Anal guitar freaks

[Fruitbat]

How much of an anal guitar freak are you?

Can you happily listen to ok guitar based music with mediocre or uninspiring guitar playing - e.g. punk?

Is your CD collection dominated by CDs by top-notch players or bands with brilliant guitarists?

Im perfectly happy to listen to good songs where the guitar isn't dominant or for that matter even where it's non-existent. But I do get bugged by guitar based music where the playing is nothing much i.e. strummed major chords with weedy 1 minute solos. Stuff like Travis, Oasis, Sum 41 etc.

I have to admit that I have an abnormally high proportion CDs containing top notch 6 stringing. So praps I am a bit of an anal guitar freak.

[andy82]

I'm no guitar feak though I wanted to be back when I first started (My first few posts on this forum back last year so... like most beginners were about gaining speed). Now I've come to terms with idea of theres more to life than shredding. I still practice to reach my initial goal which is to become a good enough to play whatever I want whether it be classical or metal. So I'm less obesssed nowdays.

Genre wise as long its music I can handle all styles as long as it's quality stuff. As for my CD collections I've got little bit of everything, metal, neoclassical, punk, prog rock, goth, pop... except for jazz which I'm taking an interest after seeing a clip of George Benson live concert. So jazz is where I'll be heading :)

[^Chacron^]

My friends tell me I am obsessed by guitar music, to be honest I am, it's my favroutie instrument, but not the only one I ever listen to/play. I could call myself a bit anal for my record collection as most of the music I choose to keep is by bands with guitarists I consider to be good. It's not just the solo's im interested in, I have many favourite songs where the solo is either not prominant or non existant. I listen to a lot of differnt music, I tune in to all sorts of stations and if I like what I hear I will often visit the record shops.

To sum me up: it doesn't have to have a guitarist in it to be great music, but about 8 times out of 10 a record I buy features the guitar in some way.

[Digit]

Listening to a crappy guitar player just pisses me off. Mostly cause there's so many amazing guitar players out there who deserve recognition and don't get it cause they didn't win the fame 'lottery', meanwhile some mediocre chord player with limited lead playing ability rides the coat tails of some well known band and gets to buy his mansion in beverly hills while a guy who's studied for 25 years gets nothing cause of the luck of the draw.

I know what you mean by crappy guitarists in bands. I hear about these supposedly awesome bands for years and never listen to them because I don't personally like the style of music. Then I'm sitting here watching some late night talk show and a band I've heard about for years is going to be on. I wait up to watch the for the first time band and half way through their song I end up screaming at the tv "WHAT THE **** WAS THAT???" "THAT GUY SUCKS!!!!"
Then my whole understanding of what talent really is comes into question & I sit there dumbfounded that people will listen to crap like that and either like it, or just believe or the hype and go along with the crowd.
(my 2 cents rant)

[chucklivesoninmyheart]

Actually...I used to run away from jazz like the plague when listening to the radio BEFORE I played guitar(jazz not being primarily guitar driven).I can appreciate a wider range of music now.

Later! \m/

[MetalMike]

I have no "solo" guitar artists CDs like the "Big 3" and I think you all know who I'm talking about. :p But, I like mostly metal. Love it, love it, love it!!! Death, Black, speed, thrash, power metal. I'm just trying to get my collection up. Finishing off a few CDs from artists I'm almost done with having a few of to classic CDs (still only metal, heh) from early 80s and such. I usually get about a $100 batch of CDs a month and next month, two of them will be Lamb of God's first one (I have the second and it rules) and Venaculas' (Local band, their first CD was only 5 songs and 15 minutes but I liked it) second CD. Maybe some Napalm Death, Kreator, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir. Metal. I don't like blues or the aforementioned solo guitar CDs.

[nasum_human]

I'm a guitar freak, totally, but I dont just want to listen to guys shredding at 30 notes per second all the time, so I listen to a lot of blues, jazz and folk, as well as hard rock, metal and grind.
I feel I can appreciate the musicians, what with being a musician myself, but I have a friend who doesnt play and he's totally into power metal and shred, he doesnt like music that doesnt have guitar solos, so cool bands like hatebreed and killswitch engage hold no interest for him. I think that's kind of sad, he's totally cutting his own throat with an attitude like that.
I hung out with him for a week or so and by the end of it, I came home, looked at my iron maiden records and vowed to not play them for 6 months at least.
Some of the guys he's into are amazing players, but it gets gratuitous, and I get bored of it after a week. When we hang out, it used to be me who would put all the guitar music on, but at certain points I just wanted to hear rap music or something with no guitars, just for a break.
I own most classic era shrapnel stuff, and I know my shredders, I'm a huge fan of jason becker, paul gilbert, michael lee ferkins, james murphy and dozens of others. I also like bands like Isis and neurosis, who use the guitar to add layers and texture to a song.
I guess what I'm trying to say is 12 hours of solid shred guitar, every day for 2 weeks, kinda wears you down somewhat!

[concrete chaos]

whats wrong with punk.........???

u might be a guitar freak if u consider only the guitar in a band.

but music is music and where would i be without it....prolly here on earth even more miserable haha
mostly i own a little bit of every genre, industrial, black metal, punk, jazz, goth, electronic etc....i dont like hip hop

[Babylon Tart]

Punk is anti-music. I am pro-music. That's really all I can say about that.

[aiwass]

I am anal. And I'll admit it. But that doesn't mean I need to hear shred all the time. The music I write with my band has very little shred elements. As long as something is musically interesting, I'll enjoy it.

[PonyOne]

Some people have never actually listened to good punk. Go buy a Clash or old Pennywise CD (or at the very least check out Pennywise's "F-ck Authority"). Or some Bad Religion, although they're kinda like borderline punk.

I don't have to listen to something that has great guitars to be amazed. I have to listen to what is just a purely great song, I mean, if a song has a decent but unamazing guitar part, you know, just basic power chords and nothing else, but has an awesome driving bassline and amazing drumming, then it's still a great song.

I think of myself as a totally anal music freak. I tear and pick apart every song I hear, and judge it based on each individual component and how each component fits together as a whole.

[Babylon Tart]

Ya know, I consider myself to be pretty open minded when it comes to music. My tastes range from Prince to Slayer to Duran Duran to Mahavishnu Orchestra to JS Bach.

I have yet to hear a good punk song after having tons of people try to turn me onto this or that throughout the years. Everyone seems to have this idea of a punk song that is better than the rest but after hearing punk from the 70s, 80s, and 90s in mass amounts I still have yet to hear this mythical song.

[u10ajf]

The majority of my favourite music generally contains either a)guitar parts I can't play yet and am impressed with b) songs I can sing, and enjoy doing so e.g. Pearl Jam, Faith No More. Sometimes the two happen together e.g. Extreme.
I used to be merely a guitar freak but I really like some classical music as well, particularly scary piano and violin stuff.
I like some shred but it's got to be musical; if I want really boring shred then I'll just do it myself cause sweeping, tapping and harmonics are about all I practice with my right hand playing.
Some songs I really like have no particularly impressive guitar parts e.g. some Alannis Morrisette e.g. thankyou.
I love some Jazz but I need to know of some more great players.