Guitarists of Singletrack…

I have an SM57 in Weymouth I fancy a condenser mic for a bit more versatility. I’m just try ming
to get some ideas for options and you guys have given m some ideas to check through.

The Shure SM 57 is obvious, or am I missing something?

Interesting vid, Chief. Next time could you play with the EQ a bit, please. For example a deep rounded bottom end thud with the treble and mid wound off.

I had jam with a mate who has a Fender Rumble 800 stage last week, and the extra cab to make it loud enough. I was quite taken with it; Mustang type software in a bass amp.

The Shure SM 57 is obvious, or am I missing something?

The post above? 🤔

I have one 95miles away but it isn’t good for everything. I can borrow 58s and other various mics but it’s nice to have your own when you want to just try something.
Tempted by the Rode M3 reviews.

I posted in a window I’d left open last night.

Brrr, hope it wasn’t too cold.

Anyway, enough of that. This arrived about 4 hours ago and it is excellent, only run a couple of borrowed dynamic mics though but everything sounds great, even able to use it with OSX11.5.
Works perfectly with Garageband, Ableton, Studio One and GuitarRig.
Happy days. Just need to sort a Mic out and get some work done to pay for it all.

Change of topic, if I may gents

Do any of you use an app for song chords/tab

You may know my problem…. strumming away while balancing my phone on my left knee trying to read the lyrics and chords of a song….. I’d happy to pay for one if the lyrics/chords are nice and clear without loads of adds taking up screen space

Ultimate guitar is always at the top of any google search for songs, but I find there are too many option when using that site, so it’s stopped me from trying their app…. am I mistaken or what is your work around for the phone on knee uncomfortableness.

ta

iPad Mini. Sorry I can’t help more.
Maybe look without the guitar and quickly write the chords down on a sheet of paper old school?

I too have my phone balanced on my knee… but do use the Ultimate Guitar app. I just use the free version, with a free login. This allows you to save favourite tabs to come back to. You can even build playlists of tabs.

There are no ads on the screen, but you usually have to skip an advert each time you enter into a new tab.

Ultimate-guitar is a great example of how Web 3.0, commercialisation and apps have just totally ruined a great thing. BITD that site was a great collaboration of guitarists working together to help each other. Now they want £120/year (yeah, I know they have offers sometimes) or have an awful video ad you can’t skip for the free version (as well as trying to hide free/non-Pro tabs from view). It sucks and I hate them for it. I’m sure the Pro tabs are probably OK but a lot of the free tabs are not correct.

In that spirit, I’ve decided that learning purely from tabs is a pretty terrible way to learn guitar and Youtube guitar lessons will do a far better job at teaching the songs along with some technique tips and music theory along the way. Obviously a proper guitar teacher is even better (and perhaps an online course, I don’t know).

Yeah, the phone on knee is annoying. You could always get a music stand.

With the paid for version of Ultimate Guitar, you get access to ‘Pro Tabs’….which are a better format as there is at least some hint of which the rhythm is….you can see the ones that are rated well etc. Without that, then I’d give guitar tabs on the internet a fairly wide berth! You tube lessons are a much better bet…..or you could ask me nicely….I’ve got about 10,000 pieces in my onedrive, all of which will be better than what you’d get on ultimate guitar!

I’ve seen my students playing around with something called songster in the past too…..not so sure how good it is.

For displaying music, most pro’s these days will have a tablet attached to one of these http://herculesstands.com/international/products/multimedia/tablet-holders/ running either fourscore (iPad) or musicsheets (android).

I use songsterr for some tabs & chords

Sorry for the slow reply, I’ve been too busy on Songsterr !!

Great recommendation thanks guys, just what i was looking for in an app…. (I’ll learn new songs via youtube and then use the app for when I just want to play them)… I might pay the tenner to get rid of the ads, but they aren’t too bad.

As for the knee balancing conundrum, we kinda need a new tablet in the house and I guess I basically have to sort out a little “practice area” with a music stand or occasional table strategically placed.

Thanks again guys

I just use Marty / Justin / Andy on YouTube on either my telly or Chromebook – if those resources were available 30 years ago I may have actually learned to play – trying to learn stuff from tab books was rubbish.

OK guys, why did nobody tell me about oversized button tops for pedals?
Barefoot Buttons seem to have been the originators but there are alloy and plastic clones everywhere.
As I’m usually barefoot or in socks around the house these feel great. I’ve just tried them out on the looper where accurate timing is important but for me the big one will be modifying some to fit my Plethora that has pressure sensitive switches that need more pressure than my feeble feet are happy with.
The Barefoot Buttons come in assorted varieties but are inevitably that bit pricier. I may well treat myself for a special button or two.

Barefoot Buttons

Haha!!! They’ve been around for about 15 years haven’t they!!! I’m sure I had some 2010/11 time and I’m fairly sure that they were old news by then!!!

15 years ago I had wandered a long way away from guitars. But I can be very shortsighted too.

Any advice on a standalone midi foot controller for programme changes? I could use my HD500- but it is huge and I want sell it.

Check out the Morningstar mc6….I use one with my HX Stomp. It’s far more capable thank am of programming it, but they really are great!

I’d never heard of that, thanks Tom.
I’ll check out the spec but it sounds perfect for a pedalboard build.
Speaking of which I built a temporary board this morning during the slack spots at work.
A length of uPVC trailer lighting board extrusion and £5 worth of 50mm velcro from Amazon gave me this:

Not bad and saves me unplugging anything whenever I move it around. Need to sort out a better power supply next to replace the 4 wall warts.

Nice!

Yeah the MC6 is slightly bigger than your Strymon pedals, not huge though. They do an MC8 now too which is slightly bigger.

Fairly sure there’s an MC6 for sale on thefretboard at the moment.

Power supply wise, I’m running the biggest truetone that they do….even though I don’t have a huge array of pedals, a few of them are a monster draw, and I also need an AC connection too. I do it all off one plug which is nice! Other decent options for you would be gig rig stuff, or the Strymon Zuma.

I don’t need much from a midi pedal, just patch changes and the 2 foot pedal inputs will be nice. All I want to do is switch Irridium and Sunset favourites and different boards on the Plethora.
Power supply is needed for that lot (All 500mA 9v) and three more OD and distortion pedals. Should be fairly simple. And as you say only one plug 👍🏼

Seems strange to posting about Terry Riley and then to this but…

I’ve not been immersed in guitar for a few years and it was only lockdown boredom away from ‘home’ that got me to buy more toys and start getting back up to (low) speed, but so much has happened Over the last few years that I’m flabbergasted.
I still listen to lots of new music but somehow I’d never heard about Sophie Lloyd. Pretty girl who can shred rather well. I’m more an Orianthi or Nita Strauss kind of guy but this English girl is pretty darn good.
Interesting to see where she takes it.
There’s a couple of videos where the focus is more on her than her playing, let’s hope that isn’t how it ends up.

I’d thoroughly recommend the new Tom Misch and Yussef Deyes album. His a fricking amazing player…. Such a great feel, and an incredible ear for melody.

I shall have a listen.
Currently wading through Opeth’s back catalog. 🤟

Haven’t played my acoustic for quite a while, I’m finding fretting notes impossible on the headstock end of the fretboard. I’ve taken to tuning down a full step and just leaving a capo on the second fret.

It’s a decentish Tanglewood and I’ve played about with the truss rod and saddle setting action height,but thinking it might be nut related? Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Was it always like this? Nuts don’t tend to suddenly go wrong.

Unless you change to thicker strings than the nut is filed for.

Good point. I’ve never done that. Honest.

Inexperienced (bass) guitarist here….and I’m getting what i think is fret buzz on the A string, when fretting around say 5-9 on the fretboard (sorry it that’s wrong terminology – it’s certainly buzz, where else could that come from?)

It’s not on other strings, and far less pronounced fretting at the nut end or further towards the body, or on open A, and while I often get buzz because of bad technique I can just fret a single note and get buzz.

It’s a reasonable quality bass (Squier Classic Vibe Mustang) from a proper shop but mail order, so I’d hope set up is decent. Anything I should look at? If it was all strings I’d wonder about relief on the neck from what I googled, but it is just one string.

Does the saddle height maybe need raising slightly?

possibly – that would intuitively make sense (just as a mechanically minded person looking at it)

Would that affect the tuning (prob not that I’d notice over that small adjustment!) – I have worse tuning probs coming from playing the wrong notes!

Get a straight edge down the neck to spot any high frets and check relief against manufacturers recommended.
Don’t adjust anything until you are certain what is needed.
I have a bit of fret buzz on my Strat, but I’m not playing Carnegie Hall any time soon so it doesn’t bother me.

Like quite a few people I got stuck into the guitar again when lockdown started. I’ve got to the point where I can get my chords quickly and cleanly, I’m starting to get most of the notes in the right order and I’m enjoying both my old acoustic and my new electric, and doing a good half hour most days and sometimes more.
But what next? A few years ago I used to take the acoustic to a couple of pubs and sit with a bunch of others where we would take turns singing and playing and joining in and I got to a reasonable standard.
But that’s off the agenda now. And I’m wondering what other people do to feed their ambitions. I mean, I know exactly what motivates me to go for a bike ride or go windsurfing and I get a reward from the practice and training. But the guitar?

I can put on a CD and play along to it I guess. I could write my own stuff (I’ve done a couple) or do my own arrangements to songs I like, although churning away at one piece means it soon goes from a song you love to one you hate. I don’t have anything other than a Windows laptop and Android phone and tablet. Together with a Vox headphone amp. No software, but that’s not out of the question. Oh, and a fair bit of time working through Justin Guitar and Paul Davids, both of whom I really rate.

So, inspire me STW, and give me your good ideas. If it works, I’ll post up the results!

Well BigJohn, you sound like an experienced player, I’m learning how to play flamenco with my guitar teacher, luckily he is a monster player and can play and teach any style.
I’m about seven months in and am progressing pretty well with rock, pop and classical, but flamenco is just bonkers hard, I play about four hours a day so I just keep slogging and it eventually sinks in.

Flamenco? Isn’t that like the unicycle of guitar? No para mi, por favor! I’m not enough of a masochist.

I currently live in the Spanish minor (Phrygian?) scale.

Would love to possess the skills required to play flamenco!

I might, just might be going guitar shopping tomorrow.

Local shop is looking at taking on Tokai, so if that comes off I’ll have something Stratish from him. That’s the preferred option. The shop is great and everything he sells is set up perfectly.

If that fails to materialise, I’ll look at other options, G&L Legacy or a Gordon Smith S type both appeal. Played the G&L and various newer Gordon Smiths and the quality is there.
Not drawn to any of the current Fender Strats, with the possible exception of the Performer series.

My ideal would be something vintagey in terms of looks and pickups, but with truss rod adjustment at the nut end, modern radius and frets and a non vintage neck profile.
Not keen on black or sunburst.
Not fussed about fretboard material.

All suggestions welcome.

Had the Orange Kongpressor for a while now and it’s bloody excellent btw – very different to the MXR, much more transparent but a lovely effect. It’s like having another channel on the amp.

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Interest free credit is a dangerous thing”……

That is rather lovely.