Allan Holdsworth
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I’m a big fan, but I tend to like his playing on other people’s stuff a bit more than his own. Chad Wackerman’s "Forty Reasons" CD comes to mind. The tunes are still pretty "out" and adventurous, but more "hummable" than most of Allan’s. But what a great musician he is, no matter what instrument he ended up playing.
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| Absolutely true. I’ve seen him live twice, and he is technically so far | advanced no one is even close; not Eddie, Frank Gambale, Steve Vai, Not | anyone. Having said that, he isn’t my favorite guitarist. He has taken the | technical as his measuring stick while forgetting his mentor John Coltrane’s | words: "if the man on the street can’t hum it, you don’t have a song." He | needs to think about hooks and melody a little more. | | I couldn’t it said this better my self…..
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Absolutely true. I’ve seen him live twice, and he is technically so far advanced no one is even close; not Eddie, Frank Gambale, Steve Vai, Not anyone. Having said that, he isn’t my favorite guitarist. He has taken the technical as his measuring stick while forgetting his mentor John Coltrane’s words: "if the man on the street can’t hum it, you don’t have a song." He needs to think about hooks and melody a little more.
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Absolutely true. I’ve seen him live twice, and he is technically so far advanced no one is even close; not Eddie, Frank Gambale, Steve Vai, Not anyone. Having said that, he isn’t my favorite guitarist. He has taken the technical as his measuring stick while forgetting his mentor John Coltrane’s words: "if the man on the street can’t hum it, you don’t have a song." He needs to think about hooks and melody a little more.
Ah, but for the man on the street who *can* hum it, it makes for some mighty fine eatin’! :) I think the comment about the measuring stick is inaccurate — I don’t think Allan has any particular technical aspirations where his music is concerned (other than getting a final mix that is obsessive- compulsive almost to the point of Eric Johnson). I think he plays what he hears in his head, to the best of his ability, and the fact that there’s some really incredible stuff in his head that won’t come out of his fingers is a real source of frustration for him. It has nothing to do with wanting to perfect a technique — this is the music that occurs to him to play. IMO, to appreciate Allan Holdsworth, one first has to get past hearing the speed and technique, and instead listen to how the man connects notes. Later, an appreciation for how he makes that interact with widely different musics and musicians can develop. — little DEUCE "I’m ridding you of junk e-mail this year, and this is the thanks I get?"
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At the NAMM show last January, he used a Roland VG-8 along with the dual amp set-up, but I didn’t get the impression that the amps he used for the show were his own. It was a sponsored event, so everyone wanted the artists to be seen with their stuff.
That VG-8 is the guitar that Joni Mitchell uses. It allows her with a flip of a switch to tune her guitar to the somewhat 60 different tunings she uses. I used to have one of his (Holdsworths) Ibanez acoustics. He gave it to me for collateral.
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used chorusing of some type – particularly on lead tone. Captain Liberal
I thought he used chorus and compression on his clean tone. His lead tone is dry. …rendering your advice to be wrong. Carl
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I saw Allan Holdsworth about three weekas ago in concert. He used his Carvin guitar and two Fender Bassman Amps. He alo had a rack but I don’t know what was in there. Regards Klaus
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I thought he used chorus and compression on his clean tone. His lead tone is dry. …rendering your advice to be wrong.
Sorry, but Holdsworth almost always uses chorusing of some kind on everything. Nothing is ever "dry." If what you say was true, there would be no need whatsoever for the Harness. The Harness allows the cranking of a tube head (for lead tone) and converts the output to multiple line levels for use with processing (read: chorusing). Captain Liberal
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says… I saw Allan Holdsworth about three weekas ago in concert. He used his Carvin guitar and two Fender Bassman Amps. He alo had a rack but I don’t know what was in there.
Typical. Even if you want to, you can’t keep up with the changes in his gear. Holdsworth used to use Fender Twins live (for clean work). He’s also used Lab Series L5’s in the past for this purpose as well. When I saw him last, he had two small racks, each almost identical. Each rack had a Rocktron Intellifex along with some sort of mixer/power amp. One rack (the lead rack) had the Harness in it. He also had several heads (.50 caliber, Dual Rectifier and perhaps a Mark III head). It is not surprising that the gear is different now – as I’ve never seen him live (from tour to tour) where he was not using almost completely different gear. The pattern of late is a lot more minimal than before. I know he is using the Roland VG system as well now… I’m posting a pic of his rack from the Atavachron tour…to follow: Captain Liberal
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How does he get that great tone ? Besides being one of the best players around, What does he use for a rig ? If anyone knows ? Please let me know…….
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says… How does he get that great tone ? Besides being one of the best players
around, What does he use for a rig ? If anyone knows ? Please let RE: Holdsworth’s tone, Aside from the obvious "his hands" comment, here’s some of the stuff he is known to use: Amps: Holdsworth currently favors Mesa Boogie stuff – Dual Rectifier Solo Head for lead and a .50 caliber for clean. (The .50 caliber is modified so that the preamp section has less gain.) In the past, he used Pearce and Hartley Thompson amplifiers (both are solid state). Currently, Holdsworth uses a load device he calls the Harness. This device allows you to essentially crank your tube amp until it sounds good to you. The output of the amplifier feeds the load device. The load device provides line level outputs which are fed to processors (as desired) and then fed into a mixer. The mixer feeds a power amp. But I digress… Holdsworth’s tone (for the uninitiated) can be summed up using two terms: compression and lowpass. Holdsworth’s lead tone has always been compressed so that the notes ring longer and appear at the same volume. Tube amps offer some natural compression so that his use of outboard compression have faded somewhat. He used to favor Rocktron (310 or 300A) and dbx compressors. Holdsworth’s lead tone has also jettisoned the use of most frequencies over 1KHz or so. There is no seering treble to be found here. Effects are another story… Holdsworth has been known to use a ton of different effects gear. I’ve seen him live a half dozen times and he always has something different. He prefers discrete effects (as opposed to multi effects – although I have seen him use the Rocktron Intellifex, Eventide Harmonizer, TC Electronics 2290, etc. He favors ADA effects as well as Rocktron stuff. His new thing (last I heard) was a rack of chorus gear. Holdsworth has always used chorusing of some type – particularly on lead tone. Favorites used to include the ADA STD-1 Stereo Tapped Delay as well as the Rocktron ProChorus. (The trick here is multiple tap chorusing.) Now he has a rack of eight discrete choruses (two DelatLab, two Lexicon, etc.) four for lead, four for clean. He says that the different manufacturers provide different tones which makes for a wider sound. Reverb is no longer used for soloing. If you have any other question, let me know. Captain Liberal
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he is stellar! try the old Bruford albums…specifically "one of a kind" truly nobody plays like holdsworth
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More good guitarist/songwriters as yet mentioned: Shawn Colvin Lowell George Pete Townshend Leo Kotke Bruce Cockburn Not any of these are really "speed merchants" but they all have distinctive styles and excellent songwriting abilities. Lowell and Pete hold a special place in my heart, though. Go see Shawn Colvin live – she’s amazing! Keep ‘em coming, BB
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richard thompson comes to mind as a great player/writer….david torn, bill frissel writes really awesome stuff too! =-) PJ
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Try listening to the band "Tempest" where Allan played the guitar and fiddle, it’s more bluesy/metal type music with vocals.There I’m sure he picks more often than every hundredth note.(sorry my spelling!)I have a lot of his old records but have never ever seen him live or on TV, Is there a video one can buy? Cheers! Oscar
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I’ve seen Holdsworth 4 times and I guess I just wish he’d bend a note or add a touch of bluesiness to his thing. Would you say that "absence of blues" roughly equates with "absence of feeling"? I get the idea that many feel that way… — little DEUCE
I don’t know. I wouldn’t presume to say that about any player. My idea of feeling and yours may be polar opposites but it doesn’t it mean you or I are less passionate when we play. I’m sure Holdsworth is playing the way he feels it. It’s just never connected w/ me very well. He’s a monster, no doubt. He just doesn’t move me, what
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Many years ago (lte 70’s?) I had the pleasure of seeing the band "Bruford" perform in Atlanta, GA at the now defunct Agora Ballroom. The band was made up of Allan Holdsworth, Bill Bruford on drums and Jeff Berlin on bass. I can’t remember the keyboardist. I was unfamiliar with Holdsworth ’til then and was very pleasantly surprised to "discover" him. I’ve been a fan ever since. I would have to agree that his songwriting skills are not in the same league with his guitar skills. Why is it that so many excellent technical guitarists are not equally adept at songwriting? I can only think of a few people who are truly great in both aspects. I’d be happy to name a few, but, as I am new to this newsgroup, I’d like to hear who other people think qualify as being excellent in both aspects. Cheers, BB
I’ll bite. Scott Henderson Pat Metheny Steve Lukather Mike Stern Robben Ford thats all I can think of at the moment…..
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<<Why is it that so many excellent technical guitarists are not equally adept at songwriting? I can only think of a few people who are truly great in both aspects. I’d be happy to name a few, but, as I am new to this newsgroup, I’d like to hear who other people think qualify as being excellent in both aspects.
<Scott Henderson Pat Metheny Steve Lukather Mike Stern Robben Ford I’d add: James Taylor Jerry Reed Vince Gill Joe Walsh Melissa Etheridge Nancy Wilson (Heart) Gary Rossington (Skynard, Rossington-Collins Band) George Van Eps Eric Johnson Steve SEFSTRAT
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I’ve seen Holdsworth 4 times and I guess I just wish he’d bend a note or add a touch of bluesiness to his thing.
Would you say that "absence of blues" roughly equates with "absence of feeling"? I get the idea that many feel that way… — little DEUCE "I’m ridding you of junk e-mail this year, and this is the thanks I get?"
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Many years ago (lte 70’s?) I had the pleasure of seeing the band "Bruford" perform in Atlanta, GA at the now defunct Agora Ballroom. The band was made up of Allan Holdsworth, Bill Bruford on drums and Jeff Berlin on bass. I can’t remember the keyboardist. I was unfamiliar with Holdsworth ’til then and was very pleasantly surprised to "discover" him. I’ve been a fan ever since. I would have to agree that his songwriting skills are not in the same league with his guitar skills. Why is it that so many excellent technical guitarists are not equally adept at songwriting? I can only think of a few people who are truly great in both aspects. I’d be happy to name a few, but, as I am new to this newsgroup, I’d like to hear who other people think qualify as being excellent in both aspects. Cheers, BB
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Alan is the man! what’s everyone think of the steinberger maple bodied guitars like Alan plays in his vid? sounds sweet. derek – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Does this guy kick ass or what? Just though I’d throw this out there. Picked up Heavy Machinery and Secrets. If only I could play that fast, that accurate, and with such… momentum. —
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Does this guy kick ass or what? Just though I’d throw this out there. Picked up Heavy Machinery and Secrets. If only I could play that fast, that accurate, and with such… momentum. —
I’m sorry but I just don’t like him that much. I’ve tried! Tried hard! But I just get sick of him after about two tunes. Much the same way as I get sick of Yngwie. I’m floored for about two tunes and then I get sleepy. I’ve seen Holdsworth 4 times and I guess I just wish he’d bend a note or add a touch of bluesiness to his thing. I’m not saying he’s not amazing, just saying he’s boring. I guess for me, "fast, accurate and momentum" isn’t enough. I much prefer guys like Scott Henderson, who was a bit of a Holdsworth clone in the early days (I hated him then too) but went on to change his tone and use more pick attack. Or Shawn Lane who is just plain ridiculously fast but has a certain bluesiness to him that I like. Maybe it’s just the whole legato style of Holdsworth that doesn’t connect w/ me. When does he pick? Maybe once every hundred notes? I do love his chord playing though!
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I’m gonna have to check him out. I’ve never had the opportunity to hear him. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – In reply to Wildman (sorry I can’t do this "properly," as my newsreader locked up as I was finishing the first reply, and hosed the record for your post entirely): My comment (regarding your hearing) was as dismissive as your comments about Holdsworth’s playing. No more, no less. However, as I am not trying to start a silly flamewar over taste, I will say that being dismissive is, in general, unfair. I have no idea to what extent you have heard Holdsworth’s catalog, and can think of a half-dozen selected tunes that, had I heard them before all else, I too may have flippantly dismissed his work. However, saying that the man plays without feeling is patently absurd. If anything, the man covers more emotional territory than just about any guitar player that ever lived. He can describe some emotions perfectly, with notes alone, and better than any words could hope (one example would be on Chad Wackerman’s _Forty Reasons_ release, track one, "Holiday Insane," where, from 4:47 to 6:02, he describes consummate joy in an unimaginably perfect manner). What passage from what guitarist speaks "consummate joy" to you, Wildman? — little DEUCE "I’m ridding you of junk e-mail this year, and this is the thanks I get?"
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Wildman’s hearing – in question.
I hear well enough to know that I don’t like what I hear. What you are questioning is my taste in music. Each to his own, I admit that the guy is one phenomenal musician! WildMan
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In reply to Wildman (sorry I can’t do this "properly," as my newsreader locked up as I was finishing the first reply, and hosed the record for your post entirely): My comment (regarding your hearing) was as dismissive as your comments about Holdsworth’s playing. No more, no less. However, as I am not trying to start a silly flamewar over taste, I will say that being dismissive is, in general, unfair. I have no idea to what extent you have heard Holdsworth’s catalog, and can think of a half-dozen selected tunes that, had I heard them before all else, I too may have flippantly dismissed his work. However, saying that the man plays without feeling is patently absurd. If anything, the man covers more emotional territory than just about any guitar player that ever lived. He can describe some emotions perfectly, with notes alone, and better than any words could hope (one example would be on Chad Wackerman’s _Forty Reasons_ release, track one, "Holiday Insane," where, from 4:47 to 6:02, he describes consummate joy in an unimaginably perfect manner). What passage from what guitarist speaks "consummate joy" to you, Wildman? — little DEUCE "I’m ridding you of junk e-mail this year, and this is the thanks I get?"
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Does this guy kick ass or what? Just though I’d throw this out there. Picked up Heavy Machinery and Secrets. If only I could play that fast, that accurate, and with such… momentum. —
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He’s a hero of mine from 1975 on. Inventive and accurate, with a smooth, singing tone and off-the-path chord progressions.
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And a groovy axe…
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Fast – yes Accurate – yes Momentum – yes Feeling – sadly not Songwriting ability – less than zero
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Fast – yes Accurate – yes Momentum – yes Feeling – sadly not Songwriting ability – less than zero
Wildman’s hearing – in question. — little DEUCE "I’m ridding you of junk e-mail this year, and this is the thanks I get?"
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Fast – yes Accurate – yes Momentum – yes Feeling – sadly not Songwriting ability – less than zero Wildman’s hearing – in question.
I’d question it too, but everyone’s got their own opinions. Perhaps he’s only sampled a few Holdsworth songs. There are times in his carrer that he can make a synthaxe sound, well, synthesized and mechanic. But I have the feeling that’s exactly what he meant to do in many of those songs. Take a few songs off Heavy Machinery, notably Mission: Possible. It’s bluesy, if not somewhat jazzy (well, isn’t most of his stuff?). But that intro to the solo sticks in my head for days on end. —
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Can’t help with your question but I believe he is endorsing CARVIN now. Guitar player had some review once on it. In a ‘95 copy of Guitar Shop, Allan Holdsworth is pictured with a Bill Delap Custom guitar. At the end of the interview there is a piece with a contact address for Bill Delap but the number does not work anymore. If anyone has any info on Bill Delap, phone, e-mail, please post. It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Steve
Before you buy.
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In a ‘95 copy of Guitar Shop, Allan Holdsworth is pictured with a Bill Delap Custom guitar. At the end of the interview there is a piece with a contact address for Bill Delap but the number does not work anymore. If anyone has any info on Bill Delap, phone, e-mail, please post. It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Steve
