Guitar Heroes wanted!

I hope someday soon we get some new, real guitar heroes.  Sure, the game is fun (my non musician wife is better than me, her ‘over 30 years as a musician’ husband) and not really a substitute for real playing but I’d love to see someone step up and turn the music world on their ear.  There are a ton of great, innovative guitar players out there but they aren’t getting any time in the spotlight.  We need a Hendrix badly.  Sure, Dimebag, Zakk, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai are tremendous players but the general public doesn’t know them well.  Hendrix and Van Halen came on the to scene and blew the minds of guitar players and non musicians alike and that’s what we need.

While 80’s hair band metal was never my cup of tea, guys like Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen made the guitar exciting and challenging to young musicians.  They opened doors that let guys like Satriani and Vai, George Lynch and Yngwie come through and add to rock’s vocabulary.  People, because they were serious about their musicianship were serious about their gear as well, which of course, I was grateful for.  There was a general ‘craftsmanship’ in defining their signature tones or even trying to capture their heroes’ tones.

With all of the amazing gear we have at our disposal, getting any tone is far easier than ever before but are we using that to our advantage?