How long did it take you to learn Scuttle buttin'?

Romo82

Experienced
In a stroke of genius I decided I was going to learn it today and well.......... yeah.

The fingering is easy, which I was surprised at but the speed on the picking is really quite disarming. I figure I'll chip away at it as a practice piece until the speed comes but wow I reckon it might take a while.

Anyone else take this SOB on, how long did it take you to get it nailed?
 
Yeah, that's the thing with the really good ones. They make it look and sound so easy.

Just don't be disheartened by talent nonsense, it's all about practice practice practice. That's what separates the really good guitarists from the pack. They didn't give up practicing.
 
In a stroke of genius I decided I was going to learn it today and well.......... yeah.

The fingering is easy, which I was surprised at but the speed on the picking is really quite disarming. I figure I'll chip away at it as a practice piece until the speed comes but wow I reckon it might take a while.

Anyone else take this SOB on, how long did it take you to get it nailed?
What particular part are you thinking about? There's a lot of bends, pull offs and a slide thrown in. Basically, anything that doesn't have to be picked, is executed by the left hand.
 
The open string picking is where I'm sounding like a day one player, definitely cant play it the bending way as on the record (how he did it on .13's I will never know) so have been doing it the slide way. The left hand I'd say I'm reasonably competent in but my right hand accuracy is sloppy. I tried playing it outside picking, alternate, hybrid and a mongrel mix feel the alternate way is seeming to work best for me. Do you start the passage with a hammer on slide and not even pick the first note?

I think it's just going to be a war of attrition and practice as with most things.
 
never could come close to playing it right...


I can’t dunk a basketball, and I can’t play like SRV....

i dont know if any amount of practice will change that for either lol.

I’m sure some could learn it, and I’m sure there are some 5’ 11” guys who can dunk (maybe not at my age) but either seems like an unrealistic goal for me, so I work on stuff I can learn and play a bit easier
 
The open string picking is where I'm sounding like a day one player, definitely cant play it the bending way as on the record (how he did it on .13's I will never know) so have been doing it the slide way. The left hand I'd say I'm reasonably competent in but my right hand accuracy is sloppy. I tried playing it outside picking, alternate, hybrid and a mongrel mix feel the alternate way is seeming to work best for me. Do you start the passage with a hammer on slide and not even pick the first note?

I think it's just going to be a war of attrition and practice as with most things.
Well, he didn't use 13s. That's a myth that's been debunked time and again. He used 11s, but switched out both e strings to the ones from a set 13. But he would also frequently start with lower gauges at the beginning of a tour, and then work his way up to "his" gauges. And he would often go down on the high e (13) string to a lower gauge if his finger were getting sore. So that he ever used a straight set of 13s is just caca, but I digress.

I would alternate pick most of it, regardless if I start on an upstroke or a downstroke. If you play it all slides (like I did on acoustic earlier today), I would pick the a note on the g string, and then slide up to the b note, and the pick the open b string. So 2 plucks, both in opposite direction.

I would only do two upstroke in a row, if I started the lick on a downstroke. When doing that, the little flat five slide and pull off thing on the g string becomes an upstroke, and I want to e on the d string to be a upstroke as well, so that the low E on the 1 of the next bar ends up being a downstroke. Theoretically, starting the lick on an upstroke is more in time, because the first open b string lands on 2 and becomes a downstroke in that case. It may not be the most economical, though, depending on how you play the rhythm part leading into the lick. I'm a firm believer in keeping time with the right hand, so the low E in the rhythm part goes down-up-down for me, which might be awkward for some people.
 
Well, he didn't use 13s. That's a myth that's been debunked time and again. He used 11s, but switched out both e strings to the ones from a set 13. But he would also frequently start with lower gauges at the beginning of a tour, and then work his way up to "his" gauges. And he would often go down on the high e (13) string to a lower gauge if his finger were getting sore. So that he ever used a straight set of 13s is just caca, but I digress.

I would alternate pick most of it, regardless if I start on an upstroke or a downstroke. If you play it all slides (like I did on acoustic earlier today), I would pick the a note on the g string, and then slide up to the b note, and the pick the open b string. So 2 plucks, both in opposite direction.

I would only do two upstroke in a row, if I started the lick on a downstroke. When doing that, the little flat five slide and pull off thing on the g string becomes an upstroke, and I want to e on the d string to be a upstroke as well, so that the low E on the 1 of the next bar ends up being a downstroke. Theoretically, starting the lick on an upstroke is more in time, because the first open b string lands on 2 and becomes a downstroke in that case. It may not be the most economical, though, depending on how you play the rhythm part leading into the lick. I'm a firm believer in keeping time with the right hand, so the low E in the rhythm part goes down-up-down for me, which might be awkward for some people.

Gonna try this tonight. I thought he started off with heavier strings then lightened them as the tours went on due to fatigue? Either way, the bending version is harder IMHO!
 
Anyone notice JIBOOM by Vai is a direct rip off? Sorry for the derail.
Would love to play any of SRV's stuff but he's to bloody good!
 
Based on live videos (ignoring slide vs. bend differences) the first high E in the lick is always plucked with the middle finger. He's pretty consistent doing like shown below, except often the first d-g doublestop after the lick is plucked with middle & ring. Note that the upstroke starting the song changes to a downstroke when the lick repeats.

t6W13zf.png


I think the first spot he might skip the middle pluck on the studio version is 0:21-24 where the bends are also changed to slides. It sounds like both B & E are picked through with a downstroke on beat 2, then upstroke just the E on next 16th.
 
Took me quite a while to get it right. I use a lot of alternate picking but I start with an upstroke often. That is due to the fact that I did tjat for years until I got stuck on a few Vai licks and my teacher noticed me starting witjcan upstroke. Took me months with a metronome to change it. Upsid is that it is extremely handy when you do fast triplet runs from high to low. Anyway. In tje srv scuttle buttin’ I also use multiple upstrokes when going up in strings. I was about to put it on youtube when my arm injury happened.
The very first few beats I found the hardest. Somehow I so often didn’t get the feel right. Even when I thought I had it al right it missed the feel. Can’t put my finger on it. Maybe I am too straight on the beat.

Anyway. You must really want to be able to play this if you go for it because it really is a challenge.

Harm
 
I learned to play it about 30 years ago and I play it economy picking where ever possible (like everything), same way EJ and YJM play for that matter but I just ended up doing this without thinking. It was only years later when I found myself not being fluid on certain relatively easy tunes that fight against not alternate that I analysed it. I've not looked too hard at live videos but I don't remember him hybrid picking anything when I saw him play it live in the 80s. Unless you count the big thumb twang on the open bass E.
 
Well it’s coming along for me, not as fast as it should be but I think about 60/70% there. A good warm up and some death/thrash first helps.

Thanks for the input folks!
 
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