Chris Poland playing through a Katana 50

bingefeller

He sounds amazing as always.

guitarfishbay

Love his control over vibrato and bending.

bingefeller

guitarfishbay said:

Love his control over vibrato and bending.

Yeah his bending is incredible.  If you listen closely he slides into half step bends sometimes.  

BGG

Is that the sound of the amp or a big pedalboard ? or both ?

bingefeller

BGG said:

Is that the sound of the amp or a big pedalboard ? or both ?

I'd say his board has a lot to do with it, a lot of his sound is processed before it hits the Amp.   I wonder if he was using the clean or dirty channel.  

PaulRR

For me, being 15 just when the Big Four hit their heyday, Chris Poland was always the most exciting and unusual. Hammett at that point actually had a voice that seemed at least partly his own (i.e. not just badly digested blues riffs with way too much was), Alex Skolnick had vibrato to kill for, but Chris Poland just didn't sound like everyone else. He was adrenaline fuelled with his turn of phrase and really stood out from the crowd. I know everyone loves what Marty Friedman gave Megadeth, but for me he's not a patch on Chris Poland. Truly unique.

I've listened to some of what he's been up to since, but it's such a shame that he hasn't found a wider audience.

ennspek

Great player, big fan. Thanks for sharing.

Grumpyrocker

Thanks for posting this. Always loved Poland's work with Megadeth. Great player.

stratman3142

I wasn't familiar with his playing. He has a very distinctive style.

Great player.

bingefeller

PaulRR said:

For me, being 15 just when the Big Four hit their heyday, Chris Poland was always the most exciting and unusual. Hammett at that point actually had a voice that seemed at least partly his own (i.e. not just badly digested blues riffs with way too much was), Alex Skolnick had vibrato to kill for, but Chris Poland just didn't sound like everyone else. He was adrenaline fuelled with his turn of phrase and really stood out from the crowd. I know everyone loves what Marty Friedman gave Megadeth, but for me he's not a patch on Chris Poland. Truly unique.

I've listened to some of what he's been up to since, but it's such a shame that he hasn't found a wider audience.

Yeah Marty is great, but Chris is in another league IMO. they were the two most interesting Megadeth guitarists for me.  Marty had his Oriental influences and Chris had this heavy Mahavishnu era Jan Hammer influence, which is extremely uncommon on guitar, especially back then.  

bingefeller

Apparently he used Rockman modules into a JCM800 to get this tone, which is almost synth like.  It suits his Jan Hammeresque phrasing.

DLM

bingefeller

DLM said:

That is crazy cool.

imalrightjack

@PaulRR @bingefeller Megadeth are pretty much my favourite all-time band and I didn't rate Chris as highly as Friedman for a long time. I now realise they're both equally great in different ways. Mustaine's lead work is also incredible, of course.

Any recommendations on post-Megadeth Poland?

bingefeller

imalrightjack said:

@PaulRR @bingefeller Megadeth are pretty much my favourite all-time band and I didn't rate Chris as highly as Friedman for a long time. I now realise they're both equally great in different ways. Mustaine's lead work is also incredible, of course.

Any recommendations on post-Megadeth Poland?

@imalrightjack There is loads of good stuff, most of it is instrumental however.  

He had a progressive metal band in the early 90s called Damn the Machine.  They have some good tunes and are worth checking out, they do sound a little dated though.

For his instrumental stuff, Rare Trax is his best solo album IMO.  He also has some more fusion orientated stuff with Ohm and Ohmphrey.  The first Ohm album is good and Posthaste is the best Ohmphrey album, although the first Ohmphrey album is good and I found them a little more interesting on the whole than Ohm.

There are some good clips of him on Youtube too, like this one of his old band Mumbo's Brain playing The Cure's Lovesong:

imalrightjack

Thanks, @bingefeller - just checking out Circus of Sound by Ohm now. 

bingefeller

imalrightjack said:

Thanks, @bingefeller - just checking out Circus of Sound by Ohm now. 

Let me know what you think.