Magnet Footage: SRV “Scuttle Buttin’ Lick” (Sounds Bad, Help!)

Technique Critique
#1

Hey all,

see here:

1 (normal speed)

2 (slo-mo)

EDIT: https://troygrady.com/users/Bigsby007/video/891/

I recorded myself playing the famous Scuttle Buttin’ lick from SRV. I reviewed the footage and it looks like I’m missing strings or barely grazing them when i’m picking. it also looks like i’m stopping my wrist motion short instead of following through. but when i have a larger range of motion with my wrist, i end up hitting muted strings that are near my target string.

i dunno…when i’m playing, it feels comfortable. it just sounds bad, especially when doing the inside picking with the B and E string at the beginning of the lick.

any advice? thanks!!

fyi, i recorded it as recommended by Troy (240fps, slow-mo mode) but had to upload it to youtube to show you the vid, and i think they squashed the quality. if you have alternatives, let me know. i can’t upload the vid directly to this forum

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#2

I don’t know much about SRV, but I’m pretty sure he was a USX player. Your pick is slanted downwards but I think your hand/arm setup and motion suggest DSX which is probably _not_compatible with what you are trying to play. A slow motion video would reveal more.

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#3

added a slow motion version to the original post! it’s also here:

EDIT: https://troygrady.com/users/Bigsby007/video/891/

#4

FYI I edited your links for correct embedding — see here: How to post Youtube Shorts on the Forum - #2 by Pepepicks66

PS: this could be of interest
:slight_smile:

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#5

Most players that are playing their own stuff have a LOT of lax to them, or space to mess up, So trying to do it perfect will acually trip you up and take you away from their original vibe.

One thing I’m doing recently is just flowing through my “mistakes” and just getting the general idea of whats in my mind out, that might be whats getting you stuck, trying to play it too perfectly.Think of your own licks or shredding, you just keep going. In some ways it’s like Shawn lane said, go for it and clean it up later.

If you wana do it exactly as was played, Then in my experience, you’re going to stifle your progression in guitar. I’ve given up trying to play licks perfectly as you will forget them over time. What you will remember is how you play. And you’re far more likely to acually play licks correctly focusing on your own style. As it’s all down to efficiency and ease of playing. That my logic in not hyper focusing on how someone else did it.

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#6

i think i’m in the “clean it up later” phase though. also im not really going for the same vibe as SRV. im just using this lick as a good picking exercise. i dont mind if it sounds robotic. im going for perfection.

#7

I’m torn about this. We can learn so much about players by trying to imitate various things about them, even pretty idiosyncratic aspects. I think there is some value to it. That said, if we get obsessive about it, I totally agree that it can do more harm than good in our own advancement. Especially if you’re really into a number of different players. It’s just not being fair to ourselves! Al Di Meola only has to worry about sounding like himself. If he also needed to worry about sounding like Steve Morse he’d probably not be quite as good at the things he’s known for. Then there’s the rest of us, who are massive fans of dozens of amazing players. Even if we throw everything we have into emulating even 3 or 4 or them, there’s a good chance we’ll come up short on all fronts.

I think going for the general vibe of something is still good. Even if we have to change a couple notes to match our motion mechanic…fine. There are multi-million entertainment establishments (American Idol, The Voice etc .) entirely dedicated to covers and people are expected to do things differently from the artists.

Sorry for the off topic…

I think @Johannes has nailed it (as he always does). I’m not rock solid on exactly how SRV played the lick but the way you’re doing would require either a mixed escape or DBX motion and yours appears to have more of a DSX trajectory. With all the “E’s” and “B’s” in that lick (open string or fretted) maybe it’s worth finding a way to play that only escapes after down strokes? Or add some hybrid or economy in places?

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#8

Watching it it seems like you’re unsure of the notes you’re playing? Looks like some legato at times and picked others? I could be totally wrong, tho I do know in my own playing I need to be absolutely sure of what I’m picking and legatoing, that mismatch trips me up a lot unless I can acually spell it out in my mind. Knowing 100% what my fingers need to do to pull off a lick helps me nail it. Are you doing any pull offs?

#9

hrmm i’m not sure why my slo-mo video went to normal speed after i uploaded it. let me know if i should re-upload.

question: aren’t i doing a combination of DBX (when it’s one note per string) and USX and DSX (when it’s two notes per string, USX and DSX depending on where i am in the alternate picking cycle)? if not, that is likely the problem but i’m not sure how to fix that…

#10

Yeah if you could upload the slow mo one again and post the new link that would help. I suspect you’re trying to do DBX and it’s not quite working and getting stuck in places.

Re: the speed of the video and YT squashing it down, you should be able to upload the video directly to the Cracking the Code site (i.e. not the forum), then post a link to that. It will allow the 240fsp

Go here once you’re logged in and you should be able to upload videos. I believe the cap is that they have to be under 1 minute in length so you should be good to go.
https://troygrady.com/dashboard/video/

#11

I think you’re swiping through the high e. Pickslanting might help, I notice you’re not changing it much. Have a go hitting the b with a dsx slant?

If I was going to play this I’d change my pick slant to dsx when you go descend. My guitar only has 4 strings atm so I can’t acually play it, but it do notice you don’t change you pick slant at all. And possibly why you hit notes you don’t intend?

#12

I’ve approached this lick in quite a few different ways and each one works well and sounds great. SRV had such a precise sloppiness that so much can be learned from a lick like this.

The more I see of Andy Wood’s stuff on this site, the more it occurs to me that he’s about as close as we’ve ever gotten to another’s SRV. He’s like… even next level in a lot of regards.

I can post a vid later of a few ways to go about this lick if you’re interested.

#13

This guy has his pick quite perpendicular to the body. It might be that you’ve to much of a pick slant. I see your picking is really shallow. If I was going to do this I’d use more flexion and extension, the door knocking motion, as it’s fast but not that fast. I’d call it pecking. Peck at the notes. You don’t need a linear stroke for this line. It’s fine to break the rules of shredding to do this type of stuff in my opinion. What you’re doing looks more like sweeping to me and you’re hitting notes you don’t want.

You can see this guy doing the pecking motion in his slow example.

No doubt when its played fast it smooths out, but thats what his hand is trained to do. Peck at the notes slow and when you speed up it should naturally smooth out.

#15

fyi i’ve posted a slo mo vid of the video abkve in my dashboard. https://troygrady.com/dashboard/video/891/

does this work?

#16

Says this? idk.

The user video you requested does not exist or is set to private.

#17

Ah yeah…there should be a “share” button on there but there isn’t. Only you can see that one. The public one is here:

EDIT: @Bigsby007 I think after watching the thing I notice most is the 4th note. The pick seems to get stuck on the high e so it sort of “ricochets” off the string and doesn’t cleanly hit the B. That’s kind of what I was getting at with it being a DBX attempt that’s not quite working as intended. Is your goal to just “play the right notes” or are you specifically using this as a tool to help you with mixed escape and/or DBX?

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#18

How do you upload slow videos like that? I’ve no idea… Is that from the videos big posted before?

#19

I’m trying to use this as a tool to help with DBX/mixed escape (i thought those were the same thing) but also to play this lick. i’m guessing that is one and the same really, cuz if i can do DBX, then i can play this lick.

but i’m not trying to copy SRV’s style when he plays this lick. i dont care if the picking sounds clean as a robot. in fact, that’s what i’m going for. the real music i create has plenty of feel. i’m looking for picking accuracy here!

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#20

The difference is, in mixed escape, there is usually a primary escape, then just sometimes you’ll have a note here and there that doesn’t “work”. So you just use some type of helper motion to pick it. DBX is just all down strokes escape and all upstrokes escape. So for DBX you need a very specific type of motion that will accomplish it.

I’ve had this technique as a little “project” I’ve worked on the last 1.5 years. I was able to get the core motion within a week and I detailed some things about it here:

I also recently put up tabs for a blugrass tune that’s almost exclusively DBX

Those might help give you some variety.

I think the main thing is to “find” the motion. If anything is not working, don’t keep doing it hoping it will fix itself. Spend that time changing variables until you get something that definitely works. For example, at the 0:34 mark in the slo mo video you just uploaded, you had a clean set of string changes. See if you can replicate that. Not sure if it matters but you did that by going “U D U” on the B and high e. Also around :40 you got clean escapes on G B E B, going “D U D U”. See if you can replicate that in isolation too. The first thing I found I could do was 3 ascending notes (1 note per string). Then I could use that to get 4 ascending notes. Then I started working on descending. I just tried playing as fast as I could with a variety of grips/anchors etc till something started working. Once you get something that’s working, you have to do more and more of that and see if you can associate the feeling of that with what you’re doing to cause it.

In general to me, it looks like the issue is that most of the upstrokes are not escaping, and that is common for folks who have a more “DSX” trajectory.

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#21

I struggled with this tune two decades ago, back then there was very little to go on. I managed it finally after three months, always struggled to get the last bass note on time as there’s a skipped string. I wasn’t aware of the middle finger pluck, nor did I play hybrid back then.

After looking at you’re slowmo vid2, I think I’ve been through that struggle, I remember breaking it down in to sections, getting the first part right and working on the finishing up, I need to take my dad to the doc, I’ll post a vid on acoustic to show you how I solved it. There is inside picking on the top notes, just realised that where I learned to to that inside picking in the first place.

edit:

After looking at your videos, I think you are anchored to the bridge, you may be better results if you track with your elbow. Sorry for the vids, I’m rusty with guitar in general but I love this riff, the second one I’m bending instead of the slides, I think it sounds better, I suppose you can bend the first one and slide the second. Hope this helps.

edit2:

here’s another way to play it, an older vid from the thumb pick days… which are kinda back :slight_smile:

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