Los Angeles – Guitar Center – Rockwalk.

Just how big are the hands of our favourite guitar heroes? Yesterday I managed to get out to West Hollywood for an hour and went to the part where there are a couple of guitar stores.

The GC outlet there is the flagship store – the largest and best they say, of the 200+ outlets across the United States. I spent some time inside browsing around, mainly in the Platinum Room which contains PRS Private Stocks, fancy figured Gibsons and higher end Master Built Fender Custom shop guitars amongst other things.  I did see a nice Gibson EDS-1275 (the first time I’ve seen one in the flesh (uh, wood)) which had me mentally checking my bank account for a while, but alas it would have been tough for me to take home on the plane.

Anyway, GC West Hollywood also has the Rockwalk which has handprints of many of the most popular guitar heroes and contributors to the rock pantheon over the past 40 or 50 years. Below are some of the shitty phone camera pics I took with my (admittedly quite small) hand inside the print that allows you to see the relative sizes of some players to each other.

Joe Satriani’s hands:

 

Eddie Van Halen’s hands (he actually had his imprints in at least twice – by himself and with the rest of Van Halen elsewhere):

Jimmy Page’s hands. Not as big as I was expecting. His fingers look very long and delicate in those old Song Remains the Same vids. Maybe they shrank.

Slash’s hands. Quite thick fingers.

Eric Clapton’s Slow Hands below.

Billy Sheehan’s hands. Again, not as big as I was expecting – I thought he would have really massive strong hands. Note Vulcan salute, the Trekkie dork.

Yngwie Malmsteen’s very long fingers and huge palms that help him around his Stratocaster. Look at that little finger on the left hand.

Steve Vai’s enormous hands. Note extra finger on the left hand that enables him to do a B minor/Major7th #6/9 Aug b5 chord at the first fret. I think these were about the largest hands on the Rockwalk. Makes you wonder how he manages to play so accurately up at the high frets with such massive digits.

Zakk Wylde’s strong fingers.