AFIII Big Wreck "A Million Days" solo cover

MattBowman

FAS Social Media Advocate
I first saw Big Wreck open for Dream Theater back in Atlanta in 1997 when I was a student at the Atlanta Institute of Music (and ironically the next time I would see them would be 20 years later on the 20th anniversary tour for In Loving Memory Of). I had no clue who they were but Ian was a monster and I was impressed to say the least. I rekindled my love for Big Wreck back when the Albatross album came out in 2012 and there was this song called A Million Days with this ridiculous solo! Ian Thornley is one of the most incredible players(and tragically underrated), he's got it all, technique, songwriting, oh and he can sing better than basically anyone haha. My girlfriend knows how much I love Big Wreck, but honestly i've never learned any of their music, so she challenged me this week to learn this solo so here it is! The first half of the video is me playing over the track(i'm louder), and the second half is just the isolated solo I recorded. I used @ProgressiveRocco 80s Modded Marshall patch(I tweaked it a bit) and my Suhr Modern direct to Logic with no post processing, so let me know what you think! Oh and if you don't know Big Wreck, go listen to them, they're incredible!

 
Oh man. That original solo ranks in my top xx of favorite solos. And you did it justice. And thanks to YouTube “slow motion” ability I can now check it out too. Not that I’ll ever be able to play it right though.
Awesome job.
 
Oh man. That original solo ranks in my top xx of favorite solos. And you did it justice. And thanks to YouTube “slow motion” ability I can now check it out too. Not that I’ll ever be able to play it right though.
Awesome job.
Thanks so much! I'll save you some time, I transcribed it ¨̮ Here's the PDF, if you want the guitar pro file, send me a pm with your email.
 

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Fantastic stuff. nhgtrman you said it all in your original post. Ian Thornley is on another level. That solo showcases his Steve Morse influence.
 
Fantastic stuff. nhgtrman you said it all in your original post. Ian Thornley is on another level. That solo showcases his Steve Morse influence.
It sure does, he's such an amazing all around musician, and to think he can also sing like he does is just astounding!
 
That solo is like an unholy mix of Racer X era Paul Gilbert and Images era Petrucci and you smashed it out of the park!
This is one my favorite quotes now haha!! Thanks Leon! I can hear all those, and a huge Steve Morse influence in there, and I think he actually played this solo on a Petrucci Musicman so who knows if there's some Petrucci influence in there too!
 
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