Alex Skolnick with H150

[barrymclark]

I've known Alex since i was 12, and I'm 40 now. Haven't seen him in years but I can honestly say he's a super righteous guy.

I've never once seen him mad or rude.... ever.

He's a good person.

 

Home town hero around here...

Very cool. I couldn't be within 200'. Restraining order. Just kidding. I seriously coundn't be too close to his playing though. I would just stare in awe and then go apologise to my guitars for what I put them through after seeing how good Alex's guitars have it. haha.

[barrymclark]

Thanks for the clip Kuz. I listened to as much of it as I could. Not my flavor of jazz. His technique and chops are great. His lines do not say a thing to me. Very weird harmonic voicings, which can be a good thing if not over done. Unfortunately, for my taste, they were over done. For some reason, some people and players seem to think that in order for music to be considered jazz it needs to be far out. There was absolutely nothing melodic or musical about his playing. I know it's unfair to judge an artist by 3 minutes (which was all I could tolorate) of one song/tune . . . if that was even a song/tune. I'm sure that an artist with his skill level is capable of and probably does do much better straight ahead jazz stuff. But, this kind of reminded me of some of the stupid shit that Ornette Coleman or Rahsaan Roland Kirk might have done.

Funny how two people can hear two different things. In my ears, it flows like water and doesn't do anything weird at all.

 

Just as a point of reference, his albums with the Alex Skolnick Trio are covers of hard rock and heavy metal classics done up as metal. So... there will definitely be devices in there not typically found in jazz but more in metal and rock. Maybe that is why it sounds 'just right' to me. I grew up in hard rock and metal.

[pro-fusion]

The preference for extremely heavy LP-style guitars in metal/hard rock goes back to the Norlin days. Those Norlin boat anchors sound absolutely killer with a lot of gain. They cut through everything, and you can still make out every note perfectly even with lots of saturation. My 157 borders on 11 lbs., and it reminds me very strongly of my old Norlins. In other words, I love it! It probably wouldn't cut it for you Allman Bros. aficionados, however. Way too bright on the bridge pickup on low or mid gain amp settings.

 

I can't imagine swinging around a 13 lb. axe every night on stage, however. The other crazy thing about Alex since he became a jazz player is that he plays metal with the same humongous string gauges he uses on his jazz axes. He uses 13's, I believe. He must have Hands of Steel to shred and bend strings on a metal axe with strings like that.