Hi Everyone!

Never went on here for ages. I have a query concerning playing guitar solos in distortion.

Every time I solo with distortion I put more effort and concentration on muting the strings that I am not using so my playing will not be messy and buzzy. If I don't mute any strings the playing becomes buzzy, messy and unclear; especially if I am shredding really fast. Is this normal and do others do the same as me, or is there an easier way of solving this problem? For example in this demo I did at 4:19 I start playing the solo with distortion. http://songs.hijazi.us/wrathstripedthevirgin.mp3 The solo is pretty easy but it is so hard muting the string I'm not using while playing. I think I did a good job in not making it very messy My life would be much simpler if there was another way

That is why I love soloing in keyboard because I don't have to worry about muting any strings while playing.

Are you using a noise gate?

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Yes I am, the noise gate in the GT-8.

Just takes practise man. This is what seperates a good guitarist from a bad one.

yeah, Also mess around with feedback. i find i can get a tidier tone if i site farther away from the amp. Experiment

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i think you need a better mic for recording...if you are going for the black metal thing then i guess you don't...but if you want it to sound better...sharper...whatever...get a new mic...I would mess with your noise gate or maybe get a new one...I'd suggest a MXR Smart Gate...I don't know if that is the one you have...but I have it and it is amazing. Mutes out about 95% of the shit I don't want.

Another alternative would be getting better pickups or new ones. I have this ibanez with some "PowerSound" pickups or something and they are so muggy and they easily get fuzzy and overly distorted when trying to do lead shit. I got my jackson which had some standard jackson pickup and it was 10x clearer. I got a new pickup (seymour duncan jb) and that thing rules with clarity, however it is so hot that you need a noise gate to help eliminate some of the noise it just pickups up from around it...i.e. I could be touching nothing and feedback and shit would start to pickup from tv/monitors/air...shit fucking anything it seemed... so yeah try one of those 3 things

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You have to mute unused strings that you aren't playing or else they're going to catch vibration and ring. Its normal and necessary.

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when picking, the outmost joints of my fingers (which are curled) naturally rest along the high 3 strings while my palm covers the rest. so when im playing a certain string i have all the other strings muted.

You could have noisy pickups, or maybe the ones you're using are too hot and too sensitive for your playing technique. Some players like to dig in more, and don't need super sensetive hot pups. Turn down your distortion too, and experiment more with the neck pup.

I mute other strings while playing fast leads by using the side of my thumb, mainly when playing the 2 high strings. Hope this helps.

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Well you don't have to make him cry man!

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Maybe more of a sloppy guitarist from a clean one. Which could probably translate to a bad guitarist to good guitarist.

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Am I the only one who thinks that Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page are really sloppy? I mean they're good but sloppy, is all i'm saying...

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Hah I like how the riffing sounds like a shite emo song, just the drumming and vocals prevents it from mutating. How long have you been playing for? Just this is a technique that comes with time and practice.

It helps to identify the smallest details as to why you're finding a technique difficult. For me, in this regard, I played slowly and realised a lot of the issue was with unclean transitions between strings when picking. A good 'remedy' and healing device for this is to practice runs that exceed three strings or so. Going up and down scales with a metronome/using a backing track will help with your playing mechanics.

For instance... If you try doing a run like this slowly and observe the ways in which your hands -notably your picking hand- you'll be able to see how then hand is functioning:

e-----------------------------10-12-13
b------------------10-12-13---------
g---------9-10-12--------------------
d-7-9-10-----------------------------

After observing your hand, you may notice that you're pulling the hand too far away from the strings, or that areas of it are catching the strings etc etc. So try to take things in a fashion that let you look and work with the bad aspects of technique... Sometimes pointing out details of the obvious can make things obvious enough to notice

I use EMG active pickups and they pick up much less sound and have the clearest tone than many other pickups I tried with my guitar. That is why I specifically chose EMG active pickups If feedback comes it is from my guitar and not from my mic What do you mean when you refer to hot pickups? Playing a riff slow and finding where it becomes messy is the best way of finding the solution for me or I may need to try the MXR noise gate.

Does position of the guitar to the amp effect the amount of hiss or buzz you get as well. I play pretty far away from my amp but my position is right in front of it. Well it effect if I move left or right of the amp?

Try lowering the pickups farther away from the strings, and use less gain on your amp. Get a used Boss NS2 on ebay, I got mine for 60$ with an AC adaptor(that died in 2 days btw).

Also learn to use your left hand fingers to mute the strings you can't always mute with your right hand. I just do my muting naturally, I don't really pay attention to it. Just find the way to play you're most comfortable with and find ways to silence other strings. I never really practiced on doing that. Just kept playing until I didn't sound like a noisy bastard.

Your picking method helps a lot too. How do you hold your pick? Try to avoid using a "banana thumb"(bending your thumb inwards towards your palm), it really decreases the mobility of your hand. I hold the pick similar to how I would hold a pencil, firmly and with not much of the tip sticking out.

Hope this helps.

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I find that I mute with my fretting hand alot, like some of you mentioned. Before I had an amp, I thought I was doing ok. I then got a tube amp and realised that I had alot of unwanted noise. Practice makes perfect. Anyways, I then got a valvestate and realised that I still had to mute even more than before.
What I figure is that tube amps are a little more forgiving than solid state ones. Solid state, with a lot of gain, will really tell you if you're clean or sloppy. Good luck.
If it's for recording purposes though, you may be able to get away with it by wrapping a cloth around the first/second fret of the guitar. this will work as long as you don't use any open notes.

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btw the song heavily reminds of a graveworm's a dreaming beauty (or smth like that).

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No you're not the only one. They are sloppy, and I don't think they are that good. That's just me, I hate when people think Jimi Hendrix is a god at guitar, he's not, and for this guy's problem, like many others said, the technique just comes with experience, experiment with new palm positioning so that you mute the strings better

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try getting a classical guitar learn flamenco and classical with out any buzzing or much sound, if that doesnt turn u into a clean guitarist i dont know what will.

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Ahhh... Another one.

So many guitarists completely miss the point here. No He was not the best "player" wasnt at the time and there are kids that have been playing only five years who can best him at skill.

Thing is dude. The reason he holds the title he does is because in the late sixty's. He was the first of the real Electric guitar "Hero's" He may not have been the best but he stood up and did what not many others did in era.

He was around before Van Halen, Malmsteen, Vai, Batio and he could belt out a good tune.

Thats why he holds the title he does. But then again dude. Pick up rolling stones' issues where they make some bullshit "greatest guitarists of all time" you will see people like Tom Morello, The Edge and John Frusciante in it. who are absolutely ABYSMAL guitarists. Guitarists are not usually judged on actual playing skill but the popularity of the band they are in. If rolling stone did a list of the REAL best players ever. The average Joe on the street would have heard of about two of them. Doesnt sell magazines man. I dont like it, but thats the way it is. And since Hendrix is as iconic to rock as the stratocaster he played. He will sit at the top of this bullshit list for a long time.

Sorry for the rant.

Completely understandable, I just can't stand the credit he receives. My step dad will sit around and listen to Hendrix and tell me "now that's a real solo, why don't you solo like that?!" Where as I'll be doing part of a necrophagist solo or suffocation and he'll think it's crap. People don't realize the effort and skill that is needed to play stuff like suffocation or necrophagist etc.... That's why it aggravates me when I hear people sayin that Hendrix is one of the best of all time. I understand where you're coming from bro, it's just some of these guitarists get more credit than they deserve ya know? and like you said, putting a guitarist from rolling stones in the top 10 or whatever is completely rediculous.

EDIT: but then again, half the people on this planet complain and say that death metal or any kind of metal is just noise. so of course they'll like something like Hendrix, it's easy on their ears.

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I get the same problem. But get this my buddy at school says Steve Vai is a terrible guitarist. He says he can play better than him because he can play Hendrix and Hendrix is better than Vai. It just seems that the old school guitarists or people who listen to old school stuff think anything beyond the 70s is crap. But that's why us shredheads will always be better guitarists than them. Ahhh the sweet sound of satasfaction (plays Necrophagist sweep).

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That dude at your school sounds uppity... And I tryed to like Necrophagist but for the most part I think they're just alright... It's real technical but other than that it doesn't serve much purpose for me... Still, Necrophagist is sort of like Yngwie: I don't really LOVE the music but I am still gonna learn some of the songs just to make me a better guitarist and to show off, etc.

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I don't like the vocal in Necrophagist. Never saw them live before, do they play their songs live as accurate as their recorded music?

Sure, just search on YOUTUBE for it....

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Ahhh Yngwie.

When i first heard yngwie i have never since had the nerve to call myself a guitarist