[Tom Gilroy]

Can anybody give me some info about this guy? I've read abit about him and what I have read has kind of freaked me out. The guys wierd. What's with the hole persona?

 

[pawel]

He's just a guy with a sense of humour, that's it...

 

[elcid]

He was born in a coop
Rasied in a cage
Children fear him
Critics rave
He's half alive
he's half dead
Folks just call him Buckethead

 

[JTM45]

He plays a couple of cool and unique Gibson Les Pauls which have oversized 'fat' bodies and a momentary kill-switch.

 

[krizz]

www.bucketheadland.com ??

EDIT...mmm not very informative either...

 

[Cozi101]

He's been in a couple of bands but I can only remember Praxxis (Praxis?) off the top of my head. He plays almost all musical styles and writes scores for movies.

Do a google search of buckethead unmasked to get a news paper article of what he really looks like (fake pinky before anyone asks), his name is Brian Carrol. He's really unique and got solid technique.

http://www.bucketheadland.com/faq/index.html

There is some information for the questions you asked. It's really hard to get a grasp on his persona because with people like Vai they get answers on his site to questions like "what kind of chewing gum does he chew" and with buckethead you can hardly find anything on him, the real him that is.

 

[MehYam]

Yep, he's a freak, but he writes some interesting and diverse music. And I don't think there's a single guitar player on the planet who pumps out as many albums/year as he does. In about 12 years playing, I think he has credit on something like 25-30 albums. He jams with a wide circle of people and bands.

If you're interested in checking him out, head over to Amazon and check the sound clips. Of his albums, my favorite are:

1) Bucketheadland
2) Bucketheadland 2 (VERY HEAVY)
3) Colma (VERY LIGHT)
4) Monsters and Robots

 

[MehYam]

Just to drive that 'freak' point home:

 

[jimmyfingersminion]

don't forget his stint in guns'n'roses. saw them at leeds in 2002. awesome. and it was the only time i'll ever see a guitar/nunchucka solo!

 

[dex]

That boy is a freak and I esp like the story where Shawn Lane told some magazine that Kaiser Nancarrow (the intro tune to "The Tri-Tone Fascination") can not be played by any guitarist on the planet, mainly because it was edited from single notes but Buckethead took this as a challenge and learned to play it.
Here's the story as told by the great late Shawn Lane

What that is was, I have been pretty obsessed for a little while with the music of Conlon Nancarrow, so I wanted to try to express something like that with the guitar and I wanted to do note combinations that I didn't think could be done on the guitar. So actually what I did is constructing it by recording every note separately. So I actually just would play a note and then record however long I wanted the tone to be. If I wanted it to be longer I'd record longer, for shorter notes I just recorded for a second. And I literally just constructed it note-by-note over a couple of night's time. Thousands of notes. I wanted to make combinations of notes that couldn't be played, I was pretty convinced they couldn't be. So I did that as a stand-alone loop about 8 years ago and a bootleg tape of it got in the hands of buckethead. And nobody told him that I didn't play it, that it was assembled on tape with guitar. And so he tried to sound like that by tapping and based a lot of his style on that tape. So it's Conlon Nancarrow influencing me influencing Buckethead. It became it's own style. But I think it's funny because it was because of a misunderstanding. He didn't know that I didn't play it so he assumed that it could just be played. Well, when I constructed it, I constructed it specifically so it could not be played. And he didn't know that, so he achieved something going (imitates Buckethead playing fast) by tapping them in wide intervals. It's a weird story (laughs)

Anyone who can play something the great Shawn Lane considered unplayable is a major freak...too bad the dude is so obscure.

ilia

 

[Tom Gilroy]

Ok. Some odd things.

From his FAQ

15) Which monsters and robots has Buckethead battled?

Buckethead is believed to have fought and defeated Bansheebot, Aquabot, Double Man and Tekadon D. He has also sparred with Slipdisc henchthings such as Centipede Woman, Broiler and Chickenhawk as well as the Haddonfield killer Michael "The Shape" Mey

06) Does Buckethead have any hobbies?

Taxidermy, Sports, Martial Arts (Nunchukas), break dancing (robot-style), and visiting Disneyland. He has been there over 500 times. "I like Disneyland. I want to be buried there--parts of me in It's a Small World, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean, plus parts in Tokyo Disneyland, Euro Disneyland, and Florida Disney World. There are enough bones to go around."

Taxidermy? What th f***?

37) Does Buckethead have any special powers to battle monsters and robots?

Buckethead harnesses the spirits of all the slain and martyred chickens through the chicken bucket on his head. Without it he is helpless.

Buckethead has many special weapons and tactics for battling the monsters and robots in Bucketheadland. His guitar fighting style is well documented in the Temple of Deadly Sonic Arts.

Honestly I'm super freaked out. Even if it is just his sense of humor.

And then this pic

 

[pawel]

Think of it as Alice Cooper/Marilyn Manson/Gwar/Slipknot kind of image thing, except that Buckethead is way cooler.

Thanks for posting the Shawn Lane story dex, I was about to mention that. Buckethead is the man...

 

[krizz]

Very interesting...have to check some stuff out.

I think he's a bit too obscure though...

 

[Knightmeir]

That Shawn Lane bit really is cool...

Buckethead is strange as hell, but he's got originality, and that's what counts in the business. After seeing a thread about him last night here I had to go home and watch a couple videos I have of him.

Insane.

 

[freedom's door]

I really like the "population override" cd that he put out not too long ago. It features a lot of jamming, and is all instrumental, without any of the annoying goofy Primus-type vocal parts that are on some of his other cd's.
Another one, although completely different, is "Electric Tears". Nothing but guitars, with a mostly clean sound, and really mellow. Some beautiful stuff on that one.
peace

 

[Cozi101]

He plays a couple of cool and unique Gibson Les Pauls which have oversized 'fat' bodies and a momentary kill-switch.

Where did you find this? Where can I find more info on his guitars and gear?

 

[JTM45]

Where did you find this? Where can I find more info on his guitars and gear?

I think he's one of those guitarists who doesn't like talking about his gear.

I had a couple of pictures of him playing these guitars but they weren't very clear at all.
The only way i managed to find out any info at all was by talking to someone at the Gibson Custom-Shop and all they could really say was that one of their top luthiers (his name escapes me at the moment) made two completely unique Les Pauls for Buckethead.
Apparently they didn't want to know at first but as he was about to join Guns n' Roses at the time i think they were afraid of missing out on the endorsement.
Generally Gibson only like to make guitars which are basically made from the pre-machined necks and bodies they already have to work with but as Buckethead wanted these 'freak' Les Pauls they had to make them from scratch with the over-sized (semi-hollow i think?) bodies and whatever.

He seems to use a white one most of the time. It's totally mono-chrome White,white hardware,white everywhere except the plain ebony fretboard.
The other one was a flame-top sunburst job but i've only ever seen one very small picture of that.

He uses the momentary kill-switches on many of his guitars. I think they're Radio-Shack push-to-break switches. They're usually quite visible on his guitars because they're bright red.

If i can find any pictures i'll post them!

Edit: Found some pics
You can see that the body is a bit thicker but it doesn't give the full impression of just how 'fat' the body is.
Very cool custom Les Paul though!

 

[fettouhi]

The second pic isn't that him with Axel Rose?

Regards

André

 

[JTM45]

Yeah,it was when he joined Guns n' Roses for that brief time.

I think he probably did it for the cash and the publicity more than anything.

 

[Cozi101]

Cool, Thanks JTM45. I noticed there wasn't much on the internet about his gear. I think he doesn't like talking about his gear or anything else about him. Very secretive.

By the way to anyone who has Population Override, are those guitar synth solos im hearing on alot of songs or are they keyboard solos?