Players with the most expressive vibrato?

StageStruck

Leslie West

xSkarloey

Leslie West is the bloke who said, when asked how he got his vibrato, said "I don't think about it. I just move my hand like I'm masturbating".

richardhomer

^ Very fast, wide vibrato - my least favourite....

thomasross20

No offence to OP but I hate this "vibrato is the holy grail" thing. Mine developed naturally, maybe it's cack, I don't know, but I think too much emphasis is put on it. 

richardhomer

thomasross20;609133" said:

No offence to OP but I hate this "vibrato is the holy grail" thing. Mine developed naturally, maybe it's cack, I don't know, but I think too much emphasis is put on it. 

I see a player's vibrato as their sonic 'fingerprint' - the characteristic which gives them uniqueness.

I slightly disagree with you, insofar as a 'bad' vibrato will completely turn me off listening to someone - but I agree that vibrato does tend to develop 'naturally' over time.

Listening back to some early recordings of my own (live) playing - I can hear the 'nervousness' in my vibrato. And I really don't like it - I think I sound much better now.

xSkarloey

thomasross20;609133" said:

No offence to OP but I hate this "vibrato is the holy grail" thing. Mine developed naturally, maybe it's cack, I don't know, but I think too much emphasis is put on it. 

I didn't say that. I am merely interested in it as a technique and want to know who else people rate.

I did however equate it to singing, since a good vibrato can lend a phrase a very personal stamp.

And I am equally appreciative of players who use no vibrato at all, even though I'm having trouble thinking of any who use none or almost none.

Any suggestions?

thomasross20

Fair dos! I didn't quite mean you specifically thought it was the holy grail but I've seen it mentioned in such a light before.

Richardhomer - yeah I reckon 90% of us have that nervous vibrato in the early days, especially when crapping our pants as we play live for the first few times!

I agree - a bad vibrato can be a downer. I tend not to think about it but when I hear too much it's like a singer who uses it too much - becomes silly!

xSkarloey

Quite right. It can get overdone.

Further to thinking on people who don't use it much/ at all I'm thinking John McLaughlin perhaps.

ICBM

Skarloey said:

Quite right. It can get overdone.

Further to thinking on people who don't use it much/ at all I'm thinking John McLaughlin perhaps.

That's why I said John Frusciante, but no-one pickup up on the intention other than a random lol .

The question said 'expressive'. Frusciante rarely uses vibrato…. hence when he does, it's deliberately expressive - rather than just playing everything with an automaton-like vibrato that has become so practiced that it's no longer thought about, and is therefore not expressive at all.

It was a great revelation to me to hear a player like him who *doesn't* use vibrato when it isn't necessary - I've never particularly liked it, don't use it much and for a long time I felt I was somehow 'wrong' for not doing. Far too many players seem to regard it as essential or even as an end in itself, and it becomes like putting ketchup on everything - eventually you forget what food tastes like without it.

Classical string players do it too. Paul McCartney specifically instructed the string section on Yesterday to play with no vibrato (after initially they did it), in order not to give it false emotion and let the lyrics alone convey what he was saying. Brilliant. But if you hear it covered, it's almost always got a ton of cheesy vibrato on it.

There are *some* great blues-rock players who use/used it well, but even most of those would have been better varying it more or not using it at all sometimes, in my opinion.

Phil_aka_Pip

ICBM said:

Classical string players do it too. Paul McCartney specifically instructed the string section on Yesterday to play with no vibrato (after initially they did it), in order not to give it false emotion and let the lyrics alone convey what he was saying. Brilliant. But if you hear it covered, it's almost always got a ton of cheesy vibrato on it.

I'm not keen on vocal vibrato either, especially opera singers which I hate with a vengeance. Ian Gillan's vibrato was OK though.

Bogwhoppit

Elton John