Kickass!

That's not as contridictory as you might think though. IF a person wants a song to sound like the "classic" guns and roses, then what they will want is a solo that will sound like Slash's vintage peformances. While bucket can play in a variety of styles, at the end of the day, NO guitarist can ever imitate the tone, feel, touch and soul of another guitarist entirely. Yes Bucket can play note for note anything Slash writes, or Brian May rights or Stevie Ray Vaughn or Hendrix, however, even if note perfect, and even if he mimicks the feel those musicans have - he will never BE those musicans 100%. Likewise - there are musicians out there who have the chops to play a bucket song note for note - Paul Gilbert or Michael Antino Batio could do it - but a perfect copy of one of his songs notewise would still not BE a bucket peformance. One person just can't be another.

So going back to the person who wants a Slash peformance on the track. That person will then be offended either by shredding at a level faster than slash's playing AND by an attempt to play with a feel similar to slash's feel bcause just from the nature of music it will never be quite right.

Of course there's only a % of fans who feel that way. There are fans like yourself who don't want an old school vibe to the songs, who prefer the bucket peformances. And that is fine too - i think the fan base is going to have to agree to disagree.

As a guitarist I can respect all of the GNR players in different capacities. Slash is a guy who inspired millions of people to play the guitar and writes amazing and beautiful solos, bucket is a guy who plays so well I feel I should quit the guitar entirely, Ron is also an incredibale player and true musician.

The problem is really that GNR now has so many different styles....the songs make room from classic blues based rock, shred styles, industrial rock, dissonance, and everything inbetween. With so many themes in the band...there's always going to be people who like one thing more than another and no one guitarist would ever satisify the entire fan base anymore - as the music is crafted around the unique and amazing talents of at least 3 worldclass guitarists (not to mention the writing skills of a ton of others)

Both Bucket and Slash are phenomenal guitarists for enirely different reasons.

Bucket has a LOT more technical ability than slash, no way Slash could ever play notthingham lace. Bucket's fingers are more felxiable. Likewise, Slash has an undisputable ear for writing beautiful blues melodies. Sure bucket has some great tunes, but he hasn't proved his writing skills in the hard-rock-commerical genre like slash - he didn't write the solos on AFD, UYI...you know SCOM, November Rain...these kinds of songs are always listed as amongst the greatest rock solos ever.

It's interesting to look at the strenghs and weeknesses of both. And if i had mroe time i'd post a longer rant about it. One thing I think is a weakness of bucket (at least to my taste) is his avante guard style is unapproachable for a lot of people - he lacks consistancy. You know like I think that outro solo on Notthingam Lace is amongst the best guitar things EVER recorded...but I can't listen to every other song on the album its on. To my ears its a bunch of junk - wierd ass sound effects mixed with rambling bursts of shred and song structures that change every 20 seconds. To my mind (pending me hearing the rest of the album) - bucket hasn't done what he could have in GNR. Imagine a notthingham solo being the outro to something like prostitute or Novermber Rain!! TWAT is close..but for bucket's style its actually kinda restrained in terms of the shred and stuff..Meanwhile - slash can be too consistant - he is a god at hitting that blues soul - but I guess he is limited in the sence that that is what he will always bring to the table.

It's a shame we can't somehow have both.

So in short they both command respect and both should get more of it.

That's good. Hopefully no Clipping then!!