Chapter 216: Does He Also Understand Electric Guitar?

"Come, come, come, our time is limited. Let me briefly explain to everyone first. Ruolan, hand out the sheet music, hand it out."

Lin Dazhi entered the recording studio as if he were returning home; he skillfully greeted the musicians and took out the Gibson Hummingbird Limited Edition he had brought with him from its case.

Li Yanliang was a connoisseur, and he froze for a moment upon seeing this guitar.

"This General Manager... is a player?"

Looking at that limited-edition Hummingbird, Li Yanliang felt an itch in his heart.

For a top-tier guitarist, seeing a good guitar is like a lecher seeing a peerless beauty.

"General Manager, can you let me take a look at this guitar?" Li Yanliang walked over and asked curiously.

"Sure, here you go." Lin Dazhi handed the guitar over directly.

Li Yanliang carefully took it, admired it thoroughly once more, and couldn't stop praising it as he looked.

"This guitar isn't easy to hunt down, a 1960 True Vintage. General Manager, where did you get this guitar!" Li Yanliang said with some envy.

The second-hand price for this model has been hyped up to nearly one hundred thousand; the key is that there is a market price but no supply—even if you want to buy one, there's nowhere to find it.

"I don't know either, Ruolan helped me hunt it down. I think the tone is alright, and since you're the professional, help me see if there's anything wrong with this guitar?" Lin Dazhi said with a smile.

"No, no, General Manager, you're too polite. The guitar is absolutely a fine one; if it were mine, I wouldn't bear to play it," Li Yanliang said half-jokingly.

"Hey, it's just a guitar. No matter how good a guitar is, it's meant to be played. If you like it, I'll give you one later," Lin Dazhi said with a smile.

"Hey, hey, no need, no need," Li Yanliang hurriedly declined politely.

Seeing that the sheet music had been distributed, Lin Dazhi clapped his hands and began to explain briefly to everyone.

"Teachers, everyone here is a professional, so I won't go into too much detail. This is an original piece of mine. The sheet music is just a simple chord chart; the synthesizer backing and the bass solo can be improvised according to the progression. However, Teacher Li, I've already written out your solo for the interlude and the outro, so just play it according to this."

Li Yanliang nodded while carefully and earnestly looking at the sheet music.

Once he entered work mode, his entire temperament seemed to change, as if he were a different person.

Looking at this piece of music he had never seen before, Li Yanliang became more earnest the more he looked, and his eyes grew brighter, as if he had discovered some peerless treasure!

In his early days playing in bands, he had released dozens of original works with his previous bands and had put out four or five albums, all of which sold quite well.

To put it bluntly, in the Xia Country pop-rock scene, his guitar playing was absolutely hall-of-fame level; there was no need to be humble about that!

He had originally thought that this wealthy General Manager participating in the show "Singer" was purely just for fun. With a business that big, how could he possibly have time to play music?

But the moment he saw this work, Li Yanliang knew he was wrong, and wrong in a big way!

From the first glance at this piece, Li Yanliang felt as if some memory in his blood had been awakened!

Even though it hadn't been played yet, the melody was already echoing in his mind.

Li Yanliang even started to have some ideas about how to shape the tone!

The more he looked, the more he liked it; the more he looked, the more shocked he was!

He even felt that this piece was very likely his destiny as a guitarist, the kind that could define his entire life!

The other musicians felt much the same as Li Yanliang; they were all terrified by the quality of this piece!

Although they hadn't started yet, these musicians were all hall-of-fame level existences with top-tier understanding of music; they could tell if a song was good or not at a single glance!

The song before them wasn't just good; it was good beyond measure!

Compared to the songs currently on the charts, it was like a dimensional strike!

All the musicians became excited; looking at that thin sheet of music was like staring at a peerless treasure!

"Teacher Li? Teacher Li?"

Seeing Li Yanliang looking so intently, Lin Dazhi couldn't help but speak up to remind him.

"Ah? General Manager, is something the matter?" Li Yanliang had been humming the solo and keeping time, so engrossed that he only reacted after Lin Dazhi called him several times.

"It's like this: regarding your guitar part, the two solos are quite important. I have some ideas about the tone that I'd like to discuss with you," Lin Dazhi explained.

"Oh, okay. Wait, no—General Manager, you also understand electric guitar?" Li Yanliang asked with some surprise upon hearing Lin Dazhi's words.

"I understand a little bit," Lin Dazhi said with a smile.

He had previously belonged to the type of amateur guitarist who played quite well, and after the system raised his level to a junior professional standard, his understanding and technique for guitar performance had definitely reached a professional level. Although there was still a certain gap compared to a top-tier guitarist like Li Yanliang, it wasn't much of a gap—after all, they were both at a professional level.

"That's good, that's good. General Manager, please speak, I'm listening," Li Yanliang perked up, a flash of curiosity appearing in his eyes.

He really wanted to see what kind of professional insights a big boss like the General Manager could offer regarding electric guitar tone.

He had thought the General Manager would give him a rough description of the feeling, but the moment the General Manager opened his mouth, Li Yanliang knew he was wrong, and wrong in a big way!

"For the solo part, use 'clean,' then low-cut to 180 hertz, boost the gain a little at 1500, not too much, 3db should do. Then add a compressor; you don't need to adjust the threshold too high, around 18 is fine. Then add a 'double' to let the sound have a bit of a floating feel. Hmm, play a few notes—yes, yes, that's the feeling. Next, give it some reverb, let's use 'hall reverb'..."

Holding his own PRS, Li Yanliang stared, dumbfounded, at this rumored multi-billionaire General Manager who was squatting on the ground, adjusting his own multi-effects processor worth over ten thousand yuan, adding various effects to the chain, and skillfully adjusting the effect parameters. The expression in his eyes was as if he had seen a ghost!

What was going on? Did the General Manager really understand electric guitar?

Looking at his technique, it was even more skillful than his own!

And he wasn't just adjusting it blindly; as each parameter was added, Li Yanliang clearly felt that a tone he had never heard before, one with a very strong sense of feeling, was slowly being sculpted!

How should he describe it? This tone, which carried a hint of Zen amidst its ethereal nature, made one feel as if even their soul had been purified!

This was a tone he had never heard before!

Lin Dazhi adjusted it for a few minutes, and upon hearing the sound coming from the speaker, which was about the same as the memory in his mind, he stood up satisfied and said to Li Yanliang, who was staring at him with wide eyes, and the other musicians: "Alright, let's run through it once, let's let the problems be fully exposed!"