Buckethead Style

Hello GMCers! Welcome to this lesson based on the style of the great guitar player called Buckethead. I used the backing of this lessons for an amazing Collaboration that can be listened here. This tune is inspired by the song Soothsayer where you can hear a clean arpeggio followed by a powerful chorus based on power chords. Over it I tried to emulate his sound and phrasing.

Who is Buckethead?
Nobody knows... some people says that Chuck Norris is behind that mask... but I can’t believe that... let’s see what wikipedia says..
“Brian Carroll (born May 13, 1969), better known by his stage name Buckethead, is a virtuoso guitarist and multi instrumentalist who has worked within several genres of music. He has released 32 studio albums, four special releases and one EP. He has performed on over 50 more albums by other artists. His music spans such diverse areas as progressive metal, funk, blues, jazz, bluegrass, ambient, and avant-garde music.”

Techniques:
Buckethead is a killer shredder so he dominates different techniques as alternate picking, legatos, sweep picking and tapping. In this particular lesson we will use alternate picking, bending, vibrato and sweeps over clean arpeggios.
I think that his style is very influenced by his teacher Paul Gilbert, so if you like this lessons I’m sure that you’ll like this ones: Paul Gilbert Lessons

Tonality & Scales:
The tune is in A minor tonality so the scales that can be used are A minor Aeolian and A pentatonic minor. He prefers minor over major tonalities to compose his music but be sure that you’ll find many variations in all his music catalog.

Sound:
Buckethead uses Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amps with a Signature Gibson Les Paul that includes a special button for the tremolo. I used my pod X3 live pedalboard emulating that Mesa Boogie amp and my Gibson Les Paul, so I’m close to his sound. Some of the effects often used by him are Wah Wah, Chorus and Delay. In this lesson I used Chorus for the clean guitar, Wha Wha for the solo, and added a tremolo VST plug in in the last note just for keeping Buckethead soul in the tune. I didn’t use the Wah Wah in a specific way, I just moved my foot when I felt it was appropriate... that’s why I didn’t include a camera angle showing the Wah Wah movements.

Tuning:
440 Standard Tuning.

Ok, guys.. Let’s start working!