my head as opposed to what I hear when I listen to other players. My favorite amps are a custom 12 watt Class A Combo (sounds a bit like my old Marshall) and an early 60's Newport Pathfinder PA head converted (by Skip Simmons) to an 18 watt Class A (like the clean channel on a Hiwatt) through a wide body Boogie 1x12. I tend to like only a little compression from my Keeley comp & just a little slap-back echo in front of them and mixing them with a Passive Radial ABY. I've been trying to find an amp that has more power and has a similar sound to the setup but that hasn't happened over the 6 years I've owned the amps. But, there's nothing wrong with slapping a couple SM57s in front of them and getting real volume when necessary from a PA.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...i have never, ever been conscious of trying to create my own style or tone.

even listening to my recordings, i don't hear anything resembling a distinctive/signature style or sound.

perhaps that is something i should examine.

lately, i have to taken to relying less on my pedals and more on the guitar and amp. i'm also less likely to use a pick, as time goes on, as well.

searching for inspiration is very important to me.

-dh


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

The older I get, the more I'm finding out that a whole bunch of influences on my playing and tone have seeped in that I was often unaware of until something makes me take notice. A couple of years ago, I went to see Booker T and the MGs at Bluesfest here, and was just dumbstruck by how much effort I had spent over my lifetime trying to sound like Steve Cropper without ever realizing it. I also realized how much I had tried to model my finger vibrato after Paul Kossoff and Angus Young, and how much Mike Bloomfield had influenced my unrestrained desire for N+B "sparkle". It all sneaks in. Listening to a Zappa Plays Zappa concert recently, I also started realizing that Dweezil's note choices were pretty much the same ones I would have made (not that I could have carried them off quite so deftly!). Frank Zappa's solo in "Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin" from Absolutely Free has been a source of ongoing influence in my musical life, somehow, just as the "dinky tone" of players like T-Bone Walker and Johnny Guitar Watson seeps in, and Curtis Mayfield's rhythm playing (by way of Jimi Hendrix and Prince).

If there was a player whose tone I attempted to achieve at some sort of higher-order level, it would be Jeff Beck. Not that I try to sound exactly like him. Rather, this is a guy who lives for tonal contrast. It's like if he put butter and jam on toast, he lives for the border between where the butter and jam go and where the dry bread crust is. That's what makes his playing so emotional and evocative. He's got every conceivable tonal tool in the toolbelt he wears on his fingers, and can switch tools in an eyeblink. That's the goal I'm reaching for. Hope I get there before my knuckles give out from age.


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