Subscribe now and choose from over 30 free gifts worth up to £49 - Plus get £25 to spend in our shop
Not much constructive to add here, but bloody hell how good is gear these days?!
Last played about 20 years ago, never really got past the power chord punk phase and sold everything (horrid Marshall SS amp). Picked up a Classic Vibes Tele and a Yahama THR5 a few months ago ready for lockdown part deux - unbelievable for £500 all in.
Youtube is also invaluable. I can't play by ear yet, but now much prefer just watching channels like Marty Music over tabs.
Ramble over/on.
@twinw4ll I've been playing for about...ahem... 32 years. But I've just tinkered really. I've only had a few little spells of actually trying to learn new stuff. I think I was about 90% of where I am now in just a handful of years.
I think the key is trying to constantly learn new stuff Vs playing the same old things (which I'm very guilty of)
Key thing is to enjoy it and, if you can, play with others.
@Tom-B I did actually start in Eb, but needed to do some recording, so popped it back to standard
Thanks Adam, I have a very good teacher most of the things I play are of a classical ilk and I'm learning all the techniques. I'm constantly being challenged and practice a lot, I would certainly be nowhere near my current ability if I'd gone down the learning from the internet route. Currently tackling Giorni Dispari by Einaudi Charlie James my teacher has a video playing it on YouTube if you're interested. He's also a big Satriani fan and can play anything in any style. He also does Skype lessons.
Lots of prizes here guys.
Lets all enter and see if anyone wins. I'm going down the mellow jazz chords in Am route...
OH, and I know I shout these two up all the time but damn they seem nice folk even ignoring from their excellent musical skills.
Just a nice chat stream with a bit of music from the sisters. Dip in dip out, they're fun folk.
Is anyone else getting festive with their music? Admittedly, there aren’t very many guitar-based Christmas tunes, but I found this one last year and have just be relearning it.
Great little tune to learn - my version is loosely based on a Paul Davids YouTube video IIRC.
I want to watch Lethal Weapon now 🙂
Considering taking some Skype lessons. Anyone here done them? Does it work well via video? Do you just use the computer mic?
Appreciate any advice as best way to set it up, thanks
I've been providing them via Zoom since lockdown....they work really well yeah. There's differences to an in person lesson obviously, but as long as you have a decent internet connection with good upload speed then it should be fine. I use the built in mic on a Logitech C922 webcam. With Zoom there are a few audio settings that you need to change to get the most usable sound, I'm not sure if this is the same on Skype.
Thanks @Tom-B. That's a good tip: Zoom > Skype. Would be interested in getting some info about your lessons if you have spaces.
I'll drop you a message later....teaching all day today!
@Superficial I like that!
Off to find some tab. Well at least after I finish bouncing round the room to Avril Lavigne (its been an old office rock/pop playlist in the studio today. Avril to Aliens to Alice Cooper to Alberta Cross, Aerosmith, Air, Alabama 3 and Alestorm. Roll on the "B"s. ooh its Clapton with The Band now)
Good to see musical contributions from Adam, Simon and Superficial.
Is anyone else getting festive with their music?
This is one of juniors old Christmas compositions from when he still composed guitar stuff rather than techno. I liked it so learned it. It started with Van Halen style tapping I can't do so I start with the notstalgic acoustic bit, followed by the slow rock cynical bit then do my best on his Slash-inspired two-miniute-or-so-long solo - even he had trouble remembering all of it live. I haven't played it for while and having managed to get through it third go without only a couple fluffs and memory struggles thought I'd leave at this:
I do an acoustic verson og Fairy Tale of New York, a good time to remind myself how to play that maybe
hmmm @guitarhero it won't let me message you. Can freeloaders free members not send messages anymore?
I do an acoustic verson og Fairy Tale of New York, a good time to remind myself how to play that maybe
It has to be the original lyrics though!
Quick thank you to Eddiebaby for his super helpful sale and packaging
Brilliant
My new bass arrived today. Can't have it until Christmas though 🙁
The colour is nicer in the flesh.
Bass looks lovely despite missing a string. 😉.
Btw, if anyone doubted the power of STW, my SRV video somehow picked up 20k views today! I only put it up on YT to add it to this thread! I might have tried another take if I'd have known!
Looks lush. I can't stop looking at bass stuff but I can't really justify having more than one yet. I've got no need for pedals or anything yet. I'd love a Squier jazz in that light blue colour they do.
I've got my third lesson tonight. The main difference it's made is that when he gives me something to work on I make sure I've nailed it before the next lesson so I don't look like a muppet. I'm currently playing every day which I've never done before. My fingers now have biceps.
I'm still waiting to get over the hump from clumsy beginner to half decent amateur.
Quick thank you to Eddiebaby for his super helpful sale and packaging
That'll be on my tombstone.
"Bit of a plonker. Knew his way round bubblewrap"
🙂
Enjoy it, and if you do go down the stereo route consider an L2T instead of another L2M as the mixer and reverb make it more useable for guitar/vocal gigs.
Btw, if anyone doubted the power of STW, my SRV video somehow picked up 20k views today! I only put it up on YT to add it to this thread!
Big hitter! Mine got about 20 🙂
(You'd think I'd know how to insert a photo from Instagram...) 🙂
My latest amp project... I took my old 1x8 Epiphone Valve Junior and put it into the empty box from a 1x12 Fender Blues Junior. Needed a bit of boxing in and some re-drilling of the case, but I now have a 5W 1x12 amp ready for blues jams and things... Yay!
Nice recycling of the cab.
Are you going to put a grill over the old control area and sideport it?
just a thought - does anyone need a 12in speaker? I have a spare that came with an amp that I bought ages ago, it's a blackstar one and it's rated 50w and 16ohms. I've no use for it so if anyone needs it you're welcome
I do an acoustic verson og Fairy Tale of New York, a good time to remind myself how to play that maybe
It has to be the original lyrics though!
You scumbag, you maggot
It won't let me bag it.
The updated version where Shane can't get the self service till to work properly
I've been watching loads of guitar stuff on YouTube and came across this chap last night. I love his playing. Nothing fancy but some beautiful sounds 🙂
That’s lovely.
Was looking through some old photos and found this. Me with the blue guitar, playing with my high school band. We hired a club, got another local band involved, put on a gig and sold a bunch of tickets. I think this was 1994 when I was 16.
The guitar was my first ever electric, a Fenix ST20 which was a very good strat copy. Sold it years ago when I was skint.
Under the bass players arm you can see my Roland JC77 amp. One of the original amps. Again I sold it years ago when I was skint. That one really hurts whenever I think about it
I've been after a JC77 for ages!!!! That is one high crash cymbal!
Apologies if this has been covered earlier in the thread, but I'm after a recommendation for my son.
We got him a laptop for his birthday and he wants to start using it to do some recording. He just wants to be able to play his guitar and bass through his laptop and I assume overlay them to create some tracks. It's a windows 10 laptop with 8GB ram.
Can any of you tell me what hardware he will need and also recommend any software?
I've had a quick look on Anderton's website and they have a Focusrite scarlet solo bundle which seems to be the sort of thing he'd need but I have absolutely no idea and don't want to spend the best part of a couple of hundred quid on the wrong thing.
I'm sure someone with more experience will be a long in a minute, but here's my take.
1. He needs a way of connecting the guitar or bass to the computer. I'd check his amplifier first, because some have USB out which he can use without anything else.
If that's not an option then he'll need an audio interface, you can but 1/4" cables that have a usb plug on that are supposed to work, but I'd go a step up.
I've been looking at this - https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FFIGZF6
Or a slightly better spec https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017LVWBKW
Both a similar to the focusrite unit.
2. For software you need a DAW. The audio interfaces will come with a free offering of something, but you can look here - https://www.musictech.net/guides/buyers-guide/the-5-best-freeware-daws/
Or try Audacity.
Many audio interfaces come with a free download of DAW included. I can't remember which came with my focusrite. (Logic?)
After a few weeks of selling stuff on reverb i treated myself to a Free The Tone Tri Avatar TA-1H pedal
https://www.freethetone.com/en/products/detail21/
Masses of swirl
Excellent
Very nice. They do lovely gear, every time I see the Future Factory delay on TPS I want one.
I'm not a major chorus fan as the vibrato that creates the chorusing does my head in and i always end up turning it to minimal effect but in the right hands they can sound pretty great.
@muggomagic yep the Scarlett Solo will be perfect for him. The bundled software is good but is slightly on the heavy side in terms of demand on the computer. Do you know what the spec of the laptop is? Edit, just seen that you posted the spec. Spot on, 8GB RAM is on the low side these days but will be useable for him. What package are you looking at?
I was looking at the scarlett solo studio pack for £179.
There's also the Scarlett 212 studio pack for £229. Is the extra £50 worth spending?
https://www.andertons.co.uk/recording/recording-bundles/focusrite-scarlett-2i2-studio-pack-3rd-generation
I only came across the focusrite stuff as I just searched best home studio for beginner or something and they kept popping up. I have no idea if they're good value.
There is a reason why Focusrite are best sellers. The Behringer won’t hold him back though.
Shame as I just sold a 6month old 2i2 for £80.
Could he not use a microphone into the laptop coupled with some recording software?
I've been trying to teach my fingers to play an open f chord. They really don't like it, an f barre is so much easier for me!
Does he really need the microphone? He'll be able to plug his guitar and bass straight into the focusrite interface without needing to mic up.
Interface on it's own is like what 70 quid? Spend the rest on some budget monitors or a set of sennheiser hd25's
Does he really need the microphone? He’ll be able to plug his guitar and bass straight into the focusrite interface without needing to mic up.
At the moment he doesn't and I had been looking at just getting the unit and headphones but lately he has been talking about buying an acoustic guitar, so thought I maybe it would be worth getting as it's part of the bundle.
The main thing is that the focusrite solo sounds like it's the right thing for him and if the software that is included is good enough for him to get started then that and the headphones are all he really needs for now and also means his Christmas present is sorted.
Thanks for the help.
If his acoustic is an electro acoustic, he'll get better results plugging that direct into the interface too
I much prefer wireless headphones when playing, not bluetooth just wireless so they can be plugged into anything with a jack. HDR 127 on my head at present. The sound quality is nothing to shout about but they're so practical. I can have a backing track running on the phones and walk around the house or down the garden playing my acoustic.
I downloaded both Audacity and Pro Tools First to check them out. While I haven't tried either of them yet (waiting to get my Katana amp set up with its USB out) I noticed that Audacity seems a lot lighter configuration. They both claim 8gb and a Core i5 processor as minimum requirements. Mine is an i3 but I'm unlikely to be doing anything demanding. I couldn't get the volume of the 3.5 input jack to get to a useful level on audacity so maybe I need to look for new drivers.
@muggomagic if you just want an impedance matcher so you can plug the bass or guitar into the audio in of the computer I have the floor unit from a Guitar Rig set up you can have for postage.
There no effects midi or owt in there just an audio buffer for guitar to line in.
Just had a little cry.
My mate Rachel’s last purchase before her death was a secondhand Birdfish.
She’d have loved this.
I think either of those focusrite bundles would be spot on.
@simondbarnes if open F when you fret all the notes of the barre F but don't include the lowest string? So kinda a F/C slash chord really
Oh, and I don't know if its just my ears or YT or something else but your guitar always sounds slightly out of tune to me.
So kinda a F/C slash chord really
This one, but I find it really difficult
Oh, and I don’t know if its just my ears or YT or something else but your guitar always sounds slightly out of tune to me.
It probably is, I'm rubbish at tuning it 🙂
@eddiebaby that's really kind thank you. I have no idea what any of that does, how it works etc, if it would be useful for him then I'd definitely take you up on the offer.
It was much easier when he was just in to Lego 😀
Oh ok, that would make more sense! I add in the extra (lower) C. It feels like a C Maj to my fingers. But then I really struggle with the barre chords so some you win and some you lose.
Do you have a decent tuner? I think your intonation may be off too as it sounded really funky (and not in a good way) when you did the chord up around the 12th. That said it could just be YT messing with things. Either that, or that fact that it is a Jazzmaster so automagically adds in jazz style overtones! 🙂
Would be interested in others view on this as I'm pretty new to guitars myself.
Do you need the F on the top string? I would mute the top string using 1 to make life easy...
If you add the C on string 2 it's still an Fmaj with C in the bass, or if you're getting nerdy it's also Cadd13sus4
eddiebaby that’s really kind thank you.
No problem at all fella.
But just to be precise all this will do is give a level match so he can plug his guitar and bass into his laptop via an audio in port.
There is not fancy electronic trickery, anything will need to come in after that and the sound quality will depend on the analogue/digital converters in his laptop.
I suspect at some point you'll go down a separate audio interface route but this will let you play with a few free DAW trials and decide what you want to do and what you actually need. And then you can take advantage of the New Year Sales.
Send me your address via PM.
If your hands are big enough (and you haven’t dislocated your index finger falling off your mtb in a motel car park in Utah) then you can play a full F chord playing an E shape (like you would for a barre) moving it up a fret, two bottom strings with the index (as per chord diagram) and wrapping the thumb around the e- string on F...
Simples and great when you’ve slung the geetar waaaaay low like wot they did in the 80’s.... 😚
^ quite a good way to damage your tendons though, and a bad habit to start.
Quite a few guys I know are having to quit their bands once the injuries from that kind of thing start acting up too much.
Thumb flat on the back of the neck - HSE says so!
^ quite a good way to damage your tendons though, and a bad habit to start.
I have short, stumpy fingers so no chance of doing that anyway!
Billy Gibbons has been playing with his thumb over the top of the neck for roughly as long as I've been alive. I'm not sure how you'd play Tush or Sharp Dressed Man cleanly without. Thumb over the top holds down the E string and mutes the A, alternate ring on D and G and index on D and G and you have the basis of the riffs.
Grab the neck and you've got an F shape, move it up and you've got every other major chord, every punk knows that. 🙂
Hendrix used to wrap his thumb over the top of the fingerboard like that, and look what happened to him...
Yeah the thumb wrap is awkward at first until you get the hang of it (I use the side of my thumb against the string, not the flat bit). I don’t have biggest hands and prefer barre-ing (barring?) but there are a few Hendrix tunes that were played with thumb wrap and are pretty hard to play without (Little Wing springs to mind).
@simondbarnes I’d put money on everyone being able to get their thumb round. It’s easier standing than sitting. IMO It’s worth experimenting with just to give you more options and to get a (tiny) bit of insight into the mind of Hendrix.
But yeah, the ‘proper’ way (who decides what’s proper?) it to keep your thumb glued to the back of the neck.
I’ve injured myself badly biking and climbing.
That’s why I can’t do the grab F chord as my index tendon got ****ed under the knife during reseat surgery. **** the HSE 😂
Uncle Larry (Tommy Buk) was extolling the thumb technique on his home skoolin videos...
Forgot about Billy G right enough.
But I did qualify by saying ‘if your hands are big enough’...
Are we starting a yearly guitarist thread like the F1 threads?
That would be nice
Also love to see some pedals/boards and/or rigs
I'm in the middle of building a new guitar if anyone is interested in some pics?
Are we starting a yearly guitarist thread like the F1 threads?
It could get a bit unwieldy if it rolls over, so why not?
Anyone want to keep the ‘wisdom’ in one place or happy to see a split?
Yeah I'd never really thought about it much, but I guess the good advice does start to get buried a bit once you've got a thread as long as this one.
I'm happy either way Eddie.
Yes, Sammy.
My refret is waiting for another packet of frets. The 0.6m feeler guage drops into the slots easily and the old frets have a thick tang of around .63 so I ordered some Fender frets with that dimension. When the Fender frets arrived I made a few up but they were loose. My vernier calipers told me they are .51mm, the diagram on the sellers site is wrong. So I've ordered some Dunlops with a .6mm tang and I'm hoping they'll hold without glue.
I've spent a lot of time hunting down reliable tang specs and still haven't found them for some brands, Göldo for example.
Ok, going for a black burst tele with twin P90s and gold hardware:
Now that's what I call solid body. One lump of wood, where did it come from?
Looks interesting ^^^
Is it nitro?
Its the "classic" swamp ash from a guitar wood supplier. Obviously it could be any old rubbish for all I know but it seems to have been stable in the 6 months I've been working on it on and off.
Its stained black with Osmo Polyx Hardwax coating. I really really enjoyed doing the shaping and wood work, but the finishing has been really stressful and painful. The finish is ok, but I'm not doing it for a third time so its now "good enough"!
I think if I do one again I'll send it out for the final clear coating as I just don't think I can do it justice at home with no workshop facilities.
The neck I bought from Crimson guitars in the UK and is beautiful. I had stainless steel frets put on it (which were a pain to level and dress) but hopefully that's the last time I ever need to do that. I've got a pair of Tonerider vintage P90s for it and bling gold HW. 🙂
That's nice! My summer project of a proper nitro, gold base coat Candy Apple Red came undone with the red clear coat on top of the gold. It was (amazingly) too warm when I sprayed the gold, so the propellant evaporated before the paint hit the body, leaving it like sandpaper (after a diligently rubbed smooth grain filled and primered base). I tried a couple of coats of red, hoping it would all melt together, but it just made it worse, so I'm halfway through stripping it back (which does look cool in itself in a distressed kind of way) and I'm probably going for a less ambitious finish...
Did you use rattle cans or "proper" spray equipment? I get the impression that rattle can finishes are a lot harder to get the "dipped in glass" look people want to achieve.
A wee early Xmas present to myself 😁
A special run for Guitar Guitar. Player Series roasted maple neck and US made Custom Shop pickups.
It's absolutely fantastic. The neck is unbelievably smooth. Not usually a fan of maple necks but this might be the nicest I've ever played. The pickups sound gorgeous. No harsh mids, beautifully balanced. Sounds great clean or heavily distorted
Nice guitar, check intonation. I bet the G string is about 15 cents sharp at the 12th fret. If those are the original strings they'll probably all be a bit sharp at the 12th.
It wasn't too bad. High E needed an adjustment. The action is perfect. 1.5mm on the low E at the 12th which is bang on
My bad, that's a two point bridge which sit further back than the vintage bridge so the saddles sit further forwards. I hadn't realised they'd started putting two points on the Mexican Strats, I'm trying to think of a reason to buy an American over that and can't.
That Spider III is the Brootz
Anyway, someone asked about rigs:
Japanese Tokai Les Paul from about 2003. Owned form new. Has a P90 in the neck.
An early 1970s Orange OR120 that my tech says is putting out about 200W on full chat.
Through a Marshall 4x12 bass cab (VBC412).
Second head is a 15W modular head randall MTS in a cab I built for the amp chassis.
Pedaltrain is 3 fuzzes a drive and a tuner, going into a TC Nova System for all modulation/delay/pitch shifting and stereo effects.
Massive overkill for the house but sounds like God on Earth
That’s nice! My summer project of a proper nitro, gold base coat Candy Apple Red came undone with the red clear coat on top of the gold.
I was gonna suggest you check out my thread but I see you already have! I’ll reply on there momentarily.
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/my-lockdown-project-complete-guitar-content/
CAR is hard!