One guitar, or three?


Many fans of Rock music guitar playing consider the players who were the only guitarist in their band "the best": Jimi Hendrix (in The Experience), Eric Clapton (in Cream), Jeff Beck (post-Yardbirds), Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the clown in Black Sabbath, etc. etc.

I on the other hand have a love of not the classic 2-guitar line-up (The Beatles, Stones, Rockpile, etc.)---good as that can be---, but of 3-guitar bands: Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, Fleetwood Mac in their Peter Green/Danny Kirwin/Jeremy Spencer period, and The Flamin’ Groovies in the Shake Some Action album era.

Three guitars is even more musical than two, and far more so than one. All kinds of little song parts are possible with three musical instruments, and Springfield and The Grape really exploited the possibilities. One guitar is so, well, 1-dimensional. Sure, on recordings the single guitarist in a band can recorded multiple parts, but "lead" guitarists rarely think in "song part" terms, but instead in "guitar chops" terms. Know what I mean?

I bought the first two albums by both Cream and Hendrix when they were released, and saw both live twice in 1967 and ’68. But the music of both got old pretty quickly, I losing interest after those albums. You may disagree. ;-)

Now, one guitar is fine if you have other musical instruments (bass and drums can be played musically, but they aren’t "chordal" instruments), such as piano and/or organ. Two of Rock ’n’ Roll’s most musical ensembles had both piano and organ, and only one guitar: The Band and Procol Harum. Those bands also had great songs. Coincidence?

If anyone has other 3-guitar bands/groups to recommend, I’m all ears.

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@edcyn: There are actually two schools of Bluegrass: Traditional, and Progressive. There are Bluegrass players who perform exclusively in one of the two schools, and others who do both---for instance one of my favorite living musicians, dobro player Jerry Douglas. He plays traditionally when working in a band providing accompaniment for singers such as Alison Krauss and Iris Dement, and progressive when he leads his band in mostly instrumental music.

I’ve seen & heard Jerry live doing both, and much prefer the Bluegrass music he makes in Traditional style. His solo band is sort of a Bluegrass/Jazz Fusion band! I went and saw he and his band last time they came through Portland, and got bored: too much instrumental soloing, not enough song playing. As I said above, it is song’s I love, not the technical ability of musicians. The skill set required to be an excellent accompanist are very different from those required to be a superior soloist and/or improviser.

As I was saying in an above post, I find music made with virtuoso playing as it’s primary focus---the very essence of much Jazz---often disregards the concept of the song or composition, many of them barely qualifying to be considered a real song (but then the same can be said of Bruce Springsteen’s "songs" ;-). I hear far too much Jazz in which there is no real song at all, just a couple of chords repeated ad nauseam, of use only as the platform for which to solo over (Grateful Dead, anyone? ;-) . Sometimes not even two chords, just one! No employment of modulation, inversion, harmony, counterpoint, or any other musical technique for interesting song development. Sure, the musicians are great on their instrument, but does that alone make for interesting, compelling music? IMO, no.

In 1992 Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band had Joe Walsh, Nils Lofgren, Todd Rundgren, & Dave Edmunds touring together at the same time.

Throughout the years other guitar notables included Randy Bachman, Mark Farner, Peter Frampton, Rick Derringer, Steve Lukather, Ian Hunter, Billy Squire, Colin Hay, Richard Marx, and Wally Palmer but no more than two played together at any given time. 

Guests guitarists have included Bruce Springsteen, Eric Carmen, Jeff Healey, Bonnie Raitt, Slash, Andy Summers and Eric Stuart.

The 15th All Starr Band will tour in North America starting in May this year.