Jack here jbf music and guitar lessons, in this Pro Tips we’re analysing the style
of Uli Jon Roth; pretty much the original neo classical shredder. There’s so much
more to him than his fast scalar runs; like in the Scorpions 1977 tune; Sails of Charon
[VC]. On a side note this might have been where Phrygian dominant scale started in metal-
anyone got any other songs that predate this, fire it in the comments! I also suspect a
young Yngwie might have seen Uli in concert , or TV and been quite inspired, or at least
have listened to him- I could be totally mistaken, but there seem to be a few too many similar
area in their playing, guitar choice; in that clip anyway; and even picking style to some
extent. So, as you probably gathered from the intro
example I’m looking at other areas of his playing; including; gear, dynamics, bends;
compound bends, pre bends and some other tricks, vibrato, neo classical ideas, blues, and lastly
his note choice.
Ok, dynamics. First off we’ve got a pretty clean amp sound; so obviously using different
channels or turning off a drive pedal will help here. Secondly he’s a bit of an avid
knob fiddler [oh, matron] which is hard to replicate on a standard strat. On that note,
his Sky guitars seem to have changed a bit over the years, so I’m going to quickly
talk about them and his rig; if you just want the playing tips all l the time codes will
be pinned in the comments, so you can jump about at your leisure.
They have a Volume pot, 20 db boosts for treble, mid, bass rather than standard pickup volumes,
a 100 db master volume and a preamp on/off switch; so instead of channel switching or
using a pedal like most of us mere mortals, he’ll just use his on board boosts to drive
the amp harder. And he will frequently use these alongside his 5 way pickup selector
to adjust his tone on the fly. The idea being he could get a Start, tele, Les Paul or hybrid
sound all in one guitar. His sky guitar has a stereo out, one side
is the sound, the other is phantom power for all of the aforementioned effects. Really
putting my own heavily modded guitar to shame [pic of modded guitar]!
His extended 32 frets were supposedly to sound more like the range of a violin; although
I didn’t find any solid quote to back that up. With some of the higher notes being a
tone apart, rather than a semi tone, so that they are not too small, fiddley or un-useable.
The fretboard also overlaps the neck pickup on the g, b and e strings on the higher notes,
producing a warmer, more muffled sound, which helps level out the potentially shrill sound.
He scalloped the fretboard to make more room for picking near the neck, having seen Ritchie
Blackmore; off of Deep Purple did that; subsequently Uli preferred the feel and sound of this,
so has stuck with it. Except for the 1st 3 frets; which seem to be un scalloped.
There’s also that cool cutaway, which I’m sort of surprised isn’t more standard in
rock and metal, because it would really make getting to those high notes much easier. I
hadn’t realised how integral his guitar was to his sound, and had not intended to
cover it, but it seemed to important a topic to just simply gloss over.
His amp of choice I think is still the black star artisan 100, based on his favourite plexi.
A humble pedalboard, which might typically consist of: A BluGuitar Amp1’s, a Boss Super
chorus, (Blackstar or other various chorus pedals) 2 Carbon copy delays, a tube screamer,
a fuzz face clone and Whammy DT.
His pick attack is generally quite soft, but can vary and is an important part of his dynamics.
Live he tends to use a thicker pick, so they don’t blunt as easily, but prefers a thinner
pick for a bit more high-end, sort of snap, and clarity in the studio. I;m not sure how
well this will translate after youtibe compression
and such but here’s a quick example. His hand position and pick angle will shift for
varying tonal shifts as well. Finally, he’ll employ volume swells and
partial swells. So swelling from 0 to a higher volume, as well as something more subtle;
like say a 2 to 7, which really adds a lot of emotion. I’ve transcribed the solo as
best I can, in that regard, for this guitar, so I’d suggest having a listen to the real
thing, watching how much he knob fiddles and seeing how you can incorporate these into
your own guitar set up. So to recap the dynamics: pedal based drives,
and the valve of an amp on a clean channel, various on board powered guitar knobs for
tonal shifts; most of us would just have to use pedals here; his volume control. Pick
attack, angle and position. The key things to take away here are: the frequency with
which he adjusts things, the volume swell and partial swell.
With that in mind, that’s exactly how he starts this solo; a volume swell. Actually,
not only a volume swell, because it sounds very much like he’s employed some very light
palm muting on the G string for a smoother sound. So, very light mute, swell the volume
up a bit, maybe 3 or 4 or so . Technically this is also a pre bend, as we don’t really
hear the note going up. Which conveniently is the next topic. You’ll notice these pop
up all over this solo and are in fact much more common than standard bends here. At this
point I’m going to highlight that these topics will overlap and there is a lot of
fluidly so we can better analyse this solo. So we should probably take some of the next
points into account as well; vibrato. Uli has a fantastic vibrato; I suspect he might
use gauge 8s and the scalloped frets probably help here. I’ve recently put some 10-9 hybrid
strings on this guitar; I’ll pop a card linking to a review of them in the top left.
Anyway, his vibrato; particularly on bent notes; is generally quite narrow and fast,
but usually very well controlled; which give a mature contemplative sound, rather than
an erratic youthful one. So the real secret to Uli’s vibrato is that he can do it almost
straight away, I tend to need to hold the note for a little bit, get the feeling in
my hand, then add a shallow vibrato. Uli Jon Roth can just launch straight into it; which
I’ll hold my hands up, is still very much a work in progress for myself! To that end
on the G string I’ll usually pull the note down, for more control . It’s sort of cheating,
but will give a much better example for the purposes of teaching. I’m torn whether to
include tabs or not, because I think it might take away from the theme of this lesson, which
is very much about analysing the often illusive idea of ‘feel’ and the tab might encourage
to learn the notes, but ignore the nuances. Speaking of notes, I’m going to be talking
about the note choice, but focusing on the 1st of every bar; where the chord changes
so we don’t get too bogged down, with what is essentially a D minor solo. So, that bend
targets an A the 5th of Dm.
We have a nice little melody after this , targeting g, the 6th of Bb one of the few times Uli
strays from a chord tone in this solo. We also have a bit of knob fiddling; looks like
he’s adding in a bit more bass, so maybe rolling off some tone for a strat equivalent.
And, e over the A minor; it’s 5th (a choice we’ll be seeing more of). Also he’s either
switching to the neck pick or double checking he’s on it at this point.
Picking over the fretboard here, a pre bend pops up again, this time a pre bend from out
of key; a bit like Marty Freidman- lesson card in the top right there; then a really
cool idea which is the next area: compound bends, or more possibly using a finger to
raise the pitch after said bend- I’ve done a lesson on these recently; again card in
the top right. If we just put our finger down the note is quite plainly out of key. I’m
fairly use Uli doesn’t use his little finger but instead might put his ring finger down,
but with a pre bend to push the note a bit higher in pitch. I’ve never come across
this technique before, to the best of my knowledge, so was really happy to happen across it here!
Having said that, he might just be doing a compound bend or more specifically, pre bend
; lesson card in the top right. G to an a A
over the Dm; G being the 4th, which if you know the song is often referenced in the rhythm
creating a sus 4 in passing, erm a bit like this [play twiddle] but an octave lower in
the original. The G being quickly resolved to a, D minor’s 5, Ath.
We release this fairly slowly, then have a bit of vibrato. I should point out the original
version has lots of volume swells and sort of whale noises in the intro, so Roth is clearly
wanting to invoke that to some degree. And those first 4 bars. .
Next up a bend, hit a bit harder with slight volume swell with the narrow fast vibrato,
again targeting A, the 5th of D minor. Another nice simple melody line, then pre bend with
vibrato. A little slide then targeting C, Am’s b3rd. The note, ‘A’ then a pre
bend with volume swell; a really nice bit hitting E, the 9th of D minor, but resolving
to the root. Next, we’ve got some of the neo
classical influence coming through a bit more strongly; although I’d also point out that
the whole solo employs a lot of rubato; that is not strictly playing in time, so as to
allow more expressive playing; elongating and shortening passage as desired, whilst
retaining an overall constant tempo; so you might rush one bit then hold back on the next
and that sort of thing. Generally he’s playing a bit behind the beat; giving that mature
confident sound. And those 4 bars .
Bending G up to an A the 5th of D minor. Using another finger to raise the pitch, with an
increase in volume and picking near the neck .
The same idea over the Bb giving a major 7th, which resolves to the root when another finger
is added. Trill and sliding down to E; Am’s 5th. A large jump with a little slide, up
the E string, going down to A, Dm’s 5th. A quick roll up of the volume, picking in
a more standard place; that’s not as close to the neck.
A real neo classical lick and great regal trill; Using A to lead in to D; the root of
the underlying chord; with a volume increase again. Back to that picking near the neck
thing with a more bluesy line then a 3 semitone bend, when released going to D, Bb’s 3rd
followed by some legato downward pre-bending G, Am’s b7th. This pre bend in particular
you can really hear Uli’s blues skills coming through; he’s clearly well-versed in this
style very subtle nuances that just make it sound more authentic. Sliding down to D, the
Root of the underlying chord. A little pentatonic lick, then very quietly going down the scale,
resolving to D an octave lower and allowing space for Micheal Shchenker to come in with
his solo. And those 8 bars
So to recap all of that: dynamics: pick angle, position attack and on board effects. Pre
bends, vibrato, being ‘out’ notes in to key, neo classical lines and ideas, combined
with more standard blues rock leads. Uli is a great, probably underrated player and I
really wanted to do a lesson on him, but didn’t want to just show his licks, because I think
this is a better, or at least more holistic approach to his playing; a bit of an experiment
in that regard, so let me know if this has been any use. But yeah, if you like neo classic
stuff check out my Yngwie Lesson, or How to sound lie play list, card up there for more
guitar player analysis. But, yeah hit subscribe, share and enable notification with that little
bell on the side if you feel so inclined. Cheers guys!