The online debate centered around allegations that prominent electric guitar players have been “faking” their technique by performing along to pre-recorded, sped-up or otherwise or manipulated tracks, has been raging in the guitar community for weeks now.
First it was Instagram favorite Manuel Gardner Fernandes who proved the doubters wrong, and now a new battle has erupted between Rings of Saturn guitarist Lucas Mann and everyone’s favorite 18-stringer, Jared Dines.
Dines included Mann in a now-removed video he posted that “called out” some of these alleged fakers, with Dines insinuating that the ROS guitarist mimed some of his parts onstage.
“The problem is, when things sound too perfect we don’t believe them to be true,” Dines said, “because human hands aren’t perfect, right?”
“When you hear perfect, flawless playing you know it’s either heavily edited or probably manipulated in one way or another.”
Which leads us to the response video at the top of this post, where Mann “debunks” these claims and also includes some impressive video clips of his playing.
In a message included with the video, Mann writes:
"All guitar playing in this video is supplemented by the raw DI tracks at the end of the video that I welcome anyone to inspect. Live audio from our shows recorded direct from the console is featured debunking the 'miming live' argument entirely.
"An explanation of why there was confusion upon the popular accusations and arguments is given, along with more supporting evidence such as a fan video. Call out Culture and Jared Dines is discussed as well.
“I am not trying to attack anyone with this, and only want positivity for everyone involved, however I feel my side needs to be heard because it has overwhelmingly been suppressed. Hopefully this video clears everything up.”
Dines, for his part, also posted his own video, apologizing – somewhat – for the negative insinuations:
"Lucas, in the video, I never said you sped up your stuff. I understand the negative insinuation that comes from it. What I did say in the video was that if things perceived to be too perfect, they're probably edited or manipulated in one way or another.”
He continued: "Lucas, you say that you do back-tracks live, you have live harmonies and stuff like that and your guitar is blended in with the mix, and I believe you. There's tons of players who do that. I have nothing against that. If anybody wants to do that, fine, make your live show what your live show is supposed to be."
Dines ended by saying, "I don't want to keep fighting with you or anybody. I want to set a good example for the people watching. So I don't want to drag this out any longer.”
If it does indeed drag out, and chances are it will, keep your eyes tuned to Guitar World for updates.
