Are your favorite Instagram guitarists actually faking it?

[ScottyBHarris]

Advanced audio and video editing trickery allegedly used to achieve ultra-precise clean playing styles

We’ve all watched electric guitar players on Instagram deliver impossibly precise performances at insane bpms and wondered, ‘How can they play that clean?’ Well, as it turns out, they might not be playing it at all.

YouTube guitar teacher Jack Gardiner has posted a video entitled ‘Fake guitar playing - it needs to stop!’, where he alleges your favorite players - not naming names - might not actually be playing.

Gardiner opens the clip with a very familiar example of this fake guitar playing, before demonstrating how he achieved the effect by speeding up the audio.

He even goes on to say that some players will go to the lengths of exporting MIDI from Guitar Pro and convert it to audio to play through an amp sim, as demonstrated in videos by fellow YouTubers Levi Clay and Leon Todd, the latter of whom you can watch below.

[CalFB]

I saw Leon Todd's video on this subject earlier this month. I'm not an instagram person, but I checked out a few of the guys mentioned in the comments. It's a problem everywhere these days. Fake music, fake lips, fake tits...

[EJC]

Pre internet. Pre Instagram. Pre YouTube. Pre people being jerkoffs to get "likes"...

[japeape]

Fake tones, too.

All this fractual crap, or whatever it is called, is cheating.

Tech is so advanced now, that you can dial in anything, as well as messing with
the audio speed, pitch, camera, etc.

And youtube kind of ruined guitar for me.
Everyone is Yngwie, fer chrissakes.

[japeape]

Pre internet. Pre Instagram. Pre YouTube. Pre people being jerkoffs to get "likes"...

I remember the days pre-Youtube, and getting those REH vids of Gilbert, Howe & Lynch.
The Kotzen one, too.

That shit was mind blowing, because we never got to see it up close, before.

[EJC]

Fake tones, too.

All this fractual crap, or whatever it is called, is cheating.

Tech is so advanced now, that you can dial in anything, as well as messing with
the audio speed, pitch, camera, etc.

And youtube kind of ruined guitar for me.
Everyone is Yngwie, fer chrissakes.

It is extremely stupid. The bass player in my band is always wanting to record me doing some stupid fast solo shit to put on Instagram because I guess that is sort of a "thing" now...

I delete them after he posts them. It has nothing to do with music at all. It's essentially a dick measuring contest. And to be honest, I'm not impressed by anybody that sits on a chair in front of a camera and can play fast, and re-record if they fuck up.

It's a lot harder to hit your notes on stage under lights with stage volume, trying to hear yourself with a live crowd, knowing if you fuck up trying to do a sweep, you will look like an idiot. (and yes I learned that the hard way!)

[Brett]

That’s why when I do videos I just record songs. I have no interest in jamming idiotic runs as fast as possible. Does that really impress people anymore?

And yeah when you guys see me post those videos, I’ve done the guitar parts live, but of course I’ve done a couple takes of them usually to get them right. So I don’t know what the big deal is with these guys. Just keep doing takes until it’s right at whatever speed. Anyone can do that.

[Get The Show On The Road]

You can tell mine aren't fake! LOL!

[EJC]

I get much more enjoyment out of watching Brett's vids and Show having a blast doing VH cover's with his kids than some zero personality dickhead thinking they are the shit because they can play fast. And yeah, that whole "look how fast I can play" goofiness thankfully died off in the early 90s... Not sure why it's coming back.

If I didn't have zero internet video recording skills, I'd post covers too! Probably of Monkees songs though!

It's silly enough if you can actually play. If you are going to these editing extremes to FAKE it, you probably need some sort of psychological help....

[Brett]

I don’t find any interest in watching people just play fast. I watch two seconds and then click off of it. There is just nothing interesting about that.

Now if these guys wanted to write some music and utilize their skill to post an actual song maybe I’d be interested to watch that. Maybe. As long as it’s not some wankfest.

[RRvh1]

Pre internet. Pre Instagram. Pre YouTube. Pre people being jerkoffs to get "likes"...

Gilbert is a world class monster player!
Even before that, I remember reading that some people thought Yngwie's demo tapes/first album bootlegs etc. were sped up... That is, until you saw him live!

[turnbuckle]

Pre internet. Pre Instagram. Pre YouTube. Pre people being jerkoffs to get "likes"...

Wait, who did the drill motor noise thing first, Edward or Paul??


BTW, I think I remember an old Coke commercial with Paul and the pick/drill attachment.
Or, maybe I imagined it. IDK

[RRvh1]

Wait, who did the drill motor noise thing first, Edward or Paul??


BTW, I think I remember an old Coke commercial with Paul and the pick/drill attachment.
Or, maybe I imagined it. IDK

Paul did the drill schtick with three plectrums attached for super duper trem picking speed, before Edward used the drill to amplify the hum of the motor through his pickups and amp.

Steve Stevens did a similar sound effect to Eddie by using a toy 'ray gun' in the same manner, on a Billy Idol track.

[turnbuckle]

Paul did the drill schtick with three plectrums attached for super duper trem picking speed, before Edward used the drill to amplify the hum of the motor through his pickups and amp.

Steve Stevens did a similar sound effect to Eddie by using a toy 'ray gun' in the same manner, on a Billy Idol track.

Yeah, and you can clearly see Paul doing that 'motor noise through the pick ups' deal, right there in that video.
When is that Paul Gilbert video from?

[RRvh1]

Yeah, and you can clearly see Paul doing that 'motor noise through the pick ups' deal, right there in that video.
When is that Paul Gilbert video from?

I forgot about Paul doing the noise over his pickups, even though I saw him do it in one of his instructional videos. Either way, I believe his use of the drill predates Eddie's. I remember an article in GFTPM after the FUCK album came out, and the journalist mentioned that Ed used the drill and matched the cycle hum/tone in the Poundcake solo (he obviously used it in the intro as well) to get a musical sound, as opposed to just a 'gimmick' like Gilbert had done years prior...