Herman Li Abuses the Ibanez S470
Posted on January 26, 2008
Filed Under Guitarists |
Previously I mentioned that Herman Li of Dragonforce plays the Ibanez S470. You can see him demonstrating some silly sound effects that he does on the latest Dragonforce album in the YouTube video called: Herman Li video game guitar effects.
In the vid he says “we do all kinds of strange noises on the guitar and we give it kind of video game names because it’s cool!” Well I disagree. It is not cool. In fact it sounds like crap. What a stupid use of an Ibanez guitar. I mean who wants to listen to these sounds, they are annoying. It’s one thing to fool around with your wammy bar but to put the annoying sounds on a record?!?! Give me break. Honestly, the Pac Man noise. The motorbike noise. This is crap. This is what you do when you first play a wammy bar. If you want to hear neat sound effects on the guitar that are interesting , creative and fit within the context of a song, listen to Joe Satriani. Herman's sounds from this video should have remained in the bedroom in which he appears in the video. Honestly this is a poor demonstration of Ibanez S Series Guitars.Now Herman certainly has decent chops and shred his way around his Ibanez guitar just fine. But really, guitar playing is maybe 1/10 technique… the rest is creativity, originality, feeling, and tone. Unfortunately Herman can elicit precious little of these from his Ibanez. The idea of being the fastest power metal band in the world is fine as a marketing pitch but it’s no fun to listen to. Their songs are just so friggin’ repetitive and rehashed textbook power metal. Faster is not better. Guitar is not a sport, it’s an art.
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36 Responses to “Herman Li Abuses the Ibanez S470”
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I was just wondering, what creative things have you discovered on your guitar? Made any bands? Sold any records? By the way, what your seeing Herman do is just what you spoke so honorably about. Creativity. Originality. Feeling. Tone. Come on, who else plays like Herman? No one. You should let go of your envy and really appreciate someones talent. I didn’t say you have to like him, just appreciate him for being the artist he is.
They are kind of a guitar school, if you master the whammy bar, it’s ok, and they give dynamics to a song. Don’t you think?
[…] News flash: Fastest is not best, heaviest is not best, most brutal is not best, most extreme is not best. These are stupid gimmicks. Don’t try to be a gimmick. […]
You guys are all retarted. You obviously havent listened to the fire and flames, he makes all thes noises match the song. Just cause you guys suck doesnt mean you have tobash people that are good.
you guys r dumbasses. herman li is a beast!
I am sick and tired of idiots who think that just because dragonforce play fast as hell, they’re great. I am also sick and tired of people who are supposedly into shred and have only ever heard of dragonforce who go on and on about dragonforce being the best band out there, despite the fact that all their songs sound the same.
Go and listen to some Paul Gilbert. He can kick Herman Li’s ass at guitar, and can play in more styles than ‘GO REALLY REALLY FAST UP AND DOWN THIS SCALE 30 TIMES, THEN CHANGE TO ANOTHER SCALE, WOW!’
Thanks Dave, finally a commenter that doesn’t have dog crap in their ears. You nailed it. right on. Li fans… if you want to hear someone shred and do something interesting that’s worth hearing try Tony MacAlpine, Jeff Loomis, or Michael Lee Firkins. Try Satriani, try Malmsteen, try Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, etc etc.
Awesome Dude your albums rock and so does through the fire and the flames. Also what type of guitar do you use ????????
the only comment i guess i have to say to Herman Li is that he plays well in a record studio rather than in a live concert, he commits definite obvious mistakes which is not likely in the record they made on the song. yes of course He plays well in a record studio because they can edit it when they commit mistakes, so meaning they try to perfect the recording but when they get to a live concert stage, Herman Li doesn’t really get what he had recorded, but not all i guess, there are some part of the songs i guess. Peace!!!
satch, malmsteen, EVH, vai, batio, and li are all good, but EVH and satch sound better than all of them, thats just my opinion
i mean i’m not sayin Li is a bad guitarrist , he is a good player in the studio, i mean what thing in music its better than a live concert I think u shoul record only what u r capabile of really play live the sounds r ok to me you can not say hes bad cause of that , but yes I like more the style of gilbert and mclpine rather than hermans but its ur call also u can not caompare guitar players thats just stupid …
wow. you realize you just come off sounding bitter that you’ll never be able to pull off the kind of chops herman plays, right? pathetic.
to the first bozo who replied… you said “Come on, who else plays like Herman? No one.”
And that is actually right! cause he plays like crap for fucks sake. how can so many people think hes great, any 16 years old kid can do this at home with a 15 watt amp and like 6 months of practice.
jacob (jakeizzy) lil bro, you are so right on
(punk) it means thinking for yourself
if its so easy mastercheiflol
where is your band ?? too busy playing games to actuallky put forth an effort
sht, you suk AND blow
dude anyone hear Herman Li and appreciate him
I mean really he is the best I repeat BEST guitar player. You people see anyone else as famous and as good as him?
Herman kicks ass.
Anyone who says Herman Li is the best guitarist has no clue of true guitaring; look at what Satriani, Gilbert, Batio, EVH, and others have accomplished in shred (they all actually play extremely well live) look at the classic rock artist I dare anyone to say Hendrix isn’t the greatest guitarist ever because A. he did enough drugs to kill most people while playing guitar B. he sung and played C. he didn’t have the S series ibanez to play on (which I find a lot better than my strat) D. he killed the guitar while he played Herman Li is by far not the greatest guitarist look at him live; anyone can play a series of notes fast (that sound crappy when played slow, I know took a lot of time learning through the fire and the flames) anyone with enough time on their hands can manage to find weird noises out of a guitar (Herman’s aren’t even that out of the way weird) so Herman Li is basically someone that has a lot of time on his hands and used most of his time playing guitar anyone can do that the only thing that distinguishes him is the fact that Roadrunner Records can make screwups sound good
mr li is playing, writing and performing music that he loves. he’s self taught and is not as good as the likes of satriani, vai etc… however he’s not posting his music through your doors and telling you to listen to it, he’s just playing and we all deserve the right to do just that. live and let live guys. lets not go out of our way to talk trash about others…
peace!
I agree that those are some really elementary-level, horrible sounds! But guitar playing you say is 1/10 technique? Ha! That’s a good one.
Herman Li is a great guitarist(in the studio)He honestly sounds down right bad live.That doesnt mean that the dongs [i believe you mean songs, ed.] Dragonforce has made are bad BUT!!! THAT DOESNT MEAN THEY ARE THE BEST. Most people that say he is the best dont even play guitar and the only reason they know he exists is because of Guitar Hero. (Thats how I found out)Im not saying hes bad but just vomiting out phrases like “Hes the best just listen to Through the fire and the flames”doesnt make any difference you just look like an in experienced douche. I only wish the later guitar hero games play more songs from the OTHER AMAZING GUITARISTS like Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert,Vai, or Malmsteen(the sad thing is only guitarists know about these guys because their solo guitarists)there are others that you would know about if you played guitar and are actually out to master the instument. But if you dont play guitar dont try to argue with guitarists.Oh yah one more thing I know speed isnt everything in music so dont get all mad and say we just like fast sounds. Most people just want to MASTER THE GUITAR. Not doom are selves to one style.
You can’t disprove the article’s point by requiring the author to be a professional musician. Agree or disagree, but take your fucked up logic home with you if you really think we all have to be on labels just to talk about music here.
it’s just a guitar. that’s what they are used for. making noises and music. can’t have music without noise can you?
just because herman is good at it, no need for people to be jealous. all these noises match with “through the fire and flames”
guitar playing is maybe 1/10 technique… the rest is creativity, originality, feeling, and tone…rite? and he has some decent chops? very creative eh? sounds then like mr li is definately doing quite well. Whoever wrote this crap apparently isnt a very creative guitarist themselves and has tunnel vision. Your opinion is what it is, your opinion, just like asshole…everyones got one.
ok…. well he is good ill give him that but seriously it gets old real quick. i understand that he sells records yeah im pretty sure if i played more me and my friends could sell records. its just annoying and what the hell since when is a 10 minute song cool frankly i quit listening to dragonforce hmm lets see never cuz i never did…. hes lame get a real job or play some real music not that gay ass pac man shit do some sweeps and stuff man
Everybody stop arguing.
If you were a real guitarist you’d leave a constructive arguement if u hated Herman.
I personally love his originality and inginuity, even he doesn’t seem to show much care towards his guitar.
he does do sweeps. maybe if you actually took the time to listen, you would realize that.
As a DF and Herman fan I can safely say that Herman, whilst bit being the best guitarist in the world, he’s certainly not a bad one. At least he has a specific style and, as shown above in the video, is willing to go a bit nuts and make a few crazy sounds.
“…what the hell since when is a 10 minute song cool…” Erm, since ever. Dragonforce have one 10 minute song, all the rest are below that If you don’t like their style of a long song go listen to some prog metal like Dream Theater. Perhaps you’re too impatient.
On the live subject, having seen them and enjoyed it, I can confirm that they can play their own songs - anybody who claims they can’t without having seen them in the flesh is totally wrong. They didn’t *sound* that great, it was very noisy and the tone didn’t sound right, but they certainly put loads of energy into it and genuinely have a lot of fun.
I’m not saying Herman is better than Joe Sach, Vai, Petrucci or others, but come on, who is? And he’s not exactly bad. Besides, me thinks their next album will be quite different. Why else would ZP leave?
Well god if you don’t like him then why are you posting shit about him. If your so much fucking better at guitar then him why don’t you start a band and make millions hows that sound. Hes just an honest man whos trying to make a living by playing guitar jackasses
tired of this…
well, just listen to my uncle’s shredding techniques. and he will surely kick the ass of herman li.
michael angelo batio rules. our blood rules.
Joe Satriani is shit
People who think playing fast depends on how much time you have to practise are completely wrong!
It’s not about the time you have but all it is about is DISCIPLINE!!! If you don’t have that you will never be able to play like Herman Li for instance.
Li is good and successful. Not because he had too much time to spend, no, but because he is talented end is very disciplined to achieve his goals.
There are so many guitarists around the world who are that good or better but they are only known through youtube which is nice but maybe not as nice as having a great band to play in and also be selling lots of records to fans around the world…
So, if you don’t like Li’s guitarplaying that’s OK of course because everybody’s different. But don’t tell anybody how to play or use his instrument because then you’d be trying to stop that person from trying new stuff and being creative…I mean, look at Jimi Hendrix man, her really “abused” his guitars and he got the sounds he wanted and made him legend…
So let’s just shut up now, be disciplined and creative and play!!!!!!!!
Can’t tell if trolling or just very stupid, jajaja.
That you don’t like Herman Li style don’t mean that everyone have to dislike it. If you wanna be the fastest or the slowliest, or the melodyest musician its only part of your own musical vision.
I have to say, people like to bash dragonforce because their style is repetitive whatever, and before people start targeting me, i am no diehard dragonforce fan (in fact i only listen to some of their stuff), my favorite artists are sonata arctica, joe satriani, dream theater, yngwie (i like the neoclassical stuff he does, plus his skill at the genre is unmatched on a technical/showmanship aspect) and a few other groups i’m probably forgetting, so i have a good variety of taste in metal, what i like about dragonforce, is that their style is unique, and it gives me something different to listen too, sure it’s fast, sure it’s simple, but sometimes that’s just what I want to hear, I will never try to write songs in their style, nor attempt to play them (there’s way to much room for error), but i still like to listen to them on occasion because of their uniqueness.
Exactly! I so agree with whatever. He’s right. Everybody is different, has their own musical tastes and stuff like that, but just cause you don’t like the way Herman plays, or the genre of music DF play, it doesn’t give you the rights to say: ” Oh, Herman Li is a shit guitarist, hasn’t got tone, he’s only good in the studio, in lives he messes everything up”. You know what i’ll tell you? Just shut the fuck up! You’re just jealous cause he is a succesful man, just trying to earn some cash to eat. Don’t see anything wrong with that. Thus, if he is so crap, and you’re so good, why doesn’t anyone even know who you are? Why aren’t you guys out there selling milions of records? I said it before, and i’ll say it again: You’re just jealous!
And plus, you’re such a dumbass saying: What a poor use of an ibanez S series. That’s an Egen, it’s not an s series
It is not an EGEN. EGEN is his signature model and it has the grip on top. This is an S series, which he played prior to his sig model. I am not a dumbass.