Guitarists of Singletrack…

I’ve decided to try and learn a bit of simple jazz. It’s taking ages!

I’ve decided to try and learn a bit of simple jazz. It’s taking ages!

Nice!

I’ve finally admitted defeat with my Helix LT. Got a buyer on the way right now.

No doubt it’s a great unit but it’s way too much overkill for what I need or want. I rarely use more than distortion, reverb and wah. Maybe a bit of flanger. I’m also more than happy with my Marshall valve amp and really don’t need a million different amp and cab sims.

have ordered one of these https://www.thomann.de/gb/steinberger_guitars_gtpro_deluxe_bk.htm

have always liked steinbergers and wanted to get one so er now i have.

just wish it had the trans trem system but i believe they don’t make them any more and would cost a lot.

unfortunately i didn’t really gel with the prs that i bought (it was the se standard 24-08) so sold it about 2 months ago.

Is there a platform like Melodics that is great for guitarists and learning stuff with feedback? Melodics is great, but it doesn’t actually have the tabs of the real guitar playing, it’s dumbed down. 

Melodics basically has a massive bank of real songs, you can play along where it shows you which notes to play, and gives you feedback on timing, accuracy etc…

I’ve decided to try and learn a bit of simple jazz. It’s taking ages!

You do know that anytime you play a bum note in blues, you can just call it jazz, right?

The ultimate get out of jail free card! 😉

One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.

😬

You do know that anytime you play a bum note in blues, you can just call it jazz, right?

The ultimate get out of jail free card! 😉

Haha!

have ordered one of these https://www.thomann.de/gb/steinberger_guitars_gtpro_deluxe_bk.htm
have always liked steinbergers and wanted to get one so er now i have.

I had one as my travel guitar back in the day when they were branded as Hohner. It worked really well so I thought about getting a real one. Blimey they were expensive with all those composite and fancy bits. I got tired of searching for double ball end strings eventually.
I’v been mainly getting rid of stuff lately on Reverb. Sold a heck of a lot of pedals and am down to only (!) 3 guitars. I kept my PRS SE and got rid of the American Pro Strat instead. The Bass and Variax also were culled from the herd.
Pedals though. :-(. Despite all the selling I still have just under 20 not counting tuners, loopers and switches. At least I’m buying secondhand mainly to minimise the loss when I move them on. Current obsession is Origin Effects but I just bought a ThorpyFX UniVibe and it is awesome.
Been playing bad Hendix but using it on everything.
Musically I’m working through a mix of Traffic, Hendrix, Stones and -I’m ashamed to say- John Mayer.

It’s been a while since I subjected you to my playing so…

have ordered one of these https://www.thomann.de/gb/steinberger_guitars_gtpro_deluxe_bk.htm

That is in no sense a steinberger

I had one as my travel guitar back in the day when they were branded as Hohner. Hohners were different again and not a steinberger

Those Hohner/Steinbergers are great. I had one for a while – randomly inspired by our rehearsal space having a really small space to swing a guitar… But they’re light and the trem works and they’re great. I sold mine when the band stopped playing, in a one-in-one-out style to someone from the forum as I recall.

Back in 1987 or so, my guitar-mad pal Rich bought a real Steinberger and the TransTrem was a wonder to behold. I still lust after one of those…  Mind you, I see that Mark Knopfler is selling his, so I could combine two great early obsessions into one…

Having bought a Strandberg recently, I did wilfully ignore the fact that I could have just got a Steinberger/Hohner and got all of the benefits of the light weight and headless/compactness of the design. Unfortunately, though, the new Steinbergers only come with a middle pickup, which always gets in the way, so I made a £800 or so decision to upsell myself… 🙂

Acoustic guitarists… Lowden Guitars have a bogoff on strings ATM. Great strings, add to basket and they automatically double up. They’re a bit pricey at £19:99 but great at £10.

@chipps i love your strandberg guitar, enjoy it 🙂

@plumber  i know it isn’t the real thing but i don’t  have that kind of money to buy the real one lol. am really happy with the faux steinberger i have to say (i do plan on getting it seen by a guitar tech to set it up etc at some point). pick ups sound fine to me atm (but i only play through my laptop nowadays/no amp) so may well swap them out one day if i do get another amp.

it’s a shame that the trans-trem system doesn’t seem to be made anymore but no doubt would be very expensive to buy one if they did.

Acoustic guitarists… Lowden Guitars have a bogoff on strings ATM. Great strings, add to basket and they automatically double up. They’re a bit pricey at £19:99 but great at £10.

Will they turn me from the rubbish below into James Taylor?

No but they’ll sound great 😃 . Keep at the practice though, it does get better.

Keep at the practice though, it does get better.

My fingers hurt now! Back on it tomorrow 🙂

Darn, I want this.

Patrick James Eggle 2020 Oz Cabronita \Guitar in Goldtop, Pre-Owned https://reverb.com/item/63894521?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=63894521

Ooft that’s nice!

I love the back of the body & neck, not so much the front.

I love the back of the body & neck, not so much the front.

Weirdly I’m the other way round. Perhaps we could split it 50:50 to save some cash?

Single-pickup always looks awesome IMO.

Single-pickup always looks awesome IMO.

It’s not that. I think it’s because (whispers) I’m not really a fan of gold tops.

Looks lovely from the front but the back and neck look a bit strange for roasted maple – maybe it the picture

I’ve just played on stage at an open mic. How the hell do people do this, it’s **** terrifying 😅

Awesome work, Simon. People do this by getting used to it – and also by remembering that no one in the audience is really going to mind (or notice) if you hit the odd bum note, so you might as well enjoy it. 🙂

I walked past a band playing at a local social club (in Tod) to just the bartender. They were very good – Johnny Cash and rock and roll stuff – and despite playing to no one, they were giving it some, so I went in for a few songs and bought them a drink. They suggested I might like to come back with a guitar as I only lived round the corner, so I did – and suddenly discovered the fun and buzz of playing on stage, even to zero people. It made getting up for a song with them another night (to about eight people) a lot easier… 

And there in lies the truth, playing with others is worth its weight in gold

As my mate frequently tells me, if it’s loud enough, no one notices the odd mistake*……..

*beer helps too!😂

got a gig for local swimming clubs xmas party tomorrow night. Embarrassingly excited for a (almost) 50 yr old!

ps, as a band this is gig #26… it gets way easier and more fun as you grow in experience & therefore confidence!

Sadly, I’ve recently inherited 2 of my son’s guitars, an acoustic Epiphone PR-400 which I bought him some 30 years ago and his latest an acoustic Gibson G-45 Studio He was quite accomplished (to me anyway) and I would dearly like to play some of the songs he loved and I loved listening to him play. Using U tube tutorials I have realised the difficulty in this approach and with having only 3 working fingers (left hand little finger has artheritis and creeping to others)  and also being tone deaf. Realisticly at nearly 70 is it too late to invest in lessons? The only local guitarist I knew to ask has moved to France with his bikes. I am revising my expectation of playing, Wish You Were Here and Stairway to Heaven to, She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain.

No never too late. And maybe a good teacher can teach you alternate chord shapes or tunings that while not ‘exactly right’ will enable you to play some tunes.

One of the greats, Django Reinhardt, had two working fingers and two passengers and so you should be 50% better than him 😉

Realisticly at nearly 70 is it too late to invest in lessons?

No, not at all. Was going to mention Django but somebody already has 🙂
Best of luck with your journey, keep us updated on your progress!

Daughter’s boyfriend is learning guitar and has been given a couple of hundred christmas budget for some pedals to upgrade his increasingly talented guitar playing.

What would you suggest. All he knows he wants is a looper – after that….. ideas?

Does he have any pedals already and what amp does he have?

No, none yet and a basic Fender amp.

pedals are a massive rabbit hole where there are no right answers except n+1 ! 🤣

a “basic” board would be some version of:

Tuner – overdrive/ distortion – chorus – delay – reverb. 

plenty of good secondhand stuff on eBay / reverb. Almost no point buying new unless you want a specific item. 

mooer pedals are generally good copies of more famous pedals. Their green mile is pretty close to a genuine Tube screamer ( which is a classic overdrive ) likewise their Black secret is very close to a proco rat which is one of the classic distortion pedals. 

I always ‘cheat’ when playing an open ‘F’ if it’s in a chord transiton as it requires a lot of stretch, so I just kinda half do it and move swiftly onwards…  🙂

I highly recommend the Behringer copies of Boss pedals.

Check out prices at Andertons.

https://www.andertons.co.uk/behringer-guitar-pedals

Daughter’s boyfriend is learning guitar and has been given a couple of hundred christmas budget for some pedals to upgrade his increasingly talented guitar playing.

What would you suggest. All he knows he wants is a looper – after that….. ideas?

One option is a multi-fx unit, they can have just about everything built in. I had a boss GT-1 for a while, it’s got a looper built in, just about every boss pedal and it also does amp sims so you if you’ve got an external speaker or headphones then it also replaces an amp (or it can plug into an amp). Lots of alternatives out there at different price points.

Daughter’s boyfriend is learning guitar and has been given a couple of hundred christmas budget for some pedals to upgrade his increasingly talented guitar playing.

What would you suggest. All he knows he wants is a looper – after that….. ideas

I have a zoom b3 multi effect, same as the G3 guitar version. It cost me a similar amount to one fancy pedal and has hundreds of pedals to try plus a looper and very basic drum kit.

It kept me away from fancy individual pedals for ages :⁠-⁠) when I finally bought fancy pedals they sounded a wee bit better

Realisticly at nearly 70 is it too late to invest in lessons?

I’m 70 and my fingers are none too sprightly. A couple of years ago I got back into guitar (careful now, it can get expensive in time, money and dignity!) and simply googled “guitar teachers near me”. The 2nd one I contacted is now a good friend, totally sympathetic to my ability and preferences. Flipping good too.
Joni Mitchell uses a lot of different open tunings, so you play a chord without even using your fingers. Plonk one finger down, you get a different chord. I believe she had polio as a child and her hands didn’t work too well. Yes it means you have to stick to songs that are ok with the chords you can play but it didn’t hurt her career. Or that bloke who takes his bottom string off and plays in open G. What’s his name? Oh, yes, Keith Richards.
Find your own style and stick to that is a good starting point. Finding a pub where people sit round a table and take turns playing a song is life changing.