Music is the universal language
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General Interest
“I played it like a baby giraffe on roller skates – but it was heaven”: Steve Vai recalls surreal encounter with the Brian May as he celebrates his own custom Red Special guitar
Steve Vai has told the story of his long-running admiration for Brian May after receiving a custom-built reimagining of the Queen guitarist’s iconic Red Special.
Built by master luthier Andrew Guyton of Guyton Guitars, the instrument channels the spirit of May’s original DIY classic while introducing a series of bold, Vai-approved updates, including a quilted maple top, jumbo EVO-gold frets, a mahogany neck and a striking translucent green finish.
The original Red Special is, of course, one of the most famous handmade guitars in rock history. Constructed in the early 1960s by a teenage Brian May and his father Harold using repurposed materials, it became central to Queen’s sound and a constant presence at the band’s most historic performances.
Describing May as one of his “absolute heroes” when he was “a kid in Carle Place trying to figure out how to play anything in tune”, Vai says the Red Special was never “just a guitar” to him, but “a mythical object, an alchemical wand built by a young genius and his dad”.
“I studied every photo and rumour I could find,” he recalls. “That guitar planted the seed that maybe someday I could build my own, which thankfully never happened, due to a total lack of expertise.”
That mythology became reality in 1980, when a 20-year-old Vai – newly arrived in Los Angeles and working with Frank Zappa – crossed paths with May at the Rainbow Bar and Grill.
“One night I walk in… and see Brian just standing there. Alone. Like a normal human. I thought I was hallucinating,” he says. “Brian was incredibly kind to this unknown kid and then did the unthinkable, he invited me to a Queen rehearsal at Zoetrope. Sitting in a room with the entire band was already unreal enough, but then I saw the Red Special. I pointed and said, ‘Is that it?’ Brian said, ‘Yup. Want to try it?’ Time definitely slowed down.”
“After idolising that guitar my whole youth, holding it was seismic,” Van continues. “I thought, ‘This is it, I’m finally going to sound like Brian May.’ But much to my chagrin, I didn’t of course. I sounded like me. And between the gauge .08 strings, ultra-low action, and a neck the size of a small tree, I played it like a baby giraffe on roller skates. Still, it was heaven.”
Years later, after Passion and Warfare had cemented Vai’s legacy, another full-circle moment arrived. While working with May on a Guitar Legends concert in Seville, the Queen guitarist recalled a young player he once invited to try his guitar.
“Brian told me the story about a young guitarist he once let play his guitar at rehearsal, a kid who was in town working with Zappa and who played amazingly well,” says Vai. “I let him tell me the whole story and then said… ‘Brian, that was me.’ This stands as one of the most satisfying full-circle twists the universe has offered me.”
Vai says he is now “truly humbled” to own the ‘Green Red Special’, describing the instrument as “beyond beautiful” and praising Guyton’s work as “devotion made tangible”.
“I own a lot of guitars, but this one stands alone,” he adds. “Its soul and history are baked into it and topped with a healthy smattering of love. I will treasure it for the rest of my life, and yes, I’m taking this one to the grave with me.”
The post “I played it like a baby giraffe on roller skates – but it was heaven”: Steve Vai recalls surreal encounter with the Brian May as he celebrates his own custom Red Special guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Mark Tremonti admits he doesn’t really listen to modern guitar music – he’d rather listen to Frank Sinatra
Let it be known that Mark Tremonti is not doomscrolling Spotify’s New Guitar Music playlists. If given the choice between checking out what today’s guitar heroes are up to or dropping the needle on a Frank Sinatra record, the Alter Bridge guitarist already knows which one he’s choosing.
In a new interview with New Noise magazine, Tremonti opens up about the band’s upcoming self-titled album – due 9 January via Napalm Records – while offering a candid take on songwriting, inspiration, and why he doesn’t feel much pressure to keep up with modern rock trends.
Dishing on his creative process, Tremonti explains that for him, the music always comes first: “Usually, the riffs come first and then the lyrics and melody follow suit,” he says. “Intuitively, you spit out or pull out what the music is drawing out of you.”
That approach was put to the test while working on the new album, which saw Alter Bridge head to the legendary 5150 Van Halen Studios in Los Angeles for writing sessions and pre-production, with the help of longtime friend Wolfgang Van Halen.
According to Tremonti, the challenge wasn’t a lack of ideas, but rather, avoiding repetition after two decades as a band.
“For us, it’s a constant journey,” he says. “It becomes more challenging along the way because we try not to repeat ourselves. There are so many songs written in the band that you have to make sure you’re not hitting similar song structures, progressions, melodies, or lyrics.”
To keep things fresh, Tremonto says he tries to “approach things differently whether it’s writing a song using a different instrument or using some weird software program or a drum loop or a different guitar tuning, getting inspiration from different angles.”
The guitarist also speaks of the distinct challenges of writing experimental tunes and radio-friendly music: “Sometimes the simplest, straight-forward songs are the hardest to write,” he says. “They might sound like they’re easy, but to make something commercially successful that doesn’t have any fat or dead space and has hook after hook, is way more difficult than it sounds.”
And while Tremonti acknowledges that rock music spent a long time operating under a ‘don’t bore us, get us to the chorus’ philosophy – and is now becoming more experimental again – he admits he doesn’t spend much time monitoring what’s currently dominating the airwaves.
“I don’t spend too much time keeping up with what’s getting played right now because I can just tap in and play a Frank Sinatra record, that’s what I’ll do,” he says. “Back in the day, you had no choice. You either had a CD player or the radio; you listened to the radio. Now it’s one of the many things you can do.”
Back in 2022, Mark Tremonti teamed up with surviving members of Frank Sinatra’s band – as well as other musicians – to create his Sinatra covers album, Mark Tremonti Sings Frank Sinatra, even performing a handful of shows promoting the project.
The post Mark Tremonti admits he doesn’t really listen to modern guitar music – he’d rather listen to Frank Sinatra appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Your choice of plectrum can make a huge difference to your guitar playing – this is why it matters
Pursuing the sounds we hear in our head, be it an avenue like sprawling pedalboards, vintage guitars or handwired tube amplifiers, can feel like an endless journey. While effects and preamplifier circuits can have a huge effect on our sound, of course, they’re also merely processing their input.
Good technique, choice of strings, pickups and the guitar’s wood itself have a more drastic effect than any pedal or amplifier, the auxiliary effects serving as tools to augment our good playing, rather than fix it.
One overlooked tool is your choice of plectrum, be it the factory manufactured plastic and nylon picks many of us use today, or found picks like Brian May’s sixpence coins. There’s more special-use picks like the felt options for use with ukulele, as well as a growing number of companies producing boutique guitar picks.
Like the addition of a new pedal or a different amplifier, the choice of material has a drastic effect on the sound the strings produce when struck, and as such, the resulting sound as it travels through pickups, tone pots, pedals and amplifiers is also radically effected.
Many of us have a go-to pick selection, but understanding why we like it and how it affects our tone can be really helpful to performing different songs, styles and techniques.
Material Matters
Many modern plectrums are made from various types of plastic including nylon, delrin and celluloid. More esoteric options include metal, carbon fibre and even wood.
Dunlop’s Tortex is one of the most widely used materials – a proprietary acetal-based invention that closely mimics the texture and feel of tortoiseshell picks. Yes, back in the day people actually used to use plectrums made from the shells of the endangered Hawksbill sea turtle. As well as being morally wrong, making picks from real shell has been banned since the 70s, and so alternatives have been developed such as Tortex.
Tortex provides a consistent picking experience, sounding similar regardless of where the pick strikes the string, whereas nylon and cellulose provide a warmer sound as long as you’re picking correctly. The edges and sides of cellulose can be used to create a scratchier sound, which can be used to great effect or expose bad technique.
Nylon picks are generally softer and more flexible, even at the thicker end of the range, and provide a little attenuation to the brightness of your guitar for a more rounded sound. Because of the zingy, bright character of steel string acoustic guitars, nylon picks are a common choice for players to help balance out the tonality on the whole.
Metal picks, as you’d expect, provide a metallic zing that really demands pick control at the mercy of scratchy, noisy playing, and otherwise provide little to no resistance from the pick. Great for some styles, but not for all!
Felt picks are common for classical guitar and ukulele that both have nylon strings, and provide a nice, muted tone. While they’re entirely usable to great effect on an electric guitar, they won’t last long up against a nickel or steel string, so they’re often just used for a specific sound, technique or moment in a song.
Many guitarists find themselves coming back to same style or pick, having built their technique around the feel of it, though it can be good practice to experiment with different picks, you’d be surprised what a big difference they make to the resulting tone— even with a handful of choice pedals distorting and processing your sound!
All of these materials are available in different thicknesses that provide different levels of resistance, allowing you to further control the dynamics of your playing, which leads me to the next point in choosing your pick.
On bass guitar, for example, your pick can be used to great effect to balance out your playing like a compressor would. With a thinner nylon pick, picking harder causes the plectrum to fold and bend more, ultimately attenuating the resulting sound. Softer picking retains dynamic, but as you begin to dig in, the loudest notes are saved from being picked overtly hard, acting like a soft limiter to balance out of your tone overall.
All Out Attack
While we’re on the subject of having some different sonic options at our fingertips, they’re the next subject. Fingerstyle guitar isn’t always the right choice for every genre, but our fingers also provide a warm and balanced response, even capable of popping and slapping for more attack. Like softer materials, fingerstyle picking can tame the brightness of a steel string acoustic guitar, or warm up a bass part.
Slapping and plucking your bass yields an entirely different attack than a pick does, falling somewhere between the warmth of fingerstyle and the punch of picked sounds. Guitar players like Brian Setzer switch seamlessly between chicken pickin’ and more articulate picked stuff, Setzer himself tucking the pick away with his thumb when he switches to fingerstyle, ready for when he jumps back to picking.
All in all, your choice of plectrum is as important as your choice of guitar, pickups, strings and technique. While effects and amplifiers can do a lot to change and process the incoming signal, they’re only able to process what they’re fed, and you can do a little or a lot to process that on the way through.
A sound really is the sum of all its parts, a huge piece of that coming before there’s even an amplified sound. Pedals are fun, as are amps and circuits, but their input can be changed drastically by your technique as well as the pick itself. Different materials yield different timbres, and even influence the way you play and feel out notes. A go-to option is great, but a handful of alternatives to build on a great sound will help to round out your sound.
The post Your choice of plectrum can make a huge difference to your guitar playing – this is why it matters appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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