What is wrong with Jimmy Pages guitar tone?

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  • JalapenoJalapeno Frets: 6378
    Non match-fit Pagey - the original Live Aid. Dire.
    Imagine something sharp and witty here ......

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  • steamabacussteamabacus Frets: 1258
    I'm a big fan of Jimmy Page.

    However, one of his qualities has always been the ability to play totally shite on occasions - it seems he's always been like this.
    When he's on form, though, I reckon he's a truly great guitarist. I think he's a 'feel' player - if he's not feeling it, then you're gonna know it.

    I've always felt, as well, that Led Zeppelin were a classic example of a band that were more than the sum of the parts. There was a special chemistry between the four of them that elevated it to something very special when the stars were aligned correctly.
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  • ForgeForge Frets: 431

    I think Page was the chemistry in Zeppelin, not only through playing.

    "Since I've been loving you" sums up the greatness of the Les Paul in one single track.

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  • EvilmagsEvilmags Frets: 5158
    I´ve got unledded, and while better than Celebration day it is still nowhere near as good from a playing perspective as How the West Was Won. As for his tone, he is the most sampled guitar player of all time, so a lot of producers must love it.
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  • xSkarloeyxSkarloey Frets: 2962
    Different times, different contexts.

    HTWWW is Page atbthe height of his flash bastard powers: young, healthy, still hungry and riding the crest of a musical wave.

    Unledded= Pagey older and post- addiction. It's also more of an ensemble piece. Less showy but a good showing. Midfield anchor rather than flash playmaker.

    Yeah I'd take the HTWWW Page every te as a player, but on Unledded he proves what a great musician he can still be and some of the acoustic parts are really heartfelt.
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  • funstuiefunstuie Frets: 77
    Plants signing on that Celebration Day show was pretty weak as well. I know he can't be expected to bring "the voice" but it was just weak. 

    His stuff with Alison Kraus was great on the other hand. 

    My refuses to let me play Led Zep in the house or car because "Jimmy Page imprisoned a 14 year old girl in the 70's"
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  • BigLicks67BigLicks67 Frets: 766
    Evilmags said:
    It´s not as bad as Knebworth 79 (Get the bootleg, some real shockers on that) but he clearly stopped practising in about 1977 and has not really played properly since. Zep live from 69-75 were generally very good. Loads of bootlegs about to prove that and How The West was Won is an excellent album. Better to remember them for that. JPJ is really the only one of them left who could still pull off a Zep show. Page was a brilliant and innovative guitarist in his day, but he is not even a shadow of that now.

    My brother was at Knebworth and he too mentioned Pageys shocking playing, it was so bad he fell asleep half way through.

    It wasn't the tone that bothered me it was his inability to play the solos in the manner of the records. Most of his single line playing seemed sloppy and out of time. A shame because I loved what he did on record.

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  • ElectroDanElectroDan Frets: 554

    I know i'm going to be in the minority here. But someone bought me the Greatest hit's of Zep on a double CD (older stuff, newer stuff). And all I could think was, what must the worst of Zep sound like?

    Zep seem to be a couple of flashes of utter genius in a load of unlistenable nonsense to me.

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  • GrumpyrockerGrumpyrocker Frets: 4118
    Coming late to the thread but I think many are too harsh on Page. His tone is weak to modern tastes because we' re used to the kind of guitar gods who are the centre of the universe and everything about the sound is the massive fucking guitar in the centre of it. Page was a producer and songwriter and his album work is remarkably modest and band focussed. His guitar tone was about the song, not the player. 

    And times have changed - rock rhythm playing now as double tracked and often quad tracked riffs. Bedroom guitarists search for modellers that will give them that sound without all the production that went into them. But back in the day Pagey would play the rhythm part once, then maybe add another layer of something that added to it, then maybe another. But there was rarely an attempt to make the guitar sound like god. It was the combination of his guitar with Bonham and Jones that did that.

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  • GuyBodenGuyBoden Frets: 733
    edited April 2014
    I love the songs and the production on Celebration Day, but the solos are weak, Page sounds like he's forgotten how to play solos. Sounds like a 1970's teenager noodling in a guitar shop on a Sat afternoon, but not as bad as Page on the old grey whistle test, noodling in Wales in the early 1980's.
    "Music makes the rules, music is not made from the rules."
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  • UnclePsychosisUnclePsychosis Frets: 12880
    ElectroDan;218483" said:
    I know i'm going to be in the minority here. But someone bought me the Greatest hit's of Zep on a double CD (older stuff, newer stuff). And all I could think was, what must the worst of Zep sound like?Zep seem to be a couple of flashes of utter genius in a load of unlistenable nonsense to me.
    Thank god, I thought it was just me who felt like this!

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  • LixartoLixarto Frets: 1618
    edited April 2014
    ElectroDan;218483" said:
    I know i'm going to be in the minority here. But someone bought me the Greatest hit's of Zep on a double CD (older stuff, newer stuff). And all I could think was, what must the worst of Zep sound like?Zep seem to be a couple of flashes of utter genius in a load of unlistenable nonsense to me.
    Thank god, I thought it was just me who felt like this!

    There's more of us than you think (except I had the misfortune to hear full albums rather than a compilation) ;)
    "I can see you for what you are; an idiot barely in control of your own life. And smoking weed doesn't make you cool; it just makes you more of an idiot."
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  • GrumpyrockerGrumpyrocker Frets: 4118
    The recent-ish Mothership compilation is rather horrid. Horribly hot mastered - removes on the subtlety and dynamism in the music. It's a shame that's so many people's only exposure to Led Zeppelin as it isn't a fair representation.

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  • It's always great when people mistake not personally liking a legendary band with justifying an opinion that they are over rated.  Take any of the following 10 artists -

    • The Beatles
    • Led Zeppelin
    • Elvis Presley
    • Pink Floyd
    • ABBA
    • Queen
    • The Rolling Stones
    • U2
    • Bruce Spingsteen
    • Eagles

    With each of these in my lifetime I have heard a fair few people label them as being overrated.  The main motivator for this is to justify the fact that the person does not like them or naïve assumption that labelling someone as overrated adds weight to their opinion.  The is no issue in simply disliking a band or artist but to ignore the million and million of sales along with the longevity of their careers and still draw the conclusion that they must be musically overrated probably misses the whole point of why people make and listen to music and just looks a bit foolish.  If the success and longevity of these artists still sees them being labelled as overrated then I am curious as to what measure we are using to justify a bands entitlement to recognition.

    My muse is not a horse and art is not a race.
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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31367
    That's all very valid, the influence that Led Zep had on music and popular culture is immeasurable and they richly deserve their place in history, just as Bob Dylan does.

    But when I buy a ticket to go and see Page or Dylan, I know all they're going to do is shamble on stage and take the piss.

    THAT'S why people call them overrated.
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  • ForgeForge Frets: 431
    That's it, Les Pauls are confiscated - will collect them tomorrow.
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  • DulcetJonesDulcetJones Frets: 515
    A student gave me a copy of a sort of famous bootleg of a mid 70's concert recorded off the board somewhere in the US.  It's been widely referred to as "Destroyer" and had 2 CD's worth of the concert.  About half of it was really good, including an acoustic set but it had it's share of clams, like when Jimmy didn't seem to realize that he was playing the chords to Kashmir at the wrong fret, for about a minute, and all the "Robert" screams - "Jimmy" plays a lick parts that go on for too long.  I lost my copy years ago but recall the overall tone and vibe to be very listenable.

    “Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay


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  • EvilmagsEvilmags Frets: 5158
    Zep early 70s bootlegs are really good. Post 75 it is almost as if you can here the guys playing disintegrate. It is a real shame, as I love every Zep album except in through the out door. I would also question the wisdom of slinging a guitar at knee hight when your mid 60s and struggling to make the notes on solos. All in all the DVD should have stayed in the archives methinks.   
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  • JalapenoJalapeno Frets: 6378
    Anyone want a superb double CD of Led Zep Live - get Live at the BBC - it is flipping superb !
    Imagine something sharp and witty here ......

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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader

    I know i'm going to be in the minority here. But someone bought me the Greatest hit's of Zep on a double CD (older stuff, newer stuff). And all I could think was, what must the worst of Zep sound like?

    Zep seem to be a couple of flashes of utter genius in a load of unlistenable nonsense to me.

    Zep are a band that actually have a "Worst Of" 


    I've got it and it's actually quite good.
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