The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #113472   Message #2412800
Posted By: M.Ted
13-Aug-08 - 03:46 PM
Thread Name: Trace Bundy-what kind of pickin' is this
Subject: RE: Trace Bundy-what kind of pickin' is this
Sorry, WLD, no loop station. And, PG though he is amplified, and gets a nice clean sound, but it is incidental to the way that the sound is created.

The way his right hand technique works is this: he plucks the open string with the fretting finger *before* he hammers on. When he hammers scale notes on the string, it is already ringing.

The movement is exactly the same as you'd use for fingerpicking with the left hand, except, because of the position of the right hand while fretting, you are actually pulling in the opposite direct. This means that you can do it on an unamplified guitar and get just about the same volume that you'd get from regular fingerpicking.

The left hand is like this: he simply pushes the left index finger down on the bass note he wants to sound and holds it. Half and whole notes.

You can do the right hand type stuff as well, I am not sure if he does that or not--it wouldn't be too hard though, as it.

The right hand part, as he plays it, is simply the repetition of a phrase--what the classical boys call an "ostinato"--though there is no particular reason one couldn't vary and develop the phrase--

The left hand part provides the interest, because it creates a simple moving part that plays against the ostinato--

He uses harmonics too, done the Lenny Breau way, but that is a whole nother explanation--(though what he does it way simpler than what Lenny used to do).

The reason that he sounds so good has less to do with his technical ability and more to do with the fact that the piece itself is well thought out, clean, and simple. Oh, and well-played.