Andy Timmons unique crazy arpeggios - Danger Danger - Puppet show

General Music Discussion
#1

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to work out the picking technique for this piece by Andy Timmons called Puppet Show which he played on the Danger Danger album. He’s playing it live here:

And there’s what looks like a pretty good tab of guy playing it here:

So there’s kind of two main parts to it. The open string stuff and then the extended arpeggios.

I was trying to economy pick the open string licks but it just sounds wrong, and then I tried to strict alternate pick it and that didn’t feel right. So I guess he is doing something in-between, possibly inside picking the lower note and the outside picking the pull off strings. What do you guys think?

Also he seems to be alternate picking the big arpeggios, either some or all of the notes which is crazy.

Annoyingly I bought the official tab from Andy’s site (it would have to be right? right?) and well it’s wrong so I guess Andy never even looked at it.

Anyway it’s a cool little unique piece and I was totally unaware of it until recently and I’d really appreciate any insight into how it’s being played if anyone can figure it out or is aware of how Andy plays this kind of stuff?

Cheers

#2

I’ll only comment to add that Timmons is actually a monsterous picker, he just tends to not really do a lot of flashy alternate picking. But, something like “Groove or Die” would sound at home on a Yngwie album, wiht a different guitar tone.

He’s one of my favorite players, both for the sheer technique, and his impeccable tone and phrasing.

#3

I can’t say much on the arpeggios, but in my (wholly unqualified) opinion, the intro section (with all the pull-offs) is definitely using USX wrist-forearm motion. I only say that because it’s a motion that I also use, and it looks very similar.

I don’t have my guitar with me right now, but I’ll give it a shot sometime over the next few days and let you know if I can figure something out. Maybe with our heads together we can figure this out!

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#4

Thanks for the replies guys, I’ve always appreciated Andy Timmons he’s pretty unique. Please ignore the errors on the tab with the timing, I just wanted to get something readable onto the screen.

So I think maybe this is how he’s playing it what do you think? So it’s not alternate picking, it’s not economy picking either. It’s like the pull offs are always an up stroke and the note to get to the pull off is a down-stroke. It’s almost like economy picking backwards after the pull-off then an alternate pick to get to the pull off. It’s fairly comfortable to play this at speed and give’s that snappy alternate picked sound rather than if you just sweep it.

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#5

I’m pretty sure that’s backwards. Andy looks to me like a USX player, particularly in the video above.

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#6

Yes, when I grab my pick and start playing the riff with the forearm-wrist USX, without thinking, I instinctively went with the opposite of the tab. The pattern is DUD for me.

The problem is, this causes a very obvious string change after a downstroke (every note on the D string of the first section for instance), which is not compatible with USX. When I do it fast, I use a little forearm/wrist motion to get over the string, and I might be swiping. I wouldn’t be surprised if Timmons was swiping in the original. (edit - At fast speeds, I’m 100% swiping through the G string after hitting the downstroke on D.)

I think your way (UDU) is strictly better, and is how it probably should be played, but I think Timmons goes with the opposite DUD pattern just because it allows for accenting using strong downstrokes, which I think a lot of forearm-wrist USX players do.

Like this (I notated the swiping in the second bar with X’s):

thing