80's hair band guitar and fingertapping

Hey guys, I am getting back into 80's hair bands now but can't seem to get down the techniques. I know it mostly has to do with effect but what are some of the common techniques used? I am a HUGE fan of C.C. Deville's guitar style so that is what I am aiming for as well. Also, how do you play the typical 80's lead...It is some sort of harmonic but someone told me it invloves many different guitars. Also, I am having trouble fingertapping. I have read books on it and everything and it sounds HORRIBLE WHEN I DO IT! I am playing a Gibson Les Paul with a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker pickup so it should sound good but it doesn't. When I do it, it just sounds real choppy and muted and the sounds resembles an old nintendo video game rather than sounding smooth and flowing. Thanks a lot for any help guys, take care!

About the 80's lead sound that involve many guitars at once, I believe you mean harmonized guitar ...It's usualy based on a normal line acompanied by another playing the 3rd, 5th , 8va or whatever interval but in the same scale of course not to sound disonant.
You don't have to get more than one guitar to play harmonized riffs, you should be able to play nice harmonized leads with a decent harmonizer like the one I got in my GT-3 pedalboard ... But if you can afford an Eventide (the real pro harmonizer) , then get it cuz most of the bands you listen to probably use that one ... A new one would cost around $3000 !

For finger tapping technique , I suggest you learn it from Van Halen's stuff first before going more complicated like "Steve Vai" ... You should also learn one-finger tapping before multi-finger tapping .
For one-finger tapping I mainly do it with my middle finger like Vai so that I can still have my pick held as I normaly do between index & thumb, but other people like Van Haln & Paul Gilbert do it with the index ... Anyway , You should learn to tap with all your fingers if can.

The flowing and smoothness of the notes is realy dependant on what's going in your mind more than anything else , you should be able to play any riff both smooth & hard... generaly for tapping it should sound very smooth... Try to relax your mind & focus on the smoothness of the notes instead of focusing on speed & you'll get it.

Dude,

Pull up tabs for some 80's songs you enjoy listening to or palying along to and learn those solos number one to discover which techniques will be necesary to learn. Number 2, tapping is easy, if you are having trouble making it sound flowign and smooth practice slower so that your fingers are all coordinated to hold notes longer, which means you must sti ana gruelingly clean your bad habbitual playing up. Sorry to say this but i have had to do the same over the last year or so with my playing too, it's lame, but in the end your playing will be 100% better if not better just smoother. And smooth solid playing is better than chopy annoying playing.

Good luck...
Hope that helps any...

Originally posted by aiwass
How do you set a harmonizer to harmonize within the key, and not just a given interval above the note? I mean, if you set it to harmonize a major third above for instance, then if you play an F major scale, it will play an A major scale. And that would sound like SH*T!

Does it recognize the key? Or do you have to tell it what the scale formula is? (whole/whole/half, etc..)

Yeah , I believe it recognizes the scale ... For example , if I'm playing something that's in E phrygian , I'll be setting the key to C maj which has the same notes, Same with A minor, D dorian ,etc. ... And if I'm playing E minor I'll be setting it to G maj key... Got it?
So it will always play the third from the scale not just a given interval in half steps .

But this is how to use an Intelegent Harmonizer with the harmony mode ... You can choose another (normal) mode that just add a given interval like whole, 2 whole , 3.5 whole , etc steps .... This only sounds good (IMHO) if you set it to add the 5th , so it will be something like a power chord but with higher pitch since usualy you'll use the harmonizer for lead stuff.

AHH that's cheating! Do those harmonisers allow the use of expression pedals so you can pick your pitch? My fx pedal has a tremolo pedal but it doesn't have the sensitivity to allow you to hit the right pitches which bites a bit, are these harmonisers any better at this?

Never heard of CC (The Poison guy right) playn´. Is it worth checkin´ out and what type of playn´ is that. I would guess somthing like Slash but I might be way out of line here. Just a wild guess.

Originally posted by u10ajf
AHH that's cheating! Do those harmonisers allow the use of expression pedals so you can pick your pitch? My fx pedal has a tremolo pedal but it doesn't have the sensitivity to allow you to hit the right pitches which bites a bit, are these harmonisers any better at this?

If I got you right ... Controling a harmonizer with an Exp pedal would be very hard to achive & non-accurate as well... When using a harmonizer, usualy all you gotta do is setting the right key & the interval, and let the harmonizer do the rest without having to worry about exp pedals ...
Controling the pitch by foot is not anywhere near controling a wah , specialy if there's a big difference in pitch between the highest & the lowest points of the pedal.

Exp pedals with harmonizers are usualy used like a normal Whammy-Pedal ... you only adjust the lowest and the highest pitches that suits your line , and probably you can also mess a little in the middle of both.

If your playing along with a MIDI clock in your band, you can use your sequencer to automatically create harmonies.
I do it with ProTools Free and Voice Generator. Same thing is done when you want to harmonize your own voice.
As far as fingertapping goes, click on Schmanges page in the host section