VIDEO – Joe Satriani, Guthrie Govan and Tosin Abasi Chat About G4 2015.

Guitar masters Joe Satriani and Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders recently got to discuss the heavily-debated matter of 7+ stringed guitars, branding them a form of the instrument’s evolution. The question popped up during a Skype chat that also featured Guthrie Govan and Andy Aledort of Guitar World magazine. Initially joking about being “the guy with too many strings,” Tosin kicked off the discussion by saying: “It’s cool to advance the idea of what guitar can be and to have it not be a static instrument, but something that could be open to a bit of evolution.”

Satch agreed, adding, “Ultimately, it should inspire new music, and that’s kinda what it’s all about. No one would come up with 10-string music on a four-string guitar, it’s not there.” The rest of the chat saw the boys discussing some quite interesting topics, most notably the “expressive” aspect of a guitar as an instrument, or the extent to which the musician’s hands and current mood impact the sound he produces.

“The fretboard, the strings, everything is the same,” Tosin said. “It’s just funny, sometimes you pick up a guitar and out of nowhere you produce music. And sometimes you grab the guitar and you just don’t have anything in you.” Abasi added, “But the guitar never changes, what changes is you. So I really like this idea that we all have the same instrument, we are the interface that brings new things out of it, so that’s kind of motivating and interesting to me.”

Joe agreed, naming Jimi Hendrix as the perfect example of a guitarist masterfully handling the “chaos of the moment.” Guthrie then focused on another aspect, saying, “I think electric guitar is a really expressive instrument, it has this range. If you’re just gonna play middle C, you have all these choices that a piano player can only dream of. All the different tones you can get, the vibrato, the attack.

“You could play middle C one hundred times and it could sound different without you buying any pedals or turning any knobs. Because guitar can be that flexible. I think that’s a good thing to embrace, rejoice in that and discover all the ways you can play that one note. ‘Cause one of them might be your note, the note that no one else thought of playing. It’s still middle C, but if you could inject it with your DNA…”

The whole chat revolved around G4 Experience, an upcoming event that will take place from June 28 to July 2 at the Cambria Pines Lodge in California featuring Satriani, Animals as Leaders, The Aristocrats and Mike Keneally. More details at the official website.