Eddie as a guitar player

[stip]

Eddie is a great, albeit sloppy, guitarist. However, this is obscured because he has one of the shittier guitar tones I've ever heard.

Thoughts?

[digster]

I should amend this by saying that the tone issues really have only been a bigger issue in the past decade. His 2000 tone, for example, is pretty great.

[Birds in Hell]

I don't know if I'd agree that he has a poor guitar tone but my issue is more that he seemingly uses the exact same relatively clean tone whether he's playing Better Man (where it's at least appropriate) or something like Grievance or Habit which cry out for something with more heft.

[Strat]

He's gotten a hell of a lot better in the past 5-7 years. His tone is unbearably bad. Super jangly and bright. He shouldnt be the leading tone on Corduroy, Off the Earth, Grievance etc.... anymore. Its rather unfortunate.

He's not technically great but his ability to what he does with what he has is pretty cool. He's wrote some memorable guitar lines in Pearl Jam and that is no small feat considering who he's playing with. Grievance and Sad are 2 pretty great riffs.

His finger picking is nice.

IM not sure Id call him great but he's better than he gets credit for. His tone needs to change though. His tone at solo shows is fine and it works but with a full band it takes away from the overall sound and feel of the song.

He can also sometimes lack subtlety but thats kind of his own thing. Its like a punk folk/rock acoustic style of playing that he has going on that is very prominent in the Into Wild Stuff. Then he balances it out with a beautiful finger picking piece like Guaranteed.

[Strat]

I don't know if I'd agree that he has a poor guitar tone but my issue is more that he seemingly uses the exact same relatively clean tone whether he's playing Better Man (where it's at least appropriate) or something like Grievance or Habit which cry out for something with more heft.

Yup.

He needs a real distortion pedal to beef up the old Fender amp clean tones.

[Iholdthepain]

Technically, he's not great, but he's a fun guitar player. Love his '94-96 tones and riffs the best... RVM, N4Y, PT, for example.

[digster]

I don't know if I'd agree that he has a poor guitar tone but my issue is more that he seemingly uses the exact same relatively clean tone whether he's playing Better Man (where it's at least appropriate) or something like Grievance or Habit which cry out for something with more heft.

Good point. When something like Insignificance enters with as much of a whimper as it does, it makes it clear it needs more umph.

It feels like his tone manages to be way too thin and way too muddy at the same time.

[Jorge]

Decent rhythm player, I like his Townshend flourishes. Like Strat said, his fingerpicking is good. He has problems with more intricate parts, like the bridge in "Insignificance".

[digster]

To be fair, I think I may be including compositional ability in my feelings on his guitar playing, also. I like that he's not the lead singer that just gets up and strums G,D,C. The bridge part on Insignificance is one of my favorite 'solos' the band has done; he's not confined to open and barre chords, like a fair amount of other lead vocalists.

[stip]

why is his tone so bad? He must choose it for a reason.

[digster]

I really don't know. It's strange cause he's managed to find pretty good tones sporadically in the past. I think what Spenno said is making me think...my issues mostly come in the up-tempo stuff. Maybe he just needs an overdrive.

[Norah]

Eddie's audio decision making skills are suspect, stip. The man doesn't even know what compression is.

[Strat]

I really don't know. It's strange cause he's managed to find pretty good tones sporadically in the past. I think what Spenno said is making me think...my issues mostly come in the up-tempo stuff. Maybe he just needs an overdrive.

His tone up through 2000 was great but then he switched to more of a clean tone. He attempts to push and find natural distortion in the amp by brute force strumming but it just doesnt work for the songs. He used a distortion/overdrive pedal in th e95 tour I believe and his tone in 2000 with the Hi-Watt/Shecter setup was perfect mix between it all.

[Strat]

Going back to the SG's is a step in the right direction.

[digster]

I really don't know. It's strange cause he's managed to find pretty good tones sporadically in the past. I think what Spenno said is making me think...my issues mostly come in the up-tempo stuff. Maybe he just needs an overdrive.

His tone up through 2000 was great but then he switched to more of a clean tone. He attempts to push and find natural distortion in the amp by brute force strumming but it just doesnt work for the songs. He used a distortion/overdrive pedal in th e95 tour I believe and his tone in 2000 with the Hi-Watt/Shecter setup was perfect mix between it all.

I think I'd like him to find a balance between now and 2000. There were points with the Shechter set-up where it just sounded like static; it sounded like he had a faulty cord. That works most of the time, since he's got that Townshend bite when playing rhythm.

[spike]

i think eddie considers effects pedals not punk

[adamhewett]

i'm glad this has been brought up.

i thought his tone in 2007 was pretty descent. i think it had a lot to do with the (blue)duesenberg mike campbell signature tv guitar in his arsenal at the time. i specifically remember being impressed with it on the live webcast of '07 lolla.

I really don't know. It's strange cause he's managed to find pretty good tones sporadically in the past. I think what Spenno said is making me think...my issues mostly come in the up-tempo stuff. Maybe he just needs an overdrive.

His tone up through 2000 was great but then he switched to more of a clean tone. He attempts to push and find natural distortion in the amp by brute force strumming but it just doesnt work for the songs. He used a distortion/overdrive pedal in th e95 tour I believe and his tone in 2000 with the Hi-Watt/Shecter setup was perfect mix between it all.

I think I'd like him to find a balance between now and 2000. There were points with the Shechter set-up where it just sounded like static; it sounded like he had a faulty cord. That works most of the time, since he's got that Townshend bite when playing rhythm.

strat - whenever i hear that crap about the "changing of powers" between eddie and stone in the vitalogy-era, all i really think about is that eddie's sudden guitar presence of course made his songs the center piece, but god damn, the dude absolutely killed stone gossard's guitar playing. thought's?

[stip]

Welcome to the board

[Alex]

somebody let me know when consensus has been reached about this

[Jorge]

Consensus:

is Eddie a great guitar player?