MayonesDuncan Competition: Finalists

Posted on January 23, 2013 by scott

A month ago we launched a competition with Mayones, with special host Keith Merrow, to see what people could play over a backing track. The response was, well, overwhelming. Thousands of videos were uploaded and we watched and enjoyed every single one and want to thank all of you who uploaded a video. We quickly realized that picking just five finalists would not be enough, so we have expanded that to ten people who will be in the finals – nine of those players will win a set of our pickups and one lucky and extremely talented guitar player will win the Regius 7 Custom. So without further ado, here are the finalists:

And this one (embedding is disabled for this video).

The grand prize winner will be selected from these ten by February 1st by a panel of artists being put together.

 

Which finalist do you think should win the Regius 7 Custom?

 

 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000117034258 Phillip Cantu

    Either Annie Grunwald or Max Gorelick. Those two are the best submissions IMO.

  • Terry McHugh

    Out of those 10, Chris Vogagis.

  • IzirAtig

    Nicholas Llerandi. His playing doesn’t sound boring.

  • bleh

    Is it just me, or does every one of these solos have sweeptapping?

  • http://www.facebook.com/SinnOcenc3 Stefan Glas

    My Favorite is Chris Vogagis. This guy have a lot of skillz. He is unbelievable :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/jeremiah.lind.5 Jeremiah Lind

    I would go with the 2nd one, Annie Grunwald, or Marta’s video. They were above and beyond awesome and fit the song the best in my opinions. There were components of each I really liked.

  • Paris E Giraud

    Congrats to all the winners, cheers!

  • http://www.facebook.com/wzy.aniolek Aniołek Wzy

    Matt Jones or Oliver the best 2

  • http://www.facebook.com/A.New.Odd Colton Miller

    Oliver, by far, he had an incredibly moving piece. I listened to all of them, but his is the only one to consistently give me goose bumps every time I listen to it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/micah.dillon.7 Micah Dillon

    I like Oliver the best.

  • GonzoDuff

    Chris Vogagis sounds really good to me

  • imnotonthelist:(

    oliver mazurtshak should be disqualified. i find it unfair that he changed the backing track. he should stick to the original backing track like everybody else did.

  • Me

    hope it’s a joke… Some of them don’t even know how to play vibrato… Some of them don’t even like Mayones and Duncan profiles on facebook. So they shouldn’t qualify…

    • http://www.facebook.com/waughfles Merry Waugh

      Don’t be jealous. These talented individuals worked hard and didn’t do anything unfair to be recognized. I am surprised by some omissions such as Sarah Longfield and Lee Luland.

      • pit

        I think it’s not about being jealous – everyone worked hard for a success for sure. Im disappointed because of some omissions. How the hell jury was able to hear all of the entries in ~ 2 days????? Almost 2000 1:18 min entries in 2 days??? And who was in jury? Position on youtube search changes every day… So…

      • Edgard

        I agree with you

      • Jason Ryan

        I too am surprised and disappointed that Sarah Longfield didn’t make the
        list. Hers was one of only three that I had playing in my head
        throughout the day for the last week…. out of 40 or 50 submissions I
        watched.

  • Dado

    Yoppe is most interesting,Annie has the most feel in playing imho.Good luck to you both.Nicholas is phenomenal,but to me not fitting to rhythm guitar mood.

  • Fuck Mayones

    fuck you, you delate my comments!!!

  • Massimo Pericolo

    Nicholas Llerandi should win by miles. All of the entries, while somewhat pre-
    dictable are incredibly amazing, but his is the only one that is entirely out of
    the box. I think he should win. Oliver was also very very good, If Nicholas doesn’t win then Oliver should.

  • Trenty

    They’re all good, but it seems like they all do the same things. I love chris’ version, but it’s just a loop of licks token from other famous guitarists, the only one that is quite original is Nicholas, even if some parts are really too out for me( but i like it(. The other entries, as bleh just said, are repetition of sweeptapping and speedpicking. Oh, i love Derek’s one, i would defietively choose him as winner.

  • Damasceno

    I think Nicholas tried to sound out of the melody too much and it became a little but ugly,and i really loved Darek Wawrzyniak melodies ^^

  • Kenzo

    Why Lee Luland and Sarah is not here ?

  • Mtlh

    my top 3 :

    1.Chris Vogagis
    2.Kamadashipoteto
    3.Oliver Mazurtshak

  • http://www.facebook.com/twojproboszcz Ksiądz Proboszcz

    oliver mazurtshak for shure :)

  • AVAStratoDT

    - Oliver and Chris are the most interesting for me…

    - Matt Jones looks very confused in many parts…

    - Marta has made an absolutely amazin job she’s an excelent guitarrist

    - Really Llerandis is very ugly… i think he was choosen just for the fame of his band…
    may be marketing??
    what you think guys???

  • http://www.facebook.com/gomitre.gopaul Gomitre Gopaul

    annie / oliver

  • jay

    Chris vogagis

  • AVAStratoDT

    This two guys are most awesome than Matt, llerandi an “this one”…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJiDvy3EQvM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtuCl_-7D0o

  • andrew

    Chris Vogagis….dat transition at 0:29 :D

  • BellaGirl

    Chris Vogagis is amazing…love it!

  • chris vogagis

    Awesome job for chris

  • Michael Gallagher

    Chris Vogagis

  • neil

    has to be chris vogagis, his solo is the only one that fits the backing music perfectly. and i mean perfectly. the rest have bits here and there that are either too complicated for that section or you feel they try to hard to cram as many notes in as possible everywhere, chris knows when to just have single notes ring out, hen to sweep and when to shred. as i said. its perfect

  • juiui

    Nicholas Llerandi

  • Elgrad

    Matt Jones way above the rest to me. Love the intro with the Guthrie Govan style quick-slide

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Metzger/672670917 Mark Metzger

    All entries were excellent. Lienandi was the most original but perhaps not the most aesthetic. Max had one of the best sound mixes. Matt Jones was a stand out and had, by far, the best command of his craft and mastery of every aspect of the fret board. Gets my vote for concept and utilization. https://www.facebook.com/MetZZart

  • Tony

    Chris Vogagis, but you should have also had Edgar Milhais as one of your top ten

  • Scott Giffin

    I’m actually having a hard believing that every entry was watched, for two reasons.

    1. 7 of the 10 finalists come from the first 4 pages of the YouTube #mayonesduncan search. That’s 70% of the winners chosen out of only 4.34% of the entries… Interesting.

    2. There was no validation that one’s entry was viewed by a judge. YouTube allows comments on videos, so I believe that leaving a simple “Thank you for your entry, good luck!” message from a judge or rep from either company would ensure that each video had been viewed and had a seal of approval, so to say.

    I’m not trying to be a sore loser but there are many better entries that I’ve seen out of the 1800+ submissions than the ones showcased here. I’m also not trying to belittle the current finalists, they all showcased great talent but in my opinion, some of them were just that… A showcase of technique rather than an understanding of the underlying music and composition. Good luck to those who have been chosen!

    This also is not a post with the intent of the results being changed but more to have a more accurate scoring system for future contests.

    • justice

      2000 entrys X 1,16 = 2320 min = 40 hours of non-stop video … They should be watching videos yet!

      • http://www.facebook.com/seymourduncan Seymour Duncan Pickups

        Hi Justice not all the videos were watched at the last minute. I can’t speak for Mayones but on our end we watched them as they came in.

        • Mayoneso

          The Regius 7 Custom preparing to be shipped to the winner of the #MayonesDuncan competition. No doubt Keith Merrow will be devastated to let this one go. Only 12 more days to upload your video to be entered. It’s not just the fastest solo, it’s the most creative. LOL XDDDDD

    • http://www.facebook.com/seymourduncan Seymour Duncan Pickups

      Hi Scott, we did in fact view ever entry (as I am told Mayones did as well). It sounds like you are searching #MayonesDuncan in YouTube, keep in mind that doing that will show you the highest rated and most popular videos first. It’s obvious those would be among many of our winners because the viewing community also came to the same conclusion. But our semi-finals had many with few videos.

      • Edward S.

        There’s no other way than searching #MayonesDuncan to view the entries… So which way you did it? Explain please. The only right way to view all of the entries would be video responses method to the contest video.

        So if you watch them as they came in, how can you know from where to start viewing entires next day?? The video, which was on the 5 page for instance, it’s on the other page next day..

  • Savage Rocker

    Kamadashipoteto, Hands down WINNER!!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/josh.krogstad Josh Krogstad

    Can’t decide between Matt Jones, Annie Grunwald, Oliver M, and Marta Witiw! Too. Much. Talent!

  • http://www.facebook.com/themachineandi Isaac Lewis

    Well shit. So much for that.

  • professional

    Only for professional aspect: Almost all of the finalist doing CTRL+C/CTRL+V lick guitar playing with bad vibrato and cheap sound, with serious time problems and a lot of wrong notes. What a shame…

  • Edgard

    The second video (He has Good feeling and great technique) or Thirth (He created a Good musical arrangement and he has a good technique too) good luck !!

    • edgard

      Ups !! and Chris Vogagis of course

  • http://www.facebook.com/dany.louis.351 Dany Louis

    poy fortich did an awsome job way better than nicholas or max at least,his solo sounded the most fit with the backing track and played wht the style needs

  • http://www.facebook.com/dany.louis.351 Dany Louis

    but oliver is definetly a winner the dive bomb was a great touch along with the solo being one whole idea not unattached phrases n licks,great job to all the others

  • arts

    In any competition the winners should be chosen by performances that project excellence.

    Sad to say that not even one of these has accomplished that. From 2000
    entries it is mind boggling that this is the best offered.

    Steve Vai replicas and John Petrucci wannabes seemed to be the main factors for winning.

    Unfortunately the musicians chosen, although skilled to a certain extent, are mostly out of context and in many cases pitch was off in failed bending attempts.

    Sadly very poor in melody, sound and feeling.

    Solos are meant to compliment a song not the other way around.

    All the chosen tracks sound like an exercise routine rather than a memorable solo that you will hum away for days.

    Although I will admit that solos are meant to impress and
    seeing(hearing) a billion notes flying around in a single second can be
    received as a surprise they also manage to butcher what could have been
    a very nice song.

    Tapping and arpeggios are so boringly overplayed in these videos that
    it almost makes you think that maybe this is the only way. (sarcasm)

    The best part of this contest was how many people attended.

    The worst part is that the final selection will guide some new artists to a completely false perception of what is good.

    It is a Sad Day for Music and the ARTS as this turned out to be another X-FACTOR or AMERICAN IDOL.

    • Scott Giffin

      Well said man. I really expected this to be different from a shredfest but I was sadly disappointed. I really tried to write a solo that was different from the typical wankery and play to the music, I guess that’s still not what floats people’s boats. I still showcased some technique but really focused on composition. Give mine a watch if you like…

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYINgaBgA9Y

    • Scott Giffin

      Well said man. I couldn’t agree more. I tried really hard to not make a wankfest solo and worked hard on composing something that went with the backing track. Anyway, check mine if you’d like. Thanks.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYINgaBgA9Y

    • http://www.facebook.com/dany.louis.351 Dany Louis
    • http://twitter.com/Ozzmak Ozzmak

      ROCK ON DUDE :) – TRUTH

      There are many other guitar players who have show more feelings and melody and how the guitar is suppose to played in this competition but looks like this ” JUDGES” are from another planet or they have forgot what music really is.

      I guess this was just another trick for them to make some money from sponsors
      Or maybe this was guitar speed competition against Armstrong LOL :)

  • arts

    Testing

  • http://www.facebook.com/kenneth.makowsky.7 Kenneth Makowsky

    @ bleh . . . I think the ability to shred was a prerequisite. The ability to swing obvously wasn’t but you still have to admire the chops on display here.

  • http://www.facebook.com/lawrence.mallini Lawrence Mallini

    My vote is for Sarah Longfield oh she didn’t make it REALLY?? Nicholas Is the best and most technical and without tapping licks till the very end.

  • Justice for all

    Is this a joke?? To take one example, Nicholas sounds like a fart!! agghh!!
    Except one entry, they do scale exercises that bore up the sheep!!
    There is a thing called harmony, music, composition, structure… yes, yes :s
    so it is obvious that you have not seen all the videos because if not, you would be deaf!!!Congratulation to the chosen!! and a kick in the ass for the judges, because they did NOT see all entries!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/RayZ28 Ray Bell

    I think Chris Vogogis played the best he had nice smooth runs and sweeps

  • http://www.facebook.com/dimvader Hasan Ali

    I see this as an unfair competition .

  • http://www.facebook.com/philshortmusic Phil Short

    Oliver Mazurtshak should definitely win. Musical, original and flawless playing. Stunning.

  • justice

    2000 entrys X 1,16 = 2320 min = 40 hours of non-stop video … you ought to be watching videos even

  • Duart Ferreira

    I think it was unfair for me, and other great guitar players, but this is a contest and in the end these were the finalists so CONGRATULATIONS!! Good Luck!

  • Matt Jones

    I’m so happy to have been put in the top 10, but one thing i’m quite disillusioned about is the backlash from some of the people following the competition. The whole talk about only “shredders” been picked.

    The one thing i found most challenging about this competition is the incredibly short space of time we have to; A) Showcase our abilities as a guitarist with regards to skill/ technicality and B) Writing something that’s also appropriate to the song, being able to keep it ‘tasteful’ as we like to say.

    There’s a lot to cover in the space of 1 minute. Obviously going all out shred isn’t going to win you any points in the songwriting department so there’s the small subject of speed. How fast is too fast? How much is too often? The answer to these questions is often down to personal preference.

    It’s really a balancing act between taste and speed. I’m not a fan of the word ‘shred’, (seeing as it is often used in a derogatory fashion), what would you descibe as “mindless shred”. Is there a graph of tempo to note groupings highlighting the line you should not cross?

    Also i’m imagining the judges were assessing videos throughout the time the competition was running. My video barely had 500 views before the winners were announced so they must have gone through the shed load of entries. Claiming the whole thing was a popularity contest is a bit of an overstatement.

    But anyway, good luck everyone! :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/eric.hill1 Eric Hill

    Kamadashipoteto, then Nicholas.

    Also, is Chris Vogagis a giant? That guitar look absolutely tiny in his hands. By the look of it, he could stretch from 12-24, lol

  • http://www.facebook.com/saint.VoVa Ольга Герасимова

    the prize give girls!)
    ps. embedding is always enabled for all my videos:)

  • franzramos

    In the end, i know i’m like david against goliath in this competition, i just wanted to see what the they consider as the “best” and i guess we have that perspective now

  • andrew

    have they watched this?
    i think this deserve atleast one of the finalist
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIx9BD8_1yc

  • http://www.facebook.com/saint.VoVa Ольга Герасимова

    congratulations to the finalists! don’t be disappointed those who had not made it to the finals
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WatWKMZiC3A

  • disco violence

    As someone mentioned i don’t beleve that you watched all of the videos there were some people,not me, that have played better than some of the finalist.I was disapointed when i heard that you will search our videos on youtube.Why did you do that when all of us have send you our videos via facebook.That was one of the therms for entering competition.

  • disco violence

    i forgot to say that after this i think that i will never enter another competition on facebook.Cheers

  • tom

    annie grunwald

  • Agnivesh Adhikari

    the ‘panel of artists’ they are gonna put together shud have been put together earlier to select the finalists. im not in any way saying that these finalists are sloppy or anything, but i found a few other entries that i liked more than some of the above vids. like the one by Sarah Longfield for example. i dont know of others will agree or not, but thats just my taste in music…

  • ReelFocus/G.Dean

    I am interested in this process as we will be running a talent contest at our web site. The viewers will be the ones voting not the peeps putting on the contest. Scott your first point I was wondering about. Those who had high YT view counts were at the top of the search. This reflects viewer voting as the more hits means more peeps liked it. Possibly the judges were merely liking what everyone else liked. Due to good talent. Doing a guitar solo for a competition is extremely tough. Everyone looks like they are just ripping scales and there is no passion. I suggest doing a live recording of your solos in front of lots of people. Bet ya there will be a giant lift in quality doing it that way. Anyway all were decent to say the least and I will be getting in touch with some of you to post a link to our contests once our site goes live. Peace!

  • Shirantha B.

    Keep in mind that this is all subjective. Everyone is going to have a different opinion on the best entries. I do question what the judges were looking for in their criteria though.

    Here’s another one you guys might not have seen. He did a great job even though he didn’t make it into the finals.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4x-TlokkYY

    There were a lot of sick entries, and some on this list deserve to be there!

  • http://www.facebook.com/seymourduncan Seymour Duncan Pickups

    We understand it can be a let down when someone you wanted to win doesn’t make it. The sheer volume of amazing playing made picking 5 nearly impossible so we decided to extend it to 10. Even then it was extremely tough. What about the incredible videos from Sarah, Francesco, Max and others? Ultimately though we had to have a cutoff number and so many amazing players didn’t make the finals that we loved. While someone will ultimately win the Regius 7 Custom, no one in this contest is a loser. We watched every single video and enjoyed every single one of them (even the guy who took Keith literally and put Mayonnaise on his guitar).

  • http://www.facebook.com/seymourduncan Seymour Duncan Pickups

    Curious to see if you had made the semi-finals? Mayones sent this list after emailing us telling us they were “going in” and emerging days later with a narrowed down list of 70: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPQmoeceef4&list=PLhUj0ccCok0bVu3UybkFtXVv-YWco9GSI

    • Me

      Pawel Ewertowski is twice…

    • Lars

      Curiously Darek has 2 entries and win with a different entry that this list.

      BTW.. Was allowed to participate with more than one entry?

    • Azli Violet

      oh god, I was in the semifinals of participants, an honor, though not in the final, hehehe

    • Derek

      look! Some of them even don’t like Mayones facebook page, as the rules of the contest say!!!!!!!

  • Andrew kiddies
  • halen

    I think the judges could acctually watch all of the entries, but not the entire entries – if they didnt like first 10 seconds they watched another. Or if there’s no tapping in first 10 second they watched another… ;)

  • Roman

    So a big hello to all and gratulations to all winners! and thanks to Mayones and Seymour Duncan for making this possible!

  • László Gábeli

    Well, actually, I’m not really satisfied with this list, because of the reasons some people have already mentioned (basic flaws, like vibrato, inaccurate bending, etc…), BUT I think, we shouldn’t hate on the judges. It must be really hard to pick 10 out of 2000, especially when it comes to music, because we all know that music is not a competition. But it was a great motivation (and fun) to write a solo, and with 2000 entries, it ended up really well. Thank you for arranging the competition, and best wishes to the finalists, and every participant! I’ll post my solo one last time, maybe somebody will like it…:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NNdFtue9C8

  • http://twitter.com/AYEareSEE Alex Carter

    Chris Vogagis should definitely win.

  • Tonemoods

    My favorite is Annie Grunwalds video. I like her melody, technique and the feeling which she sends out while playing. Her Guitar is living. :) *inmyhumbleopinion*

  • Karl

    OLIVER MAZURTSHAK!!!!

  • Fireheart82 Fireheart82

    Annie grunwald shall win the Mayones since she played like Super Mario bros. Fuck that tapping techniques of the men, i miss Dimebag.

  • Fireheart82 Fireheart82
  • http://www.facebook.com/saint.VoVa Ольга Герасимова

    >nine of those players will win a set of our pickups
    это всё конечно очень весело, судя по оглашению победителя 1-го февраля неизвестного года), но все же хотелось бы узнать немного больше. например, как и когда финалисты получат свои призы?)))