Trey Anastasio

Anastasio the guitarist

Trey Anastasio enjoys a reputation as one of the preeminent guitarists in contemporary music. He played drums in early youth, but quickly developed a facility for the acoustic guitar and, especially, the electric guitar.

Related Topics:
Acoustic guitar - Electric guitar

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He has utilized the services of his friend, luthier and audio technician Paul Languedoc, throughout his career. The highly resonant hollowbody electric guitars built by Languedoc for Anastasio are key to his signature tone. The designs of Trey's Languedoc guitars owe something to the rare Fender Starcaster, but they are uniquely conceived and handcrafted instruments that make use of exotic woods such as koa and custom-wired electronics. Because they are true hollowbodies (as opposed to semi-hollowbody construction), and because Trey typically plays with overdrive and distortion through a large PA system, the guitars are prone to excessive audio feedback and this requires a great deal of manual dexterity and control on the part of the guitarist in order to manage the tone. He has often used this feedback to his advantage in the creation of psychedelic, other-worldly sounds onstage and in the studio.

Related Topics:
Luthier - Paul Languedoc - Starcaster - Koa - Overdrive - Distortion - PA system - Audio feedback - Psychedelic

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Anastasio's electric guitar technique is largely conventional; he does not typically make use of tapping techniques and does not play slide guitar. He normally uses a guitar pick but does not always do so. Melodically, he heavily incorporates modes and pentatonic scales, which he alters with blue notes in the blues tradition. He is known for his skill at improvisation. Although he possesses a fluent technique, he is known for the quality of the notes he plays more so than the quantity; he is not primarily a "speed player" and has quietly expressed contempt for instrumentalists who emphasize virtuosity at the expense of content. In the tradition of bebop players, he often quotes his own music or the music of others in his solos, sometimes very subtly and at other times quite directly.

Related Topics:
Tapping - Slide guitar - Guitar pick - Modes - Pentatonic scale - Blue note - Improvisation - Bebop

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Trey utilizes barre chords extensively, including open voicings of minor seven, minor nine, and minor thirteen chords in addition to the sharp nine chords associated with blues-based guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix. Anastasio's comping is every bit as tasteful and creative as his lead playing, incorporating exotic chord progressions and voicings, chord substitution, ghost notes, and rhythmic scratching.

Related Topics:
Barre chords - Chord - Jimi Hendrix - Comping - Chord substitution - Ghost notes

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While he has concentrated more on funk, jazz, and rock and roll styles in his electric guitar technique, Anastasio is also fluent in country music and bluegrass modes of playing and has credited Jerry Garcia as an influence in this realm.

Related Topics:
Funk - Jazz - Rock and roll - Country music - Bluegrass - Jerry Garcia

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Effects processors play a crucial role in Anastasio's guitar technique. He uses effects such as overdrive, distortion, chorus, the wah wah pedal, phrase samplers, tremolo, delay, reverb, and pitch shifters. For descriptions of these effects processes, see this article. While most electric guitarists incorporate effects, a tradition pioneered by Hendrix, Trey switches between combinations of effects with a greater degree of facility and creativity than is the norm. He is aided in this by a custom audio controller that allows him to control combinations of electronics efficiently in batch with his feet. His use of delay loops is a signature, and in high gain (overdrive) stages he sometimes plays with unprecedented sustain. Also, Anastasio is known for frequent switching between combinations of guitar pickups and for continually adjusting their tone and volume levels, giving his sound an added dimension of versatility.

Related Topics:
Effects processors - Wah wah pedal - Tremolo - Sustain - Pickups

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Trey currently plays acoustics by Martin, often making use of nontraditional tunings to create ethereal ambience or to recreate folk styles, as did Jimmy Page. He has played custom acoustic models in the past. He does not pick up the acoustic guitar frequently onstage, but it is an essential component of his studio sound and he has written some unique and distinctive compositions for the acoustic guitar.

Related Topics:
Acoustics - Martin - Jimmy Page

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