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You're nailing it already then... Listen to the first Dolls LP and play along to all of Johnny's leads, he does his wailing bend thing all the way through it, it's a rite of passage... He was my fourth teacher after Bryan Gregory, Rowland Howard and Ron Asheton... It all went wrong after that, chasing the James Williamson/Wayne Kramer rock'n'roll guitar hero nonsense...
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As others have noted use lots of fingers for bending ("supporting the bend" or the "giant finger" as Paul Gilbert puts it). To practice bending accurately, play the note you want to bend to e.g., A as 10th fret on the 2nd string, to get the sound in your ear, then play the bend e.g., G bent a whole step up to A from the 8th fret on the 2nd string, and check that you get the same result (a tuner can be a useful double check if your relative pitch is as shaky as mine). Do that up and down a scale and all over the fretboard to get a feel for it. Also think about what you want your bend to sound like. Do you want to go straight up into the bend or do you want the unbent note to sound clearly first and then bend up to the new note a la David Gilmour.
For vibrato, the motion generally comes from the wrist. You'll have a speed that you're most comfortable at, but try faster and slower to check what sounds best. Check that when you finish a vibrato you're ending up on a note that you actually want otherwise it will sound weird. So, using the bend above, if you're bending from a G to an A and then the vibrato is letting that bend soften slightly so you're vibratoing between A and G#, finish it on the A, not on a slightly-flat-A otherwise it won't segue nicely into the next phrase.
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I've been meaning to ask the vibrato question myself for ages. I started learning guitar in the early 90s and although i do a bit of widdlywiddlywiddly as the defacto "lead guitarist" in any of the punky/grungey/rock bands I've been in, I never really studied string bending or vibrato technique with any kind of intent.
I then spent a long time being studiously anti-rockist and only playing noise and feedback solos too. The last ten years i've been playing mainly acoustic country and folky stuff, basically attempting a half arsed interpretation of David Rawlings. Loads of fun, but not a lot of vibrato. Or bending.
Throughout all of this I never lost my love of classic 60s and 70s rock, i just never tried to play any of it. So when I decided to GO ELECTRIC and start teaching myself a load of classic rock solos in the last few years, only then did I realise just how crappy my technique was. I've basically been on a mission for the last couple of years to rectify this gross oversight. It's a long road man...
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Realise a little off topic, but I’m thinking about picking up a ‘lecy drum set both for my 8-year old (he’s had a couple of trial lessons and is keen) and myself - never played but always loved the idea. Seems an electronic sets are pretty solid these days and solve the volume problem.
Something like the alesi nito mesh gets very good reviews at around £300 new (don’t seem to be many second hand)
Anything I need to be thinking about?
My Fiancée has a Roland something, but I personally hate the crash and ride response/sounds. Best thing about it is midi out so I can hook it up to my akai S5000 and play any kit/sounds I want (aka Machine Gun by Portishead over and over). I'm really not a drummer though, so doubt I'm much help.
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Any tips for improving bending
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In anticipation of imminent pop fame I have ordered a tortoiseshell scratchplate for my medium scale Precision. Pics when it arrives.
New single/album teaser...
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Not just yet, it's so very very close to completion but life has been absolutely in the way the past while unfortunately. I'll get back to it soon though :)
In the meanwhile here's another snare I restored...
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Sounds great dude!
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Hoping to get some playing in today. It’s been a while. House has been in chaos for the last 10 days while we had the floors sanded. Everything is covered in dust and I managed to concuss myself by dropping the loft ladder on my head. Not recommended.
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@fatberg, yowch. Hope the bump subsides soon.
@tonslen plus anyone who cares, okay, tortoiseshell pickguard choices...
Here's the Squier. It's 80s and a weird size so needs a custom guard. As standard, white on yellowed white, boring and vanilla... tort on white with rosewood looks nice and vintage and is easy to live with so think I'm going with that.
Jack's (aka Tiny Tone) in Manc are the guys. Here's their tort sample pic.
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^ Bottom middle (4-ply vintage celluloid brown) looks good, right...? But IRL it's got these big yellow voids like no real stuff I've ever seen. Honestly not sure about it. See example below on a three-pickup Jaguar.
So the option I went with, the printed 'intense'... arguably closest to stock 80s/90s MIJ, also it's cheap and what the hell it's only a Squier. Shown below on a silver Strat Deluxe.
Wrong choice? Do tell, am all ears...
More stuff.. Tiny Tone https://tinytone.co.uk/custom-scratchplates/
or their flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/jacksinstrumentsvcs/49950781633/in/album-72157638310065895/ . I have considered, and abandoned, anodised gold, bronze, gold plastic, black, tiger stripe, etc etc etc....
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Guitar Nerds Anonymous
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@dooks
Realise a little off topic, but I’m thinking about picking up a ‘lecy drum set both for my 8-year old (he’s had a couple of trial lessons and is keen) and myself - never played but always loved the idea. Seems an electronic sets are pretty solid these days and solve the volume problem.
Something like the alesi nito mesh gets very good reviews at around £300 new (don’t seem to be many second hand)
Anything I need to be thinking about?