The time has come for me to leave GMC – definitely not by my own will but we won't discuss that here. It's time for me to move on – we're always looking for something better and more interesting and even if someone doesn't like it – you should always do what you think is right!

What i wanted to say to all you upcoming guitar players is: it was a great pleasure to work here, i learned a lot while teaching and i hope my lessons did some good to your playing. Was cool to have those collaborations, it was fun!

Practice hard, never give up and rock on!
See you around the globe guys

Pavel- apologies for the edit on your contact details - follows on from Sinoman's comment (post no 40) about Spambots - thanks Sinoman .
Cheers,
Tony

Ok, here we are at the end of our collab! We had some interesting takes, some were better, some were worse but all in all we had a good mix of skill level and it turned out really good! Here is the mp3 so you can judge yourself.














1. Smells

Definitely inspired by Satriani That was some cool stuff, played really confidently which is VERY important. You did run out of key in the second part but it is not that noticeable. It was C-Major, and your solo ran into C-minor which did show up but the ending is killer. Love that Satchy scream in the end

2. OgranisedConfusion

Your take was pretty good but you’re unsure in building beginning and end. The whole solo is pretty good with some minor mistakes, the tapping part was a bit messed up tempo-wise, but the overall idea was good. About the ending – ending of the solo is really important. In the end of a solo you’re making your last statement and it is vital to emphasize it. Check Smell’s solo for instance – a very firm end, really effective. Work on that and your solos will be screamy

3. DeepRoots

The structure of your solo is good. You have the head and the tail of the solo but what you are missing is some vibrato on long notes. The music must flow – so if you add some vibrato to your longer notes it will sound much better. Also I think you should experiment with your lead sound. It’s pretty Z-ish, add some delay and it will be much better, and also spend some time playing around with your distortion settings, maybe add some more middle?

4. botoxfox

Your sound really reminded me of Tony MacAlpine. I liked your solo – both the structure and your lead sound. The end of the solo was kind of floating, sounded like you were not sure what to do there so work on making effective solo endings

5. leedbreak

I see you work a lot on alternate picking But your phrasing here suffers – you should not overuse the AP – I guess your goal was to make a good shred solo – but shred solos must also have phrases. Give a solo some air, make it breath – short pauses are not a bad thing to do.

6. tjchep

Took me some time to align your solo start with the backing track You have a pretty interesting lead sound but sometimes you run out of rhythm. A bit of metronome practice should solve the problem! There is s huge mix of licks in there and I see you like bending and you got some good vibrato going there. Rock on man! Thanks for your solo.

7. Juan m. Valero

You legato-tapping addict hahahahaha Nice solo man, a few wrong notes came in here and there but over-all that’s a cool sounding solo man

8. superize

Hey man! The only thing you are really missing is vibrato on long notes. Also you should work on your bending, and make that note you bend to sound firm and steady. Maybe add some delay to your lead sound? Not much – but just to make your lead sound thicker.

9. kaznie_NL

Same thing here m8. You need to add some vibrato to your playing, especially on long notes. Also work on bends – make them more precise. Sometimes you run out of the scale – you’ll fix it with some more practice, and also don’t be afraid of mixing different note length
Some delay won’t hurt and the solo ending should be also a thing to consider working on. But all-in-all you’re doing a good job – keep rocking!

10. silentkap

Not a bad sound at all but some vibrato won’t hurt. See you have a lot of slow stuff in your solo and those long notes don’t sound good if they don’t have vibrato applied. Check some vibrato lessons around here and you’ll be well on your way to writing some good solos.

11. coffeman

Like your lead sound! But your solo structure suffers a bit because of your overuse of long notes. See, the rhythm of the backing is pretty aggressive and is driving you to some movement in the solo, but instead – you put long notes in places where you could do better with some faster stuff.

12. gus

What I really liked about your solo are those few seconds in the end where you put in some pick-tapping. Your lead sound is not that high-gain so a bit of delay would help you in getting better lead sound. Also work on improving your bends and vibrato.

13. Fran

Same as coffeman! You overused that one long note and ate up half of the solo. You have quite good lead sound and it’s a shame not to use it for some more melodic and intense stuff. Also work on your solo endings

14. Trond Vold

Cool stuff man! You caught some cool melodies in there and I like the sound of your bridge pickup – really screamy! Cool solo construction!

15. USAMAN

I see you were mixing a few audio tracks together When doing such a thing make sure to level them to the same volume level ‘cause in this case we have one piece of a solo which is loud and once which is too quiet. You put some good use of wah pedal. Not a bad solo at all – just watch how you mix your audio stuff next time

16. Stevie Ray Vaughan

Good firm solo! Maybe you should just make your sound more screamy by lowering your middle frequencies. Also the solo ending is something to work on

17. ballistic31

Good solo m8! Simple yet effective construction. You got a decent lead sound. Some notes where out of place but considering it’s an improvisation we can let that go Good job!

18. preownedguitar

Definitely not a bad solo but the ending could do better Your sound is pretty good, I see you do use vibrato which makes the solo flow so all-in-all it’s good, just the ending to work on.

19. bodo

Cool tapping start – you just have to align it to metronome I liked the solo and mix of all the licks you got there. You’re on your way to some good soloing.

20. Muris

Definitely not a metalhead but delivered a good sounding solo I see you love to experiment Sounds cool man!

21. somecrazyguy

Welcome man! I put you in the last second as we had some spots free. Nice solo, a bit of delay would make your sound even better. Tapping part is really good, and I see you caught the backing track groove and rhythm and you used your solo to emphasize the rhythm – good job and very well spotted! Good job m8!


That's it! Thanks to all who took part in this!
Rock on guys!

Ok no probs. Somecrazyguy will fill in your spot than

Great thanks! 2 more solos to go

Yeah it's really great to keep things simple! I only use distortion and delay so i like your simple approach But damn - Mesa Rectifiers are expensive I heard a lot of people playing Rectifier but i never heard so nice and clean distortion coming out from it

Great thanks! 3 more solos to go

Hey Marcus! i'm watching the "Imaginations..." DVD right now and i can't believe how good the distortion sound is - it's both powerful and so clean and crunchy! Can you tell us a bit more about your setup? Amps - effects - preamps? Thanks a lot

EDIT: oh, ignore that - i found your blog and found your rack and gear! Great stuff and awesome sound

3 more days to go! Only a few solos left keep them coming guys

Thanks Trond!


No probs Juan! If you make it tomorrow it will be more than great

6 more solos and we're finished with uploading! Come on guys - 5 more days to the deadline

No probs i will cut it out Thanks for your solo!

Hey man! Details like that are really not THAT important It's supposed to be muted

If i record audio i just plug a cable in "Emulated DI-Out" on my amp and go straight into my sound card

Ok, leedbreak is in! Thanks for letting us know that you want in, so now you have the spot

Start rocking!

Sorry to hear that! Ok, no probs!


I'll put leedbreak in case he wants to participate

Great job so far! We have 12 solos ready! Let's shoot the other 10 and we're good to go for the final mixdown which i bet will be great

Just to revive this thread -> keep the solos coming! We already have 5 solos here which is amazing for only 2 days Keep'em coming!

Yeah you spelled it right

That's a good point Matt. Yesterday i practiced around 3 hours but after those 3 hours i was totally tired and i felt a huge improve in my AP - because those 3 hours i was practicing crazy stuff bing totally concentrated on what i was doing. So you're right! "Long" and "quality" doesn't mean the same

The idea itself is great but the backing track itself has a lot of stuff going on concerning notes and changes so extra rhythm guitar will be interfering with the backing track

Saw some people doing that but i still prefer having my tremolo floating Some people will find this topic more than just useful so thanks for posting

Hey m8! I'm not really sure what you're trying to say?

It really depends - too many life factors to watch out for so practicing just always seems to suffer
Let's say from 2 to 6 - 3-4 hours is an average.

Oh, i have to let you try your new recording gear The backing track is at your disposal so you should use it entirely and write a solo which completely covers the backing track

You're number 22 - and with this we close the sign-ups!

I actually had an idea of putting a little fill between each solo - record a take how you think is good and i'll deal with the backing track. If you feel like you want to start earlier or end later - feel free to do so

In any case it will be interesting to experiment

I liked it! Ah - Metallica days

Besip: i heard about Fernandez a few years ago, i only knew they were making acoustic guitars - really high quality acoustic guitars (and classical of course). Only a year ago i found out that they are also making electric guitars. It's a famous brand