THANK YOU and a big, emphatic +1 to THAT.
BTW: your guitarist sounds like a clone of the guy in the project I just left - 'cept I never got to play live with him.
And, in case anyone's wondering, I used to have a lot of that guy in me until I started playing live on a regular basis.
I obsessed over trying to copy various guitar tones (mainly Holdsworth, May, EVH, Boston, Gary Moore and Santana) until I realized that most of it really is in the fingers, a lot of it is studio techniques and some of it is just happy accidents or even mistakes.
Bottom line: I spent so much time trying to sound like someone else that I neglected to find my own sound.
But it wasn't a total waste of time because I became very familiar with a wide variety of guitars, basses, amps and FX and eventually I found the recipe that works for me. It just took longer than it probably should have.
Then I discovered Alembic a few years ago and that completely upset the apple cart. It's now easier than ever to sound like me because there is virtually nowhere to hide with these instruments. Completely changed my perspective.
But, as they say, better late than never.
