Inspired by a couple threads which don't dismiss Prince's playing but still tell that he isn't the best thing to happen to guitar (so if you're one of those "Prince is the greatest, just hit the back button right now ), ex: "He can't measure up to real funk bands/George Benson etc" I started to ask myself, "what is it about his playing that doesn't make him the best." Hands down he's the best at genre combining and he can play all styles relatively well (but not the greatest in any of them) I just wanted to see why. So I went on youtube and looked at videos by Hendrix, Clapton, Benson, Jesse Johnson, Eric Gales and Johnson, some JB shows, Page, and Zappa, and then I looked at some of Prince's live guitar playing, but I still couldn't figure it out. I remember when I asked my first guitar teacher what he thought of Prince and he said, "I don't know any, but a friend of mine said he's not that great, he's just effects." So idk, someone who knows music want to elaborate and what denies Prince as one the greatest, or considered by the general public one of the greatest. Is it because he mostly stays with the pentatonic, his lack of other scales and modes!?!? Someone help me out...

There are a couple of reasons. He has a great feel and a good tech.
But there are players out there with better of both.

First, Prince hasn't inflenced the guitar play. There are a couple of guitar players who did. He did not.

Second, there are a lot of players with way better tech. Prince is really good, and i wish i would have his skills, but there are a couple of players with more impressive skills.

tainacher said:

Now by tech do you mean by fingering, positioning and all that? And it's not always necessarily the case that they can do more than what he can, just that they can do what he can, better?

MajesticOne89 said:

There's one glaring problem with this...


It's all based on the assumption that you've seen everything he's possible of doing...

If I were to play you some of the songs I've written you might say..."Well, he's good, but there are better players"...

The only problem with that is that you don't really know what I can do. Only what I've shown you I can do.





BTW...I'm sure there are better players in the world, but technically great playing isn't what makes Prince, Prince.

jplux1 said:

Well, then i guess i should have said in the original post "based on what prince has done in the past 29 years..." And yes there's no doubt that there are better players in the world. I mean yea, throughout the fanbase, people who he's influenced, and other supporters they say how good prince is, but to the general public he hasn't reached that "praise" hendrix, clapton, and other guitar greats have. but the question really was what in prince's playing (or what's not there) is it that negates him from attaining the high recognition of master of the guitar.

MajesticOne89 said:

I would be very hard pressed to make a determination on who's a better guitar player than another just by listening to or seeing a vidio or two from each of the artists you mentioned above. To truly appreciate them, you would probably need to check out a full range of their body of work to REALLY get a feel for their style and technique tendencies. Two of my personal favorites are Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, As extrodinary as these guys were, they died way to young for us to realise their full potential as artists. That being said, it took me multiple listens, over a period of time, of their music collections before I could fully appreciate their style and technique of playing as truly genius. They had s style completely their own that many, even Prince, tried to emulate. Prince is a very good guitar player!!! He has progress tremendously over the years, but there's still something lacking that would distinguish him as being one of the greatest. He's had some great guitar moments live and in the studio, there's no dought about that! Perhaps someone else here can elaborate more...or even completely disagree with me!
[Edited 7/10/07 0:48am]

VonMarie said:

and that's what I want some of the musicians on this board to elaborate on..great post btw and thanks!!

He may not be the best, but he's my favourite guitar player...

MartyMcFly said:

well that makes 2 of us

MajesticOne89 said:

it would make 3 of us but there's not much guitar work on alot of his albums unfortunately

icke4presidant said:

So very true. From the times I've seen him live, he is truly an amazing guitar player and seems to be able to play a variety of styles , but from the albums I have, he has made very few killer rock tracks. The only two that come to mind, and this is top of the head, are Bambi and Endorphin Machine. I know many have problems with the latter but it, and the former, are the first two (and only which come to mind) that have a supporting guitar groove and where the guitar is used for the melody and solos. Which is odd because it seems like those shows are filled with tradiontal rock arrangements which are absent on record.

For example, I just got Sign o The Times on DVD and is there anyone who would argue that the cuts of Play in The Sunshine, Sign O The Times, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man and The Cross aren't leagues above what he put out on the, granted, historic record?

this is a subject that frustrates me. 1 major factor is that if u listen 2 all ov p's released albums theres not that much stand out guitar playing compared 2 his volume ov work. duno y, sumtimes he just seems shy ov puttin it on hard copy coz live hes mind blowin

PSYMUN said:

I agree. When there is blazing guitar(Joy in repetition) it's mixed in the background.

1999 album would of benefited alot from more guitar and so would SOTT album which is superior live.

PSYMUN said:

-----> http://www.english-online...course.htm

hehe its my language and i shall do with it as i c fit so ner
[Edited 7/10/07 4:22am]

He IS! let others think whatever they want.

Prince is a good guitar player but come on: the best in the world? Gimme a break. His technique lacks. His solos are very messy. And most of the time he has a horrible guitar sound.

Compare Prince to: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Carlos Santana, Tommy Emanuelle, Ingwie Malmsteen, Joe Perry, Gary Moore, Steve Morse, Johnny A., Larry Carlton, Mike Stern, Jeff Beck, Clapton in his Cream days, Angus Young, Tony McAlphine, Mark Knopfler, Eddie van Halen etc..... No chance!

The ONLY guitarist better than Prince is Pat Metheny.

y'know what as a guitarist i never saw him as a "guitar hero" yes he can play and play well, but there are so many others who can play better so i would not place anyone as a guitar hero or greatest guitar player.

Who says he isn't? lol.. Opinions, Everybody has one!

Because Hendrix already has him beat.

I thought that Prince was pretty awesome. That is until I started learning to play guitar and investigating other players both known & unknown. While I still respect and appreciate his abilities as a guitarist I can't honestly say that he's the best or the greatest I've heard. In many instances the comparison wouldn't even be fair. Besides the actual ranking of musicians is silly anyway. If you come across any of these best/top 100 list take them with a grain of salt.

I started with Carlos Santana since I'd read he was one of his influences and Carlos is usually very gracious in his praise of other musicaians so I started checking our guitarist he liked and just kept branching out from there. That was 20 years ago!

For the uninitiated Prince's body of work is just too broad to wade through just to find the tracks where the guitar work is obvious. The fact that the guitar press in general slept so long on Prince hasn't helped either. I'll also say that Prince himself hasn't really cultivated a guitarist fan base and probably sees no need to.

The few guitar mag articles tend to offer very little outside of a layout of his current stage rig. The interview portions are a joke. You'd think his cover stories would have at least a little meat to them. The Guitar World article from the 90's is the only one I know of that actually examined some musical examples.
[Edited 7/10/07 12:05pm]

NWF said:

Hendrix isn't the holy grail of guitar you know.

jplux1 said:

BINGO.

icke4presidant said:

I know, but he came pretty damn close.

He might be the greatest at funk-rhythm guitar. As far as rock guitar is concerned there's just too many other players that blow him away.

Guitar is an instrument where the players R 2 commonly compared 2 each other, based on technical proficiency. The same could be said 4 other instrumentalists as well, and it comes down 2 differing schools of thought on music and musicians.

Most people tend 2 focus on a player's technical proficiency and ability.

I believe that a player should be "judged" on what they playing at a particular moment, and at each and every moment, when and how they R playing it, and within the context of the song, or piece. If technical proficiency is appropriate at any moment, then it should be there. 2 me, it's all about the expression, the sound, the phrasing used.

Prince excels in both areas, but where he really excels, specifically on guitar, is his choice of notes, his bending, his vibrato, and of course, his rhythm guitar. His sense of rhythm is incredible. On another note, most people don't know that he played (tracked) most all of his synth parts on those earlier albums "live", that is, with no sequencing...
[Edited 7/10/07 7:50am]

Doesn't this have to do with timing and promotion?

Timing--Prince came out of the late 70's early 80's when his style of guitar playing had been around for 10-20 years at least. Hypothetically he could be as "good" a guitar player as Hendrix or Santana, but would never get the same props because he was not 1st.

Promotion-- Until more recently, Prince was never promoted as a just a "guitar player". He never sold himself as a exclusively a guitar guy--and for a long time it wasn't widely known how good he was on the guitar. Unlike Van Halen, or Jimmy Page--Prince didn't focus mainly on rock guitar, or even always playing guitar. His focus, and his selling point was not focused on him a a guitar hero. He was presented and an "artist". Little boys and girls who were into suburban, hard rock, or classic weren't into Prince as a guitar player because he buries his guitar in the mix and wasn't easily put into that box.

MajesticOne89 said:

Have a look at this Eric Johnson video:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...AF2b6fcAQc

I haven't seen Prince do anything that compares when it comes to rock guitar.

skywalker said:

another point I used a lot, great minds of star wars fans think alike