ANNOYING THINGS GUITARISTS DO → INCLUDING US!

My biggest pet peeve is when some players think that the music sucks if it's easy to play. Not everything has to be Dream Theater to be good!

6 inch string "whiskers" hanging off the headstock.

Im sorry did you just casually gloss over the fact that you opened for Def Leppard?

My biggest pet peeve is when local mom and pop music stores close up.

Trying to have a conversation with the band without the guitarist cycling through the top 100 guitar riffs of all time like a shuffled Spotify playlist

Not just guitarists, but any musician that thinks they have to play constantly during a song. Sometimes there are parts when you need to drop out. There are no dynamics if everyone is playing all the time.

One of the reasons Holdsworth changed gear so much was because, unfortunately, he didn't sell records. He had a wife and kids, and had to provide for them. Often strapped for cash, he had to sell stuff now and then. An awful reality for such an amazing talent.

Players who use so many effects and digital overlays you can't even tell if they're playing

side note: i once went to see a buddy's band. as a joke, he played the solo to american woman for every-single-song, the entire nite. i thought it was hillarious, but no one else did

Untrimmed Guitar strings after a string change. Cabs that are narrower than the Amp Head.

slowly reaches over and carefully removes polytune from the headstock of my white les paul sobs

The bit about the gold-plated drumkit reminded me of being in Sydney, going into a music shop where they had a SPECIAL EDITION Yamaha DX7 (Five millionth or whatever). The white keys were silver, the black keys were gold....I was contemplating this instrument in bemusement when one of the shop guys came up - we both looked at the instrument in silence for a while and then he said, quietly, with wonderful Aussie succintness ......."Yeah.....fuckin' atrocious ain't it ?"

As a bassist, hearing him talk about $27 strings like that's crazy expensive is really funny.

Tuning without muting, constantly noodling while people are talking.

Playing with different bands over the years I run across some that can't keep a tempo, especially when they get louder. They get faster the louder they get or get slower when get softer. I'm a drummer who is playing guitar and it drives me crazy. I can't even tap tempo and keep my delay straight with all the different tempos going on. The other thing is watching someone rapping there cable over their shoulder and elbow. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! And they wonder why their cables don't last. There I feel better. Thanks guys.

I know a guitarist that constantly hums while he plays. The problem is what he’s humming is not even in the same UNIVERSE as what he’s playing!

I was just poking around in Six-String Instrument Middle, years ago, and a guy was buying a Squire Strat and a little amp for his very young son. He was from Central America. I forget what country. He was shipping this all to his son at home. He needed a "wire." The sales rep talked him into a 20foot monster cable! For grade school kid, just learning to play. $30, with gold ends. If anything goes wrong with it, "you can get a new cable at any Guitar Center." I'm pretty sure there are no GC's in Ecuador! The sales rep kid really laid the BS on heavy. As soon as the rep disappeared for a minute, I showed the dad an 8 foot NoName, with Switchcraft chrome connectors for less than half the price.

My biggest pet peeve is when I am playing my own rendition of a song and some elitist player says something like ‘That’s not how Page does it “ or ‘you played that riff wrong, it’s not like on the record’. Its like, DUDE IM NOT JIMMY PAGE. I’m Paula and it how I WANT to play it. Seriously WTF?!

To me, and no hate towards you guys because you touched on this, my biggest pet peeve is guitar guys who bash other guitar guys for trying to emulate someone else’s rig. I think it’s pretty cool for someone who can afford it to put together EVH’s rig from VH1. Even though you’ll never sound just like him, it’s so cool to be able to afford to do it and to have the knowledge to do so. And also, you’ll never capture his tone, but you might stumble across your own along the way.

I am generally annoyed at everything but I have never been even remotely annoyed by a Rick Beato video. Always a pleasure.