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The Fender Squier package would be very nice for someone that isn’t going to let it just gather dust.
Thoroughbred kit at a decent price.
Yamaha Pacifica every time
The nicer the guitar the more chance you have of surviving the 'oh this is hard work' bit
'Thoroughbred kit at a decent price' not at all
I bought an Affinity Strat a few years ago as it was cheap and I wanted to mess around with pickups and wiring on it. Turned out to be a fantastic guitar out of the box.
Mike Rutherford of that Genesis has got into Squier Strats too... https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/high-flying-mike-rutherford-loves-rock-bottom-squier-bullet-stratocasters
I bought and modded a Squire Bullet Mustang a few months ago, very good base guitar.
I was impressed tbh. Frets, neck, body, pickups all excellent.
Hardware was a little cheap, but definitely playable as is.
I've learned some 7th chords so am trying to put them to use in a song. This one sounded easy enough but is proving tricky!
https://youtube.com/shorts/X1iqVnO-WBU?feature=share
The lessons are paying off Simon.
Thanks for the feedback ^^, appreciated.
Cheers Eddie
@Kryton57 - make sure it's one he actually wants. The best guitar in the world will be no good if it's the wrong colour / shape.
I hope this link is helpful to some if not all. There's a whole bunch of jam tracks on Youtube but I really like this guy's format where he puts up all of the scale positions for the track across the whole neck ( after about 1:30 in this one). Great for switching between the scales and discovering the different modal tones. I find it really helpful even after 40 years of playing. Enjoy jamming folks......
It's a great source of backing tracks. I've subscribed to him for a couple of years.
Between him and Sped Spedding I'm pretty much sorted.
Winter weather = more guitar playing so entertaining myself learning new stuff…..
Possibly the most understated lead part j mascis ever committed to tape &( huge fuzz sounds from the excellent soundlad Hungry Beaver fuzz )
And some easy killers play along so my band can cover it at upcoming gigs…,
Nice Jag & Jazzmaster 🙂
Well, I don't know if anyone remembers that "musicians classifieds" that someone posted a link to a few pages back?
I've been browsing the Greater Manchester one on and off and am now off for a try out with an actual honest-to-God band on Tuesday.
I'm very excited and slightly nervous 🤣 but more pressingly the band plays in drop Bb. Tuning my Squier Strat with 11-50 strings to drop Bb unsurprisingly results in string tension reminiscent of rubber bands and fret buzz like the death rattle of some doomed robot. Which is maybe the point.
So I have some chunkier strings on the way, and can probably fettle with the truss rod etc to set it up better, but aside from that does anyone have any insights into guitar setup for playing tuned this low?
Having lost my guitar playing mojo, there always seems to be something else to do instead of practice and lack of progress is demotivating me does anyone have a way of motivating themselves to play when you get like this?
@rOcKeTdOg personally I've had times when I've played a lot, and other times where I barely play at all. It doesn't especially bother me, although I'm long past the point where I think I'll always be a guitarist, so no real worries about coming back to it later.
That said, I find the following help me play more:
* Recording. If you have to capture a good take you play a lot by default and sharpen up a lot.
* Play with (new) people. Tends to be inspirational and generally fun.
* New bits of kit (pedals, etc). Happy hours noodling through settings and variations.
Drop Bb blimey….
truss rod will definitely need tweaking, you may have to widen the nut slots for the bass strings as well
I find having a deadline motivates me no end. I will no practice bass unless I'm going to be playing with other people.
I organised a wee jam one a week with a couple of mates to get me to play guitar.
Then one of the was freaked out by the pressure of practicing when I organised a drummer.
Now it's turned into a cover band. Still practicing together one a week with the aim to gig. The horror of turning up having said I'd practice something and not being able to play it motivates me massively!
A few years back I tried to learn don't speak by no doubt. I could play it a bit. Now I can mostly nail it all, except the 3rd 1/4 of the solo. I would have given up long ago if I didn't have to play it in front of people 😃
Rocksmith on the pc also helped me practice for a while, I got fed up after 6 months. I'd got much better, this lead into the jamming once a week
@tomparkin I tune my baritone to B or drop A. That has a 28" scale and I still use 14 to 68 strings.
To get a 25.5" scale that low you'll probably need some work on the nut to get the right string gauge to work as well as the truss rod and action adjust.
Thanks folks
For whatever reason I was lucky with Andertons delivery so now have some 12-60 strings on there. I did have to widen the low E nut slot a bit but otherwise went ok. It's still fairly buzzy at times so although I fiddled with the action I think maybe some truss rod adjustment might also help.
Weirdly I think the overall string tension is probably lower than standard E with 11-50 strings. What you gain in string gauge you lose in dropping many semitones 🤣
On the downside, if it doesn't work out with this band I'm going to now have a fair job returning to E standard. Hey ho.
Thanks for all the advice, still not picked it up yet though 😄
OK. I need some help. My son has accidentally ripped out most of the wiring in his Pevey raptor plus exp (an Ebay bargain that got him started).
Can anyone point me towards a simple standard/generic wiring guide?
It currently looks like this..
Thanks for all the advice, still not picked it up yet though 😄
Buy a new guitar or book some lessons 🙂
@bubs there are plenty out there so maybe have a search about for one that makes sense to you, but that said I did some research on the topic recently and this guide seemed reasonably easy to follow to me:
https://www.fralinpickups.com/2020/01/06/stratocaster-wiring-tips-mods-more/
Five way switches require a bit of thinking to get your head round IMO but if you just need to figure out how to connect things up in a standard configuration the above should be a good starting point.
P.S. that picture looks like a good learning opportunity for a beginner guitarist 🤣
Thank you. I bought a cheap soldering iron and spent the afternoon clumsily connecting up wires and somehow got it all to work, result! It's not pretty but at least it sounds ok.
I spend too much time on youtube looking at guitar build videos but this one is pretty different.
Mark Gutierrez's AVANC build for the GGBO22
This is a decidedly non-traditional build but i found it fascinating to watch. The elliptical fanned frets and heavy use of CNC has certainly brought something different to the game.
Whether its a game you'd want to play I don't know but the end result is pretty special in my eyes.
This is the compilation full build video. More detail focussed ones are on his channel.
Have you picked your guitar up yet @rocketdog ?
I've decided to try and learn Layla Unplugged. My acoustic guitar is upstairs though so I'm going to learn it plugged in 😅
https://youtube.com/shorts/bCsOphiAwbk?feature=share
Want a free Les Paul?
Crimson Guitars are giving one away to promote their Guitar Giveways comps to help fund their Guitar Museum.
Here's the link to the site https://www.greatguitargiveaway.com/
And here is the very guitar you could win being set up by Josh.
No point anybody else entering, I've just "bought" the winning ticket 😅
Beat ya to it feller. Sorry.
PRS has been doing the rounds on the UK YouTube channels over the past couple of weeks. His session with Andertons is chaotically joyous.
13th gig for our covers band on Saturday but first one in the village three of us work in.
Pretty raucous night and the bar nearly got drunk dry. Call it a mid life crisis but we are having a lot of fun! Huge motivator to practice and push your ur self too as noted above!
That sounds like an epic night with everyone having a great time.
Is that Braunton near Saunton?
Apologies if already posted but what do we consider the greatest foot pedal of all time ? Cry Baby ? Big Muff ?
I'm going for the Ibanez Tube Screamer in all of it's incarnations. I have the current mini version. Love it, it's virtually always on.
@eddiebaby yep that’s the one, biggest “village” in the country and getting bigger by the second!
@trailmonkey now that’s a question with a million answers that depends on what genre you’re playing and what era too.
The tubescreamer is very widely used but you could easily argue that the Klon centaur is much rarer and highly sought after.
The big muff is a hugely important fuzz pedal but you could easily argue that Hendrix using a fuzzface (& the stones using a maestro fuzz on satisfaction before that) was the spark that started things in that department.
Proco Rat has gotta be the “best” distortion
It’s endless!
If your amp has a good sound and master volume then I'd go for a delay pedal.
Echoplex is good, I prefer the Echorec but despite owning good copies of those I love the Fashback2 as it candy most things.
I prefer overdrive to fuzz and the new amp in a box pedals have changed things around across the board.
Klon centaur is much rarer and highly sought after
It's only existed since 1994 though. It hasn't had the overall impact of stuff like a fuzz face, wah, tube screamer, memory man etc.
Of course it's not a stomp box but can we include the Roland RE-201 ? The finest piece of sonic hardware ever produced surely?
I have the Boss stomp box copy which is pretty darn good it has to be said. I have a really good plug in sim too that has the wow and flutter of the original.
Greatest pedal to me is the strymon dig
Can anyone recommend a loud cheapish head?
Since my last posts about ridiculous drop tunings I've been for a couple of rehearsals with the doom band and it's clear that my Orange Micro Dark, although impressively loud for its size, isn't keeping up with the other guitarist's amp (an Orange tube head of some description through a 4x12 marshall cab). It does sound good to my ears though: a similar sound in a bigger package would do me.
I'm musing on how better to keep up. I can't afford to drop large sums on a nice new 100w tube head, so I'm scouring ebay and the like, but I'm not all that sure what I actually want since my experience of amps is quite limited.
Any suggestions? I'm mainly after loudness: the amp would be used as a pedal platform, so I'm not overly fussed about amp drive tones or inbuilt effects. An effects loop would be nice. The rehearsal space has a 4x12 so head only required.
Thanks in advance for your sagely words of wisdom 😊
I have the Marshall Origin combo which also comes as a head. 20w or 50w.
Ridiculously good amp and takes pedals well either into the front or via the effects loop.
It's not a high gain amp and has loads of headroom
Sure there’s a million answers but if you look at something solid state rather than valve you will get something loud without spending a huge amount. If you’re relying on pedals for your overdrive anyway, the “valve ness” of it is less important?
The new-ish Orange supercrush 100w solid state head is £370 new so less secondhand. It’s loud and gets good reviews as sounding close to oranges valve tones which I would have thought is right up the street of the music you’re talking about?
Thanks folks.
I will check out the Origin and Supercrush. I do like the sound of the Micro Dark so would be happy enough sticking with Orange.
Any views on older SS stuff? I had a Marshall Valvestate BITD which I quite liked... There is currently an H&K Vortex Black on eBay for a reasonable price. A Peavey XXL too 🤔