What was your guitar/bass epiphany ?

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Saw a fellow student in Grade 12 playing Pin Ball Wizard (Elton John Version) on a Gold Top Les Paul. I had played guitar before (age 9-10 maybe) and goofing around occasionally as a teen when I found a guitar lying around. But that was the "moment" I was hooked on learning to play "like that". I actually bought his old Ibanez LP Copy thinking it would have a special something in it. Bought half dozen better guitars since then and if I practiced I could probably play the solo from Pinball Wizard :D. but he was my inspiration....
 
CrazyDoc - did you mean to link to the cuckoo banjo version or the Hobart Smith banjo & guitar version?
I love Venus but always do a double take at the country pickin' solo!
I mean - it's good but unexpected regardless of time and familiarity. (Oh, Television's d'Milo is pretty cool!).
Ido - an Ibanez LP Gold Top would make a banjo player want to be a guitar player. Seduced by style!
Greg, Strummer was only just a 101er when I 1st met a bass.
Here's a turn around for you - I bought my father his 1st guitar!!!
 
Oh man, I almost forgot....my jazz guitar epiphany was hearing Pat Martino play "Oleo" on Live At Yoshi's (plus, it's got some really tasty organ thrown in as a bonus). My old jazz teacher made me learn the whole solo....I never learned to play it up to tempo though. I think I could now if I set my mind to it.

Pat Martino is fucking amazing.
 
Rage against the machine's self titled album. That made me wanna play guitar.
 
I was about 12 and on a family vacation. My Tele was about 800 miles away.

All of a sudden the exact fingering (bends and all) for the intro to Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was somehow "delivered" to me. I had never bent a string on purpose and yet I knew that as soon as I got my hands on a guitar, I could play that lick.
That moment began my ability to play lead.

Not long after that I figured the triad bend used for the beginning of "Honky Tonk Women" and IT WAS ON!
 
April 7th, 1977.

A friend of mine put on Black Napkins from Zoot Allures. Frank Zappa. Turned it up WAY LOUD.

That was a fuckin' epiphany alright. I had hardly ever touched a guitar before that day but I resolved right then that I would try.

Still can't play the fucking thing.

:mad:
lou
 
It could have been Ted Nugent from the Cat Scratch Fever album
Brilliant album, like most of Ted's '75-80 output. It's got surprizingly singable lyrics, ranging from "Death by misadventure" {about Brian Jones} to "Wang dang sweet poontang!" and "He's a son of a gun/fist fightin' fool/son of a gun/and he kicks like a mule...."

Barney Miller!


:cool:
I used to watch this back in '82. It was one of those late night American comedies like "Bob Newhart" that no one I know here has ever heard of. But I thought it was hilarious. That's where I first heard the word 'schlep'. Used to watch it on my 12 inch B&W and I was always knocked out by that mesmeric bassline. It's a killer and it always sounded good coming through my shitty little telly speakers.
For a guy that couldn't hardly play, Paul Simonon wrote awesome bass lines.
Funny how the guy that can't play but looks cool or sings well ends up on bass and gets away with it ! There was Stuart Sutcliffe with the early Beatles and as strikingly as Simonon, Boz Burrell when he joined King Crimson. Actually, many that played bass in bands weren't bassists. But you rarely hear that of any other instrument. I think there's something about the bass guitar that makes one have to think in a way that stretches you, whether you're aware of it or not. And Simonon worked at it and being an intelligent arty type, was bound to shine through. He was certainly not of the Sid Vicious ilk.

Saw a fellow student in Grade 12 playing Pin Ball Wizard (Elton John Version) on a Gold Top Les Paul.
Much as I like the Who's version, Elton's one is tops for me. I remember when that came out as a single. I recorded it off the radio and had it for years. It may not have the drama of the original but it's just so classy.
 
For me it was probably Elvin Bishop's solo in Fooled around and fell in love.
 
Started by learning nylon string classical g. till I heard the steel string acoustic g. on America's "Horse with no Name". A guy showed me the chords at school and I was hooked - must of played those two chords a gazillion times before I moved on to songs with three chords - mostly Credence tunes - so "Proud Mary" here.

I discovered jazz guitar much later - I love the subtle (and challenging) chord changes of the genre. Jim Hall, Kenny Burrel, Pat Methany, Wes. All inspire though no albums in particular stand out - except maybe those four or five that Hall did with Paul Desmond.

As far as single note playing goes, I was really fired up by the modal jazz of the late fifties - less chords (less stress) more freedom to experiment so "Milestones" & "Kind of Blue" here, though its probably less Davis' trumpet and more Bill Evans piano that made me want to play g. in this direction - but like, its not as if I can!

K.
 
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When I first heard Smells Like Teen Spirit in 1991, I learned air guitar. I jumped around my basement with my friends playing tennis rackets and pool cues.

Then about a year later, I watched a VHS copy of The Song Remains The Same at my buddy's house. Watching Jimmy Page rock out that day was when I decided I had to learn guitar for real. For me, an epiphany if there ever was one.
 
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