Who would you like to see interviewed next by Troy and the team?

[DJ_Ddawg]

Dweezil would be great, he has amazing economy picking technique.

Derryl Gabel is another guy who plays some monstrous covers of Allan a Holdsworth, Frank Gambale, and some others.

I’d really enjoy Brett Garsed to see some of his hybrid picking and how he thinks about creating melodies over the fusion changes he plays over.

Jens Larsen would also be great: be can alternate pick anything!

[Donny]

In no particular order:

Buckethead
Zakk Wylde
Blues Saraceno
Buckethead
Brent Hinds
Buckethead
Nick Johnston
Buckethead
Russ Parish
Nuno Bettencourt
Buckethead

[superslip103]

Jake Workman please! Let’s break down some bluegrass DSX playing!

[JUAN_Z]

Steve Vai!
Sorry I had to mention him. He’s a living legend.

[Prlgmnr]

Can’t believe I haven’t said Emil Werstler

[MasterOfSweepPicking]

Prodigy Anton Oparin.

[Fredneck]

Steel guitar or scruggs style banjo players that use a thumb pick and fingerpicks. I suggest Travis Toy of Rascal Flatts or Paul Franklin.

[LewisG]

Paul Gilbert!
Tosin Abasi
Marshall Harrison
Rick Graham
Jason Richardson
Andy James

[Gtrjunior]

NUNO!!!
Hands down the guy I want to see interviewed.

[dustykatz]

Matteo Mancuso, I am in awe of his technique

[guitarenthusiast]

Paul Ryan from Origin

[Lester]

Guthrie Govan
Jarle H Olsen
Stephen Taranto
Andy James
John Browne
Jason Richardson
Claudio Pietronik
Daniele Gotardo
Sergey Golovin
Michael Romeo
Tosin Abasi

[Acecrusher]

I’d be interested as well. In fact, I’d be interested in seeing a Masters Of Mechanics interview with just about anyone who has also reached the heights Vai has. He’s played with Whitesnake. He’s played for David Lee Roth, along with Billy Sheehan on a great album!

Does anyone here know if Vai’s injury to his picking hand has healed? Apparently something which severely limited his picking technique happened while he was in the hospital.

So yeah, anyone like Vai, Satriani, Malmsteen, Gilbert, DiMeola, McLaughlin - guys who have made it to the top in their respective genres would be of interest.

[superslip103]

I keep saying it get jake on!

[Donny]

interview/lessons with Jason Richardson would be awesome!

[Acecrusher]

Troy’s first contact with John McLaughlin was in the very early stages of the Cracking the Code project, probably around a decade ago now. At the time John’s lack of interest was more tied into belief that picking technique has to be discovered individually, and he didn’t really see the value in the kind of technical analysis we do.

This was before we’d released material showing in detail how different techniques work, so a pretty common and understandable initial response. We haven’t had luck getting in touch with him more recently but perhaps now if he had a chance to look at our stuff he’d be more open to it.

This post I’m replying to is a year and a half old so I’m wondering, have you contacted John McLaughlin again now that you have released material showing in detail how different techniques work? if so, what did he say?

[Acecrusher]

Troy first started interviewing a bunch of awesome players around a decade ago. This was before we had our whole web platform, or even a YouTube channel or any products, so a lot of what was filmed in those interviews is pretty different from how we do things currently. Lots of awesome playing of course, but some had issues with video/audio quality, or reflect gaps in our knowledge that have since become more apparent.

While we have our hands pretty full with new stuff, we have been going through and editing these older interviews as time allows, and have released many of them. Some we’re able to edit and put together a nice package without too much trouble; others may (for example) feel incomplete, or have major audio problems… In some cases there are players we want to arrange a follow up interview to feel like we’re doing them justice. We’ll continue to revisit these and do what we can to get them released.

Rusty Cooley is in this category. There are a couple very short clips of him you’ve released, but in the ten years or whatever it has been since you interviewed him, could you give us an approximation of how close you are to having finished editing his interview so that you can release it for the people who have been waiting for it for so long?

[Mimi]

Nuno Bettencourt

[kcrich13]

I would like to see some thrash, black, and death metal guitarists interviewed. And I would be more interested in their riffing than I would their lead playing but hey I’ll take that too…

[kcrich13]

I’ll second Ihsahn…