Wes Montgomery-style octave playing...

[bucknaked]

Anybody else here into that?

I love that sound! Installed a "PAF" humbucker neck p/u in my tele, just to help achieve that sound.

I just started concentrating on learning the technique, using my thumb like Wes did (the blister finally popped just over a week ago), as it sounds more uniform than any picks I've tried using (thinking a softer one might work better). I can play some simple riffs, it's only when I transition to the higher strings, where the fret-spred gets bigger (for example going from octaves using A and G, to D and B, where your pinky gets involved) that's where I tend to fumble it.

Anyway, wondering if anybody has any helpful advice or tips in practicing this playing-style. I've only seriously started playing guitar in the past 2 years (though I have been playing bass for the past 17), but I'm in love with that sound, and would love to master it

[Sammy Pepys]

1. No good advice, but...

"Sundown" is one of my favorite tunes to jam on.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. Howard Roberts & Pat Metheny do that too.

Check em out if it helps. I'm not a guitar player, I just listen to them.

[Lethe]

3. Hendrix did a lot of that

from what i remember.

Also Blackbird on the the White Album is like total octave style playing.

Yeah I always played the low E with my thumb too, like Hendrix and Wes. (much to the chagrin of my old guitar teacher, who said i was using "incorrect technique"

[old mark]

4. Listen to a few of the Stevie Ray Vaughn live

recordings. He does the octave technique very well.

FWIW, Wes developed a soft, quiet style supposedly because he lived in a row house and loud practice disturbed the heighbors.
His tone was just beautiful.

mark

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. You should listen to some early George Benson

He played some interesting octave stuff but with an intermediate note a sixth or a fifth above the lower note. Very, very funky. Benson in his early days was a phenomenal player and his current trend towards jazz-lite is just a shadow of his former self, particulary the great work he did with organist Jack McDuff. Benson was/is a big devotee of Wes Montgomery in fact. I saw George Benson live in the 70s at the Light House in the L.A. area and his playing just made you giddy it was so intricate, creative, and tasty.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Very Good Suggestion

He sometimes sounded more like Wes, then Wes. As you said, that's especially true in his earliest days.
The Professor

[whatchamacallit]

7. George would sometimes add a fifth in there when doing that stuff (n/t)