I've always preferred Prince over any guitar player alive or dead but I've been listening 2 Eric Gales the last year or 2. This brother a shredding beast. I think he might could have taken Prince in a live setup. What do u think? I'm talking strickly playing skill.

Gooddoctor23 said:

I've always preferred Prince over any guitar player alive or dead but I've been listening 2 Eric Gales the last year or 2. This brother a shredding beast. I think he might could have taken Prince in a live setup. What do u think? I'm talking strickly playing skill.

If I'm gonna be super honest at the risk of pissing off some people, I think a good 75% (and that's a generous number) of non professional, or at least non really skilled musicians' comparative assessments of professional musicians' skills is utter BS.

People hear things they don't structurally understand and interpret their taste as skills (or lack thereof).

So IDK who Eric Gates is, but not being a guitarist myself, I'd probably rather not answer your question even if I did.

databank said:

Gooddoctor23 said:

I've always preferred Prince over any guitar player alive or dead but I've been listening 2 Eric Gales the last year or 2. This brother a shredding beast. I think he might could have taken Prince in a live setup. What do u think? I'm talking strickly playing skill.

If I'm gonna be super honest at the risk of pissing off some people, I think a good 75% (and that's a generous number) of non professional, or at least non really skilled musicians' comparative assessments of professional musicians' skills is utter BS.

People hear things they don't structurally understand and interpret their taste as skills (or lack thereof).

So IDK who Eric Gates is, but not being a guitarist myself, I'd probably rather not answer your question even if I did.

That was clear as mud.

I've been a musician since the 80's.

I also play several instrument and trust me,

I know a cold blooded musician when I hear and see 1.

Besides Prince, I really like to listen to Popa Chubby. Especially his live concerts are awesome. There's a lot on youtube.

[Edited 1/31/26 12:50pm]

Gooddoctor23 said:

databank said:

If I'm gonna be super honest at the risk of pissing off some people, I think a good 75% (and that's a generous number) of non professional, or at least non really skilled musicians' comparative assessments of professional musicians' skills is utter BS.

People hear things they don't structurally understand and interpret their taste as skills (or lack thereof).

So IDK who Eric Gates is, but not being a guitarist myself, I'd probably rather not answer your question even if I did.

That was clear as mud.

I've been a musician since the 80's.

I also play several instrument and trust me,

I know a cold blooded musician when I hear and see 1.

In that case, indeed

Gooddoctor23 said:

I've always preferred Prince over any guitar player alive or dead but I've been listening 2 Eric Gales the last year or 2. This brother a shredding beast. I think he might could have taken Prince in a live setup. What do u think? I'm talking strickly playing skill.

I don't know about "take" Prince, lol! I believe Gales would give him a run for his money. Prince was at the top level. He was a proven vet, plus very competitive and Gales definitely is a live wire. In my opinion Prince has more dexterity up and down the fretboard than Eric Gales even with smaller sized hands/fingers and has a much more melodic bag of tricks. For instance check out on YT when Gales played with Snarky Puppy, that opening instrumental warm up that he plays was ok & it was just a warm up, BUT imagine Prince playing that same melody??? it would've probably had more life and beauty to it. That's just one example but for one second just imagine what Prince would have done there. Eric can really shread with a lot of forceful phrasing. Prince has the edge.

Music is not a competitive sport.
There are lots of great players doing their own thing, including Eric.
Prince was in a class of his own, but not really as a super technical shredder of notes (funny how non guitarists are always impressed by that). Imho the comparison makes zero sense.