I've tried cutaways. Problem is I use quite heavy wound strings and light steel strings with a steel G so intonation is so far out by the time I'm using the cutaway it sounds crap. I've learned to find alterantive ways of playing some songs and given up on things that use the high e beyond 16
Thanks folks - some ideas! Appreciated. .(And no one buy that Faith...🤔)
I think you need to let him choose his muse… it’s a very personal choice.
personally I have quite an open affair with mine….
Yamaha electro-aucoustics are certainly vfm.
As others have said, go to your local music shop or guitar fair and get some advice.
Do they still do Music Live Show at the NEC?
I plan to continue learning guitar this coming winter following a break for a few years I'm still a beginner having previously followed the Justin Guitar course reaching Beginner Grade 2 before work/life got in the way. I plan to continue with Justin Guitar, probably repeating some sections, but are there any apps, tools etc that I may have missed that fellow beginners have found particularly beneficial? Dare I ask whether AI has found its way the guitar learning world yet and if so, in what way?
Many thanks.
Yamaha electro-aucoustics are certainly vfm.
Bought one for myself a year or so ago (APX/cpx I forget) really solid tuning, easy to play and makes a nice noise and is absolutely all the guitar I want .
But I think he wants something more, er, characterful without being quirky, and would like me to do the work as in getting the lad a present not telling him to go round guitar shops like he did in his early teens. Now, 15 years later he's the proper.musician (albeit one clearly a lot less interested in/knowledgeable about actual instruments than most people on this thread) and his being in Edinb complicates things a bit. Anyway I just meant to say thanks for the ideas...
I think it sounds like only he can make the decision. If you're looking for a forever guitar, it's going to be such a personal choice. I'd head up there for the day with a wodge of cash and spend the whole day trying every guitar that appeals in all of the shops*. A good shop won't begrudge that. And then he'll get the guitar he deserves.
* My wife has done exactly the same to me, trying to find the perfect pair of boots... 🤣
If I were buying a proper musician an instrument and only had a budget of £500 I'd fail and spend more or hand over the cash. The most expensive acoustic I've got is an all solid Yamaha LL16 dreadnought, that's about the cheapest guitar I'd put in a proper musicians hands as a present. However if you look at my vid on the previous page you'll note that when I want a guitar that's easy to play I pick up the old Sigma Martin rather than the Yamaha.
I'd fail and spend more or hand over the cash
All of which options are very much on the table, bar that of me spending more 😁
Dare I ask whether AI has found its way the guitar learning world yet and if so, in what way?
I was noodling around with a basic Em, Bm, Am fingerstyle progression, adding in riffs, moving the shapes up and down the fretboard, etc, and was quite pleased with how it sounded, but with only the three chords started getting fairly bored and looking for a way to extend it. Lazily, I thought let's use some basic AI to find something REALLY good.
The reply I got was something like 'this is a basic I, V, VI progression..' Obviously computers don't have fingers to count their chords on, like wot I do, but this was a fail in the first sentence.
I don't hold any faith in the LLMs being able to build a learning plan because it's not a single route or single destination ..... I would say keep doing the Justin lessons and supplement them with stuff like using youtube playalong streams, get yourself a looper pedal, just put the radio on and try and play along, find simple solos to learn (Something by the beatles, Chasing Rainbows by ShedSeven, all the oasis solos...)
My girlfriend of the day taught me this 45 years ago:
Hammy Hamster would approve 🐹
Found this neat little nerd tool yesterday
It lets you compare the tone profiles of drive pedals. Absolutely nerd territory, but interesting!
A physical teacher is worth thier weight in gold - they can taylor stuff to your interest whilst also sneaking in a bit of theory, learning scales, and how to improvise using scales, etc.
I have tickets to see Joe Bonamassa in three weeks. I've seen him once before and really enjoyed the show, though I'm not a massive fan of his own tunes. I'm going with our music-loving, retired friends who are big fans. We ended up going for the massively expensive tickets (€150!) up the front once we saw how big the venue was (think Wembley Arena size). That's at least twice, maybe three times, what I've ever paid for a gig. I'll be on soup for the rest of the year. I'm sure it'll be good, though. And I guess he needs to pay for all his '59 Les Pauls, poor lad.
Why have I never heard of Justin Hawkins Rides Again? Thanks to Rick Beato I have now subscribed to the best You Tube channel for some time.
I saw Joe B at the Cornbury Festival in 2008! Barely knew who he was back then, he was middle of the bill on the main stage. Eric Bibb and Half Man Half Biscuit also played that year (on the smaller stage). For a vague cycling connection, Nigel of HMHB opened the set with the words "Andy Schlek, outside bet".
Also saw Joe B at Southampton Guildhall, when tickets were cheaper and his venues were much smaller. I mainly remember his punctuality, he came on stage on the dot of 8pm.
JHRA is a good channel, can get a bit repetitive sometimes but at least JH has opinions that he's not afraid to share. And he's introduced me to some great new music - Ren, Electric Callboy, Sleep Token, Ghost.
This time last year I bought a Squire Jaguar. It was looked cool, but I never really got on with it. It wouldn't stay in tune, frets were rough, it buzzed, the pickups didn't feel very balanced. I just didn't like it and couldn't set it up how I wanted.
Anyway, as we seem to operate a strict 1-in-1-out policy, I chopped it in and got something I probably should have had years ago.
Fender Player Tele, in the correct colour. Essentially unremarkable, but lovely.
Came with a Seymour Duncan mini-humbucker, which kind of defeats the point, but I'm enjoying it. It plays beautifully, and I actually want to play it, rather than thinking it looks cool. Neck feels fast and got some nice light strings for stupid twangy bendys.
You're right, that is the correct colour...
I've still never had a proper '52-style Tele, (I've got Cabronitas, and had a double-bound '60s-style Japanese one, oh and another Cabronita, oh and a tweed fabric-covered one with a Tom Anderson neck... but never a proper one).
Although the trouble I have is that I've played a 'real' one and have been kind of spoilt...
This time last year I bought a Squire Jaguar. It was looked cool, but I never really got on with it. It wouldn't stay in tune, frets were rough, it buzzed, the pickups didn't feel very balanced. I just didn't like it and couldn't set it up how I wanted.
Anyway, as we seem to operate a strict 1-in-1-out policy, I chopped it in and got something I probably should have had years ago.
Fender Player Tele, in the correct colour. Essentially unremarkable, but lovely.
Came with a Seymour Duncan mini-humbucker, which kind of defeats the point, but I'm enjoying it. It plays beautifully, and I actually want to play it, rather than thinking it looks cool. Neck feels fast and got some nice light strings for stupid twangy bendys.
I really like that, I'd love a tele of some sort but I'm more about the acoustic theses days.
After going to see Gwenifer Raymond on Wednesday I dug my old acoustic guitar out of the cupboard. I haven't played it for about 15 years, mostly playing my (Mexican) Telecaster in that time. I've also had years when I haven't played any guitar!
My acoustic is a Tanglewood Indiana TFCA-E. It's a dreadnought size, steel strung. Obviously it needs new strings, and probably new bridge pins.
I bought the guitar in 1996 or 97 for, if I remember correctly, £180. It has a pickup and EQ in it. The label inside declares "Hand Crafted Guitar".
My real question is whether a modern £500 to £1000 acoustic dreadnought is likely to be better, or worse, than this one? I've been reading (with horror!) that some guitars now use laminate, and are not "hand crafted". I assume this mostly means the pieces are laser cut, rather than cut on a jig.
TLDR: Are old cheap (ish) guitars better than modern mid range guitars?
I'll have these for sale soon
Faith mercury scoop (parlour) usual playing west £400
Squire thinline Tele with Duncan HBs few knocks from playing and time £150
Tokai breezy sound blonde Tele £100
Just incase anyone wants dibs before I advertise/ebay properly
Hi Nerd.
My opinion is that a guitar is like a Harry Potter wand. You don't choose the guitar, the guitar chooses you.
About 28 years ago I bought a 2nd hand Norman dreadnought for £200. I had it set up nicely by a local luthier for £60. I still play it and when I go to a Jam night down the local pub it occasionally gets compliments (for its sound, not my playing) and the best guitarist I know has had a go on it and nodded in approval at its playability.
I play with a mate (my riding buddy) who has a few nice guitars. And we tend to swap them around. His Taylor 914ce is quite nice (probably a £3000 guitar) His little Taylor Koa (£3000) is a pretty little thing with a "different" sound but his Martin D45 (£10,000 plus) leaves me cold. It doesn't do anything in my hands, but it sounds nice when he bangs out the chords on it. I always go back to my trusty Norman.
At home I alternate between that, my Yamaha NXT hybrid nylon, my Harley Benton PRS P90 rip-off and my self made Tele (which is (technically) the best and most expensive of the lot) and they all have a place. But if I had to rescue one from a fire, or I had the pick of my mate's) it would be the £200 Norman.
Some guitars have it, and the sticker on the headstock should be ignored. I've watched a YouTube video where a Fender Custom Shop master builder is taken round a guitar shop and has to choose his favourite out of a wall of Squiers. He picks out one he loves - and says he likes it because it feels like the Squier he plays and gigs with himself at home.
Could be interested in the Faith...
@BigJohn. Thanks for the pep talk! I think I'll get some new pins and strings, give it a good clean and oil and just play it.
I'm still curious as to whether acoustic guitar quality has gone down in the intervening years.
For example, is the high pressure laminate (HPL) that Martin use on their "budget" guitars any worse than a piece of wood?
I have an ‘Aspen’ acoustic that I’ve had since I was 19. It has a thin plywood top and (still) sounds great, prompting a Martin-owning friend to say it sounded better than his.
I reckon new strings make as much difference… 😊
I've watched a YouTube video where a Fender Custom Shop master builder is taken round a guitar shop and has to choose his favourite out of a wall of Squiers. He picks out one he loves - and says he likes it because it feels like the Squier he plays and gigs with himself at home.
I suspect his Squier may have been fettled
It may not have needed fettling. I've filed the nut on every electric I own, except a Squire Classic vibe Tele from 2012.
I've watched a YouTube video where a Fender Custom Shop master builder is taken round a guitar shop and has to choose his favourite out of a wall of Squiers. He picks out one he loves - and says he likes it because it feels like the Squier he plays and gigs with himself at home.
My friend Alex works at Fender's R&D lab at the Custom Shop. His home guitar is remarkably normal...
What delivery service do you guys use for posting guitars? Got a bass to sell, but reckon I’ll have an easier sale if I stick it on Reverb or eBay than the small area I live. Who’s reliable at not smashing them?
The ones I haven’t bought from a local shop have came DHL.
learning bass at the mo but after seeing a few lessons on 'justinguitar' i thought id also be interested in seeing how far i could get with 6 string. i chose bass initially because i thought no way could i remember chords and finger placements etc.
ive just borrowed my mates acoustic to have a practice on and wow.... i was right!! i dont have fat fingers by any means, but how on earth do you fit 3 fingers across 3 strings at unnatural angles, and also without muting other strings??
i'll persevere with it but im surprised at how difficult i find playing the chords (just A, D and E at the moment)
how on earth do you fit 3 fingers across 3 strings at unnatural angles,
I'm xxl in gloves and have fat fingers. All I can say is that it gets more natural. Django Reinhardt managed with two, most of us use four and I add in a thumb for the boom chick stuff I try to play these days. Though actually my fingers struggle to scrunch up for a classic A (ha, which I typed as S proving my point) and I'll tend to just bar and mute the top string come to think of it. (Past a point muting strings is a handy thing I could get better at doing.)
A friend started playing in his 50s (covid) and has got pretty good just sticking with it and can pretty much play all the stuff he wants to, but complains that finger flexibility is something he's had to work at... Not really a thing for those of us who learnt however shitly when young.
how on earth do you fit 3 fingers across 3 strings at unnatural angles, and also without muting other strings??
Practice! Lots of it. Lessons from a guitar teacher helped me keep practicing. Starting with simple stuff and working up.
Having something I wanted to play helped me to keep up practicing.
I haven't played much since my daughter was born two years ago. When I practice now it takes ages to get back up to the fiddly twiddly bits.
Joining a band, playing with mates massively improves me as I don't want to look like I can't play "it" so practice the bits I can't play rather than playing the same songs that I can and helps improve my playing no end
A = a one finger bar as Johnx 2 says with the ring finger to shuffle on G4 (play higher Five strings). D = index bar on e2 B2 G2 and ring finger on B3 with the pinky to shuffle on G4 ( play higher 4 strings). E is index bar on A2 D2 with ring finger to shuffle on A4 (play lower three strings. Mute the E sting with the thumb when playing A and use your thumb on E2 for an AC/DC sounding D.
Now you can play the blues and many of Slade's early songs. Add a two fing finger G and you can play AC DC.
Sound's gone strange on my phone but here's the previous post in music:
A = a one finger bar as Johnx 2 says with the ring finger to shuffle on G4 (play higher Five strings). D = index bar on e2 B2 G2 and ring finger on B3 with the pinky to shuffle on G4 ( play higher 4 strings). E is index bar on A2 D2 with ring finger to shuffle on A4 (play lower three strings. Mute the E sting with the thumb when playing A and use your thumb on E2 for an AC/DC sounding D.
so these shapes given in the justinguitar course arent the most 'ergonomic' then?
i'll have a play with your alternative when i get a few minutes.
thank you
Justin seems to be in a minority of one with regard to the A shape there.
Most people I play with use a 3 finger A shape (3 in a line) but for a Bb or B just Barre the thinnest strings with the ring or middle finger and try not to hit the thin e (or if flexible bend it up and have the index finger fret the e 2 frets up.
so these shapes given in the justinguitar course arent the most 'ergonomic' then?
They're how I learned in the '70s and how you should too I'd say. And I do still play all three like that sometimes - I was just acknowledging that it's potentially tricky for older hands. (And that v little of my playing involves playing all the strings on a chord.)
I've played a few tunes with A and found that when I want to hear the high e string I use pinky B2, ring G2 and major D2. That gets around having fingers that are too fat to play index, major, ring in a straight line. I never play it like Justin and have never played with anyone who does. When I want a full E chord I use pinky, ring and major in the same shape as Justin. That means the shape can be slid up and down with or without a barre. As in this song which junior wrote and I recorded so it wouldn't be forgotten. He played it a hell of a lot better than me.
As a general rule I try to find ways to play chords with shape that are easy to hold and make for fast changes to other chords. Pinky and index together in the same position for A, G, E, Em, Am, Cadd9, Dsuus4 and other less common ones.
I've not played A with three fingers for 40 years - if you need more than one finger for A, it's not rock and roll! 😀
@Edukator, nice axework, thanks
I've played a few tunes with A and found that when I want to hear the high e string I use pinky B2, ring G2 and major D2. That gets around having fingers that are too fat to play index, major, ring in a straight line.
I've not played A with three fingers for 40 years - if you need more than one finger for A, it's not rock and roll!
just had a try and i get on fine with Edukators pinky, ring and middle (major) across the 3 strings, but also index, middle, ring too which actually felt more natural. i think the idea of justins method is for the fingers to be able to tuck in and get nearer the fret, but actually even tho my index was high up, it still rang fine.
@chipps, i assume a barre chord then if one finger? i just tried pressing down D, G, B with one finger without muting the e and no chance. how do you do it??? 😀
oh and.....
Pinky and index together in the same position for A, G, E, Em, Am, Cadd9, Dsuus4 and other less common ones.
er....... not a scooby 🙂 im nowhere near that level of music knowledge, struggling on A, D and E enough as it is 🙂
but for a Bb or B just Barre the thinnest strings with the ring or middle finger and try not to hit the thin e (or if flexible bend it up and have the index finger fret the e 2 frets up.
i dont know these chords yet, i'll try and get the basics first 🙂
thank you
Isn't the answer tune your low E to drop D and then play everything as powerchords? 😀
i just tried pressing down D, G, B with one finger without muting the e and no chance. how do you do it??? 😀
I don't worry about muting the e - no-one's listening to that note anyway, unless you're playing something that relies on that - which for 99% of rock/blues/pop won't be the case. For proper note economy, watch someone like Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top - he only plays a couple of notes per chord sometimes...
I can play an A with 3 fingers - middle, ring and pinky in a line - on my Telecaster, but struggled on a Mustang.
I have short yet fat fingers (sausages as my daughters call them!). The Tele has a scale length of 25.5 inch, and the Mustang 24 inch, so the distance between the frets is smaller on the Mustang, and I struggle to fit 3 of my fat fingers between the 1st and 2nd fret.
You can do the 3 finger A by putting the ring in the middle and the index and bird either side crushed up,like a first position D
If you are doing barre chords and need the top string to sound, you can use index and little finger to get the angle to clear it
I'd been thinking about getting a Tele-type guitar for a while, then decided I would try building a kit guitar. Really pleased with how it has progressed so far. Need to spend some time on setting it up properly.
If it plays as well as it looks you've got a winner 🏆
What's the thoughts on buying a guitar online?
I'm going to treat myself to a proper les paul for my 50th next year and my local guitar shop has closed down. It'll be a 60s in unburst. Obviously being a bit of wood they all look slightly different. I'm more bothered about the finish and tone. And specifically being sent a Friday afternoon special.
That said, I'm a bit crap so I may not really notice much difference.
I've bought 2 PRS SEs online, but both less that £600. If I was paying Les Paul money I'd want the buying to be an experience, so I'd travel to somewhere that had a decent selection.
Can you get to London? Gibson Garage is a nice place to visit.
Have you ever played one ? Quite apart from Gibson quality control/production variations they're a bit Marmite. The ones I've played were a faff to tune so they wouldn't go out of tune as soon I bent the G- string. They're weighty and the necks are a bit fat compared with say modern Fenders. If there's a guitar to try and buy the one you try if you like it it's a Les Paul. However the Epiphone copies with the straighter head angle are nice to play and the recent ones sound the part too. I'd buy an Epi and some Duncan pickups.
I'd agree about playing one in person. If you're spending decent cash, you might as well make a day of it, try as many as you can (and some rivals too...) and making the guitar shop work for it a little.
And as Edukator says, they're all a bit weighty too - I've owned a couple of Les Pauls (a Studio and an LPJ (not a Junior)) and apart from trying my best Whitesnake/Jimmy Page impression now and again, I rarely picked them up compared to lighter, simpler guitars I had...
I bought my Gibson Les Paul Standard 60s plaintop online - but i did go into GuitarGuitar to try a selection. But they didnt have the one i wanted to buy to play/try. So after playing what they did have, came home and i bought the one i wanted, with the freedom i could return it if i didnt like it. So wasnt much of a risk.....
For Gibson money I'd buy a really nice PRS 😉
Far more playable, much better QC, and generally all round nicer guitars.
Get a single cut, and it even looks and plays (a bit) like a (much better made) Les Paul 😆
If it's a Gibson you are after though, I think they definitely have their own vibe. An epiphone or PRS wouldn't suffice for me.
I would deffo play a load before choosing though - the neck carves can be quite different between models, despite often being described as the same thing (50s, 60s, c-shape etc)
They also don't have be heavy - my LP Standard is 8.2lb. My ES-345 is 7.2lb.
I've played a good few les Paul's back in the day, and currently own an epiphone les paul, a 355, and a fender strat. All the les Paul's I've played felt fairly similar tbh, and I've played a mix, from customs, standards, studios and epiphones made in about 3 different decades.
If I'm brutally honest I'm probably not good enough to tell the difference between a good one and a poor one. However I played guitar when I was younger and always lusted after a les paul, but coukd never dream of affording one. So this is a lavish treat for a milestone birthday, and probably something that will spend much of its time as wall art..and whilst I appreciate there are better guitars for much less cash, I'm set on a gibson
Don't have option to get down south to the store with the one I want, and don't particularly want to test drive them in a store I have zero intention of buying from.