From all things shredding, Laurie Monk over on thruthinshredding has created a cool player showing performances from each finalist at the Guitar Idol 2008 finals! Niceone Laurie!:

and the Judges comments on each performance have been posted up on alloutguitar.

Youtube video of Gustavo Guerra performing at the Guitar Idol 2008 finals:

Yay! We now have the final 12 for the Guitar Idol finals. Great to see Daniele Gottardo make the finals and nice to see a couple of my faves in there. Also I see a couple of cool audio entries I missed, Ben Randall and Jas Morris. The finals should be very interesting indeed, some have more experience than others, seeing these guys cut it live will be the ultimate decider.

Here are the final twelve (in no particular order) with a short paragraph from the judges on their decision:

Gustavo Guerra

An unashamedly melodic rock guitarist. Brazilian axeman Gustavo Guerra possesses great chops, tone, timing, control and feel – in short the complete package! The judges are all looking forward to seeing his grinning live performance!

Chris Feener

This young Canadian guitarist much impressed from day one with his great command of a wide variety of techniques and guitar styles – from hot chickin’ pickin’ to slap guitar to full on shred – Chris has it all!

Tom Quayle

Tom Quayle impressed all the judges with his amazingly fluid technique, superb phrasing and melodic sophistication. Fans of rock fusion players such as Greg Howe, Brett Garsed as well as Guthrie Govan will love this UK player!

Muris Varajic

Muris demonstrates total control and possesses great tone. His entry displays his vast array of techniques, killer chops and complete mastery of the instrument. Muris just had to be included in the final!

Lyle Watt

This 15 year old has bluesy phrasing to die for – and his tapping, speed picking and sweeping isn’t too shoddy either!
The judges were impressed also by the ‘live’ performance on the video entry – Lyle is indisputably a kid who can pull it off in London. This was an honest performance from a natural and tremendously gifted young guitarist.

Fernando Miyata

Fernando has an arsenal of mind blowing techniques and a genuinely new approach to tapping. Having won Guitar World’s Best Youtube Guitar Video in 2007, and on the evidence of his entry here, we just had to get Fernando to London. A true monster guitarist, watching him play live is sure to be an experience not to be missed!

Peter Petchalov

Peter’s larger than life character translates into a highly individualistic and unorthodox approach to full on rock/metal guitar. We
are all looking forward to seeing how this translates to the main stage! Peter – You Rock!

Marc Playle

Marc displays a great combination of Eric Johnson/Vinnie Moore type opening lines, building into a great classic rock type track with some choice Slash/Schenker style licks: epic ‘traditional’ rock soloing with class. Rest assured, Marc has made the final on merit!

Gustavo Di Padua

Gustavo possesses fantastic touch and phrasing, great technique – and all with a
real rock attitude! He impressed with his real ‘rockstar’ approach and great natural flair, conjuring up memories of Jake E. Lee in his prime. Gustavo possibly has all the attributes to become a true guitar idol.

Ben Randall

This 16 year old astonished the judges with his level of technical virtuosity at such a young age, coupled with a level of phrasing beyond his years. For someone who has only been playing 3 years, it is nothing short of miraculous and the judges are waiting with baited breath to see him pull it off live!

Jas Morris

Jas was a late entry to Guitar Idol, but instantly caught the judges attention with his Eric Johnson / Carl Verhayen style approach to playing. Combined with his compositional strengths and sense of melody, this was enough to get Jas through to the final. A very polished performer, we have no doubts Jas will deliver in London.

Daniele Gottardo

Daniele Gottardo is quite simply an astonishing guitarist. A master of 8 finger tapping, similar to T.J. Helmerich, Daniele also displays a world class super advanced sense of harmony. To see him play live will be an unmissable event, and one we could not possibly pass up.

*update* – Some interesting input from Owen:

The results are down to the Alloutguitar guys, Licklibrary, Lion Records, The Guitar Institite, The London International Music Show London, Rockschool as well the promotional partners and sponsor companies – and in the end those 12 were the highest scorers able attend.

Dimitri Nalbantov actually got the highest score of all and couldn’t make it – Silvio Gasquez and Andre Noronha were also asked. Many others were very very close: literally a matter of a couple of points here and there.

In the end, for whatever reasons, a lot of people didnt quite get there: we will personally contact many of these players, and all will receive an e-mail from the competition later thanking them and explaining things.

A Full list of The Top 50 with comments from the judges is being prepared over the next couple of days that explains things.

Roll on the Final!

Owen

The finalists for the Finals are being announced one-by-one so far we have:

• Gustavo Guerra
• Chris Feener
• Tom Quayle
• Muris Varajic
• Lyle Watt
• Fernando Miyata
• Peter Petchalov
• Marc Playle
• Gustavo Di Padua

Subscribe to the feed for updates.

The closing date for Guitar Idol has been and gone with the competition closing on Saturday 24th May.

It’s been fantastic exposure to and for the guitar talent out there. Of course a shame to see the usual guitar forum bickering about ‘player A’ being better than ‘player B’, vote spamming, blah blah blah. No wonder I tend to stay clear of guitar forums, moany whiny bunch those guitar players .

Ignoring the negativity, the competition has fairly caught the guitar world’s attention with over 600 odd entries from around the globe. It’s great to see a high profile for the instrument and its players, the guitar grows from strength to strength. I have to admit though, style wise, there were not enough entries from other genres of the guitar. Most would come under the banner of ‘instrumental rock guitar’. Maybe next year’s competition will bring out a more diverse field.

Anyway, before the Official 12 finalists are announced, and just for a bit of fun, I’d thought I’d list 12 players that caught my ears and were stored away in my youtube faves. Of course this excludes all the audio entries to the competition and I’m also excluding those video or audio entries that featured one of the supplied backing tracks! ( Which excludes the likes of Scott Jones and GottyBoy ) Harsh I know.

Here are the 12 players ( in no particular order ) ( if any make to the final I very much look forward to seeing them live )!

Gustavo Guerra
The winner of the popular vote and therefore a guaranteed finalist and, imo, deservedly so. Impressive marketing from the man ensured many many votes but to be honest he didn’t need them. Aanyone who has seen his vids on youtube will know he’s a stunning player with great feel. He also looks to be having great fun whenever he plays! It’s meant to be fun isn’t it?

Muris Varajic
The winner of the Lick Library Competition, Mr Varajic has one of the smoothest playing styles going. I have to admit the Junk Medley doesn’t ring my musical bell like some of the others but Muris’ class is clear for everyone to see.

Serge Yudin

One of the greatest things about the whole competition has been exposure to players previously unknown to me. When I first watched this I was instantly hooked, a fab laid back octave style intro with Vai ‘Tender Surrender’ vibes a go go. I love the way he builds the piece and of course the great tone and feel.

Gustavi Di Padua

I blogged about this very man recently. Yet another Brazilian maestro with great playing and sound.

Silvio Gazquez

Fab entry from an Argentinian player that caught my attention due to some very tasty note choices and of course stunning playing.

Mattrach

A lot of the bickering in the alloutguitar forum was centered around another youtube sensation, Mattrach. I came across a vid of his a while back and loved it ( in fact I think it would have been a better entry to the competition imo ) though this piece has a great main melody. A real young talent for sure.

Efren Camilo

Maybe not my most favourite ‘tone’ but I really liked the melody of this one and how it developed throughout the song. Nice Mario poster too .

Martin Wichmann

I’m such a sucker for a good groove . Love some of those lines, a definite Guthrie Govan influence going on. Though he has messy string ends. Tsk.

Ignazio Di Salvo

Top fusion playing from Italy, interesting style of using a thumbpick to enable 8 finger tapping mayhem!

Maneli Jamal

Dear lord! An acoustic player! Sadly there weren’t that many acoustic players in the competition and I include flamenco or classical style players in that category. Maybe they were put off thinking it was a rock shredathon? Anyway, yes there may be quite a few players around at the moment slappin and tapping those harmonics. But I care not, it sounds fantastic and I love this piece. A breath of fresh air amongst the electric entries.

Sandor West

Clever use of the looper to build up this track. Interestingly I think the only entry that used a looper. Lovely song with a nice melancholy chord progression. Once again a breath of fresh air after listening to about a hundred sweep arpeggios .

Dreuz

Ah good something heavy \m/ Like this one very much. Great riff and melody, almost Andy James vibes in fact.

Dallton Santos

Another pro feel to the vid on this one with a great catchy melody and tasty riffs. A winning combination everytime imo.

OK OK OK! I couldn’t pick 12 ( I have no idea how those judges will ). I actually have about 20 vids in my youtube playlist, check it out for some other great entries.