Ned Steinberger did not invent the minimalist guitar – the ’60s La Baye 2x4 and the skeletal Gittler introduced during the ’70s both precede his design.

Nor was Steinberger the first to make a headless instrument – Les Paul invented a headless guitar with an aluminum body in the ’40s, Dave Bunker patented his headless “touch guitar” in the mid-’60s, and numerous Northern California luthiers built custom headless instruments during the late ’60s and ’70s. This writer vividly recalls seeing a few headless guitars and basses at Stars Guitars in San Francisco during the mid-’70s.

However, Steinberger was the first company to successfully mass produce minimalist, headless instruments.

Built from non-traditional composite materials – a graphite/carbon fiber blend neck and body and phenolic fretboard – the original Steinberger guitar design is noteworthy for its appealing combination of radical elements, familiar features, brilliantly engineered innovations, and comfortable ergonomics.

The first Steinberger GL Series guitars appeared on the market in May 1984, starting with the GL2 model featuring EMG 81 and 60 active humbuckers and a stop tailpiece. At 29 ¾ inches long, it was only a few inches longer than its 25 ½-inch scale length.

Standard features included 24 frets and master volume and tone controls. By 1985, the lineup expanded considerably, consisting of the dual humbucker GL2 and GL3 with three single-coil EMG SA pickups, both offered with either the standard S-Trem (GL2S/GL3S) or revolutionary TransTrem (GL2T/GL3T) vibrato systems. The popular GL4 model with an HSS pickup configuration then followed in 1986.

An instrument unto itself, the TransTrem is an engineering marvel that allows users to lower or raise pitch while keeping chords in tune. A metal stop piece can lock the strings in six positions that transpose the key to B, C, D, E, F#, and G. Both the TransTrem and standard floating S-Trem provide a lever that locks the tremolo arm for non-tremolo performance, which also maintains tuning when a string is broken.

One rarely mentioned feature of Steinberger GL guitars is the Co-x connector system that allows users to quickly swap EMG pickups using snap on-off connectors. The body's removable rear-mounted faceplate also made it easy to access the electronics and install other non-EMG pickups with minimal hassle.

Initially, the GL guitars came with a plug-in leg rest for comfortable playing in a sitting position, but later a simpler, improved fold-out leg rest was adopted. The double ball end string design radically simplified the process of changing strings, although the non-standard strings were not always easy to find.

Although Steinberger stopped offering composite versions of their GL models by the late ’90s, the timeless minimal design has become a classic that still lives on today via Steinberger's budget Spirit line.

Thanks to its prominent use by a wide variety of guitarists like Elliot Easton, Reeves Gabrels, Jerry Garcia, David Gilmour, Steve Hillage, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Howe, Mark Knopfler, Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls, Andy Summers, David Torn, and Eddie Van Halen – the latter two being among the few who truly mastered the TransTrem – the Steinberger GL model has become a desirable icon of both ’80s/’90s nostalgia and futuristic innovation.

Recently, we did a deep dive into why headless guitars, once seen as the Pontiac Aztek of sorts of the guitar world, have experienced a sudden surge in popularity.

Chatting with us at this year's NAMM show, noted headless aficionado Plini, for one, pointed to how ergonomic and lightweight headless models are, joking – to the ire of many – “if you don't need a 20 kilo guitar, why have it?”

One of the earliest prominent proponents of headless models – in his case those of Ned Steinberger – was oft-overlooked virtuoso Allan Holdsworth.

A boundary-pushing player with a mind-boggling command of the fretboard, Allan Holdsworth was just as interested in going outside the norm in the gear department, notably adopting a futuristic hybrid instrument dubbed the SynthAxe.

Though he wouldn't arrive at these futuristic electric guitars straight away (they didn't exist yet, of course) the first decade and change of Holdsworth's career shows the guitarist's restlessness with the technology at his disposal.

Holdsworth began his career as a Strat-slinger, moved to Gibson SGs, then back to Strats, then to Charvels, before ending up with Ibanez by the mid-'80s.

By the late '80s, though, Holdsworth had fallen fully into the camp of Ned Steinberger and his headless creations.

In a 1989 interview with Guitar World, the maestro reflected in wonder at the experience of picking up a Steinberger for the first time.

“I was so floored by the thing that I couldn't believe it,” Holdsworth said. “I haven't felt that way about a guitar since I started playing.

“It's really the most significant development in the last fifty years,” he continued. “Everything else has just been kind of a little tweak on something older guys like Leo Fender or Les Paul did.”

So, what exactly about the Steinberger fit Holdsworth like a glove?

“It's unbelievably even,” he told Guitar World. “It has a kind of resonance, though not the kind induced by the various pieces of wood you've ordinarily got connected together.

“When I started playing the Steinberger, I was taken by its really scientific approach. The materials used were all the same; you could consistently operate under a formula that works.”

This, the virtuoso explained, took out the tonewood guessing games.

“You're not worrying about how far up the tree this piece of wood came from, how it was cut, how it was dried, or how long the tree had been dead,” he said.

“It seemed that every single thing on the guitar just contributed, so you were left with either a really great guitar or a little junk pile. And for some reason, the Steinberger has a great sound. Between that guitar and the SynthAxe, I can't imagine wanting another guitar – except to own another Steinberger.”

Now, Holdsworth did end up wanting another instrument – working with Carvin later in his career on multiple headless signature guitars.

Up to the very end of his career, the guitar great was steadfast in his love of the polarizing, headstock-less design.

“Once you play a headless guitar, you get used to the fact that there is no headstock,” he told Guitar World in a 2017 interview conducted just days before his death at the age of 70. “You’ll never want to play a regular guitar again.”

Headless guitars have been with us for decades, since Eddie Van Halen and Allan Holdsworth first flew the flag. Even so, the unorthodox constructions were often met with derision in the years since. That was until recently – in 2025, the story couldn’t be more different.

Paul Masvidal played a Steinberger GM4T with Death in the ’90s, and later spent 10 years working with Ola Strandberg to refine his headless recipe. At the time, Strandberg was a lone wolf producing just 20 guitars a month. Today it faces a raft of competition.

Ibanez vastly expanded its headless range last year, and Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates brought forth Schecter’s first headless model. Balaguer, Aristides and FM Guitars are just some options for custom-build models. Smaller brands from the newly-launched Omne to EART’s GW-2PRO, HILS’ Next series and Thomann-owned affordable gear champion Harley Benton have extended the budget end. Headless axes can cost as little as $500 and as much as $5,000.

How did the tables turn so dramatically?

Player pioneers

If headless guitars were to take off, they needed the advocacy of virtuosos – and Plini has been influential in putting Strandberg on the map. “Like most people, I had a really bad Strat copy when I first started,” he says. “Seeing Allan Holdsworth, Tosin Abasi and Misha Mansoor playing Strandbergs, though, made me think that they must be seriously good guitars.”

He adds: “I also like that their appearance intrigues non-guitar players and bothers old-fashioned people! They look weird and beautiful, but for a good reason: the ergonomics. And thanks to the comfy neck profile, I’ve never felt any sort of strain in my hands regardless of how many hours spent playing.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Masvidal, who first fell in love with Steinbergers. “To me it was groundbreaking,” he told Premier Guitar in 2023. “Those guitars felt alien, and I felt like an alien. It was when my playing started to go into new places – that was somehow in tandem with this instrument.”

“It’s been really nice growing my audience while Strandberg grows as a company,” Plini adds. “It’s become part of my identity as a guitarist.

“I think Strandberg got popular for providing an exceptionally well-executed new concept for what an electric guitar could be,” he adds, “and a lot of people clearly fell in love with that concept. Then all the other brands probably thought, ‘Oh fuck, we should make a headless guitar!’”

Easy livin’

Losing the headstock also has some bonus benefits. As Plini told GW, headless guitars are lighter, while their compactness makes them far more travel-friendly, and fears of top-heavy guitars – a nightmare when gigging – are eradicated.

Strandberg gig bags, for instance, can fit into the overhead compartments of most airlines. Given the rising cost of touring, it's a plus that shouldn't be overlooked – especially considering how the rise of amp modelers like the Quad Cortex has been buffered by their transportability.

The fact that some guitar stands, particularly wall mounted ones, are a no-go for headless guitars feels like a minor trade-off.

Off with their heads – and hefty price tags

Until recently, owning a headless guitar has typically meant a sizable outlay. The Strandberg Boden Essential, the Swedes’ first sub-$1,000 guitar, slashed over 50 percent off its typical price tag – a sea change that came in unison with other brands entering the fray with fresh business models.

Omne has impressed with its flagship Vetus model. Available in seven- and eight-string varieties, the sub-$900 instrument features a swamp ash body, a signature heel-less bolt-on neck, Tosin Abasi Fishman Fluence humbuckers and Luminlay side dots.

Founder Benjamin Torres – who worked for five well-known guitar brands including Abasi Concepts – has a simple approach to price reduction measures.

“We sell direct, saving 30-40 percent in dealer mark-ups,” he says. “We do our fretwork, assembly, final inspections and setups in-house, further keeping our costs down. I think spec-for-spec, we are offering one of the best values out there.”

But there are other ways of slicing the prices – HILS’ Next guitars come from its production facility in Indonesia, where labour costs are significantly lower, but vitally – as Tom DeLonge’s Starcaster proves – build quality has been improved.

Learning from innovators

Omne Frankensteined the Vetus out of instruments its staff love. “We’ve picked apart components from all our ergonomic playing experiences, and brought them together in one design,” Torres explains.

The Ibanez Sabre informed the Vetus radius body, and the scale length came from Torres’ Abasi Concepts Larada, which he believes delivers “the perfect eight-string feel.” Neither of those are headless.

There’s an argument that Strandberg and Kiesel walked so the budget-conscious brands could run – but that works to the consumer’s advantage. The longer something innovative exists in the market, the more time luthiers have to build on it, and do it cheaper.

HILS models are a great example – the NH5 features an Alchemy double-locking tremolo system only costs $599. Plus there’s a roasted neck, stainless steel frets and a free gig bag – serious bang for your buck.

The age of the everyman

Signature artists always shift guitars; but Torres isn’t focused on winning over the big guns. “We don’t have an A&R team or surplus inventory to give out,” he says. “Our focus is the everyday guitar player – someone who doesn’t play guitar full-time but wants the features pro players get without the financial hindrance.”

That approach could be out of necessity. It’s unlikely that EART can nab a generational talent to take its sub-$500 GW2 models to stages. But then, something akin to Cort’s collaborative relationship with Hedras isn't out of the question either.

The emphasis for the challenger brands seems to be on delivering quality, affordable guitars to players without the need for poster boys and name-drops. It uses the product, rather than virtuosic romanticism, as its chief selling point.

One step ahead

While other brands scramble to diversify the market with their takes on what are often deemed as progressive metal guitars, Strandberg remains one step ahead by targeting new markets and playing styles “with bravery and curiosity.”

Two recent signature models – an eyebrow-raising five-string for Jacob Collier and a slick, monochrome build for street photographer Alan Schaller – sever the typical djent associations.

“There’s so much tradition that any innovation either catches on quickly or gets sent back to the drawing board,” says Isaac Stolzer-Gary, community manager at Strandberg.

“It takes about five minutes for preconceived notions to fade away. Every inch of a Strandberg is designed specifically with the human body in mind – there are reasons for the ‘strangeness’!”

Now other brands are adopting Strandberg’s ergonomics-over-fashion approach. That growing acceptance makes it easier to enter new markets. Who knows, with the rise of electric guitars in pop music again – see Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan – maybe there will be a headless axe entering those circles soon enough.

Heck, there’s an Abasi guitar on Beyoncé’s latest, Grammy-winning album – so the idea isn’t beyond the realms of possibility…

In the evolution of fusion guitar, Allan Holdsworth’s contribution can only be compared to that of Jimi Hendrix’s role in the foundation of rock guitar, and Django Reinhardt’s in the development of the instrument in the jazz world.

Holdsworth essentially reinvented the instrument through numerous aspects of his approach: through his fretboard concept which involved seeing every available note across the guitar neck at a glance, free of positions and fingering but also, crucially, in his harmonic concepts.

Finally, Holdsworth is probably most famous for his ferociously fast execution of lines using, as he did almost exclusively, a legato playing approach.

Holdsworth pushed the complexity of jazz harmony as far as anyone in the history of the music. He was also pioneering in terms of his sound, using high-gain amps and modulation and delay. Holdsworth’s tone has both saxophone and violin-like elements, while his clean chord sound had a keyboard-like timbre.

Ultimately, his originality as a composer and performer puts him in the elite of guitarists; as a jazz improviser he is surely in the top tier of masters alongside John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock.

In the 1980s, Allan was championed by leading rock and metal players such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, and Eddie Van Halen, on whose playing style he clearly had a huge influence. Holdsworth continued to release highly innovative fusion albums, refining and evolving in both his incredible fretboard mastery and his command of tone.

Holdsworth’s death in 2017 was a major shock to the music world. Respect and admiration for his music has increased through new audiences discovering his contribution to music via the internet.

To some extent, Holdsworth’s style is so highly evolved and complex that it defies being boiled down to ‘signature licks’ or ideas. However, as with the other players covered in this series, there are some recognisable motifs, melodic cells and stylistic features that we might extract or identify as ‘Holdsworthian’.

At this point, we must acknowledge Holdsworth’s mastery of legato: a very strong legato technique is essential to execute the following lines cleanly at speed.

It’s outside the scope of this article to give a detailed analysis of legato playing, but the best advice for those new to the technique would be to aim for equal clarity of articulation whether a note is struck with the plectrum, or executed with a hammer-on or pull-off. Holdsworth said this was one of his greatest priorities.

A very ‘square on’ hand and fingering position is also crucial, with the thumb placed in the middle of the back of the neck, pointing upwards to form a 90-degree angle to the neck itself, so as to allow the greatest reach for the fingers.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 9, Bass 7, Middle 7, Treble 4, Reverb 3

The examples were recorded using a semi-hollow PRS guitar’s bridge humbucker with the tone control rolled down to for a smooth, even sound. The recording was made using a Line 6 Helix set to model of a Marshall amp with plenty of gain. Go for a fat, smooth, high-gain tone with the treble pot rolled about halfway back, then add some light reverb and delay.

Example 1

This line contains two three-note motifs that Holdsworth frequently uses in many different harmonic settings. This can be analysed in a number of ways but it is probably most straightforward to see it as a diminished scale fragment, with the Root, b3 and Major 3rd present.

These melodic cells can, in turn, be moved around in major 3rds or in b5ths, as well as combined with different rhythmic combinations of the three intervals. The notes are played first as 16ths then 8ths.

Example 2

This shows how Holdsworth embellishes target or chord tones. If we take the last note D as the intended ‘target’ and see the line in the context of an underlying G minor tonality, we may view this as Allan’s four-note version of the classic ‘semitone-below-chord-tone-above’ embellishment. Again, 16ths are played first then 8ths.

Example 3

This line hints at Holdsworth’s use of bi-tonality or polytonality: that is, he uses two or more tonalities simultaneously or alternately within a bar to build harmonic density over a given root note or tonic.

Here, the key centre is G minor, starting with a three-note D minor pentatonic idea. The example then uses the three-note motif from example Ex1, built from an Eb but played descending by starting on the ‘upper note’ G followed by the Gb (F#) at the 14th fret.

Example 4

Our final melodic cell takes Example 1’s structure and moves it in b5ths, in groupings of five. The texture is very ‘Holdsworthian’ and should suggest, to both the ears and fingers, a world of possibilities. To help, the later repetitions are played slower with the notes being 8ths.

Example 5

This idea moves through all 12 keys using a simple root-3-2-root (C-E-D-C) idea starting in C major. The concept behind the line is that, as fingers ascend the fretboard we descend another semitone each time.

However, a single-cutaway guitar or one with a wide neck might make this difficult so here, when the lick reaches the fifth string, it starts to descend once the key of Db is reached.

Harmonically, all of this amounts to an extended exercise in tension and release as we pass through the 12 keys with varying amounts of consonance and dissonance, depending on the notes within our three-note cell.

Example 6

This idea starts with G diminished (half-whole) idea at the 10th fret but then shifts to G whole-half at the 8th. Half-way through bar 2, the lick uses the five-note enclosure concept to target the 3rd of G minor (Bb on the second string at the 11th fret), G on the third string (12th fret) and D on the fourth string (12th fret).

Eventually the lick reaches the sixth string and here we play a simple G minor melodic idea to end the line. Remember, 16ths first (as shown) then 8ths.

Example 7

This example begins with an enclosure of the b6 (Eb). That is, the target note is enclosed or surrounded by an upper and lower ‘neighbour’ note. A five-note enclosure is then played five times moving in b5ths starting on the fifth string and landing on the target notes A (the 9th) and Eb (the b6) of G minor respectively.

Eddie Van Halen appropriated these types of symmetrical ideas and you can hear them are all over Van Halen’s 1984 album.

Example 8

This lick starts by using a simple and familiar pentatonic motif but quickly takes a left turn into some extreme dissonance using G whole-half and G diminished (half-whole) scales and even a fragment of G whole-tone, resolving more comfortably to G Dorian in the second bar.

Example 9

In contrast to the previous line, this idea presents an example of a diatonic line over a major chord. Holdsworth’s playing can be surprisingly diatonic and the line contains only notes from G Dorian.

Notice the typical three-notes-per-string scale type fingerings and the string skip from the third string to the first. The ending is a representation of Holdsworth’s melodic and lyrical side, using space in contrast to a dense streams of notes.

Example 10

This idea takes a melodic cell, the formula for which is Root-b2-3rd, and this fragment is moved around in parallel, so the first note changes but the other two retain the same intervallic relationship with it.

Notice how the same note is played on different strings for an overlapping or doubling effect. Notice too how the lower note from each three-note grouping, either A, F or C#, spells out an augmented chord.

Example 11

Our final example takes the same 1-b2-3 cell but moves in an ascending direction. This time though, the cell is played twice on each string with a gap of a semitone between each iteration of it.

Again, the first note of each eight-note grouping is a major 3rd away from the previous one and once again implies an augmented sound. From another perspective, the line contains all 12 tones organised from four augmented triads: Ab-A-Bb-B but using one three-note cell.

When it comes to highs and lows, the late John Wetton was a wizard. Onstage with his Asia bandmates – Yes guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Carl Palmer of Emerson Lake & Palmer, and keyboardist Geoff Downes of Yes, Wetton wailed in a tenor singing voice that ranks with any in rock history. At the same time, he issued basslines that complemented his vocals with Baroque-like efficiency.

As if that weren't enough, he frequently underpinned both parts with seismic support tones from his ever-present bass pedals. Highs and lows also describes Wetton's career, a journey that took him through a host of key British rock bands, with numerous trips up the charts and bitter breakups along the way.

It 1971 Wetton performed and recorded with Mogul Thrash and then became a member of Family gaining prominence in England. This led to an invitation from a re-formed King Crimson, resulting in a peak period for the cult prog-rock band, with albums like Starless and Bible Black and Red.

Following that edition's late-'74 breakup, Wetton toured and recorded with Roxy Music and Uriah Heep before reconnecting with his Crimson rhythm section-mate Bill Bruford to form U.K. in 1977.

Three U.K. albums gave way to Wetton's 1980 solo debut, setting the stage for his role fronting Asia, a period he calls an artistic highpoint. Established in 1981, just as the video era was launching, Asia parlayed its pop-meets-progressive sound into hits like Heat of the Moment, Only Time will Tell, and Don't Cry.

A bout with the bottle led Wetton to be temporarily dismissed from Asia (replaced by Greg Lake). Although the other members quickly took him back, Asia wasn't able to duplicate its initial aces, and the group disbanded in 1985.

By 2000, Wetton had re-teamed with Asia members – first in Carl Palmer in the group Qango, and then with Geoff Downes for the Wetton/Downes album, Icon. Finally, in 2006 the original members convened for a successful reunion tour that stretched into 2007 and yielded the CD/DVD Fantasia: Live in Tokyo.

Asia also began works on Phoenix, the group's first studio album in 25 years, and embarked on another globe trot. The tour was interrupted in August 2007, when Wetton underwent triple bypass heart surgery. Wetton died January 3, 2017, after a battle with cancer. He was 67.

We spoke with Wetton in August 2008, with Asia having resumed touring, to get the lowdown on the prog-rock supergroup’s return.

Let's start with the formation of your bass concept.

“I come from the church and from composers like Bach, but my musical life really began when the Beatles and Beach Boys arrived. They put things into color for me, whereas the roots-rock before them had all been in black and white; it was monotone to my ears, with little melodic or harmonic movement.

“The non-root tones of Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson really appealed to me, because church music does that all the time – especially in hymns, where the bass typically moves all over the place the last time through the chorus.

“Essentially, in those days, when they got tired of playing the same bass part they would write a different one just for fun. That triggered my fascination with the placement of the bassline in the chord, and how it compliments the melody.”

“The way I write most often is to have my bass part moving independently or contrapuntally to what I'm singing in the verses, and then have it move parallel in the choruses, harmonizing the melody line. You can hear that on Easy Money with King Crimson; right through Heat of the Moment and Don't Cry with Asia.”

Would you say your bass voice came together in King Crimson?

“Yes, my bass and my musical voice. While working in Mogul Thrash and Family, I had seen bassists as disparate as Jack Bruce, Harvey Brooks, and Miroslav Vitous, and I continued trying to get my hands around James Jamerson's Motown lines. So at 22, I was quite sure of myself, looking to play as many notes as possible! That fit perfectly with the way Bill Bruford played drums.

“After we found our feet with Larks' Tongues in Aspic, I was especially comfortable with my musical input on Starless and Bible Black and Red. In particular, Starless, from Red, was a high-point for me. It's a sonata form, with my ballad at the start, into the demonic tritone bass guitar lick, which Bill wrote, then all hell breaks loose, and finally we're back to the ballad.”

What sort of tone were you going for in Crimson?

“Being that I was sort of balancing lead and support roles, I went with a sound that was quite sharp. It came courtesy of my fingers, sometimes a pick, my '61 P-Bass, Rotosound strings, a Hiwatt amp, and a cheap Italian wah-wah/fuzz pedal.

“Chris Squire and I were really into the bass tone that Ace Kefford got with the Move; it was like the bottom strings on a piano. That's what we were going after.”

How were you constructing your parts?

“We would have improvisational sections built into the setlist, between the songs, and we'd have a signal, which could come from anyone, that would take us into the next piece. So people really didn't know if we were improvising or playing organised arrangements – but you could do that in the '70s!

“For the improvisations, the only rule was that any member could take the lead at any point and the remaining members had to follow. But there'd be no key centre or chord sequence to go by; it was wide open!”

“There was one improvisation called Trio that had a chord sequence I outlined on bass because Robert Fripp was playing Mellotron. Overall, I would say the improv worked. Some nights it was purely telepathic, but it was never disastrous. Crimson was a great band to be in, but we knew it couldn't last forever.”

How did your bass role evolve for U.K.?

“Coming out of King Crimson, I carried a lot of my busy bass style into Roxy Music, and they didn't mind because they liked stretching out. By the time I finally got back with Bill Bruford in U.K., with guitarist Allan Holdsworth and keyboardist Eddie Jobson, the equation had changed. I was now the frontman, and the focus was on structured songs that left little room for improvisation.

“We were being marketed as a rock band, with videos and opening slots for groups like Van Halen. So bass-wise, I really had to be the anchor; that limited my freedom, but I was okay with it. I would call our approach organized chaos, with an awful lot of energy. On the other hand, the lack of improvisation drove Holdsworth up the wall. Still, I think we made a pretty darn good record.”

“When Allan and Bill left and we became a trio with drummer Terry Bozzio, we moved even further in a vocal and song-oriented direction, and my bass playing became even more functional. The two albums the trio did, along with my 1980 solo debut, Caught in the Crossfire, was my transition toward Asia.”

So Asia came at the right time?

“It couldn't have been better. My zest for music, which had taken 30 years to mature, had come to a head. Plus, I was surrounded by great musicians, the right label, the start of MTV; everything was in place. The only thing that could stop me was the self-destruct button, which happened briefly after two albums, but I got back. What really made Asia a success is that we sacrificed individually to create a true band sound.”

On his latest track Paul Position, Italian fusion mastermind Matteo Mancuso reminds us all why he stands as one of the most extraordinary talents to emerge in recent years. Mixing elements of country swing and heavy blues into a stunning four-minute display of genre-crossing brilliance, it’s the kind of song that will appeal to just about anyone who listens to instrumental guitar music.

None of that should come as a surprise, however, given the dazzling musicality and technical brilliance on display on last year’s debut album The Journey. What might be a surprise, however, is Mancuso’s usage of a six-string baritone for rhythmic ideas that dance into the realm of tech metal.

His instrument of choice was made by Italian company Bacci, rather than the Yamaha models usually seen in his hands. As it turns out, the idea had been bubbling away in his mind for quite some time.

“I was looking for a guitar that could cover the lower range for rhythms and riffs, like a seven-string,” the 27-year-old prodigy tells Guitar World. “But seven-strings feel really strange. For me they’re uncomfortable to play, and I don’t find them to be aesthetically pleasing – they just don’t look sexy!”

That thinking led him to longer scale length six-strings. Given that Yamaha aren’t currently in the business of baritone guitars since their Drop 6 models were discontinued, there was no conflict of interest in being seen with instruments made by other brands.

Tuscany-based luthier Bruno Bacci, meanwhile, specializes in high-end baritones which have ended up being wielded by modern funk masters like Mark Lettieri and Cory Wong. Clearly, it was meant to be.

“To my ears, a sixth string tuned down to B sounds better than the low B of a seven-string,” says Mancuso.

“The chords sound more even; I just prefer what I hear. They’re also easier to play! Basically baritones are regular guitars tuned one fourth down. For chordal work, it’s much easier than having to deal with an extra string. That was the start for me. Some people have been asking if I’ve left Yamaha, but that’s not true. Bacci will be just for baritones. My regular guitars will always be Yamaha.”

The track title Paul Position came to him after its completion. Parts of the solo section reminded him of certain Paul Gilbert licks – so why not acknowledge the influence head-on?

“Bacci asked me to record a song using only baritones,” he says. “It started around NAMM 2023. I had to do a demo, but I didn’t know what to play. I came up with some ideas that used open strings, so you could hear the bass frequencies and low end. I was also experimenting with a lot of country licks.

“I composed the song in April last year and decided to keep it separate from my first album. When I listened back, I realized the solo was inspired by Paul Gilbert – which is why I referenced him, swapping ‘Pole’ for ‘Paul’ as a little joke.”

As well as nods to the Racer X and Mr. Big legend, moments of the track are surprisingly reminiscent of Tosin Abasi’s work in progressive metal trio Animals As Leaders – perhaps not so much in terms of tone, but certainly in the thumb-led rhythmic chug of a detuned lower string, resulting in some of the most metallic flavors the Italian has given us to date.

There’s always been that side to him, he reasons, citing players like Yngwie Malmsteen and Randy Rhoads among his more aggressive influences when he’s looking to unleash the fury. Other lines are reminiscent of modern blues giant Joe Bonamassa – who famously championed Mancuso early on, and even invited him up on stage in Berlin on his last European tour.

Keen-eyed viewers of fan-filmed clips noted Bonamassa seemed to be laughingly shrugging at the notion of trying to keep up with Mancuso. In many ways, it felt like a passing of the torch. “Joe has definitely influenced me a lot, especially with his pentatonic stuff,” the rising star confirms.

“I was really nervous before taking the stage in front of 5,000 people. It felt like a challenge. Joe was great at making me comfortable – he’s such a nice guy. We did a soundcheck earlier in the day and he told me to just have fun and not to worry about anything else.

“That was so helpful because it set up the mood. I was nervous until I walked out – and then I suddenly felt really happy. Everyone was smiling and the whole band were supporting me. It was an incredible experience; easily one of my favorites from this year so far.”

Here Mancuso tells Guitar World about the 10 guitarists who shaped his sound – a list which reflects why he’s such a rounded player, well-poised for a long career of guitar stardom.

1. Jimi Hendrix

“I know people who listen to me might think I’m far away from the Hendrix style, but he was my first big influence. Like many people, the first songs I learned were Hendrix songs like Purple Haze. And one of the first chords I learned was the Hendrix chord... that was its official name for me!

“Hey Joe taught me the basic chord shapes like C, G and A Minor. Other tunes like Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and Little Wing were a great starting point for learning my first pentatonic solos, as well as the importance of bending and wide vibrato.

“Many people think I started out playing classical because I use fingerstyle, but actually it was electric, and Hendrix was the backbone of all my technique.

“In terms of vocabulary and technique, it was mainly pentatonic, but there was some Dorian stuff I learned from Hendrix, especially going across one string. That’s how I learned about not sticking to boxes and moving horizontally rather than vertically. It was a major discovery for me as a 10-year-old.”

2. Angus Young

“During my first years of playing I was all about Jimi and Angus. One of the first songs that blew my mind was Whole Lotta Rosie. There’s a famous live version where Angus plays an extended solo and he’s really ripping on that SG. I remember thinking, ‘I need an SG right now!’

“Angus has small hands like me, but he still has a lot of power when it comes to bending and vibrato. As a kid, I thought you needed big hands for that, but Angus proved you didn’t.

“He had a very clean, natural and dynamic sound – just an SG going into a loud Marshall. Sometimes that’s not the easiest tone to work with, because it can be harder to play and people can hear all the imperfections. It’s the total opposite to the metal compressed thing, which is very forgiving. That’s why I love Angus’ tone. It’s so raw and you can hear he’s having a good time!”

3. Eddie Van Halen

“Eddie was my introduction to the late ‘70s and ‘80s shred movement. The first Van Halen record is very special – it has Eruption, as well as Ice Cream Man, which is one of my favorite tracks by them. I remember watching his most famous live versions of Eruption on YouTube. I had no idea you could do things like that with a guitar!

“Seeing that led to me trying to play with a lot of gain. I found it really difficult because you need a lot of control in your right hand. Being a fingerstyle player, controlling all that distortion was a hard thing to master.

“Beyond what Eruption did for guitar solos, there was the Van Halen remake of You Really Got Me, reinterpreting older music for a new generation. I loved the look and sound of the Frankenstrat. Eddie always looked so cool on stage.”

4. Eric Johnson

“Eric was and still is one of my biggest influences. I first heard him through a live version of Cliffs Of Dover from 1988. It blew my mind immediately; and to this day I would say it’s one of the greatest live recordings ever captured, just because of how clean he plays those lines and the sound of his vibrato.

“The next tune I learned by him was Zap, from the same album [Live In Austin, TX]. I became completely obsessed with Eric. I wanted the same sound, the same feel, the same everything! He was doing stuff that I didn’t really hear from the other players.

“I learned a lot from his music, such as the spread triads concept – which is actually very simple. You take whatever triad it is, let’s say a C Major one, and instead of playing the major third in the same octave, you play it in the next one. That’s why it’s called a spread triad! That was a big discovery and I still use that concept in my own playing.

“Then there’s all the pentatonic cascading stuff. He could make his guitar sound like a violin because of how clean he played. In order to improvise like him, I started to actually imagine I was him! That exercise helped a lot, actually.”

5. Scott Henderson

“Scott was probably one of the first fusion guys I heard. One of the first songs I heard was Dolemite. Immediately I could tell he was a genius player, even if there’s no crazy technique behind his music. His solos are – well, I wouldn’t say easy – but not technically incredible. But what he plays is always musical; he does the right thing for the song in every situation.

“His touch is amazing, especially when you look at his whammy bar control. He’s one of the few players that can play through the changes in a really interesting way, stringing through different scales and arpeggios. He can deliver a lot of information; but at the same time he’s rocking out with a bluesy sound that’s like Stevie Ray Vaughan on steroids.

“Because of that, I think he brings the best of both worlds. He has the aggression and power of rock players, but the sophistication and colors of jazz. I knew I wanted to be that kind of guitarist: someone who could rock out but also have a clear understanding of scales and what works where.

“I’ve seen Scott live twice. The first, at the Blue Note in Milan, was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. After hearing Dolemite, I started listening to his work in the Chick Corea band. There’s one solo I transcribed from a song called King Cockroach; even after hearing it 100 times, it still gives me the chills. Then there’s his work with Tribal Tech, which is more fusion-sounding. I really like the song Face First from those recordings.”

6. Frank Gambale

“Frank is another player who stunned me the moment I heard him. By this point, I’d reached a certain technical level, so that stuff was less important to me and came second. What really got me hooked was his endless exchange of ideas.

“His solos are very original. I’ve never heard anyone play like Frank, to be honest. There are so many emulators of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen, but no one has been able to play like Frank. He’s such an innovator – and not because of the sweep picking, because that’s what people tend to focus on.

“Of course it’s an important aspect, but it’s his vocabulary that I find truly unique. It’s all the quartal stuff and outside ideas. I also like his compositions, because he’s really influenced by one of my favorite bands, Steely Dan. You can hear it in how he searches for all those interesting harmonies. Like Scott Henderson, he has a lot of sophistication and knowledge, but he can also rock and play hard.

“There’s one album that I listen to a lot – Thunder From Down Under – which has him riding a giant kangaroo on the cover. The song Leave Ozone Alone is one of my favorites.”

7. Allan Holdsworth

“You can classify guitar players before Allan and after Allan – he’s that important in the history of guitar. But interestingly, I don’t think his mind was very guitarist. Sometimes he sounded like a sax or violin player. His style was so unorthodox, especially when you listen to what he did in Soft Machine or with Tony Williams. Even when he was 20 years old he was innovating.

“He influenced me in a lot of ways, especially when I was starting to experiment with how I looked at the fretboard. Allan helped me see it all differently. I love how he wasn’t thinking about modes; it wasn’t about Dorian or Phrygian and that stuff – he was thinking in terms of three scales. It was the major, melodic minor and harmonic minor, with some harmonic major as well.

“He didn’t really care about the modes. He just thought about one root note and a scale that went across the fretboard. I’m a big fan of that mindset. It’s better to think of one scale going across your guitar than seven different ones breaking it up. He inspired me to look at the neck like that.

“Of course, the playing was amazing too. Tokyo Dream is one of his many masterpieces, with all those giant chords. I can’t play some of them because my hands are too small. I didn’t understand Allan when I first heard his playing; it was too advanced. Then around the age of 20, I was like, ‘Woah, I get it!’

“Devil Take The Hindmost has one of the best fusion solos of all-time. In terms of innovating the guitar, Allan is up there with Jimi, Eddie and Django Reinhardt.”

8. Django Reinhardt

“Speaking of Django, there was a period of time where I really started digging into the world of gypsy jazz. Django taught me a lot. I think he’s one of the best pickers of all time. There’s something magical that happens when he does all the chromatic stuff – even though he’s only using two fingers, it’s so on-point. It almost sounds like MIDI guitar!

“If you imagine that level of technique in the 1940s, it’s incredible. People were looking at him like a god. Learning his music was a technical challenge for me – gypsy jazz arpeggios with fingerstyle is very tricky because you need a lot of volume, which comes from using a pick. And those players often use very thick picks to get that sound. It was difficult for me to achieve that with just fingers on an acoustic.

“Through him I learned a lot about playing through chord changes. His music isn’t that complex harmonically. There aren’t a lot of chords like there are in fusion; instead he’d use a lot of vocabulary over just a few chords, like a II-V-I progression with 10 different possibilities for the V.

“He used so many scales from whole tone to half diminished. Some of it sounds like modern jazz, but he was doing this stuff 80 years ago. Django was ahead of his time. He created a magical sound.”

9. Wes Montgomery

“All the first clean jazz licks I learned came from Wes. What I love about his playing most is that all his solos were improvised, but they sounded like they were preconceived.

“There’s no incredible technique behind his playing, but he had such melodic control and this incredible flow of ideas. I love how he found his sound through his limitations, because he was using just his right hand thumb. Most players wouldn’t be able to do much with just that.

“His rhythmic concepts were amazing – that was one of his greatest strengths. Over the years he’s one of the players I’ve transcribed the most. When you hear me playing clean, I would say 80 percent of the single note lines have come from him.”

10. Pat Metheny

“Pat has influenced me a lot in life – not so much in terms of how I play, but definitely in how I compose. But I love his use of chromatics and his approach to soloing. He tends to be very melodic at first, then right at the end he starts doing all the crazy stuff.

“I feel like there are two characters that coexist in his sound, from the really sweet-sounding ideas to the extremely out-there jazz madness. He’s one of the best single note line improvisers out there and also one of the best composers.

“I remember the first time I heard Last Train Home and Still Life (Talking), which is one of his best albums with the Pat Metheny Group. There are so many tunes which inspired me, like Minuano and First Circle. He’s an incredibly well-rounded player.”

• The Journey is on sale now via Mascot Label Group.

Allan Holdsworth was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1946. An early member of bands like Soft Machine and UK, in the ’80s he released a slew of masterpiece albums that changed the landscape of jazz and fusion guitar. His style was so influential that his name is mentioned by the likes of Van Halen, Satriani, and Vai as one of the greatest guitarists to have walked the planet.

Allan had a linear melodic style that defied tradition. He also possessed a unique self-taught perception of theory and and the guitar fretboard, quite removed from the more formulated structures we are used to today. 

His approach was idiosyncratic and his music sounds almost alien. Although he would use jazz-inspired ‘outside’ harmony, he would also often use typical scales and modes, albeit heavily disguised.

Our first three examples use the Lydian mode, the minor pentatonic and the Dorian mode, with no passing notes. Allan’s use of legato, string skipping, and his skill at finding patterns within scales gives the music its otherworldly dimension. 

Add to this his smooth legato technique and large hands and the result is something that enables wide stretches and a flow of notes not naturally available to most players. With practice we can achieve this sound by making each note the same volume and blending in softer picked notes to disguise string changes and create seamless links between notes across the entire fretboard.

Allan enjoyed finding symmetry and patterns that could be applied to different strings. Example 4 is based in the half-whole diminished scale, constructed in half and whole tones to create an eight-note pattern. It offers a great deal of scope for creativity and has many elements to explore, which of course Allan did to its limits.

Example 5 is built around another symmetrical scale, a repeating ‘tone-semitone-semitone’ sequence. Start from any root note and repeat this pattern and the nine-note result is: 1-2-b3-3-#4-5-b6-b7-7. The pattern repeats every major 3rd, which lends an augmented flavour to the proceedings.

There is also a blend of Lydian and Aeolian modes for an interesting simultaneous major and minor sound. In his 1992 instructional video, Allan simply refers to this as the symmetrical scale, but more specifically we can identify it as ‘Messiaen mode 3’.

The name originates from French 20th century composer Olivier Messiaen, who created a list of seven ‘modes of limited transposition’, which are all symmetrical scales. The list includes the familiar whole-tone and diminished scales, as well as various lesser-known ones including this Allan Holdsworth favourite.

Play each example slowly and accurately at first and gradually speed up in small increments as your muscle memory and finger dexterity improves. 

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 7, Bass 4, Middle 7, Treble 4, Reverb 1

Allan played Steinberger,  Bill DeLap, and a Kiesel signature guitar with a single bridge humbucker pickup. He also also used the Yamaha UD-stomp pedal and had a Rockett Pedals signature overdrive pedal. The Holdsworth tone is very smooth and even, with boosted mids and not much presence or treble which created his mellow sound. Just add reverb.

Example 1. Ionian arpeggio lick

This lick is based entirely within D Ionian (D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#), and uses arpeggios, wide stretches and string skips for an Allan-style phrase. Hold the whammy bar loosely in your palm throughout and use it to add vibrato and scoop into the notes indicated for a synth-like pitch bend.

Example 2. Wide-stretch Dorian lick

Based in E Dorian (E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D), this lick uses string skipping and wide stretches to repeat the same note on different strings. The latter half of the lick uses a wide stretch shape on each string using the 12th, 14th and 19th frets. If this is too much of a finger stretch, feel free to tap the 19th-fret notes.

Example 3. Stretchy sextuplet lick

Continuing the wide stretch theme, this lick begins with B minor pentatonic (B-D-E-F#-A) played with three notes per string, then extends to B Dorian by adding C# and G# in the second half. 

Keep the sextuplet phrasing even by targeting with the particular finger that lands on each downbeat. This is made more challenging with a five-note melodic pattern embedded within the six-note feel.

Example 4. Half-whole diminished lick

This lick uses D half-whole diminished which contains eight notes (D-Eb-F-F#-G#-A-B-C). There are various symmetrical patterns within the scale that offer many Holdsworthian options for accessing movable shapes, transferrable to different strings. Use this lick to generate your own ideas (It Bites’ Francis Dunnery did).

Example 5. Messiaen nine-note scale lick

This lick is based in Messiaen’s 3rd mode from an A root (A-B-C-C#-D#-E-F-G-G#). Focus on picking at the same volume as your legato notes in order for the notes to flow together in a liquid like fashion. As the phrasing switches between 16th-notes and sextuplets be sure not to speed up in tempo.

Allan Holdsworth’s playing was simply staggering. He had access to an immensely sophisticated harmonic, rhythmic and melodic vocabulary that was steeped in the tradition of jazz and also assimilated elements of rock, fusion, funk, blues and even classical harmony, but the end result was undeniably his own. 

Allan was a special artist indeed, with a unique approach to music and one of the most recognisable sounds in guitar from the late ’60s until his passing on 15th April 2017. 

Born 1946 in Bradford, Yorkshire, it’s widely known that Holdsworth didn’t really ever want to play the guitar, preferring the sound of the saxophone but when practical considerations got in the way (his parents couldn’t afford one!) he turned his attentions to the guitar, albeit without the intrinsic connection to the idiomatic vocabulary of this instrument.

Holdsworth’s father was an accomplished pianist and encouraged him to practise, but with remarkable discipline and focus Allan set about learning to play entirely by himself.  

While influenced by the music that surrounded him and from hearing diverse artists in his father’s record collection, such as the legendary tenor saxophonist John Coltrane and the French classical composer, Claude Debussy, Allan set out with a steely determination to sound entirely like himself. So he worked out a highly personal approach to creating music, with both improvisation and harmony at the core of his sound and style. 

Allan’s career began in top 40 covers bands, before moving on to work with progressive/jazz crossover groups such as Tempest, Igginbottom’s Wrench and Gong, and then on to touring and recording with artists such as Soft Machine, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bill Bruford and Tony Williams. 

With a flair for composition, this naturally led on to Holdsworth developing an impressive career as a bandleader in his own right, with each new release eagerly awaited by his international legion of devoted fans, with live performances attaining almost mythical status.

I’d urge you to devote some time to listening to his playing if you’re not familiar with his music, firstly to bask in the sheer beauty, but then to allow the realisation of the possibilities available, should you strive to attain this level of fluency, sophistication and articulation.

The purpose of this article is twofold: to shine a light on Allan’s genius and introduce his music to anyone who might not be familiar with it. Secondly, we’re going to explore how you can take specific concepts, for our purposes here we’re looking at five in all, and apply these ideas to your own playing.

We’ll do this by initially looking at a concept derived from Allan’s playing and then we’ll explore how the same idea has been exploited in more classic blues and jazz styles, including a host of well-known players from both of these idioms. 

While learning these lines will definitely expand your harmonic, melodic and rhythmic horizons, you should then consider inventing some ideas of your own that take each concept or idea and run with it.

The end result can be as close or as far away from the initial inspiration. What’s important is that you explore the possibilities that this process has to offer, and I’m certain that Allan would approve. As always, enjoy… 

Technique focus: Choose your influences carefully

While it’s undeniable that Allan Holdsworth achieved a unique and instantly recognisable voice as a musician, guitarist, composer and improviser, there were two names he consistently acknowledged as having a profound impact upon his musicianship and artistry. 

These were the French composer Claude Debussy, and specifically the piece Clair De Lune from Suite Bergamasque, along with the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, again specifically highlighting the album Coltrane’s Sound (Atlantic 1960) as being of particular significance. 

While there might not be an obvious connection between the two, you can hear both of these influences clearly in Allan’s music. The beautiful impressionistic harmonic motion of Debussy, coupled with the rhythmic density and melodic intensity of Coltrane present in Holdsworth’s sound makes complete sense once you understand the significance that hearing this music had upon Allan, assimilating the essence but without ever sounding like a pale imitation of the source.

Consider how you might integrate ideas from the musicians that inspire you. While this could be a specific idea, concept or musical approach, it’s equally valid to attempt to adopt a similar mind-set, feeling or any other relevant artistic expression of intent, and attempt to incorporate this into your sound.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 7, Bass 6, Middle 5, Treble 5, Reverb

The fluidity of Holdsworth’s tone was partly a product of his accurate legato technique; too much distortion adversely affects dynamics and changes the vowel sound of a sustaining note. His clean sound was super-clean, with modulation, reverb and multiple delays. 

Our virtual guitar amp settings reflect his lead settings, although gain levels with vary dependent upon the output of your pickups and the gain structure of your amp/simulator.

Example 1. Oblique motion

Our first example introduces the concept of oblique motion, where one event remains static while movement occurs in the neighbouring notes. 

For our Allan-inspired idea there is a consistent C note for every chord voicing, while the surrounding voices generally move in parallel, either in step-wise scalar motion or in semitone one-fret leaps. Bars 2 and 3 are of particular interest here as they outline how Holdsworth often treats simple Major and Minor triads. 

Maintaining the static C note, we see how Eric Clapton might interpret ideas from early blues players like Robert Johnson, and again keeping C as our static pivot point we see a similar idea expressed by gypsy jazz guitarist Biréli Lagrène to create a perfect intro or outro in the key of C.

Example 2. Parallel motion

Next up we’re exploring parallel motion within our chord forms. Holdsworth often created voicings by combining specific interval stacks coming from a particular host scale. He considered these from the parent scale, rather than identifying each shape as a unique chord or harmonic event. 

Here we see how he might harmonise the D Dorian mode (or Dx, using Allan’s system of chord symbols), using an intervallic pattern of 7th, 2nd and 6th from low to high. Again, we see similar expressions of this idea from the blues master Robben Ford and the soul, blues and jazz sensation Cornell Dupree. 

You can hear a similar harmonisation device employed in the tenor/alto/trumpet section of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Julian Adderley on their famous album, Kind of Blue.

Example 3. Chromatic decoration

Allan was exceptionally good at filling in the gaps between chord tones and the less stable dissonances that are found nestling in the cracks between them. Our first line here outlines B Dorian over E (Bx/E). 

Rhythmic intent, along with the selection of an ultimate strong resolution plays a big part in the success of lines of this nature. Resist the temptation to rush, as this will sound much less convincing. 

As with the previous examples we are exploring this chromatic decoration concept from a blues and jazz perspective by looking at lines inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Jimmie Rainey respectively.

Example 4. Outside lines

This line is harmonically ambiguous right from the start, with clear evidence of Major 3rds (A) and even a chromatically approached F7b5b9 arpeggio (F-A-Cb-Eb-Gb). Holdsworth was clearly at home with harmonic ambiguity and liked to combine ideas with both Major and Minor 3rds, along with Major and flattened 7ths. 

We delve into these outside ideas with a Gary Moore-inspired pentatonic pattern that moves in and out of tonality via ascending and descending semitones, and we end this example by illustrating how Pat Metheny weaves in and out of tonality by shifting small pieces of a phrase in semitones to create a propulsive sense of tension and release – an important device in both jazz and blues.

Example 5. Mixing rhythms

Holdsworth’s time-feel was wonderfully fluid and he frequently mixed up rhythmic groupings, completely spontaneously and no doubt without a care in the world. 

If you’re new to quintuplets (five notes per beat) you might wish to use words to assist you here, so bar 1 could be rhythmically interpreted as ‘university-2e&a-university-4e&a’. 

Our Eric Johnson pentatonic phrase shifts between triplets (three notes per beat), 16th notes/semiquavers (fours) and quintuplets (fives) to produce a forward moving sense of developing intensity. The final Adrien Moignard phrase again mixes these rhythmic units but like our Holdsworth line, he shifts freely between these subdivisions at will. 

It’s a fascinating question to consider who influenced Eddie Van Halen. How did he develop his unique playing approach? Did he stumble across everything by accident? 

In this lesson we attempt to look at who some of those influences were, how they informed Eddie’s journey and how he then pushed those ideas forward to a whole new school of players. 

It is well documented that Eddie was a huge fan of the blues-rock icons of the ’60s and ’70s, and much of Van Halen’s songwriting approach is clearly grounded in this style. 

Eddie’s most commonly cited early guitar hero is Eric Clapton; in interviews he always cited EC as his great early inspiration, but he was also a great fan of Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore and indeed Allan Holdsworth.

As any fan of Eddie will know, the backbone of his vocabulary lies in a fiery blues-rock vocabulary. Before Van Halen were Van Halen, Eddie was known for being able to play almost every Cream solo note for note, and there are multiple recordings of interviews where he plays the entire Crossroads solo. In fact, he is quoted as dedicating his bluesy solo on the song When It’s Love to Clapton himself, as a tribute to his legacy and influence.

Eddie was also a huge fan of Led Zeppelin, and there’s no doubt that they had a big influence on his riff writing and songs. It’s also possible to speculate that Jimmy is where Eddie’s inspiration for expressive techniques came from.

The Heartbreaker solo in particular features many sounds that are staples in Eddie’s own arsenal; tapped notes with large bends, pick slides and wide vibrato. If you’ve not heard it for a while, it’s worth digging it out and reminding yourself.

However, it wasn’t just the blues-rock players of his youth that inspired Eddie. He was also captivated by jazz-fusion heavyweight, Allan Holdsworth. Allan was an incredibly accomplished legato player and experimented with all sorts of unconventional tonalities. 

It was his use of wide stretches and symmetrical shapes that created very angular and interesting sounds that caught Eddie’s ear, and was something that he tried to emulate in his own way. 

Many of the scale fingerings he liked to draw on are unconventional and won’t be be found in any typical text book, but they make it easier to execute faster lines while also creating unexpected angular sounds that keep things sounding fresh and less exercise based.

Of course we cannot discuss the great Eddie without mentioning his pioneering approach to two-handed tapping. Of course it had been dabbled with by other players as previously mentioned, plus Les Paul and others before him. 

But Eddie brought into the spotlight an otherwise unheard-of technique that allowed him to play large arpeggio sequences reminiscent of the classical music he first learned in his formative years in Holland.

It was also possibly his way of replicating some of the arpeggio approaches he would have heard listening to tracks like Deep Purple’s Highway Star – an approach previously only heard on keyboards and not on electric guitar.

Our six studies focus specifically on these particular stylistic and technical influences, with the final piece combing elements from all five approaches. 

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 5, Reverb 4

To get close to Eddie’s sound, you don’t necessarily need a Marshall Plexi or a Peavey 5150. Any good Marshall-esque tone will suffice. The key to Eddie’s sound relies heavily on the fire of your delivery.

Use less preamp gain than you think, then you’ll have to put more power into your pick attack and vibrato to get the notes to scream. If using a cleaner amp, go for a strong drive pedal like a Boss SD-1 or Fulltone OCD.

Example 1. Pop-rock influences

This study tips its hat towards Eddie’s ’60s songwriting influences ranging from bands like the Kinks (Dave Davies) and The Beatles through to The Who (Pete Townshend). This study is mostly stock blues-rock vocabulary, but with wide vibrato to make it more aggressive and punchy.

In bars 4-6, there is a big stretch for the descending hammer-on line. Make sure the thumb on the back of the neck is lined up with your second finger to enable maximum stretch.

Example 2. Eric Clapton influence

Eddie always spoke about how it was Eric Clapton and not perhaps the more expected Jimi Hendrix that was his number one lead guitar influence. So this study is essentially a blues solo, but with a bit of Eddie’s extra edge to the tone and delivery of the more rocky vibrato than that of Clapton. 

The licks are definitely there though! Look out for the deliberate staccato versus legato notes, as well as the slides in particular to get the solo sounding ‘Creamily’ authentic.

Example 3. Jimmy Page influence

Here we are purposefully exploring the ‘tapped bends’ approach that Eddie used a lot. This study is great for developing muscle memory and accuracy when combining bending and tapping techniques. 

To achieve vibrato with a tapped note, it is the fretting hand that still provides the power and movement. The picking hand follows what the fretting hand is doing. If it’s the other way around then vibrato would be more difficult to achieve and control.

Example 4. Allan Holdsworth influence

Here we focus on symmetrical shapes and wide stretches. To make the larger stretches, make sure your thumb is in the middle of your fretting hand on the back of the neck, so your fingers can spread out like a fan. 

The picking directions are based on my own approach, but a similar effect can be created with only picking two notes per string and using hammer-ons for the rest. Palm muting creates the staccato attack.

Example 5. Classical influence

Here’s an example of Eddie’s approach to emulating a classical guitar performance combined with his signature two-handed tapping approach. The fretting-hand tapping requires a decent amount of attack to get the notes to ring out on an acoustic instrument. 

The arpeggio section in the middle can just as easily be translated onto electric guitar. If you don’t have access to an acoustic why not try those ideas in a higher gain context? They sound immense!

Example 6. Influences combined

[Bars 1-4] We open with a ’60s/’70s style rhythm part that moves into some stock blues-rock expression in bars 5-8. 

[Bars 9-11] Here we see some Clapton-esque pentatonic licks resolving in bars 13-14 with some Jimmy Page inspired tapped bends and slides. The first half of the study finishes with a Holdsworth-style symmetrical run in bars 15-16. 

[Bars 17-23] The playing in these bars will perhaps be the most challenging to execute. Here we have a long two-handed tapping arpeggio sequence
following the chord changes that lead into a final pentatonic tapping extravaganza. 

This final tapping sequence combines various elements of all the previous influences, to create a slice of playing that’s intended to sound like pure Eddie Van Halen.

[Bars 23 - 33] The final section of bars 23-33 give us some more traditional blues rock inspired vocabulary including the use of some triads in bars 27-28, a trademark of Eddie’s style. 

The study rounds off with another combination of bending and tapping technique to bring us to a final flourish in position 1 of minor pentatonic with tone wide vibrato to end.

We’re so used to thinking of our fingers moving towards the floor when we play an ascending bass part that it comes as something of a shock to see the unique former Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip in action. 

Not only does he play a left-handed bass guitar, he strings it upside-down – in other words, his low B string is physically lower than his high C. Add to this his phenomenal ability when it comes to fast soloing, and your brain ends up tied in knots.  

Fortunately we have the great Grammy-winning bassist right here, 69 years old and full of energy, ready to talk about his unorthodox technique, some of the many albums on which it appears, and his memories of taking bass lessons 46 years ago with a certain J. Pastorius... 

Have you done much recording from home in the pandemic, Jimmy? 

“I have two studios that are a stone’s throw away from my home here in Venice Beach. For that reason I’ve dragged my feet about getting a home studio set up, but in February 2020 it started looking a bit crazy with the virus, so I realized that I needed to get some gear together to allow me to work from home. 

“I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with it. I don’t profess to be a very good engineer, but I can actually sit here and record electric bass, and even some keyboards, so I’m happy.“ 

What is your go-to bass gear these days? 

“Aside from the Roscoe basses that I’ve been using for some years, I also have a bunch of old Tobias basses and some newer MTDs. I’ve been in touch with [luthier] Mike Tobias for a long, long time and I absolutely love his instruments. I feel connected to them, just as I do with Keith Roscoe’s basses. 

“I met a luthier in Japan named Hirotaka Kiuchi who has a boutique company called Inner Wood, and I hooked up with him. I introduced him to Keith Roscoe’s company, and he ended up being the rep in Japan for them. We became friends, and he built me three beautiful instruments. 

“They’re pretty straight-ahead: off the top of my head, I would just describe them as souped-up Fender basses with great-quality sounds. You plug one of those into a direct box in the studio for a session and engineers and very comfortable with it.“ 

Tell us about the reissues of your albums Red Heat and Nightfall. 

“I was originally signed to a small label named Unitone, and I did the original version of Red Heat for them in the early Nineties. I did that record with [pianist] Joe Vannelli, having already worked with him on a variety of projects. 

“At the time, my father wasn’t well, and he had always wanted the Yellowjackets to do a Latin-influenced album, which – as I told him – would be difficult because the band was a consortium of four musicians, and I wasn’t comfortable pushing a certain genre of music on the band. 

“When he took ill, I thought it would be a good idea to do a project of music that was influenced by my Latin roots, which are not especially deep, because I grew up in Long Island.“ 

You weren’t an aficionado of that culture?

“The culture that I got from Puerto Rico was really from my parents and my cousins; it wasn’t as steeped in tradition as it would have been if I’d been born and raised in Puerto Rico. 

“I did learn a lot as a young kid, being around the culture and the music, from Tito Puente to Mongo Santamaria and Ray Barretto, and I saw a lot of these bands play in New York, which made a big impact on me when I was growing up and studying music. 

“So I made the decision to focus Red Heat on anything I could bring to the party that concerned Latin music and culture. It was my own take on it. It was a wonderful experience to work on that album, and to have my father be the focus of the emotion that I put into it. 

“Unitone did a good job and it achieved some success when it came out. Joe was right there with me: He put 1000 percent into helping me put it together, just as he did with Nightfall some years later, which I wrote when my daughter was enduring a health crisis. There was no real support for that album, which is why I decided to reissue it, along with Red Heat, on Blue Canoe Records, where I’ve been A&R-ing for a while.“

Do you ever listen back to a recording and feel that you could have done better? 

“Always, haha! Even on the day I finish a session, I think maybe I could have done a better job. As I get older I feel like I’m changing as a bass player on a daily basis.“ 

In a good way? 

“I hope so! I feel like I’m progressing as a musician and becoming a better one as time goes on. I still put in a lot of time with the instrument, just as I’ve done in the past. Do you know the theory of becoming good at anything you want to do as long as you put at least 10,000 hours into it? 

“I know I’ve put at least that many hours into it already, but I’m still not satisfied. I’ll be happy to put another 10,000 hours into it, although I don’t know if I’ll have enough time, because I turned 69 this year. Thanks to the pandemic, I’ve put in at least 1000 hours this year alone.“ 

With the way you string your basses, do you think that upper-register fills are easier to play for you, because the higher strings are closer to your fingers? 

“It’s very possible. I really haven’t analyzed that at all. I look at playing any instrument as a difficult task. To get proficient takes time and energy, as it does to get comfortable with the instrument and to get a sound out of it, and then to start getting into the technical and mechanical aspects of playing it. 

“In my case, I always felt that because I play the bass guitar unconventionally, I was always having to deal with some unconventional hurdle, to play the instrument correctly. 

“And at this point in my life, I know I don’t play the instrument correctly, haha! I’ve sort of abandoned some of those kinds of rules and just tried to find my own way of expressing myself on the instrument, for better or for worse. That’s led me down some interesting paths and studies.“

Tell us about your lessons with Jaco. 

“That was an explosion of an experience. You know how things just happen, by coincidence or fate or chance – all these things that come into a lifetime of experience? It so happened that at the time in 1975, I was just settling in to Los Angeles, having moved here from New Orleans. 

“The goal was to get a record deal, and I ran into a drummer that I had met in New York but got to know in New Orleans. He invited me and our guitar player to come to Los Angeles. The drummer was Carmine Appice, who is a force of nature. I’ve been friends with him ever since. 

“He graciously put us up, and I think he wanted to play with us, but he was committed contractually to his band KGB. He introduced us to his brother Vinny, and we formed a trio. He then introduced us to these guys Cavallo, Ruffalo and Fargnoli, who had a huge management company. 

“At the time they were managing a new artist called Prince, as well as Earth, Wind And Fire, and Little Feat, who I loved – and Weather Report, who I had always been in awe of.“ 

Not a bad artist roster. 

“Right! They took us on, and we were managed by them. They were very interested in what we were doing and they were seeking a record deal for us. In the process we ended up in a rehearsal hall that belonged to Frank Zappa. It had two rooms, a small one that we were in because we were just a trio, and a larger one with a stage with Weather Report in it. 

“They were rehearsing at the same time as us, so I was incredibly excited, and I snuck in to watch. To my surprise, I saw this long-haired guy playing bass, and I was thinking ‘Who’s this?’ because I was expecting to see Alphonso Johnson. But I’d never heard anything quite like this new guy, and he blew me away. I waited around, and when they finished I went up to Jaco and introduced myself and asked if he gave lessons. 

“He said ‘Well, I’m going to be in town for the next 10 or 12 days, so if you want we can get together and have some lessons’. I said ‘Great!’ and with that I took probably a half-dozen lessons with him, as well as some regular time just hanging out with him. In the first lesson he said ‘I just finished my first solo project, do you want to hear something? It’s not out yet but it’s coming out soon’. I said ‘Sure’ and he stuck some headphones on my head, and the first thing I heard was Donna Lee.“ 

Was he impressed by your playing? 

“I was astounded that he said I actually had pretty good technique. I took that as a very high compliment, coming from him, and it was very motivating. Now that I’ve done a lot of teaching, I understand that the job of a good teacher is to motivate the students. Jaco was right to do that, although whether he meant it or not, I don’t know! I did feel like I had some things going on in my favor at that point, though.“

What were they? 

“Well, people ask me all the time how I play fast, because I’ve had that skill from when I first started playing, although I don’t know why that happened. I guess learning to play when you’re an impatient 13-year-old might be one of the reasons, though. Jaco told me to start out slow and build up speed over a period of time, which was a good lesson for the impatient 25-year-old that I was. 

“I was always trying to learn things at speed, and sometimes that would be frustrating. It was a revelation to me that I could slow all the notes down and play at a slower tempo, before building up again once I was comfortable.“ 

What else did Jaco teach you? 

“He suggested some ideas after he watched me play for a while, and he also asked me if I had any thoughts about what I wanted to do. At the time I was trying to work on some melodic things that I was having a little trouble with, and he gave me this great tool that I use to this day. 

“He said, ‘If you can sing something, you should be able to play it.’ He also asked me to listen to more horn players, which was good advice when it comes to soloing, and he told me to study Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias, which I was unaware of until he told me about it. They were very technically challenging.“ 

You also played with Allan Holdsworth. 

“That was an incredible experience. Being able to tour and perform with Allan was unmistakably one of the highlights of my career, and being able to get inside his head a little bit and to understand what he was about, was an eye-opening experience. 

“He was a genius, and it’s been said many times that he actually changed his instrument. You can count those people on one hand. I’ll always revere that experience and never take it for granted. And playing with a gentleman like Gary Husband was incredible too, because he’s not only a great drummer, he’s also an amazing piano player, which is unique. There’s really not too many of those people on the planet.“ 

Tell us about the online masterclasses that you’ve been doing lately.

“When I started doing them, I looked back at some improvizational exercises that I’ve been working on over the years, because I thought they would make a good lesson. They’re just things that I’ve done off the top of my head without thinking about it – just trying to find personal ways for me to express myself on the instrument. 

“As I analyzed these things, I came to realize that there were a lot of technical aspects to them that I’d never really thought about, harmonically speaking. People would say ‘What are you doing there?’ and I had to say to myself, ‘Yeah... what am I doing there?’ Ha ha! 

“I’ve spent a lot of time on really researching what I was doing to try to make sense of it, and it’s led me down a bit of a rabbit hole, but fortunately I have a lot of books here that I work from, as well as my own book that I put out in the early Nineties, The Melodic Library For Bass.“

What were your intentions when you assembled that book? 

“It was my attempt to put on paper how I organize scales, and it stemmed from when I was 18 years old and playing in a Top 40 band in New York. This guitar player showed me the way he organized pentatonic scales, and he showed me these patterns, which were basically inversions of a major scale. 

That was a really cool lesson about harmonic structure – a very basic structure, but an extremely useful one that is used in a lot of different music all the time. So if you study that, you’re going to have a vast knowledge of music. He also showed me an interesting way to organize the modal scales, which is another scalar system that deals with the major scales and the seven inversions of those.“ 

Most of us are terrified of modes. 

“Well, I might suggest looking at The Melodic Library For Bass in that case. I tried to make them as simple and clear as possible in that book. I wrote out every scale in the modal system, in all 12 keys, with a numbers system for root, third, fourth, fifth and so on, and also in letters and notation. I felt like that took the pressure off anybody that didn’t read music.

“Reading music is important, and it should be studied in my opinion, but I’m not gonna bust anybody’s chops about reading if they don’t read. I truly believe that the music is the most important part of anything that we’re dealing with here, so if you can play music on a toothpick and a rubber band – then my hat goes off to you.“

• Jimmy Haslip's Melodic Bass Library: Scales and Modes for the Bass Guitarist is out now via Alfred Music.

Instructor Juan Antonio has shown us how to wrangle Joe Bonamassa’s blazing pentatonics and spice up our electric guitar playing with a Plini and Steve Vai hack.

Now he’s back with a lesson on Allan Holdsworth’s “secret” scale, which he identifies as the third mode in French composer Olivier Messiaen’s famous modes of limited transposition system.

“This is one of the scales that Holdsworth likes to use that sounds a little bit more outside of that normal scaler diatonic type of sounding range,” Antonio explains.

“It’s a really good tool to sort of sound like Holdsworth in different sections.”

The mode, Antonio continues, is a nine-note scale that is “almost like a crossbreed between the whole tone scale and the augmented scale.”

Looking at the intervallic construction, it reads 1, 2, flat 3, 3, flat 5, 5, flat 6, flat 7, 7.

“There’s just a ton of different chords that you can play this scale over,” Antonio says, adding, “I actually like to apply this scale more like a tension-building concept. So in my case I like to apply it over vague or stagnant type of harmonies.”

He continues, “Another thing about the scale is that it’s actually very symmetrical. It repeats itself every major third. And that’s going to come in handy when visualizing it over the neck.”

Antonio ends by demonstrating some of his favorite and most common fingerings for the scale.

“But I urge you guys to apply different permutations to it,” he says.

For more from Juan Antonio, head on over to his YouTube channel.

Zakk Wylde recently sat down for a Playlist interview with MusicRadar, and among the many tidbits the Black Label Society leader revealed is the one song he tried to learn to play on electric guitar but was unable to nail. And that song is…

…Allan Holdsworth’s Letters of Marque, from his 1982 album, I.O.U.

“He’s number one for ‘impossible’ stuff,” Wylde says of Holdsworth. “Allan’s solos were in a language all of their own. Even when you are watching a video of him doing it, what you hear remains unbelievable and mind-boggling.”

Wylde continues, "It doesn’t even matter which song you pick, they’re all completely alien to the rest of us guitar players, but I guess the first album I had was I.O.U. so it would’ve been songs like Letters of Marque that terrified me!”

Despite being understandably intimidated by Holdsworth’s chops, Wylde and the fusion great once shared space on the same track – keyboardist Derek Sherinian’s 2004 song, Day of the Dead.

Though the two guitarists contributed their parts separately, Holdsworth recalled the song in his last-ever interview with Guitar World.

“When Derek was finishing his album, he told me he’d love for me to play a guitar solo on it, so I did,” Holdsworth said. “I recorded a solo for him in the specific length that he requested, and he put it on that track.

“People have told me they really like that guitar solo, but I haven’t heard it in years so I don’t remember it.”

Awhile back, the gang over at Music Radar sat down with guitar legend Steve Vai and asked him to name "the 10 guitarists that blew his mind." You can check out this full list right here; but if you wanted to get right to the meat of the list - Vai's fave guitarist - read on.

"I very rarely agree with the term 'best guitar player'," Vai says. "It just seems so obscene to put something so subjective into a best category. But if I had to say there was one, I would pick Allan Holdsworth. He was unique in ways I don't think have been discovered yet."

Holdsworth, who graced the cover of Guitar World magazine in its early days, died April 16, 2017 at age 70. Following his death, GuitarWorld.com shared several Holdsworth-themed lessons and videos, many of which continue to baffle viewers, especially "Allan Holdsworth's 10 Most Useful Scales."

It features the following Holdsworth quote:

"As the chord changes go by, I don't so much think about a static chord voicing changing. I just see the notes on the neck change. For me, the only thing that makes one scale different from another is not the starting note; it's the separation of the intervals. For example, if it's a D minor major seven scale, the name I give the scale is only a means of identification. It's for no other purpose. So when I think of that scale, I don't think of it as starting on D; I think of it as starting on the lowest-available note on my instrument, which would be an E, and the highest-available note, which would be another E. That's basically how I think of scales."

I'm not ashamed to say it makes my brain sting when I start thinking about that paragraph; luckily, Vai puts it in perspective and makes me feel a little better:

"Many musicians can be considered ahead of their time, but usually - they're not," he says. "They're mainly ahead of everyone else at that time. For example, Jimi Hendrix wasn't ahead of his time; he was perfect for his time and ahead of everyone else. Allan Holdsworth was definitely ahead of his time because it's hard to realize how great he is - not many people actually understand. It takes time for us to catch up with those that are ahead of their time.

"The way he uses the whole tone scale is like his own baby shoes - it's so easy for him," Vai adds. "His thought process was phenomenal."

One of the late Allan Holdsworth's many strengths as a guitarist was his ability to improvise.

"I knew if I wanted to improvise over chord changes, I'd have to figure out all the scales that went with all those chords," Holdsworth said.

In the mystifying (yet very relaxing) clip below—before he starts demonstrating his 10 most useful scales—Holdsworth explains how he tried to use math as a means of mastering scales when he was younger. As a result of his studies and other influences, he realized chords are merely parts of scales that are being played simultaneously.

"As the chord changes go by, I don't so much think about a static chord voicing changing," he said. "I just see the notes on the neck change. For me, the only thing that makes one scale different from another is not the starting note; it's the separation of the intervals. For example, if it's a D minor major seven scale, the name I give the scale is only a means of identification. It's for no other purpose.

"So when I think of that scale, I don't think of it as starting on D; I think of it as starting on the lowest-available note on my instrument, which would be an E, and the highest-available note, which would be another E. That's basically how I think of scales."

If you're a wee bit confused, you're in luck because Holdsworth explains it all in the video. In the process, he identifies 10 "really usable scales" that you can use for "most everything." And, while it might seem as though the lesson is "all talk and no action," Holdsworth does play guitar at various points.

Like a lot of guitarists (myself included), Holdsworth had his own musical language and, as a result, his own naming conventions for several scales—and who knows what else. As one YouTube commenter put it, Holdsworth could be considered a test case of "reinventing the wheel."

Holdsworth died Sunday, April 16, 2017, at age 70.

In this Sick Lick, I'm using a technique inspired by Allan Holdsworth.

I remember listening to Holdsworth play when I was a kid—with complete disbelief at what I was hearing. It almost didn’t sound like a guitar. The speed and the wide intervalic playing was simply amazing. It wasn’t until I saw live footage of him playing that I began to understand how he created that amazing sound.

Obviously, it was a combination of his incredible knowledge and technique. The technique was what really grabbed me, rather than the theoretical side of his playing, as I was simply to young to grasp the complexities of his musical knowledge.

What I saw was Holdsworth’s incredible stretches and use of four-note-per-string fingerings to create the most unbelievable-sounding runs. (Traditionally, we are taught to play scales and runs using a combination of two and three notes per string). I'm not saying that this the secret to his playing—not by any stretch of the imagination.

Rather, this was what I took out of his style and approach. I believe it's important to listen to as many guitar players as possible and do your best to learn something from them all.

It’s not hard to play wide stretching runs on a single string, but it gets tricky when you attempt to use this technique all over the neck. When you start applying this approach, you tend to cover the neck very quickly. It requires immense concentration and control of your fingerings. Being a rock guy, I tend to apply all of my techniques to the pentatonic scale first then slowly branch out into other scales.

The problem with this is that these techniques are not really suited to the pentatonic. They are better suited to modal playing, but I always love a challenge, and as you can hear from this lick, it really creates an amazing sound! You will notice I incorporate my thumb in this lick also; I do this to enable myself to play longer one-string runs. I start this lick with a four-note run on the A string with the fourth note being the start of the three-string arpeggio.

This is repeated on the G string, but this time its only a three-note run with the third note being the start of the arpeggio. From here it gets tricky! On the high E string, we are fretting four consecutive notes moving up the scale of the pentatonic, then we move back down the scale using the same notes. From here it leads into a six-string arpeggio starting on the high E and ending on the low E. This is played with all up-strokes.

From here I play nine descending notes all on the low E string, I do this is with a combination of my left thumb and utilizing the “over the top technique." It's a very complex line but extremely fun! I use the same approach to ascend back up the scale. This particular line is what I would focus on the most. It is by far the most technically challenging part and a very unique way to play up and down the pentatonic scale on one string.

The final run in this lick is similar to the way I start the lick; I finish with a four-note run on the high E string leading into to a full bend on the 22nd fret. As with any technique I create, my main focus is that they enable me to play lines or runs that would otherwise not be possible at speed. There's no point using techniques that only “look cool” if they have no practical use or if they don’t allow you to do anything different on the guitar that you could do using traditional techniques.

Thanks and I hope you enjoy! Please feel free to join me on YouTube here.

When it first blew through America in the mid-Fifties, rock music’s main calling card was its simplicity.

Thumbing its nose at the lavish arrangements typical of the pop music of the day, rock thrived on volume, rhythm and excitement. Of course, in order to survive, rock couldn’t simply rely on its roots indefinitely.

As the Beatles began to take mainstream audiences on journeys to uncharted musical waters (and further underground), some bands began to chuck the rock-music rulebook entirely.

In New York City, the Velvet Underground incorporated pop art, noise and drones into their otherwise conventional pop songs. In California, the Grateful Dead mixed their rootsy, proto-Americana tunes with extended improvisation and free-form jamming.

All of these branches swung the doors open for the full-blown experimentation of progressive rock, a genre defined by ambition, complexity and some of music’s all-time six-string greats.

Here, we present 15 of the best progressive rock guitarists through the years. Enjoy—and feel free to recommend others in the comments below.

FRANK ZAPPA

No list of progressive rock guitarists, or guitarists as a whole, is complete without Frank Zappa. A true musician who was never afraid (and often all too eager to) offend, or challenge any convention, he constantly flouted the boundaries between genres. On a dime, he could switch from absurd, funk-laden pop, to devoted recreations of the Fifties R&B he so loved, to dizzyingly complicated, classical-influenced passages. It’s hard to find a guitarist who cast a wider musical net.

ROBERT FRIPP | KING CRIMSON

Though King Crimson has swung wildly from one sound and concept to another over the past half-century, the prog pioneers have had one constant: Robert Fripp. Fripp, the band’s intellectual and creative powerhouse, has constantly eschewed both expectation and convention, using his astonishing chops to forge a sound and identity that is at once both unique and unmistakable.

STEVE HOWE | YES

For over 45 years, Yes have been one of progressive rock’s titans. Their records have featured extraordinary playing from numerous musicians, Steve Howe certainly being among them. Howe has been with the group for all but a handful of years since 1970, in doing so lending his eclectic influences and tastes to the band’s sound. Howe was instrumental in creating prog classics like “Roundabout,” and the influence of his playing can be heard across genres to this day.

STEVE HACKETT | GENESIS

It’s unfortunate that when most people think of Genesis, they immediately picture either Peter Gabriel or Phil Collins. Though entirely worthy of their immense success, Gabriel and Collins have overshadowed the contributions of Genesis’ early guitarist, Steve Hackett, in the public eye. Hackett’s early explorations of two-handed tapping and sweep picking were far ahead of their time, and influenced Eddie Van Halen and Brian May, among countless others.

JOHN McLAUGHLIN | MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA

Miles Davis was somewhat infamous for not giving the musicians he worked and collaborated with a lot of credit for their contributions. So, the fact that a track on Davis’ landmark fusion LP, Bitches Brew, is simply named “John McLaughlin,” speaks volumes to how highly regarded McLaughlin’s playing was in both jazz and rock circles. Once on his own, McLaughlin continued innovating with the groundbreaking Mahavishnu Orchestra, who played a huge role in the jazz fusion movement. Few guitarists were as good at blending previously incompatible sounds.

TODD RUNDGREN | UTOPIA

A reliably unpredictable jack-of-all-trades, Todd Rundgren has spent the last four and a half decades wearing all sorts of musical hats. On Utopia’s Deface the Music, he paid tribute to, and emulated the sound of the Beatles so closely that one of the tracks (written for the film Roadie) was rejected out of a fear of lawsuits. Before then, of course, he had piloted Utopia through their years as prog-rock pioneers, and then unlikely new wave hit-makers. Few other musicians have as fascinating a resume.

ALLAN HOLDSWORTH

Many guitarists on this list have made their mark primarily by executing blazing solos in front of arenas full of screaming fans. Allan Holdsworth, however, is one of those musicians whose influence is infinitely greater than the amount of platinum records he has been involved with. His back catalog, and list of collaborators, is immense. Incorporating numerous scales and complex chord progressions into his jazz-inflected playing, Holdsworth has been a huge influence on Eddie Van Halen, Shawn Lane, Yngwie Malmsteen and countless others.

ALEX LIFESON | RUSH

Chops-worshipping fans have long heralded Alex Lifeson, drummer Neil Peart and bassist-singer Geddy Lee for their supreme instrumental skills, but the intriguing thing about Rush is the way they deliver the goods without infantilizing their musicianship. Their razzle-dazzle never seems as if it’s tossed off to satisfy some demand for immediate gratification; it has grace and purpose. Take, for example, "Jacob's Ladder" ...

ADRIAN BELEW | KING CRIMSON

Robert Fripp may be the name most associated with King Crimson, but the influence of Adrian Belew on the band’s post-1981 material cannot be discounted. As the band’s frontman and second guitarist, it was Belew who was responsible for bringing Fripp’s ideas to light, which he did with aplomb. Belew has brought a fearless attitude to each and every one of his many projects, exploring and creating otherworldly sounds most would never dream of crafting on a six-string.

TREVOR RABIN | YES

Few guitarists have the talent to fill shoes as big as Steve Howe’s, but Trevor Rabin happens to be one of them. While Howe left to form the early Eighties super group Asia, Rabin teamed up with bassist Chris Squire, drummer Alan White and (later) vocalist Jon Anderson. Though Rabin was initially apprehensive about the new band’s decision to adopt the Yes name, the new lineup was more than worthy of it. Rabin’s compositions and powerful guitar playing helped Yes move seamlessly into more pop-friendly territory, and introduced the band to millions of new fans.

STEVEN WILSON | PORCUPINE TREE

Taking cues from ambient and psychedelic music, Steven Wilson breathed fresh air into the increasingly staid prog rock genre with his band Porcupine Tree in the early 1990s. Ignoring the oft-dramatic elements of prog in favor of more ethereal vibes, Porcupine Tree’s music was incredibly forward-looking, while still blending quite well with the popular music of the time. Though he has repeatedly disavowed the comparison, Wilson has often been labeled as the heir to Pink Floyd’s legacy, and with good reason.

JOHN PETRUCCI | DREAM THEATER

Often seen as one of the leading figures of progressive metal, John Petrucci, with his band Dream Theater, has left an intangible mark. Focusing more on technique and complexity than speed and power, Petrucci created a sound that has been emulated by countless guitarists over the last two decades. His intricately detailed six-string work helps convey the often complex themes and narratives in Dream Theater’s music, and played a large part in changing the world’s conception of metal.

ALAN MORSE | SPOCK’S BEARD

Since their beginning in the mid-Nineties, Spock’s Beard have been this era’s answer to bands like Genesis. They even have a similar story with singer and main/songwriter Neal Morse leaving the group and having the drummer take over as singer. Now with their third singer, the band have continued to produce great Prog albums, most recently 2015’s The Oblivion Particle. Original guitarist Alan Morse has remained the linchpin between all the lineups, with his signature finger-picking shredding-style and is one of the genre’s most underrated guitarists.

RICHARD HENSHALL, CHARLIE GRIFFITHS | HAKEN

Formed in 2007, London-based prog metal group Haken have quickly climbed to the top of the new prog heap based on the success of their 2013 breakthrough, The Mountain. Their new album, Affinity, takes the band’s creativity even further, combining their wide-ranging influences from Seventies prog to djent, even borrowing from the Eighties on the track “1985." Richard Henshall and Charlie Griffiths take turns as lead guitarists, showcasing their diversity through metal epics like the 15-minute “The Architect” or the pop-flavored “Earthside." The group has toured with bands like Between the Buried and Me and Leprous, and hit the U.S. for a headlining tour with Thank You Scientist starting August 30.

JIM MATHEOS | FATES WARNING

One of the pioneering groups of the progressive metal movement, Fates Warning formed in 1982 under guitarist and main songwriter Jim Matheos. The band found commercial success in the Nineties with albums like Parallels and Inside Out, before venturing into darker, more progressive territory with 1997’s A Pleasant Shade of Grey. Through it all, Matheos has been the band’s driving force and is highly regarded as one of the most influential guitarists of his era. The band’s new album, Theories of Flight, was released earlier this year and was their best-selling album in almost two decades with Matheos still at the helm.

ROINE STOLT | ANDERSON/STOLT

Jon Anderson returned to prog with the new album Invention of Knowledge, partnering with guitarist Roine Stolt. Stolt is known for his work as leader of the Swedish outfit the Flower Kings, as well as with Prog supergroup Transatlantic, which includes Mike Portnoy. Anderson and Stolt decided to join forces after Jon joined Transatlantic for a set of Yes classics on 2014’s Prog Nation at Sea Cruise. On their new album, Stolt composed much of the music around Anderson’s lyrical melodies and ideas, resulting in what many are calling Anderson’s return to the style of Yes music he helped create. Stolt was also on tour with Steve Hackett earlier this year, joining the band on bass.

What does it take to become a guitar hero to guitar heroes? Take a listen to Allan Holdsworth and you’ll get an idea.

The jazz-fusion innovator has been hailed by such six-string legends as Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani. No less a player than Eddie Van Halen told Guitar World in 1980, “To me, Allan Holdsworth is number one.”

Holdsworth, who died on April 16 at the age of 70, was the guitarist other players looked up to.

The reason is evident in the listening. Holdsworth’s chord vocabulary and exquisitely sophisticated chord progressions were dazzling enough, to say nothing of his solo guitar work, in which he applied any variety of scale forms to create lines of complexity, unpredictability, and saxophone-like fluidity. (Reportedly, he started out wanting to be a saxophonist; he just couldn’t afford the instrument.)

But his daunting talent was also evident in the viewing. Holdsworth’s fret-hand reach was legendary and intimidating to view. It’s not surprising that few guitarists have attempted to replicate his music. The physical challenges and technical hurdles alone are enough to rule out most players.

After taking up guitar in the early Sixties at the relatively late age of 17, Holdsworth plied his own singular approach to the instrument, first as a sideman and later on his own. Following an album with the legendary avant-jazz group Soft Machine in 1975, he migrated first to drummer Tony Williams’ Lifetime project, then to French-English prog rockers Gong, before landing in the supergroup U.K. in 1978. It was there, working alongside drummer Bill Bruford, bassist John Wetton, and keyboardist Eddie Jobson, that Holdsworth first came to the attention of many guitarists.

In 1982, he launched his prodigious solo career, one that saw him release some 15 authorized live and studio albums of largely original compositions, alongside collaborations with fusion guitarist Frank Gambale and jazz pianist Gordon Beck. The resulting catalog found Holdsworth straddling the genres of jazz, rock, and prog. He was also been something of a technological pioneer for his embrace in the Eighties of the SynthAxe, a guitar-like MIDI controller he enthusiastically put to use in his music for some 15 years.

Earlier this month, on April 7, Holdsworth’s long career was celebrated with the release of The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever!, a box set comprising all 12 of his solo albums from 1982 to 2003. Sadly, he died unexpectedly just nine days after its release. The cause of his death has not yet been made public.

Holdsworth’s family has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for his funeral expenses. To contribute, please visit here.

We will continue to update this developing story.

IN MEMORIAM

Jason Becker
It is so very sad that the brilliant Allan Holdsworth has passed. Such a genius, and a total sweet person. I went to his house, and he was so giving and kind. We will all miss him.

Steve Vai
Allan Holdsworth’s unique contribution to the electric guitar is unquantifiable. I remember him saying to me once that his goal was to create a catalog of music that was undiluted. Well, that he did…. Dear Allan, you were extraordinary and from all of us who you've touched so deeply with your brilliance, we are grateful. Rest in deep peace my friend.

Joe Satriani
R.I.P. Allan Holdsworth. You remain an enormous inspiration to me. Your beautiful music will live on forever.

Alex Skolnick
Huge loss, true genius. His music went over heads at times (mine 2 admittedly) but brilliant uncompromising & impactful RIP#AllanHoldsworth

Asia
It is with great sadness that we heard of the passing of Allan Holdsworth, wonderful talent and true Gentleman. R.I.P.

Richie Kotzen
Devastated to hear of the passing of a legend! RIP Allan Holdsworth

John Petrucci
I'm very saddened to hear about the death of Allan Holdsworth today. He was a huge influence on my playing as well an incredible artist and innovator who will be missed greatly.

Steve Lukather
I cant believe it!
Allan Holdsworth, legendary guitarist of our generation !
He changed the game + was the sweetest guy ever...
RIP

Tony MacAlpine
Rest in peace, my brother Allan.

Allan Holdsworth, an influential jazz and prog-rock guitarist who has graced the cover of Guitar World magazine, died Sunday (April 16), according to a touching Facebook post by his daughter, Louise Holdsworth. He was 70.

"It is with heavy hearts that we notify everyone of the passing of our beloved father," Louise wrote. "We would appreciate privacy and time while we grieve the loss of our dad, granddad, friend and musical genius.

"We will update close friends and family when service arrangements have been made and will notify the public of an open memorial service, which all would be welcome. We are undeniably still in shock with his unexpected death and cannot begin to put into words the overwhelming sadness we are experiencing. He is missed tremendously —Louise, Sam, Emily & Rori."

A memorial funding page can be found here.

Holdsworth, whose career began in the Seventies, worked with several influential jazz-fusion and progressive-rock bands, including Tempest and Soft Machine, before being brought to the attention of major label execs by Eddie Van Halen in the early Eighties.

Holdsworth released more than a dozen solo albums, many of which feature the SynthAxe, a rare fretted MIDI controller. Guitarists including Van Halen, Tom Morello and Frank Zappa cited him as an influence. Holdsworth also played in U.K., a British supergroup founded by King Crimson singer and bassist John Wetton and Yes drummer Bill Bruford, although he departed the band very early.

As several guitarists have noted over the decades, when Holdsworth played, it almost didn’t sound like a guitar. His speed and wide intervalic playing were something new—and then there was his incredible stretches and use of four-note-per-string fingerings to create unbelievable-sounding runs.

Holdsworth was the inspiration for several popular GuitarWorld.com lessons, including "Channel Allan Holdsworth with Four-Note-Per-String Scales" and "Sick Licks: An Allan Holdsworth-Inspired Pentatonic Run."

Scores of guitarists have posted social-media tributes to Holdsworth, including Alex Skolnick, who wrote (via Twitter), "Huge loss, true genius. His music went over heads at times (mine too, admittedly) but brilliant uncompromising and impactful."

Vernon Reid wrote, "Every guitarist who had his mind blown by Allan Holdsworth should make his passing trend.' We owe him so much more than that."

FOR MORE TRIBUTES (from Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and more), HEAD HERE.

I often get asked about two topics: How to play in a modern style and how to break out of box patterns. Though these are two separate ideas, I often start by giving one answer: Check out four-note-per-string scales.

Used by modern players such as Allan Holdsworth (1946-2017), whose playing inspired me to check out these fingerings, four-note-per-string scales can help bring a more modern flavor to your lines, expand your knowledge of the neck and allow you to cover a large amount of fretboard real estate with just one scale shape, all of which are beneficial to players looking to explore non-traditional scale fingerings in their playing.

In this lesson, we’ll be looking at how to play and practice four-note-per-string scales, as well as how to add slurs into the mix in order to get a bit of that “slippery” Holdsworth legato sound into your lines.

Four-Note-Per-String Scales

These scales are built exactly as their name suggests, by playing four notes on each string as you climb up the neck, then simply reversing this approach on the way down. While these scales lie nicely under the fingers once you get them down, there are two roadblocks many players face when exploring these scales for the first time, finding the notes and finding a fingering that works for you.

When first digging into a new four-note-per-string scale, such as the F major scale below, you will need to figure out the notes on the scale and build your fingering up from there. Here is the process I used to work out the notes in the example below.

• Pick a scale, in this case F major

• Write out the notes of that scale, F G A Bb C D E

• Start on the tonic, F, and play the first four notes of the scale on the 6th string, F G A Bb

• Then, move to the next note in the scale, C, on the 5th string and play the next four notes, C D E F

• Repeat this process up all 6 strings So the process for learning the fingering for this scale is different from a typical box pattern or in-position two-octave scale, which can make it a bit tricky at first.

But it does have the added side effect of shoring up your knowledge of the notes on the neck at the same time that you learn the scale, so it’s a worthwhile exercise for both of these reasons. As far as the fingering is concerned, it will depend on your hand and finger size and dexterity. I play these scales with one finger per note, 1-2-3-4 across each string, but not everyone will feel comfortable with this fingering.

If you find that the 1-2-3-4 fingering on each string is uncomfortable, you also can try 1-1-2-4, 1-2-4-4 or other combinations of these fingers that sit well with your hands on the guitar. Check out this scale below, and then take it to as many keys as you can across the neck before moving on to the slur exercises that follow.

Depending on how many frets you have, you may be able to get it up to the key of C, if you have 24 or Bb if you have 22.

Adding One Slur to 4NPS Scales

Now that you’ve checked out a four-note-per-string fingering on the guitar, we’ll begin to add in slurs, hammers and pull-offs in order to give these scales that “slippery” sound you hear when they’re used by players such as Holdsworth. All of the exercises below are also great for building fretting-hand technique, but they can also be very tiring on the fingers and fretting hand.

So go slow with these exercises, and if your hand begins to feel sore or overtired, just take a break, go have a cup of coffee or take the dog for a walk, then come back to this exercise when your hands are fresh. We’ll being the slur exercises with three different ways to add one hammer on the way up the scale and one pull-off on the way down. In the first example you will see a slur added between the first and second notes on each string. When you are coming down the scale, keep that same approach, putting a slur between the first and second notes on each string, but just use a pull-off when descending the scale fingering.

The next variation will feature a slur between the second and third notes on each string. Again, use a hammer going up the scale and a pull-off on the way back down. To get the most out of these exercises, make sure to use a metronome, starting at a slow tempo and slowly increasing the speed as you work these scale and slur variations in different keys across the neck.

The last one-slur example we’ll check out features a slur between the third and fourth notes. Once you have any/all of these slurs under your fingers, put on a backing track, maybe a static Fmaj7 chord or a ii-V-I progression in the key of F major, then improvise using this scale fingering and slur variations. The best way to see if you have really learned a new concept is to take it out and make some music with it. So, don’t feel like you have to get all of these ideas down before you begin to solo with them, just learn one slur option then go blow with it for a bit over a backing track. Then when that’s comfortable move on to the next slur and repeat the technique-improv loop.

Adding Two Slurs to 4NPS Scales

Since there are four notes on every string when using these fingerings, you can also practice adding two slurs in a row on each string of the scale. The concept is the same as when you added one slur, use hammers on the way up and pull-offs on the way down to complete the exercise. In the first example you will be adding a slur between the first, second and third notes on each string. If you are using the 1-1-2-4 fingering instead of 1-2-3-4, you can use a slide between the first two notes so that the slur becomes a slide plus a hammer on the way up and a slide plus a pull-off on the way down. This will allow you to work these slurs into the scale if you use an alternate fingering.

You also can add two slurs to the back end of each string but placing a slur between the second, third and fourth notes on each string in the scale. Again, if you are using the 1-2-4-4 fingering for each string, then you could do a hammer plus a slide going up and a pull-off plus a slide going down to achieve the same effect.

Adding Three Slurs to 4NPS Scales

Lastly, you can use slurs on all of the notes on each string, so only picking the first note and then slurring for the rest of the notes on each string in the scale. This type of legato approach is indicative of the Holdsworth style, so if you are going for that sound, this is a variation that you will want to check out and get under your fingers. Since there are more slides than picks, many players tend to lose focus on the time and rhythm with this exercise. A good way to avoid this is to set the metronome to 8th notes and then play one note per click to make sure each note is accurately placed within the bar.

Though not as common as in-position, the CAGED system or three-note-per-string scales, using four notes on each string can help you learn the notes of the neck, add more legato to your lines and break you out of box patterns at the same time. Do you use four-note-per-string scales in your playing or have a favorite way to practice them in the woodshed? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Matt Warnock is the owner of mattwarnockguitar.com, a free website that provides hundreds of lessons and resources designed to help guitarists of all experience levels meet their practice and performance goals. Matt lives in the UK, where he is a senior lecturer at the Leeds College of Music and an examiner for the London College of Music (Registry of Guitar Tutors).

Prophets of Rage guitarist Tom Morello says one song inspired him more than any other to become more experimental in his playing and tone, including adding the DigiTech Whammy Pedal to his arsenal.

That song? Allan Holdsworth’s 1985 track “Metal Fatigue.”

Morello tells Music Radar he was introduced to the song by a friend. “And admittedly, while the singing is kinda hokey, the guitar playing is insane.

“It was the first time I heard someone go outside of the expected melodic parameters, and that sounded fantastic to me.”

Of course Holdsworth wasn’t using a Whammy Pedal on “Metal Fatigue.” But he did use a harmonizer, and it was Morello’s attempt to recreate the effect that led him to the DigiTech pedal.

“The DigiTech Whammy pedal felt like such a revelation when I got one in 1991,” he explains. “I had been trying to find a way to approximate the harmonizer used on that Allan Holdsworth song. I bought a rack harmonizer but I couldn't even figure it out.”

In the same article, Morello credits jazz saxophonists like John Coltrane, Charlie Parker for inspiring him as well.

“I wouldn’t say I am deeply attuned to all the jazz changes and theory going on in those songs,” he says, “but I could definitely feel how to flow with the music—as opposed to being trapped and locked into particular finger patterns that work in certain keys. That’s been part of my playing for a long time and I love it—it provides the freedom to let go on the fretboard.”

As for how other guitarists can start to think outside the box? Morello says you can get out of your rut by remembering that the electric guitar is still a new instrument, having been invented less than 90 years ago.

“My take is that the electric guitar is a relatively new instrument on this planet,” he says. “You should not assume that the way it’s been played so far is the only way that it can be played. It’s just a piece of wood, six or seven wires and a handful of electronics inside. That’s it!

"When I deconstructed it all in my mind, I realized it wasn’t about learning Chuck Berry licks—it’s more about what sort of sound does this thing make and how can those noises be made into songs? It really took off from there.”

For that matter, he says guitarists shouldn’t practice too much or get caught up in other players’ techniques.

“I had blinders on before by practicing too much, desperately trying to play like Yngwie Malmsteen or Steve Vai,” Morello says. “Those guys cornered the market with their own particular styles. I wanted to have my own style. You could look at it as I didn’t want to just run on the same treadmill as them— I wanted to build a whole new gym!”

You can read the entire interview at Music Radar.

Below, you can watch Morello talk about how and why he adopted the Whammy Pedal.