I love this guy:
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Besides the obvious speed and all, two things about this guy are incredible, in my opinion:
- Fretboard knowledge and/or note choices.
- Timing! I can’t believe how much he can stay in the pocket considering that sweeping is quite a “slippery” technique.
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Oh man, I remember learning about Frank in high school when he first hit the scene. I got ahold of his live album and played that casette over and over. I bought his Speed Picking book as soon as I could and even sent away for his first improv theory books (which I still have).
The notion of economy picking was such a mind-blowing thing for me at such a tender young age. I didn’t even know that was allowed. And the first time I just pushed that pick through to the next string like it was nothing was an epiphany.
The funny thing is, I was “an economy guy” for years and years until I came across CTC. I never really bothered with alternate-picking before as it seemed like too much effort to achieve what I could already do. But then I realized that the same lick played with those two approaches sounds different.
Now I’m some odd-ball mix of the two approaches. But Frank was a huge foundation of that. What a mensch.
I love his work with Chick Corea in the late 80s and early 90s. Time Track is my favourite.
@Troy Frank still has all of his old guitars. It would be cool if he showed some of them in the interview. The yellow Ibanez especially 
hehe
What is Frank’s natural pick orientation? I’m guessing he’s an upward pickslanter but… I’m not expert!
I think a lot of his blazing licks use repetitive picking patterns like U U U D on 3 adjacent strings, which definitely indicates an UWPS preference when going all out (I don’t recall him doing D D D U, for example).
In general however he seems pretty flexible, he is well beyond a “pure” economy picker.
If you look e.g. at his “chop builder” instructional from the 80s, he is capable of playing a lot of intricate alternate picking patterns across the strings.
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Thanks @tommo.
I love his technique, I wish I could play those U U U D licks as well as he does - I’m useless at upward sweeps.
I thought I posted this video already:
What do you think? From looking at it, it seems his pick is in a fairly neutral position, almost horizontal, when downward sweeping, and then he moves his thumb to get more of an angle on the pick for upward sweeping.
Is he as fast across single strings I wonder? I can’t find many examples of him playing across a single string - I guess that’s not his thing. I’m just wondering if he could blaze through the Yngwie pattern.
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I have strange relationship with Gambale’s music. I like many of his tunes, while some others sound ridiculously cheesy to me, almost like parodies.
I like sweep/economy picking idea, but Frank’s solos often have some kind of sloppiness to it, especially when he starts shredding those fourths (often ending with random high note).
To me, his composition “Foreign Country” would sound better without the electric guitar solo at all. In general, I like better how his acoustic/light overdrive playing sounds.
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Hey guys I found Chop Builder on YT that has the tab and the audio! It’s great and I’m going to use this for the rest of the year to work on my crosspicking! You can search it on YT or I can put a link on here if anyone is interested. Have a blessed day!
Anyone up for some more FG videos?
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Is Gambale alternate picking everything on that video? (Except for obviously the Sweep Arpeggio Section)
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Sorry for the useless comment but Frank’s playing here is INSANE!
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From all the videos I’ve watch of him, most of his lines are picked. He doesn’t seem to use a lot of legato or bending.
Hey DJ yes he is until he gets to the legato section near the end
That’s interesting to hear that he is using movements like 2WPS and Crosspicking and that he wouldn’t sweep those string changes.