Playing faster advice

Dominic

I know.....they are both exceptional although I often wonder how much is the gain ....they have a permanent electronic buzz type sound which does make it a lot easier .
I can't seem to get that amount of gain going no matter how many pedals I stack !

CarpeDiem

@Dominic I think there are a number of factors at play. I’m no expert on this, so I’m sure other more knowledgeable people will correct me. My understanding is that they both have strong left fingers as a result of developing the legato technique, the amps are run at high(er) volume, when they use the pick it is with lighter pressure such that there is similar note volume as when using legato. I spoke to Tom Quayle (who is a really nice guy) after his demo at a guitar show and he said he wasn’t using a compressor, which I thought was impressive.

Vibetronic

+1 - legato is a really good place to start. It's all about coordinating the hands, and if your left is strong through legato, the right will follow. You don't need loads of gain (Guthrie doesn't use loads, don't think TQ does either) - once you get good at the technique you can do it with little or no gain with a light touch. The pick is only really used when ascending ie from low to high - back the other way is all hammer-ons from nowhere generally. Tom Quayle's legato is slightly different to most people...if you hammered-on fingers 1, 2, 3 & 4 in that sequence, most people would leave 1, 2 & 3 on the string before hammering-on the 4th....whereas he takes off each finger after he's hammered it on. Pretty hard to do!

DLM

Did you get what you needed out of this thread, OP?

BlueStrat

I found working on loosening my grip helped with several aspects of playing, speed included

sweepy

BlueStrat said:

I found working on loosening my grip helped with several aspects of playing, speed included

Totally agree on this, speed comes through relaxing