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I'd say depends on how long since you restrung the guitar, recently just replace the high e, ages ago complete restring.
I’d say depends on how long since you restrung the guitar, recently just replace the high e, ages ago complete restring.
Cheers. Was a year or so ago.
I've started using the D'Addario XT coated strings. Three months of heavy usage and they feel as good as when I fitted them. They were recommended by mate who is a heavy sweater who said they lasted twice as long as his previous strings.
My latest creation 🙂 My take on an Esquire.
Maple Tele-style body.
Single Hot-rail Humbucker in the bridge position (debating whether to coil split it, probably will)
Kill-switch (for some Tom Morello fun)
Hipshot through body bridge.
2x4 headstock + locking tuners.
Belly/comfort carve.
Cut away heel for better high fret access.
Laser cut acrylic scratch-plate.
Haven't put the finish on the body or logo on the headstock yet, but otherwise it's pretty much done.
That looks epic!
Really like the headstock.
I’ve seen a couple of faux Esquires of late with a neck pu under the scratch plate. Just an idea for next time. 👍🏼😁
That looks cool. I really want a guitar with a kill switch. I've been playing about with the Jazzmaster switch - which can act as a kill switch but doesn't really feel robust enough for regular / aggressive use.
I've been lusting after one of these recently - a Troy van Leeuwen signature JM. It's got a proper toggle switch for the top circuit so he can do killswitch stuff. Plus, it looks great in that colour with block inlays.
I have been enjoying the new Helix SW release this week, some really nice reverbs and a some nice new amps. The synth sounds are also quite interesting.
I have been mainly recording a cover of Lil Devil by the Cult at I wanted to learn the Solo so I ended up recording all of it with a bass etc. I used the Bandok amp for that 🙂
Love it 🙂
That looks epic!
Really like the headstock.
I’ve seen a couple of faux Esquires of late with a neck pu under the scratch plate. Just an idea for next time. 👍🏼😁
Cheers 😁
Headstock design was for two reasons...
1) I fancied a modern reverse headstock design.
2) I happened to have 2 x rh and 4 x lh tuners left over from a previous project.
Does look cool though!
I like the idea of a hidden beck PU. Wouldn't it be a bit far from the strings though?
Yeah, but you could hide a big bastard humbucker under there and freak folk out.
Spent a few hours in Andertons playing Custom Shop Strats and Teles. Only went to pick up some IEMs and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 but it seemed rude to just rush out some stunners in there.
just catching up on reading stuff - is the summary of the air guitar video basically that the wood and constructions makes no difference, it's all on p'ups and where / how far they are from the strings?
Can't be......
just catching up on reading stuff – is the summary of the air guitar video basically that the wood and constructions makes no difference, it’s all on p’ups and where / how far they are from the strings?
Pretty much.
Doesn't surprise me, I've got a travel guitar with a CNCed aluminium body and fold out wings (ALP AD-80) and it sounds great, no wood in sight!
I know Gibson had a disastrous attempt at onboard effects with the awful looking Firebird X but I'm surprised more manufacturers haven't introduced electronics into the guitar itself. This new GT RS is at least nice looking. Not the kind of thing I'd use, but it'll be interesting to see if more onboard tech starts to appear
And here's a reminder of how bad the Firebird X looked 😆
Not sure about onboard effects. What happens when you want a different delay or chorus or overdrive?
I’m not against onboard electrics, I have a Variax and my new Strat currently has EMG noiseless active pickups with the mid range boost and the SPC controls. I’d happily go back to the standard pickups and when my extra pick guard turns up I’ll be swapping between the pickups as needed.
But onboard effects just seem a bit of a step back.
What happens when you want a different delay or chorus or overdrive?
There's a footpedal available by the looks of it but essentially it would be limited to a finite amount of presets. It's a handy practice tool and of interest to beginners but can't see experienced players using it (in its current format)
It’s a handy practice tool
I'd agree with that. I use Wazza Air headphones as you just plug the wireless plug into the guitar and put the headphones on. 6 presets at any time plus a app for editing or adding new presets. And I can use it with any guitar.
It's finished 😎
3 coats of Osmo Polyx-oil.
Fitted a normal 500k volume pot for now, but might coil tap it at some point.
Kill switch is fun!
Had to file and dress a few frees, but nothing major, and managed to get a nice action in it.
Intonation is spot on.
Had a terrible buzz on first play. Scratched my head for a bit, and then realised I'd not put in a ground wire from the pot to the bridge. Doh!
Had to fully disassemble it, and drill a hole from bridge to PU cavity. No buzz now though 😊
Real purdy! I'd buy one.
Real purdy! I’d buy one.
Cool, first customer 😁
I'd defo be up for making and selling a few guitars. Not sure I'd want to do it full time though.
Not even sure how much would one charge for something like this?
Good looking guitar. My self-build Tele probably cost as much in parts alone as an average Squier, then adding in labour you get into Fender Player territory. Objectively it's probably not as good as some £150 Harley Benton but boy, I love playing it, tinkering with it and looking at it. My playing hours have definitely increased since I made it.
This is the 3rd guitar I've built - varying degrees of built from scratch though.
Not quite had the courage to do my own neck yet!.
Just costed this out and it was about £160 in wood and parts. Probably 6-7 hours time spent.
The neck was my favourite bit. Amazing what you can achieve with a rasp and sandpaper. And Hawkeye supervision from a master luthier.
And of course (with a bolt on neck) if it doesn't work out you can make another, buy one, or go back to your original without spoiling anything or it costing too much.
Of course bolt on necks aren’t all great. Here’s the neck pocket and heel of my new Vintera 50s road worn Strat when I popped the neck off to adjust the truss rod.
😳
It went straight back to Andertons.
Yikes! I guess that's one of the areas that's easy to miss a QC check as no one will be taking necks off in the factory to check them.
dumb new guitarist question, what's the problem? Badly drilled holes / too many holes I assume, but it's only an assumption?
The four outermost holes on the body are ok. The inner holes are where they screwed on a temporary neck when they painted the body
The neck on the other hand is horror show. They've made an arse of screwing the neck on and you can see they've made 2 holes close together on the right hand side of the neck pick. That's going to cause a lot of neck movement
On a new £1000 guitar finding multiple neckscrew holes that are petty close to overlapping shows a high degree of carelessness.
As for the multiple holes in the neck pocket that is pretty inexcusable. Maybe an extra one for hanging for painting but no more...
I wonder if anyone can help me with maybe some tips or resources to help me?
I've been learning guitar for about 18months now, I've a yamaha pacifica guitar and a Spark amp. and I've been working my way through the justin guitar book as well as picking up a few additional songs as I go along too, I'm now on the second book, but I still don't know any complete songs, I tend to pick a song learn the interesting bits till I'm happy with them move on, but if you asked me to play any single sone start to finish I couldnt. I really dislike the sound of my own voice and am too embarassed to sing even when it's just my wife in the house, so I haven't doen any sinigng at all. So simple 4 chord repeating songs are just very boring (to play and listen too).
I've been practicing techniques, fingerstyle, barre chords scales etc as well as picking up songs that use them but I'm wondering where I'm going, it's fun to find a song learn the bit that's interesting and get it right but it feels kind of empty if someone says 'play something' and I haven't really got anything.
So at the moment a practice session is probably a bit of chord change practice, major scale practice, and maybe power chords, barre chords and some fingerstyle. Then having a go at whatever songs are on my list of ones I want to learn. Currently :-
Lenny Kravitz - Fly away (with barre chords)
Plain White T's - Hey there delilah (fingerstyle)
James Bay - Hold Back the river (fingerstyle)
Tracey Chapman - Fast car (fingerstyle)
Death Cab for Cutie - I will follow you into the Dark (barre chords and muting)
So I kind of feel I've put a lot of effort in to learning and I'm happy with the progress I've made, but there's this horrible nagging feeling that it was a waste of time, It's going nowhere and I'm a crap guitarist as I can't even play one song after all this time.
So I kind of feel I’ve put a lot of effort in to learning and I’m happy with the progress I’ve made, but there’s this horrible nagging feeling that it was a waste of time, It’s going nowhere and I’m a crap guitarist as I can’t even play one song after all this time.
Are you enjoying it? I've had a guitar for 30ish years and all I can do is play bits of songs but I enjoy it so definitely not a waste of time.
May I suggest Hotel California and American Pie for your repetoire, most people are happy to sing along to save embarassment 🙂
Also nice to grab 1 current pop song a month or so? tutorials galore on the tube and keeps things fresh, plus the majority are really basic chordwise.
some blues or rockish backing tracks and just improvising with a few licks n riffs is fun and sets you free.
and yes as long as you are having fun who cares!
Find someone else to play with makes a big difference. Go to a local jam night and meet other guitarists, don't have to take a guitar, just start chatting and ask for advice.
I've found them to be great places to meet like minded folk.
All I can do is play simple chords and keep in time, which is pretty much all I ever wanted to do.
You'd be surprised how many people can't actually do that.
I've never wanted to play lead, it doesn't really interest me.
Making a noise and playing along with family and friends makes me happy. 🙂
I'm 52, never played an instrument of any kind but love music and have a keen ear for indie, classical, blues and rock.
If I go into my local music shop and buy a Korean made 1997 Les Paul Junior tomorrow......will I regret it?
Not likely to lose much money, so why not especially if you buy stuff secondhand. There is a lot of stuff out there and it is a great time to be a guitarist.
If I go into my local music shop and buy a Korean made 1997 Les Paul Junior tomorrow……will I regret it?
No, I'm sure it will be lovely and you'll have great fun with it.
If you do stick with it, you may wish you'd gone for something a little more versatile to start with?
But then again, you won't have the excuse to buy another one in 12 months time 🙂
Eddiebaby is dead right about finding a pub that has a bunch of guitarists strumming away and taking turns murdering a good song. There's nothing more mortifying than letting your wife hearing how you've been wasting all this time and money.
Oh, and that Korean Les Paul. Don't touch it with a bargepole. Where is this shop precisely?
There’s one (97 epi LP Jr) on Reverb for £189 + shipping...
try a few guitars while in the shop, see what is comfortable.
a stratocaster or a copy are good all rounders, they are popular for a reason!
avoid cheapo whammy guitars, rarely stay in tune... which is pretty important 😉
The other way to learn whole songs is to record them.
Use something like Garageband or I am sure there are some free DAW's for PC's too. Add some drums and a bass line etc.
I started doing it just to give me something to play along with, now I love it and see it as a big part of playing for me. I love recording stuff and I have even written some of my own stuff for fun.
"There’s one (97 epi LP Jr) on Reverb for £189 + shipping"
Not anymore.
Tis a lovely thing and its in my office right now - even better I got a discount for cash and a free stand and starter pack with loads of goodies in it.
Can fully recommend Musical Money in Newhaven - great guy to deal with.
Now how much of my life is this going to steal?
Now how much of my life is this going to steal?
All the bits not currently consumed by cycling.
My best advice now, is to find some good lesson resources on youtube. It all depends on what you want to play and who you like to listen to but these two guys offer great lessons for free and I think are really clear without getting bogged down in too much theory.
Not anymore.
I did think it was a bit too much of a coincidence...
I posted so that at least there was an approx comparison if not,
Price isn’t too much damage if you don’t get on with it (low risk). You got to dip your toe in the water somewhere at some point.
How much time will it steal? What, learning to play it or buying more gear 😀
Learning to play will be limited initially by your ability to build callouses on your fingertips and your personal pain threshold. Building up muscle memory, ability to change between chord shapes, etc., takes time and practice. Don’t they say it’s 10,000 hours to be decent at something...
Best thing you can do is play with real people.
I've learnt so much over the years just by watching and trying to keep up.
IME guitarists are always happy to help and play with anyone of any ability.
If you practice on your own make sure it's targeted. Just noodling around doesn't tend to progress your playing.
Don’t they say it’s 10,000 hours to be decent at something…
Yes, but 10,000 hours just playing pentatonic scales will only mean you're really good at Pentatonic scales. Variety is key.
I’ve been learning guitar for about 18months now, ....... but I still don’t know any complete song
I've owned guitars since before I was a teenager - I'm 53 - but dipped in and out at various times, never kept at it continuously. I'd probably describe myself as a competent backing guitarist. I had barely played since my kids were born, maybe 15 years, but I picked the guitar up again at the beginning of lockdown like lots of people, and have since bought three, sold an old one, and need to get rid of the first of my 'new' ones. (Compared to bikes they are very cheap!) When I restarted, I took advantage of the 'free with the guitar' Fender lessons, and quickly whizzed through them, as well as a load of Justinguitar lessons until I found my level - roughly intermediate. This is because I learned the basics years ago, and haven't forgotten them. I know very few complete songs. I don't need to because there are 1000s on apps on my phone. For me, there is no point in memorising any because they are always in my pocket.
So I kind of feel I’ve put a lot of effort in to learning and I’m happy with the progress I’ve made, but there’s this horrible nagging feeling that it was a waste of time, It’s going nowhere and I’m a crap guitarist as I can’t even play one song after all this time.
It won't be a waste of time because at some point, you'll realise that you can play loads of songs, because you've got the basics covered and the majority of songs are formed from basic stuff. Then, you'll start thinking about improving on how you play them, and start working on songs with weird chord shapes or changes, or whatever.
The big thing that made a difference to me - having a cheap, little 'sofa' guitar that I can happily leave around the house or travel with, meaning that whenever I'm bored I can just play for a few minutes without needing to get set up for a proper practice session. This often means that I'll start noodling around, then pick up on whatever I'm working on, and suddenly I've lost an hour. (Currently working on blues slide, also a book of Celtic tunes in Open D, also a book of alternative fingerstyle techniques.) But equally sometimes it's just a few minutes noodling while the kettle boils. It's all practice.
The huge change since I started learning is the internet and the amount of resource that it provides. Whether it's an hour just learning a simple bluegrass riff, like I did on the weekend, or ogling over new guitars, this just wasn't there 40 years ago. Can you imagine how boring it was learning to play back then, with a handful of books, no audio files, no video clips, just you in your bedroon. I guess my point here is don't get too diverted, but don't bore yourself trying to play the same stuff over and over again. There's tons of stuff out there.
Don't give up - it's hugely rewarding, and such a massive area that when you get the basics covered things will start opening up for you quickly and you'll have the conundrum of not having enough time to learn what you want to learn. I'm determined to learn some classical stuff soon - new guitar needed obviously - and maybe some gypsy jazz, and definitely need a resonator, and am also in the weird position of never having owned an electric guitar so know little about amps and pedals etc. That's my MLC just there - forget sports cars, it's going to be Strats and Gretsch Electromatics. 😀
Sorry for the very long post and keep going!