10 Guitarists You've Never Heard Of - Troy Stetina

Troy Stetina is recognized all over the world as a guitar virtuoso and a premier musical educator. In his career he has released lots of his own work and has written more than 30 instructional books and videos, which have sold around 50,000 copies worldwide. Stetina runs his own recording studio in Milwaukee, where he produces his own music as well as other bands. His main influences are Randy Rhoads, Van Halen, Beethoven, and Paganini, who heavily influenced him when he was emerging as a guitarist in the mid-80s.

Stetina takes a lot of inspiration from his influences, mainly Randy Rhoads. His style varies from classical to heavy metal and even a mix of the two. He started out by changing and performing old classical pieces into "full volume, heavily distorted" electric guitar songs. His riff work is influenced by 70’s and 80’s thrash, with a fast, downward picking style.

His gear and guitars varies a bit but he mainly uses the same set-up for studio work. He uses a Jackson with a Seymour Duncan pickup in the bridge position, a Kahler tremolo system and a Sustainiac sustainer. He also likes to use his St. Blues, it has a Telecaster headstock, Les Paul body shape, Strat-type pickup selector, pickguard and vibrato bar, and a humbucker lead pickup. His other guitars include a Washburn and an AST, which are both endorsements. He uses them as backups and leaves them in different tunings for his studio work.

Stetina’s live and studio rig has never changed. He uses a distortion pedal that is run into a Marshall Half Stack (1970s 100-watt lead head and 4x12 cabinet with vintage Celestion Greenback 25 speakers). Other amps are a 1980s 50 Watt JCM800 head. His distortion pedals include an old Boss PD-1 'rocker distortion’, which are now discontinued. He also uses an Ibanez TS-10 tube screamer among others. More recently, Stetina has acquired a Line 6 POD that is used on most of his recent videos and CDs.

In his long career Troy Stetina has made produced many teachings and recordings. Between 1986 and 2002, he released 31 educational books ranging from techniques and styles to specific genres. In 1992, he released his debut album ‘Set The World On Fire.’ Later on, in 2000 he released his milestone album ‘Exottica’ which he is most famously known for. Late last year, he released his latest EP, with his new band, ‘The Try Stetina Project’. He continues to write and record music along with educational books and videos. His 25+ year career isn’t over yet!

Comments

[the_beastly_one]

Sounds pretty damn cool, I'll try and download some.

[n_punx]

i've heard about him but his CDs arent sold in the local stores. hopefully can get em 'somewhere'.

[niccyishot]

"Troy Stetina is recognized all over the world"

Never heard of............

[j_cobain27]

He's written loads of books, Spead Mechanics for the lead guitarist, and even a guide to learning the guitar for left handers, like me. He also wrote a book on how to play Gun 'N' Roses tunes step by step, he's amazing!!!

[Nadz]

Niccyishot:"Troy Stetina is recognized all over the world"

Never heard of............

thats the second time his made that mistake

[Hypnot1st]

Got mee good, never heard of 'em

[pepsi_home]

me neither

[Scorpions]

50,000 copies worldwide? obviously never heard of him, good article though.

[MonkeyAteMySoul]

yeah, Iv got his books, but you forgot to mention that he uses a krammer barreta and that hes doing a project with mark tremonti from creed

[gooseholla]

Never heard of him.

[DumbKids]

i've heard of him. I have two of his books.

[MattyB]

Perhaps it should be titled 10 Great guitarist's that don't seek praise but should be given it..

[slimgeraldo]

Or maybe 10 most underated guitarists, yea this kind of article make me feel pretty ignorant in the "real music" field, thx for the info

[Wasp]

He's good. Got one of his books somewhere, it was really good for beginning.

[im not mental]

you're right. i have never heard of him.

[Whiskey Leech]

Well it is titled '10 guitarists you've never heard of.' so there is a good chance you haven't heard him? get it?

[Steelman]

well, isnt it kind of contradicting to say hes known all over the world when its ten guitarists youve never heard of? oh well, good article though

[midgar31]

"Or maybe 10 most underated guitarists, yea this kind of article make me feel pretty ignorant in the "real music" field, thx for the info"

Or maybe u only know a mtv top 10 music....music is just that,music.

[amotesharei]

i learn from troys methods, and believe me, hes bloody amazing, and helped me alot

[MrScary07RR]

i have one of his books, speed lead i think its called

[smell_my_cheese]

if tommy emmanuel isn't in this list then you should be shot, he is the best although he is very underated and he doesn't try to be famous, and his work gets taught in frickin schools, which i think is a bit mad!!!

[Psykotik]

niccyishot:
"Troy Stetina is recognized all over the world"

Never heard of........

That's why the title is "Guitarists You've Never Heard Of"

Excellent article, better than the others, now you're talking about guitarists that we never heard of!

[slippingunderme]

umm yeah if he is recognized all over the world then why hasnt hardly any of us heard of him?

[rhcpcure2826]

oh man, we still have five more of these things...

[LastRockShow]

ha, i take lessons from books he writes.

[will_yeah]

this is the 2nd one i haven't heard of, someone should do Hendrix to see if people don't know him

[pirate]

mom do i like pizza? i cant remember...ne ways yeah i never heard of him...but yeah he sounds cool and i think im gonna get some of his books...first good article for this whole never heard of thing....very informative...nine golden skillets my friend........now where was i?

[Matty Ramone]

wow I have never herd of him, very good article , well done,I 'll have to go check out some of his stuff

[SRVGuitarFreak]

he's awesome! He's written tons of speed and metal books, if you know writers of guitar material, or teachers you should know him. He taught mark tremonti to shred over the past 2 or 3 years.

i cant believe you people havent heard of him... i have one of his books, called "speed mechanics for lead guitar", and it is, hands down, the single best guitar techniques book i own. i am on page 5 and already am faster than i've ever been.... he has a whole line of books.... there are two prerequisite books to the one i have that cover basic theory and beginning techniques.... the recordings of him on the CD that came with the book are amazing.... at the end of each section in the book i have, he does one classical piece on guitar combining all teh things you learned from the section.... AMAZING! he plays the pieces SO fast....

[Rocker3829]

and y'all see how well tremonti shreads now, i mean damn, its awesome. But Troy is one of a kind, thats a guitar god for you.

[frazerho]

Do Stephen Malkmus.

[MonkeyAteMySoul]

Do Mattias IA Eklundh from freak kitchen and freak guitar

[msierragtz]

Sounds interesting

[Whiskey Leech]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I agree with Redwing, on roughly page 5 of Speed Mechanics you are doing these super fast licks which you thought were impossible...

[jimmypage2]

yes tommy emmanuel better be in this feckin list

[Rocker3829]

i'm going to buy that speed mechanics for the lead guitar, but does anyone know of a place that might carry it not on the internet?

[kirk_rules!]

this is called 10 guitarists youve never heard of, but i have heard of half of them!
Anyway, I bought a book called "total rock guitar" written by Troy Stetina, and its pretty good. I recommend it.

[flyboy959]

How could he be recognized all over the world if he is a guitarist "weve never heard of"? An oximoron or whatever that is...

[ZippoTragedy]

TS is a rockin' dude. Got 2 or 3 of his books - best reference hands-down for aspiring shredders. Add the Grimoire series by Adam Kadmon for the complete deal. I checked out his EP - there's a couple of songs that are smokin - Would love to hear more work like "higher ground". Tremonti is oo lucky to have bagged a teaching pro like TS (jealous). TS used to run a collegiate department "Rock Studies" for an accredited University in WI. dude's got talent, 'nuff said.

Mainstream recorded hard rock and shred is not dead - TS is proof of that...