Adrian Legg

Adrian Legg (born 16 May 1948) is an English guitar player who has been called "impossible to categorize". He plays custom guitars that are a hybrid of electric and acoustic, and his fingerstyle picking technique has been acknowledged by the readers of Guitar Player who voted Legg the "best acoustic fingerstyle" player four years in a row (1993–1996).

From his early start as a bench technician customising electric guitars, Legg moved into guitar instruction, publishing books and videos on guitar technique. In 1996 and 1997, Legg shared the stage with acclaimed guitar experts Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and Steve Vai as part of the G3 tour. Vai called Legg "Uncle Adrian" and Satriani said of Legg's musicianship, "He's simply the best acoustic guitar player I've ever heard. I don't know anyone else who can create such a cascade of beautiful notes... Adrian plays like he's got hammers for fingers."

Early career

Legg was born in Hackney, London, England.

Style

Legg plays fingerstyle guitar, mixing an alternating-bass style with harmonics, banjo-peg retuning and single or double-string bending. Often he will play a piece entirely in arpeggios similar to a classical guitar style. He makes extensive use of altered tunings and capos. He also uses banjo tuning pegs on many of his guitars, allowing him to change tunings mid song, as well as producing glissandos

Legg has said that his true home is onstage. "Playing live is the whole point... Everyone makes a journey, an effort; we all come together – me, the audience, the people who run the venue – to share this wonderful, universal, human emotional interaction. This is where music lives."

A significant part of a performance by Legg is the wryly humorous storytelling patter he uses between songs, some of these stories included on Adrian Legg Live (2017).

Legg included the use of modeling technology and MIDI for fingerstyle guitar on his 2004 album Inheritance, which features extensive use of guitar synthesisers and modeled guitar sounds. This stands in contrast to the more acoustic sound of Guitar Bones.

In an interview with Frets, a Guitar Player publication, Adrian listed some of the signal processors and effects that he utilizes to shape his acoustic tone. This included several notable effects boxes such as the Effectrode PC-2A compressor, a Wampler Pedals Black '65 Overdrive, and an Effeectrode Helios fuzz. Adrian also endorses Neunaber Audio and is currently using a Neunaber Audio Immerse Reverberator for his reverb needs.

Discography

Albums

Videos

Compilations Full Moon (1997) The Ultimate Guitar Survival Guide (1993) Relativity: Here and Now... Musical Masters (1991)