Heavy metal guitar

The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal.

The lead guitarist plays guitar solos, instrumental melody lines and melodic fill passages.

The rhythm guitar player plays chords and riffs that create, along with the bass and drums, the rhythmic sound of a metal song.

The lead guitarist plays guitar solos, instrumental melody lines and melodic fill passages.

In 1978, a "heretofore unknown guitarist named Eddie Van Halen" from Los Angeles released "'Eruption', a blistering aural assault of solo electric guitar" which featured rapid "tapping", which "had rarely been heard in a rock context before".

Rich or Dean, as well as modern versions of classic-radical designs like Gibson's Flying V and Explorer models.

Some shred guitarists, such as Scorpions' Ulrich Roth, have used custom-made tremolo bars and developed modified instruments, such as Roth's "Sky Guitar, that would greatly expand his instrumental range, enabling him to reach notes previously reserved in the string world for cellos and violins.

Shred-style guitarists often use high-gain vacuum tube amplifiers such as Marshall, Carvin, Peavey, Mesa Boogie, ENGL, Laney, Hughes & Kettner and Randall.

She argues that the loudness is designed to "sweep the listener into the sound" and to provide a "shot of youthful vitality".

[22] Philip Auslander says that "Although there were many women in rock by the late 1960s, most performed only as singers, a traditionally feminine position in popular music".

[23]: 2–3 Notable women metal guitarists include Lita Ford, The Great Kat, and Morgan Lander.