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I may be looking to trade my amp for something if anyone here might be interested in a Marshall Studio Jubilee 2525H? It's in excellent condition, did a few gigs with it before my last band broke up and it's just been sat in a cupboard unused for about a year. Probably not going to be in a band again any time soon so would be nice to swap it for something useful!
Very long shot as it's so specific, but would love to swap for a nice 54cm road or gravel bike. Other than that, something nice that's LP, Tele or PRS-esque could be cool. Or possibly something digital like a Helix LT.
On Tuesday I went along to Crimson Guitars and was confronted with this:
A "SRP" guitar kit for their three day course. Semi finished neck, body and a bunch of bits. Body was sycamore top, sapele bottom. Reasonable flaming on the top.
First was fret levelling and crowning, then finishing
Then lots of sanding, drilling, sanding, more sanding on the body.
To bring out the flaming, first there was a black stain, which was left to dry and then sanded back to leave this.
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Then the main colour - green middle, blue outer. Neck fitted (with help from one of their luthiers to get the height correct), then off for a satin top coat.
Rubbed down with paper to flatten, then electrics, pick-ups, bridge, tuners. Oh, making the nut too. Then set-up - something new for me - and finally...
Loved the course. There were a couple of people there doing a 3 month course, one of which was over from the US. Two people on a two week course making quite complex guitars, and one on a five day making a basic tele from scratch. I learnt a lot about how a guitar is put together and the set-up skills will come in handy.
Nice! I enjoy watching Ben's stuff on YouTube even though some of his creations are a bit much for my tastes 🙂
How much was the course?
£1200 including the kit. About £260 on the hardware, but can be cheaper - I went for the more expensive end - then I supplied my own pick-ups. Gotoh locking tuners, 510FX bridge (through body stringing), Schaller pick-up surrounds.
So not bad for a unique, carefully finished, properly set-up guitar. Except the front strap button, that should have been further over but I never play standing anyway.
Loft find whilst clearing out a departed relative's attic.
Suzuki 9705 "Hummingbird".
Started to clean it and new strings are on order.
My daughter has already claimed it.
Excellent discovery. She'll love it.
I know this is going to strike a low tone on this thread, but our younger son who is learning guitar at school, told us about two weeks ago that he was going to be playing American Idiot at the school’s end of year concert.
As the bassist.
Apparently he’d found a bass guitar in the school music room, taught himself to play in a few weeks and with a couple of mates was going to get on stage.
Which they did last night.
I’m not going to claim it was dripping with virtuosity and skill (or even a decent mix on the sound) but the punk attitude and energy was spot on.
His first time on stage. Proud dad.
Ace 😁
Top work!
There is nothing low about that! Anybody that gets up in front of an audience to play an instrument, sing or do something creative like slam poetry or comedy gets a round of applause from me. Its on my bucket list to achieve and I'm 55. I just wish I'd realised how important it is to DO this type of stuff as well as watch it earlier in my life.
One of my daughters friends fronted a band as the singer live for the first time at the weekend and it was so cool - NOBODY was taking notes on technique! Its all about the moment.
Three weeks without a post, we can't let this thread die! I'm still trying to make my fingers do fingerpicking. I still go to shit whenever I start recording!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AdLRVv3vW0M
Ok I’ll play…….
Hard to believe this song 30 years old. Near story about the effects on the actual recording - two tapes playing the same solo, one randomly slowed by hand to give the flanged effect. No idea how you get closer with a pedal!
https://youtube.com/shorts/1UkQVT3xyt8?si=5JEQ0nrbkf_192Ft
I'm considering buying an amp modeler pedal so I can travel more easily to and from prospective practices. Does anyone have any recommendations?
The Nu-X Amp Acadamy looks like a lot for the money but seems to have longevity issues. Strymon seems like a good option, but it is rather pricey and slightly limited in features. Boss IR-2 maybe?
How about the new ToneX One? Two different amps in a pedal and enough variation to go from clean to dirt and back. Definitely on my 'next tiny pedalboard' list...
Or the Mooer Micro Preamps? Pick the amp sound you're after and (I think) you get two versions to switch between.
The other guitarist in the band I play in uses UAFX pedals into an Orange Pedal Baby. He has two different ones but I think it's usually the Lion 68 that gets used for this band.
The UAFX stuff isn't overly cheap but it does sound good!
Well as it was a topic of conversation last week.
I made my debut at the local open mic night a few nights ago..... I was shocking and cleared the pub !! lol
Well maybe not that bad but the first song wasn't great, guess l got better as I went very very quickly along lol
Loads learnt and I enjoyed it (including the run up to it, had been practicing my 4 songs pretty hard all week)
Going forward I'm going to dial the guitar difficulty back and do "boring" 3/4 open chord songs, so that I can concentrate on the "singing/performance". Then once I don't feel like a rabbit in the headlights, I'll revisit songs that I really want to do.
Well done for getting out there @Ro5ey what did you play in your set?
Anyone got any experience of amps that can be used for both electric and bass guitar?
I bought a vox modeling amp to play guitar on. It has been up to practice room and gigging levels a few times with no ill effects. I mostly play guitar and bass through the fender bass man emulation.
Cheap-£50-£100 second hand
vox moddlery- something like this. I have the single 10 inch speaker version. This 2x10 would be easily enough for gigs
Pricey £1500
''Anyone got any experience of amps that can be used for both electric and bass guitar?''
Line 6 PodGo - with more than you'll ever use and some great Bass amps on there
Well, I pulled the trigger on the Tone X one. It seems like it would be a good option for my existing distortion pedal and give me what I need with an overwhelming number of amp options to program in!
Reading Ro5ey's comment above!
Most Tuesday nights I pop down to a pub where a bunch of us sit round tables with guitars and take turns playing and singing a song.
Last night I forgot to pack my music sheets. I used to think I only used them as a gentle prompt - how wrong I was. I was absolutely lost without them. I had to struggle to turn up UG Tabs on my phone, which I've not done before. I found a couple that fit on one page though so not all was lost. I did the slowest ever versions of Blueberry Hill and Pigs on the Wing to keep in time with the scrolling! Amazingly the "soulfulness" of them was quite a hit.
I need someone to tell me the best way for an old guy who's starting to forget things to learn songs by heart!
Because people join in with others' songs - usually good accompaniment, bit of bass, bit of noodle, somebody doing the chords up the neck, I've set up one guitar with Nashville tuning. Might take that next time (even though it's a solid with P90s and an Amplug. Nobody will mind...
Does anybody know any songs in open d tuning that I can try and learn? I haven't nailed Velvet Ring yet so don't want to go back to standard tuning!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AmQyPKUvyhM
Got a slide, Simon? How about 'Dust my Broom' by Elmore James. Pretty sure that's open D.
And with amazing timing, look what showed up today. Impulse buy (which took probably a year to make, so not that impulse...) from Thomann. The cheapest on display, steel (not proper brass, but whatever) shiny resonator guitar. No pickup, just acoustic. Nice MOP fretboard dots, nice pearloid headstock face, lovely art-deco tuners.
It's loud, it's very heavy(!) it's trebly and so far it's been great. I've got it set in Open E and I've got a fat brass slide to go with it. Wish me luck (or time to practice...)
(I also got a ToneX One pedal, but that's for another time. Haven't had time to look at that one yet...)
Ooo, shiny!
Got a slide, Simon?
No, I should probably get one 🙂
Tempted by a baritone - tall me why I should /shouldn't
I have resisted hte urge to play with alternate tunings etc for years, but have bee learning some Blackstone Cherry recently which is in drop c#. My Gibson SG will just about go that low, but am tempted by some decent bargains on a coupe of baritone guitars, that would be more suited to this level of drop tuning.
On my list so far is a Chapman ML1 pro, and a PRS SE 277 Baritone. What else should I be looking at at a similar price (under £700) for metal / hard rock stuff? Or will I get bored of a larger more unwieldy guitar and go back to my standard tunings (one SG special and one Jackson Soloist)?
Tempted by a baritone – tall me why I should /shouldn’t
Same here, even more so when my wife looked up as I was watching a YT review of the guild and said she loved the sound of it. (I can't - I've only recently bought a Furch, which I'm still in love with.)
And to be even more niche, I want an 8 string baritone.
And to be even more niche, I want an 8 string baritone.
Yeah I looked at 7/8 strings, and played a few, but decided that I prefer the neck width of a 6.
Totally new to playing , hd a few lessons but they are on hold while I move house and my guitars are in storage .
Bought a nice Alvarez BG with pickup to learn on but was in a vintage guitar dealer near me and took home a 2007 Fender TB62
Japanese telecaster in sunburst. Absolutely beautiful thing . Unplayed as well.
"Tempted by a baritone – tell me why I should /shouldn’t"
They are really fun - far more like a guitar than a bass, but bigger sounding. Like playing a piano slightly to the left. You don't need a baritone to tune down though - most people use standard scale guitars, even short ones like Gibsons.
Save your money and stick some FAT strings on that SG rather than get a baritone
I had a PRS SE Baritone for a while. It was fun, but you kind of need to approach it with some purpose, otherwise you'll just be playing Chris Isaak all the time 🙂
In other news, how about this for some inspiration. I have no idea how he plays all the parts in this AND sings...
Recently bought an Epiphone Century Olympic archtop. Was on offer at Guitar Guitar. I always hankered for an archtop. Really good guitar for little money. I’m a hobbyist luthier so really enjoy fettling guitars to play as good as possible. This one needed a light fret level, recrown and polish. Plays great now with flat wound strings, 2/64ths action at the twelfth fret.
Got a slide, Simon?
No, I should probably get one 🙂
Slides are freally fun, especially with drop D tuning...you can just noodle about and it sounds awesome without even really trying.
In fact, also double drop D if that's the right word, where you tune both your E strings to D you can play whole songs just using one finger as a barr, almost, try it, it's a blast! 🙂
I still haven't bought a slide yet (keep forgetting when I'm in town) but am still trying to learn stuff in open tunings. Getting frustrated by this one though!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NrPvd4iKPGE
What "solutions" for glasses do wearers use?
I have been leaning for just over a month now, and it is taking me too long to focus on my fretting position. I can barely see the thinner strings even after focusing for a second or 2. I kind of hope that down the line my hands will start to find the correct position without looking, although I suspect that there will always be a little bit of confirmation with peripheral vision happening subconsciously . But certainly at the stage I think it would be helpful if I could bring my visual focus more quickly.
I had cataract surgery a couple of years ago, and now I have fixed length (medium) lenses on both eyes (for this I wish I had one shorter focal length and one medium, although for mountain biking both medium is probably best, and for driving 1 medium and 1 long would be best).
I need a fairly weak reading glasses, and they kind of help a little, but I think it might help if I had some specific glasses for playing guitar, maybe something that corrects the focal length on my left eye to around 24 inches, then maybe nothing for the right eye wich would be good for following lessons or music on the computer.
Just looking for experience with needing glasses for guitar, any points I should consider and raise with the optician.
Learn to play blind. You really shouldn't need to look to see what strings you're on. I still need to look to see where I am on the neck sometimes especially when making big moves up the neck but moving up or down a couple of frets is fairly automatic. When soloing the head is one reference pint and bumping into the body drops me onto fret 12 at the other end. Yeah I still look sometimes but when singing with a microphone it's just to get to the right fret which doesn't require glasses.
Nip to a shop that sells ready readers. Buy 2 identical pairs, one with a lens that suits you for looking at the neck, one that suits you for reading the lesson. Pop the right lens out of each and swap them over. A cheap way of emulating mono vision contact lenses like I use.
Take them off before going down stairs or driving.
Boots used to sell "computer readers" which were a sort of varifocal for near work. I don't know if they still do. Above advice still applies.
I have been a longtime looker at the fretboard, until fairly recently (well, a couple of years ago) when someone said an offhand “why on earth would you need to look at your guitar while playing?”
That really made me think and I completely changed how I play. The transition was not hard and now I rarely look (except as Edukator says for large slides up/down the fretboard). I think it’s also improved my ear training as I now have to listen more to what I’m playing. It also lets me feel the music better and I can more easily lock into a groove (and timing).
There’s no real downside. I wish someone had blindfolded me as a beginner for the first few months of playing.
Follow that_blind_guitar_guy on tiktok 🙂
Play in front of a mirror
I would recommend that to all people when they practice
This has taken so long to learn! Think I might finally be there, just need to learn the rest of the song now and find somebody to sing it 🙂
https://youtube.com/shorts/fXAhRJdlzb8
@ji I'm just getting rid of my baritone for a 7 string Strandberg.
It's a Chapman ML3 Bea Baritone Standard. Advantage over some is that it is a 28" scale rather than a 27".
I tend to play in B but occasionally do tune to Drop A, all possible with a .060 low B.
Its mint and I'm looking for £350, postage to be arranged (I don't know where you are) drop me a PM if you're interested. It'll be on Reverb soon.
John