bcresci wrote:If someone can articulate what specifically they mean by Jerry's tone being in his hands vs. his equipment, I'd love to see a new thread started to hear thoughts on that.
Not to steal my own thread
Actually, listen to Django and you hear a lot of Jerry's roots, much more than anywhere else, I think, at least from a guitarist perspective.
But in terms of his hands, Jerry used several different vibrato techniques with his left hand, ranging from moving the string horizontally, moving his finger on the string vertically, varying the speed, the depth, whether he was just moving his finger or his entire wrist, etc. etc. etc.
Jerry also did a mix of flatpicking and fingerpicking, often tucking the pick up between his index finger and stump.
He also varied greatly his attack on different notes, he would really snap the strings at times, or pick it very delicately. He was very into defining each note individually.
He was particular about where on the neck he was playing certain passages, preferring the sound of midrange notes high up on the low strings in certain instances, for example.
He also used his thumb occasionally, doing partial barre chords with it, instead of laying his index finger across all six strings, he'd catch the low string with his thumb, and barre the upper strings with the pad of his index finger, that gives you more reach on the higher strings with your other three fingers.
He used his pinky a lot; lots of guitarists hardly use it at all because it's the weakest finger.
He had a fairly unique way of strumming the guitar, which you don't often hear from other guitarists, it's very percussive.
These are all things that are exclusive of his gear, and, in my opinion, have a lot to do with his tone.
There are other cool little touches, like playing the solo in Loser or that one riff in Tennessee Jed with harmonics, and so forth. What a creative genius he was!
Just tried to answer OMD's question and got a bit carried away I guess. Didn't mean to hijack the thread further.
