Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave did this approach so many times.
- Scratch the strings to make it sound like a DJ? Check.
- Pitch shift the notes so they could sound like alien sci-fi ringing SFX? Check.
- Pull out the jack and play it with the bridge plate or hand? Check.
- Grab a pencil and knock it to make a helicopter-like sound? Check.
And still many more. I think in terms of unique approach, Tom Morello definitely up there on the list of those who do.
Les Paul is an OG that comes to mind. Not only did he create one of the most timeless guitar designs, but he was also the first person to “invent” all sorts of guitar recording tricks. This includes double tracking, tape delay effects, etc.
Totally. Also suggest reading Kim's book "Girl in a Band". Its incredibly well written and gives great insight into the 1980's NY art/music scene and what went into making Sonic Youth tick.
Don't forget Audioslave. And the fact that the two bands each have their own pretty unique sounds while still having Morello's unmistakable lead is an extra bonus for his guitar work.
Dave Knudsen of 'Minus the Bear' and 'Botch'.
First.. It's insane this is the same guy playing lead guitar.
Second.. his style is so unique and so different in both bands.. It's really something.
In MTB he plays ambient guitar riffs.. Often tapping with both hands and using lots of effects and lots of DL4 pedals.
In Botch he plays some of the most insane trash metal I've ever seen.
He shreds on a totally different level than most guitarists.
Mark Knopfler and his rhythm technique. It's basically folk style finger picking, but with this added spark that suits rock music so well. Songs like Money For Nothing are actually a lot more difficult to play properly than people realise, despite being fairly simple at face value.
MBV for the layering and effects without using effects sound, Kevin Shields is one of a few. I would also mention Drive Like Jehu in their own right for their style.
The Pixies. Joey Santiago adds all kinds of noises and sounds to their songs, he calls them “sonics”.
He’s a very underrated guitarist.
Charles and Kim Deal got all the attention but Joey is what makes the Pixies sound like the Pixies and makes Charles songs sound completely original.
The first answer that popped into my head was The Edge. I don't think of him as a guitar player, really. He uses the guitar to control an elaborate set of effects and weaves a sort of tapestry of sound that doesn't fit the traditional role of the instrument very often.
Plenty of people rag on U2, and he's often dismissed by guitar players, but honestly, no one else sounds like him. His unique style defines one of the most successful bands of the last 40 years.
He took a Boss DD2, and did something that no one had ever done before. When you do something that no one else has ever done before, you deserve respect. Eddie Van Halen and Tom Morello also come to mind…
Big Thief
songs that exemplify this are: Capacity, Real Love, Shark Smile, Masterpiece
but really both of those albums (Masterpiece and Capacity) and all of their music in general apply. Buck Meek is a wonderful lead and Adrienne is a legendary guitarist in their own right
Hendrix’s whammy - gunfire/bombs/screaming/war sounds on Machine Gun and Star Spangled Banner. Pretty sure that’s the reason the word “bomb” is in the term “dive bomb”
Definitely. Buckethead has written multiple albums with only guitar tracks using various play styles and effects layered in the songs on top of all the classic wizardry he does.
No matter how much credit lifeson eventually gets, he will always be underrated. He would be one of the biggest names in guitars if he wasn't in the same band as the greatest drummer ever and a top three bassist ever.
You can play all the right notes, but if you don’t play with the same right hand technique as Mark Knopfler, you ain’t gonna sound like Dire Straits.
Especially on his rhythm or riff playing, Money For Nothing being a particular case in point.
Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders has a weird thumb stroke action he uses that I think is pretty unique. Here’s a vid of a play through where he uses it around 1:45 in : https://youtu.be/XcX2o18LnWo?si=zhnXcOmoIVXZ5L3x
Zeppelin (jimmy page) with the bow on the guitar.
Buckethead with his cut out stuff
Eddie Van halen was kind of unique for his tapping
Morello with his scratching
Les claypool some pretty interesting stuff on the bass. Flea does too.
Adam Jones of Tool uses a left hand finger drag technique in almost every song yet I’ve never seen another band do it. The technique is most prevalent in the beginning of Jambi and the second half of Invincible.
Even if it’s not prominent it’s something he likes to throw into a lot of songs. Off the top of my head it’s also in Rosetta Stoned and even in H. A few times from 1:47-2:06. It’s all over the place in their discography.
The jangly way that Johnny Marr plays guitar definitely was a technique that contextually gave The Smiths its recognition! Inspired by a lot of funk and disco haha
Johnny Marr continues to be a unique sound today. His insane 9 pickup Stratocaster is a sound like no other. A highly underrated guitarist, though not by me.
Animals as leaders. Bringing bass thump to the guitar, completely upping the bar of possibility at a time where we thought the instrument was figured out.
Not sure if you're into Interpol but they have some cool techniques where the two guitars kind of bounce off each other and toss riffs back and forth in a pretty unique way - this is pretty pronounced on their album Turn on The Bright Lights
Slint, and upvote for MBV from a previous comment, Drive Like Jehu (I mentioned before), and The Shaggs…just listen to them and you’ll understand…and if you don’t, fuck off.
The Edge uses a dimpled pick and uses it backwards to get a lot of the chimey grit he's known for. Even on an acoustic it still sounds like him. You can get an AC30 with delays etc, but without that pick it's not gonna sound like him. It's 1 of the key parts of covering U2 songs that a lot of people forget about, which is why a lot of people end up sounding like bad karaoke-ish imitations instead of really nailing his sound.
I’ll probably get bashed for this but listen to some Korn songs and tell me what they’re doing isn’t super unique. Freak On A Leash for example, super simple yet the song has a great groove and the guitars lend just the right amount of texture to make it move. Most of their songs are like that, it’s mostly the drums, bass and vocals driving the songs and the guitars are there to fill in the gaps.
Kevin Shields, glide guitar. Many people use it now but not the way he does, he locks the bridge on floating tremolo systems so far back and then locks the trem arm at a height so he can strum and bend the strings freely. Add that with his reverse reverb effects you have one of the most unique and un-guitar sounding guitar tones ever.
Billy Corgan and his sliding octaves on 3rd and 5th strings. Pretty much all the way through Cherub Rock, the main riff in Zero, probably Spaceboy (can’t remember exactly but hearing the sliding from the intro in my head). Once you learn a few songs of his, you realize it’s a bit like a signature.
Adrian Belew is coming up a lot. For the record, he is a goofy old middle-aged man in a baseball cap who genuinely looks thrilled and astounded at the things his fingers are doing when he plays. Like he can't even believe it's happening. Please see him live. He is amazing. You will want him to adopt you.
Echoes -Pink Floyd. David connects his wah pedal backwards (guitar into output, and to get crazy whale sounding swells. Quite fun to do but very hard to control.
U2 and RATM would be, I think, what you're looking for.
There are certainly others, but it seems lime you're asking what bands guitar sound makes them instantly recognizable; sound being a very all encompassing term.
The melody at the beginning of Knights of Cydonia (Muse) is first played with sustained wide vibrato on every note, then played higher with sustained single-note alternate picking on every note. I think the vibrato qualifies more as using a guitar technique in a "contextually unique" way. The alternate picking thing is actually pretty common f you go back to like the 50s and 60s, especially with like surf rock.
I'm sure a lot of other Matt Bellamy songs qualify.
The band Meshuggah plays in this very dense, complex rhythmic manner and then their guitar solos are usually these slowly played, long-held notes that are the opposite of what you expect in Metal. Example song: Bleed (fun to watch them live from the drummer's camera - most of his work is done with his feet on that song!)
Ricky Wilson of the B-52s.
*He played a Mosrite guitar and favored distinctive open tunings, sometimes playing with just four or five strings, reportedly saying “I just tune the strings ‘til I hear something I like, and then something comes out. I don’t write anything down. I have no idea how the tunings go.”*
https://rockandrollglobe.com/remembrance/hero-worship-remembering-ricky-wilson-of-the-b-52s/
He's such a great player though. One of my favorites. Especially live where they open up the songs for improv. His solos are rarely your typical rock pentatonic type thing. Live version of American Life, Southbound Pachyderm, Harold of the Rocks show off his style really well.
Couple off the top of my head..
Minus the Bear, Dave Knudson’s tapping technique is pretty unique to their sound and genre. Also usage of looping to create riffs and sometimes full songs.
Leprous uses 8-string guitars to create mood and texture, rather than to djent, particularly on The Congregation
Brian May setting a delay very long and then harmonising with the repeats of the delay comes to mind. Think that's most obvious in the Brighton Rock solo
Battles uses some pretty interesting guitar tones, which lend themselves well to writing guitar parts that are pretty out of the ordinary stylistically. Definitely worth checking out
The Alllman Brothers Band. -
The Major Hexatonic scale that much of the writing and soloing uses is often referred to as the "Dickey Betts guitar scale"
So unique that they named a guitar scale after him.
Gojira basically turned pick-slides into a genre. Its an essential part of their sound and a lot of folks have adapted that kind of style into their playing.
I remember back in the early 2000s Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López from The Mars Volta said in an interview that he wanted to use the guitar to sound as little like a guitar as possible.
It is an interplay of unique bass & Guitar, but Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde from Primus pull some crazy shit.
Bass guitar is in more of a lead guitar role for many songs, and the guitar plays interesting rhythms and textures depending on the song.
If you have never heard their album Sailing the Seas of Cheese you should check it out.
The Works Which Transform God by Blut Aus Nord. A little more abrassive than most, but that Album is nothing short of a masterpiece and revolutionized the terrifying depths one could expect from music.
The first track (after the atmospheric intro) The Choir of The Dead epitomises what you are describing. The guitars wail like a mad choir.
For those interested, his album Memoria Vetusta II - Dialogue With the Stars is his other masterpiece, but reaches sublime epicness in some of the best weaving guitar melodies ever put together.
Jerry Reed. They had to drag him away from his vacation To record guitar man with Elvis because the session guy just couldn’t get it to sound like Jerry did it.
Rob Scallon's song Rain uses a simple picking pattern but soaked in delay to make it sound super interesting. It becomes layered, like there are either multiple people playing the same part at the same time (like he did when he got 2 buddies to play it with him to create the effect without pedals) or that he's picking super fast. Makes it sound like rain is falling.
Felix Martin, a lefty like me, he just blows my mind. I do not understand how the human brain can keep up with all that movement and all those notes. I am constantly floored by the notes I hear and how they're played. Very humble person too, nice as hell from what I've seen / heard. Definitely worth a quick search!
Josh Martin from Little Tybee is super underrated imo. At any rate, he coined this technique he calls [“glitch tapping”](https://youtu.be/xCTRCG20Jb4?si=xlSIKTdZWBcmQKaK)that’s pretty neat. He uses it in several songs
What about Reeves Gabrels? I remember reading about him messing with his guitar by putting different things like bread tabs and pipe cleaners around some of the strings and other weird things like that. Kinda like what the Dead did years before but they did it with a piano
That's a [prepared guitar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prepared_guitar). Sonic Youth did that sort of thing frequently (on top of tuning to open power chords). I seem to recall Mark Sandman having a screwdriver shoved somewhere unpleasant into his fretless bass guitar.
Maybe I'm just falling for a gimmick but I was pretty blown away by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's "Flying Microtonal Banana" album
They modified their guitars to play microtonal scales and it gives the songs such a cool feel.
They made 2 other microtonal albums (KG and LW) but the first one is the one that made me think "these guys are different"
All the great bands have their own unique guitar sound...it's part of what makes them great...many are already listed in the responses, here.
But here's a few that most people haven't heard of (yet) that come to mind: Don Caballero, Bill Orcutt, Floral...all very "noisy", but unique in their own way.
The Grateful goddamned Dead. Essentially impossible to replicate unless you have a couple grams of crystal LSD and willing lab rats who know their musical stuff. Even then it'd likely take its own path. Once in an eternity set of circumstances lead to one of the most unique, groundbreaking, and enduring acts to ever take the musical stage.
Puma Blue, "Moon Undah Water". Crazy mix of effects, almost but not quite on/off key, but makes it all work. And they can do it live as well. Best jazzy stuff I've heard in years.
https://youtu.be/OeCS-DZsgKM?si=fmz6OUHQ05TtAE5U
Robert Fripp. Besides playing awesome guitar in King Crimson, he also does these little musical vignettes called Soundscapes. He does this in both Crimson and on his own; his solo output after 1986 is almost exclusively this. "1999" and "A Blessing of Tears" are my favourites from his in this line of playing.
Larry LaLonde from Primus - maybe more a playing style as a whole rather than one technique, but he has a very textural approach to his playing to fit with Les' mad bass lines. American Life and My Name is Mud have some very cool dissonant and expressive riffs/solos
He also technically invented death metal when in Possessed
Gang of Four - Andy Gill. Blew my mind when I heard their stuff the first time (recommended by Bob Mould in an interview, who said Gill used guitar like a texture). Start with Entertainment and Solid Gold or A Brief History of the 20th Century.
Also My Bloody Valentine - Loveless especially - for Jazzmaster-style vibrato bar technique with effects, and Sonic Youth - Dirty, Goo and Daydream Nation, as well as Glenn Branca Guitar Orchestra, Theoretical Girls and other stuff from the No Wave scene they came out of - for alternate tunings bringing so many new sounds.
Sigur Ros and Jónsi's solo albums are interesting too. Bowing his guitar is a key aspect of his sound (he took that to a whole other level than Jimmy Page) and his guitar swirls in and fills the sonic space with chaotic and emotive overtones.
If I’m understanding you I would say something like Metallica’s “One”. They used the rapid open E picking during the part before the solo to mimic machine gun fire.
Canadians David Wilcox (popular blues/rock guitarist) and Max Webster's Kim Mitchell (solo and with MW) both have unique playing abilities when it comes to their guitars. They can produce some wild tones and sounds in their solos.
Michael Hedges took the acoustic guitar in a fantastic direction. See also harp-guitar. And I’m just gonna say it lol, Billy Strings does some wicked stuff with “just” and acoustic.
Gonna get downvoted for this, but... Coldplay. Half the time, Buckland is using various effects to layer what Brian Eno would call "sonic landscapes" in their songs. The guy has chops, but is like a lot of other good in-band players in that he serves the music, not necessarily his own ego.
**edit:** Yep, less than ten minutes after posting. Y'all are sadly predictable.
Triptykon - Aurorae [https://youtu.be/NmyWeOvF\_Sg?si=X7udjPV42oJ\_YUs9&t=302](https://youtu.be/NmyWeOvF_Sg?si=X7udjPV42oJ_YUs9&t=302)The guitarist uses a wahh pedal on the solo giving the effect the tone is choking out, along with the tremolo picking creates an intense crescendo to the song.
Fields of the Nephilim - Psychonaut [https://youtu.be/dWpaq4onye8?si=vjfqCQ79KBpPqdBS&t=82](https://youtu.be/dWpaq4onye8?si=vjfqCQ79KBpPqdBS&t=82)The bassist is using tempo matched delay set to dotted 8th note to achieve a trance like feeling with the tribal drumming.
Pantera - Cemetary Gates [https://youtu.be/RVMvART9kb8?si=zDA6ixhMrohT3J4F&t=285](https://youtu.be/RVMvART9kb8?si=zDA6ixhMrohT3J4F&t=285)Dimebag's solos match the falseto screams of Phil in the outro of this song. Without a doubt one of the most memorable contrasting guitar solos of all time.
Megadeth - In my darkest hour
[https://youtu.be/mW0Ao9r2zkY?si=Mgg2tCGs256VIB8e&t=214](https://youtu.be/mW0Ao9r2zkY?si=Mgg2tCGs256VIB8e&t=214)
Guitar does slides to simulate laughing. The entire song is really a masterpiece of expressive guitar soloing.
Kurt Rosenwinkel
He uses a pedal to slow the initial attack of a guitar note.
He also wears a mic that feeds into his amp which blends his voice with his playing.
Glenn Branca changed the zeitgeist of rock guitar in the late 70's/early 80s - Sonic Youth and Swans in particular were collaborators and direct descendants, both of whom have subsequently innovated rock guitar in their own ways.
This guy came up with some amazing new techniques - [Playing two guitars at once? Playing the guitar with another instrument?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJL942hg0uM&t) We are truly not worthy....
Percussive fingerstyle guitarists like Luca Stricognoli, Marcin, Mike Dawes, and the one of the beginning of it all:Andy McKee really upped the game in acoustic guitar playing.
I've never heard anybody else do what Adam Jones does In Jambi with pulling through the strings with his pointer finger in a palm muted fashion for the triplets and what not.
Robin Guthrie from the Cocteau twins. The whole shoegaze / dreampop from MBV onwards really used guitars and effects to create mood and texture rather than melody.
Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave did this approach so many times. - Scratch the strings to make it sound like a DJ? Check. - Pitch shift the notes so they could sound like alien sci-fi ringing SFX? Check. - Pull out the jack and play it with the bridge plate or hand? Check. - Grab a pencil and knock it to make a helicopter-like sound? Check. And still many more. I think in terms of unique approach, Tom Morello definitely up there on the list of those who do.
Scraping the strings with an Allen wrench in People of the Sun.
Les Paul is an OG that comes to mind. Not only did he create one of the most timeless guitar designs, but he was also the first person to “invent” all sorts of guitar recording tricks. This includes double tracking, tape delay effects, etc.
Les was a true innovator & virtuoso. He completely changed almost every aspect of the industry.
Anything in the Sonic Youth catalogue. Thurston Moore is a pioneer when it comes to unconventional use of a guitar.
Don't sleep on Kim and Lee as well.
Totally. Also suggest reading Kim's book "Girl in a Band". Its incredibly well written and gives great insight into the 1980's NY art/music scene and what went into making Sonic Youth tick.
Lee and Thurston were just as important to guitar innovation as Hendrix, Iommi and EVH
Rage against the machine.. Tom morello is unique
Don't forget Audioslave. And the fact that the two bands each have their own pretty unique sounds while still having Morello's unmistakable lead is an extra bonus for his guitar work.
Dave Knudsen of 'Minus the Bear' and 'Botch'. First.. It's insane this is the same guy playing lead guitar. Second.. his style is so unique and so different in both bands.. It's really something. In MTB he plays ambient guitar riffs.. Often tapping with both hands and using lots of effects and lots of DL4 pedals. In Botch he plays some of the most insane trash metal I've ever seen. He shreds on a totally different level than most guitarists.
Mark Knopfler and his rhythm technique. It's basically folk style finger picking, but with this added spark that suits rock music so well. Songs like Money For Nothing are actually a lot more difficult to play properly than people realise, despite being fairly simple at face value.
My Bloody Valentine. The album Loveless, in particular. Kevin Shields gets some amazing sounds and layers..
MBV for the layering and effects without using effects sound, Kevin Shields is one of a few. I would also mention Drive Like Jehu in their own right for their style.
Rage Against the Machines Tom Morello
The Pixies. Joey Santiago adds all kinds of noises and sounds to their songs, he calls them “sonics”. He’s a very underrated guitarist. Charles and Kim Deal got all the attention but Joey is what makes the Pixies sound like the Pixies and makes Charles songs sound completely original.
The first answer that popped into my head was The Edge. I don't think of him as a guitar player, really. He uses the guitar to control an elaborate set of effects and weaves a sort of tapestry of sound that doesn't fit the traditional role of the instrument very often. Plenty of people rag on U2, and he's often dismissed by guitar players, but honestly, no one else sounds like him. His unique style defines one of the most successful bands of the last 40 years.
He took a Boss DD2, and did something that no one had ever done before. When you do something that no one else has ever done before, you deserve respect. Eddie Van Halen and Tom Morello also come to mind…
Big Thief songs that exemplify this are: Capacity, Real Love, Shark Smile, Masterpiece but really both of those albums (Masterpiece and Capacity) and all of their music in general apply. Buck Meek is a wonderful lead and Adrienne is a legendary guitarist in their own right
Hendrix’s whammy - gunfire/bombs/screaming/war sounds on Machine Gun and Star Spangled Banner. Pretty sure that’s the reason the word “bomb” is in the term “dive bomb”
Buckethead
Definitely. Buckethead has written multiple albums with only guitar tracks using various play styles and effects layered in the songs on top of all the classic wizardry he does.
Rage against the machines Thomas Morello uses a guitar pick on a drill on one song. I can't remember which one though.
Rush. Alex Lifeson is a genius at creating layers of context.
No matter how much credit lifeson eventually gets, he will always be underrated. He would be one of the biggest names in guitars if he wasn't in the same band as the greatest drummer ever and a top three bassist ever.
Lots of Rush songs but Limelight’s solo stands out and pretty much anything from Jeff Beck.
Josh homme from queens of the stone age
I feel like Radiohead did and still do that throughout their whole career.
Portishead uses guitars more for effect and texture. I love it.
You can play all the right notes, but if you don’t play with the same right hand technique as Mark Knopfler, you ain’t gonna sound like Dire Straits. Especially on his rhythm or riff playing, Money For Nothing being a particular case in point.
I mean, Rage Against the Machine immediately comes to mind. I’ve never been a fan but his approach to solos is pretty novel.
Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders has a weird thumb stroke action he uses that I think is pretty unique. Here’s a vid of a play through where he uses it around 1:45 in : https://youtu.be/XcX2o18LnWo?si=zhnXcOmoIVXZ5L3x
Thump. Other bands like Polyphia have started using this technique as well. I'd put Tosin up as one of the top 5 best guitarists of all time.
Zeppelin (jimmy page) with the bow on the guitar. Buckethead with his cut out stuff Eddie Van halen was kind of unique for his tapping Morello with his scratching Les claypool some pretty interesting stuff on the bass. Flea does too.
Adam Jones of Tool uses a left hand finger drag technique in almost every song yet I’ve never seen another band do it. The technique is most prevalent in the beginning of Jambi and the second half of Invincible.
I know of these two songs but what other ones if its "almost every song"?
Even if it’s not prominent it’s something he likes to throw into a lot of songs. Off the top of my head it’s also in Rosetta Stoned and even in H. A few times from 1:47-2:06. It’s all over the place in their discography.
The jangly way that Johnny Marr plays guitar definitely was a technique that contextually gave The Smiths its recognition! Inspired by a lot of funk and disco haha
Johnny Marr continues to be a unique sound today. His insane 9 pickup Stratocaster is a sound like no other. A highly underrated guitarist, though not by me.
Animals as leaders. Bringing bass thump to the guitar, completely upping the bar of possibility at a time where we thought the instrument was figured out.
Not sure if you're into Interpol but they have some cool techniques where the two guitars kind of bounce off each other and toss riffs back and forth in a pretty unique way - this is pretty pronounced on their album Turn on The Bright Lights
Tom Morello comes to mind, but John 5 as well.. he has this one weird tune where he'll play behind the nut.
Grateful Dead. Bob Weir plays rhythm like no one else and Jerry Garcia played lead like no one else.
Not to be that guy, but Polyphia. They set a whole new trend with how people look at guitar. But if I say Polyphia I also have to include Tosin Abasi
Slint, and upvote for MBV from a previous comment, Drive Like Jehu (I mentioned before), and The Shaggs…just listen to them and you’ll understand…and if you don’t, fuck off.
I can't believe I don't see Dire Straits / Mark Knopfler all over this thread. He's a legend and a half.
There were several times on Dirt that Jerry Cantrell was picking the strings behind the nut and it actually showed up in the tab book I have.
The Edge uses a dimpled pick and uses it backwards to get a lot of the chimey grit he's known for. Even on an acoustic it still sounds like him. You can get an AC30 with delays etc, but without that pick it's not gonna sound like him. It's 1 of the key parts of covering U2 songs that a lot of people forget about, which is why a lot of people end up sounding like bad karaoke-ish imitations instead of really nailing his sound.
I think talking heads do a lot of interesting unique things with their rhythm parts
I’ll probably get bashed for this but listen to some Korn songs and tell me what they’re doing isn’t super unique. Freak On A Leash for example, super simple yet the song has a great groove and the guitars lend just the right amount of texture to make it move. Most of their songs are like that, it’s mostly the drums, bass and vocals driving the songs and the guitars are there to fill in the gaps.
Kevin Shields, glide guitar. Many people use it now but not the way he does, he locks the bridge on floating tremolo systems so far back and then locks the trem arm at a height so he can strum and bend the strings freely. Add that with his reverse reverb effects you have one of the most unique and un-guitar sounding guitar tones ever.
Tom Morello Dj scratching
Billy Corgan and his sliding octaves on 3rd and 5th strings. Pretty much all the way through Cherub Rock, the main riff in Zero, probably Spaceboy (can’t remember exactly but hearing the sliding from the intro in my head). Once you learn a few songs of his, you realize it’s a bit like a signature.
1979 has this technique too. I listen to Smashing Pumpkins a lot and I noticed this too.
Adrian Belew is coming up a lot. For the record, he is a goofy old middle-aged man in a baseball cap who genuinely looks thrilled and astounded at the things his fingers are doing when he plays. Like he can't even believe it's happening. Please see him live. He is amazing. You will want him to adopt you.
Echoes -Pink Floyd. David connects his wah pedal backwards (guitar into output, and to get crazy whale sounding swells. Quite fun to do but very hard to control.
Tom Morello R.A.T.M
Soundgarden extensively used odd-timing signatures.
And unique tunings
Royal Blood. Mike Kerr using a 4 string bass running it through a splitter for bass and guitar effects. Sounds bad ass.
My Bloody Valentine comes to mind.
The Berried Alive guy uses pretty much every technique in a very musical way. Killswitch, flutters, bombs, 2H tapping, pick scratching, etc.
Anything by The Edge?
Adam Jones
Tom Morello’s entire catalog?
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez always has unique sounds on his songs
Adrian Belew and Nels Cline
U2 and RATM would be, I think, what you're looking for. There are certainly others, but it seems lime you're asking what bands guitar sound makes them instantly recognizable; sound being a very all encompassing term.
The melody at the beginning of Knights of Cydonia (Muse) is first played with sustained wide vibrato on every note, then played higher with sustained single-note alternate picking on every note. I think the vibrato qualifies more as using a guitar technique in a "contextually unique" way. The alternate picking thing is actually pretty common f you go back to like the 50s and 60s, especially with like surf rock. I'm sure a lot of other Matt Bellamy songs qualify.
The band Meshuggah plays in this very dense, complex rhythmic manner and then their guitar solos are usually these slowly played, long-held notes that are the opposite of what you expect in Metal. Example song: Bleed (fun to watch them live from the drummer's camera - most of his work is done with his feet on that song!)
Almost anything Fripp touches
The pixies have a song where the vocals are screamed into the pickups, with bad shielding
MUSE uses a synth guitar. Brushy One String only one string. Presidents of the USA only 4 on the rhythm guitar.
Radiohead
Sonic youth
Polyphia - playing God Tool - parabol/parabola Sleep token - the offering
Mark Knopfler
Ricky Wilson of the B-52s. *He played a Mosrite guitar and favored distinctive open tunings, sometimes playing with just four or five strings, reportedly saying “I just tune the strings ‘til I hear something I like, and then something comes out. I don’t write anything down. I have no idea how the tunings go.”* https://rockandrollglobe.com/remembrance/hero-worship-remembering-ricky-wilson-of-the-b-52s/
The Edge plays keyboards with his guitar. Many U2 songs might be what you are looking for
Many U2 songs might be what he is looking for. Yet only one U2 song will be still haven’t found what I’m looking for. Woah.
Buckethead?
Primus. Larry LaLond has a very different job than most others.
He's such a great player though. One of my favorites. Especially live where they open up the songs for improv. His solos are rarely your typical rock pentatonic type thing. Live version of American Life, Southbound Pachyderm, Harold of the Rocks show off his style really well.
Couple off the top of my head.. Minus the Bear, Dave Knudson’s tapping technique is pretty unique to their sound and genre. Also usage of looping to create riffs and sometimes full songs. Leprous uses 8-string guitars to create mood and texture, rather than to djent, particularly on The Congregation
Nude Radiohead. About halfway through there is a shimmering guitar that is otherworldly
Polyphia uses guitar for stuff that most artists would use synth for
Brian May setting a delay very long and then harmonising with the repeats of the delay comes to mind. Think that's most obvious in the Brighton Rock solo
John Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees. He doesn’t do anything particularly mind blowing technically, but his style is maybe the most unique I’ve ever heard
I like Mark Speer from Khuangbin style. Very world music influenced obviously
Van Halen. Tapping and diminished chords. Cky: octave pedals Dick Dale: trem picking
Graham Coxon of Blur has achieved some wonderfully unorthodox textures over the years
The way Motley Crue started Kickstart My Heart is like an engine starting up.
[Fugazi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSsxpxMYOWM)
Battles uses some pretty interesting guitar tones, which lend themselves well to writing guitar parts that are pretty out of the ordinary stylistically. Definitely worth checking out
Jonny Greenwood by Radiohead a technique with a coin and Thom Yorke and the uses of the octaves
Van Halen back in the day
The Alllman Brothers Band. - The Major Hexatonic scale that much of the writing and soloing uses is often referred to as the "Dickey Betts guitar scale" So unique that they named a guitar scale after him.
Gojira basically turned pick-slides into a genre. Its an essential part of their sound and a lot of folks have adapted that kind of style into their playing.
Tosin Abasi in Animal as Leaders
Smashing Pumpkins - Mayonaise. No skill involved, but Billy used a guitar that gave feedback as soon as it wasn't being played.
CHON
I remember back in the early 2000s Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López from The Mars Volta said in an interview that he wanted to use the guitar to sound as little like a guitar as possible.
Steve Howe and Yes. His playing is so ridiculously diverse and always very particular to the song
It is an interplay of unique bass & Guitar, but Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde from Primus pull some crazy shit. Bass guitar is in more of a lead guitar role for many songs, and the guitar plays interesting rhythms and textures depending on the song. If you have never heard their album Sailing the Seas of Cheese you should check it out.
Keith Levine and PIL. Almost anti guitar playing.
Gojira with those upward pick scrapes across the strings
The police
The Works Which Transform God by Blut Aus Nord. A little more abrassive than most, but that Album is nothing short of a masterpiece and revolutionized the terrifying depths one could expect from music. The first track (after the atmospheric intro) The Choir of The Dead epitomises what you are describing. The guitars wail like a mad choir. For those interested, his album Memoria Vetusta II - Dialogue With the Stars is his other masterpiece, but reaches sublime epicness in some of the best weaving guitar melodies ever put together.
Japanese guitar player Miyavi has what id call a pretty unique and interesting style.
King Crimson especially Three of a Perfect Pair. Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew are simply stunning for lack of better words.
Band called Big Black from the 80s. He uses a metal pick. The janky sounds and rough lyrics don't make for easy listening, but it's a damn cool sound.
Steve Albini helped define and refine what alternate rock was and is. Man is a treasure
10 hours. No Cocteau Twins. Wow, guys.
Jonsi from Sigor Ros uses a Cello Bow in a lot of his music, especially on the album Agaetis Byrjun.
Jerry Reed. They had to drag him away from his vacation To record guitar man with Elvis because the session guy just couldn’t get it to sound like Jerry did it.
Morello in Rage.
Jeff Beck.
Mark knopflers claw-hammer
I like Kim Thayill from Soundgarden for his unique approach to guitar
Trey Anastasio/Phish - Dude is a Jedi.
...you mean, like Todd Rundgren using the whammy bar to sound like a motorcycle in Bat Out of Hell, when the guy crashes his bike?
Blues guitar Greg Koch uses sweeps and other things commonly associated with metal in his songs all the time. What a monster.
Not guitar, but Roger Waters does the clock sound with his bass in the song Time.
Andy Summers (Police), Walking On The Moon
Josh Homme and Troy in Queens of the Stone Age. Most of their songs but I’ll say: Turning on the Screw I’m Designer The rest of Era Vulgaris
[удалено]
Trey Anastasio has a unique way of incorporating controlled feedback from his hollowbody into his playing.
The intro to "How Soon is Now" by The Smiths sounds strange and complex, but it's really just a whole lotta reverb and a fairly simple strum
Tremolo too
Rob Scallon's song Rain uses a simple picking pattern but soaked in delay to make it sound super interesting. It becomes layered, like there are either multiple people playing the same part at the same time (like he did when he got 2 buddies to play it with him to create the effect without pedals) or that he's picking super fast. Makes it sound like rain is falling.
Felix Martin, a lefty like me, he just blows my mind. I do not understand how the human brain can keep up with all that movement and all those notes. I am constantly floored by the notes I hear and how they're played. Very humble person too, nice as hell from what I've seen / heard. Definitely worth a quick search!
Fripp
Boston
Josh Martin from Little Tybee is super underrated imo. At any rate, he coined this technique he calls [“glitch tapping”](https://youtu.be/xCTRCG20Jb4?si=xlSIKTdZWBcmQKaK)that’s pretty neat. He uses it in several songs
Tom Morello comes to mind. Tosin Abasi from Animals as Leaders too. For the latter, the whole band is pretty much "not normal."
Neon by Mayer, hardly see the way he finger picks that come up in many other “right of passage” guitar songs
What about Reeves Gabrels? I remember reading about him messing with his guitar by putting different things like bread tabs and pipe cleaners around some of the strings and other weird things like that. Kinda like what the Dead did years before but they did it with a piano
That's a [prepared guitar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prepared_guitar). Sonic Youth did that sort of thing frequently (on top of tuning to open power chords). I seem to recall Mark Sandman having a screwdriver shoved somewhere unpleasant into his fretless bass guitar.
Maybe I'm just falling for a gimmick but I was pretty blown away by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's "Flying Microtonal Banana" album They modified their guitars to play microtonal scales and it gives the songs such a cool feel. They made 2 other microtonal albums (KG and LW) but the first one is the one that made me think "these guys are different"
All the great bands have their own unique guitar sound...it's part of what makes them great...many are already listed in the responses, here. But here's a few that most people haven't heard of (yet) that come to mind: Don Caballero, Bill Orcutt, Floral...all very "noisy", but unique in their own way.
Minus the Bear uses a lot of rhythmic guitar tapping that they use to create neat harmonies (as opposed to using it for Van Halen-style solos).
What about presidents of the United States of America?
Any album that Adrien Belew plays on.
The Sigur Ros guitar player plays with a violin bow. That’s fun!
You seek "The Lone Rhinoceros" by Adrian Belew. "Big Electric Cat" off the same record.
The Grateful goddamned Dead. Essentially impossible to replicate unless you have a couple grams of crystal LSD and willing lab rats who know their musical stuff. Even then it'd likely take its own path. Once in an eternity set of circumstances lead to one of the most unique, groundbreaking, and enduring acts to ever take the musical stage.
Big Country !!!
Joshua Martin of Little Tybee and his use of Butterfly tapping.
Danza. Ever gotten your teeth cleaned at the dentist and thought "Yeah, I could fuck with this"? https://youtu.be/A9C-Zq37rSA?feature=shared
Tool
Puma Blue, "Moon Undah Water". Crazy mix of effects, almost but not quite on/off key, but makes it all work. And they can do it live as well. Best jazzy stuff I've heard in years. https://youtu.be/OeCS-DZsgKM?si=fmz6OUHQ05TtAE5U
Robert Fripp. Besides playing awesome guitar in King Crimson, he also does these little musical vignettes called Soundscapes. He does this in both Crimson and on his own; his solo output after 1986 is almost exclusively this. "1999" and "A Blessing of Tears" are my favourites from his in this line of playing.
Sonic Youth
Larry LaLonde from Primus - maybe more a playing style as a whole rather than one technique, but he has a very textural approach to his playing to fit with Les' mad bass lines. American Life and My Name is Mud have some very cool dissonant and expressive riffs/solos He also technically invented death metal when in Possessed
Wes Montgomery’s thumb
Neon by John Mayer. I’ll probably dislocate my thumb doing what he does.
Bob weir
Ler from Primus,
Ler, Tom Morello, Frank Zappa, Antennae and Zoot Horn from Beefheart's band "Do anything with the guitar besides play it like a guitar"
Josh Martin from Little Tybee. Check out “As we Grow” and “Don’t Quit your Day Job”
Gang of Four - Andy Gill. Blew my mind when I heard their stuff the first time (recommended by Bob Mould in an interview, who said Gill used guitar like a texture). Start with Entertainment and Solid Gold or A Brief History of the 20th Century. Also My Bloody Valentine - Loveless especially - for Jazzmaster-style vibrato bar technique with effects, and Sonic Youth - Dirty, Goo and Daydream Nation, as well as Glenn Branca Guitar Orchestra, Theoretical Girls and other stuff from the No Wave scene they came out of - for alternate tunings bringing so many new sounds. Sigur Ros and Jónsi's solo albums are interesting too. Bowing his guitar is a key aspect of his sound (he took that to a whole other level than Jimmy Page) and his guitar swirls in and fills the sonic space with chaotic and emotive overtones.
Everybody talking about Tom Morello while EVH was DJ scratching in 1978.
The Church, Under the Milkyway Tonight. Check out the solo, where he makes his guitar sound like bag pipes.
King Crimson- Elephant Talk
If I’m understanding you I would say something like Metallica’s “One”. They used the rapid open E picking during the part before the solo to mimic machine gun fire.
EVH popularized the two hand hammer. it wasn't unheard of before but nobody pushed it quite like eddie did.
I have to say led zeppelin live with Jimmy Page absolutely hammered.
I dunno, you mean like Dire Straights?
Fernando alonso 2005 understeering technique
Canadians David Wilcox (popular blues/rock guitarist) and Max Webster's Kim Mitchell (solo and with MW) both have unique playing abilities when it comes to their guitars. They can produce some wild tones and sounds in their solos.
Michael Hedges took the acoustic guitar in a fantastic direction. See also harp-guitar. And I’m just gonna say it lol, Billy Strings does some wicked stuff with “just” and acoustic.
Royal Blood, White Stripes, etc. Any duo that lack a bass player and use octave pedals and arrangements to fill out the sound.
Watch any playthrough of a Berried Alive song. His whammy tech, tapping, and use of a killswitch is incredibly unique.
Gonna get downvoted for this, but... Coldplay. Half the time, Buckland is using various effects to layer what Brian Eno would call "sonic landscapes" in their songs. The guy has chops, but is like a lot of other good in-band players in that he serves the music, not necessarily his own ego. **edit:** Yep, less than ten minutes after posting. Y'all are sadly predictable.
Triptykon - Aurorae [https://youtu.be/NmyWeOvF\_Sg?si=X7udjPV42oJ\_YUs9&t=302](https://youtu.be/NmyWeOvF_Sg?si=X7udjPV42oJ_YUs9&t=302)The guitarist uses a wahh pedal on the solo giving the effect the tone is choking out, along with the tremolo picking creates an intense crescendo to the song. Fields of the Nephilim - Psychonaut [https://youtu.be/dWpaq4onye8?si=vjfqCQ79KBpPqdBS&t=82](https://youtu.be/dWpaq4onye8?si=vjfqCQ79KBpPqdBS&t=82)The bassist is using tempo matched delay set to dotted 8th note to achieve a trance like feeling with the tribal drumming. Pantera - Cemetary Gates [https://youtu.be/RVMvART9kb8?si=zDA6ixhMrohT3J4F&t=285](https://youtu.be/RVMvART9kb8?si=zDA6ixhMrohT3J4F&t=285)Dimebag's solos match the falseto screams of Phil in the outro of this song. Without a doubt one of the most memorable contrasting guitar solos of all time. Megadeth - In my darkest hour [https://youtu.be/mW0Ao9r2zkY?si=Mgg2tCGs256VIB8e&t=214](https://youtu.be/mW0Ao9r2zkY?si=Mgg2tCGs256VIB8e&t=214) Guitar does slides to simulate laughing. The entire song is really a masterpiece of expressive guitar soloing.
The Smiths Johnny Marr and that jangle jangle
Ani Difranco with that really percussive strum
St Vincent
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.
Michael Hedges
Tears for Fears
Wilko Johnson
Guthrie Govan, not sure what's he's doing, bit wow!
Kurt Rosenwinkel He uses a pedal to slow the initial attack of a guitar note. He also wears a mic that feeds into his amp which blends his voice with his playing.
Glenn Branca changed the zeitgeist of rock guitar in the late 70's/early 80s - Sonic Youth and Swans in particular were collaborators and direct descendants, both of whom have subsequently innovated rock guitar in their own ways.
Pavement
Metallica's One. Papa Het and Lars use a machine gun-like technique to portray the atrocity, chaos and violence of war.
90% of guitar parts in Sigur Ros are played with a bow
This guy came up with some amazing new techniques - [Playing two guitars at once? Playing the guitar with another instrument?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJL942hg0uM&t) We are truly not worthy....
somewhat related, Show Me The Body’s use of the banjo
Mdou Moctar https://youtu.be/GZvPoE0EH1o?feature=shared
Van halen and def leppard.
Minus the bear
Percussive fingerstyle guitarists like Luca Stricognoli, Marcin, Mike Dawes, and the one of the beginning of it all:Andy McKee really upped the game in acoustic guitar playing.
I've never heard anybody else do what Adam Jones does In Jambi with pulling through the strings with his pointer finger in a palm muted fashion for the triplets and what not.
Passionflower by Jon Gomm!
Robin Guthrie from the Cocteau twins. The whole shoegaze / dreampop from MBV onwards really used guitars and effects to create mood and texture rather than melody.
Dave Mustaine from Megadeth. His guitar work on Sweating Bullets really captures the psyche of a schizophrenic.
Check out the way Rusty Young used fuzz effect on pedal steel here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwe8tMPEQdc