Guitarists of Singletrack…

@chipps

I already have a Dakota from when the prices were significantly cheap so I know what I’m going to get plus/minus the vagaries of wood

The first one massively exceeded my expectations

@edukator

Female singer, so that probably influences the covers. They do do ‘Back to Black’ by Amy Winehouse. The rest, I haven’t a clue.
This one will be a workout – luckily there are some tabs online 😮

Then there’s:
You will never know – Imany
Ces moments là – V. Sanson

Sounds good, the crowd will know those, the last band I was kicked out of insisted on doing all original material which is all very noble but I much prefer playing at least a few things the crowd has heard before.

surely any band with a french girl singer has to do this? There must be some sort of law (which being French will be roundly ignored unless it suits you)

Ok Guitarista.. i am going to build a 1 x 10 cab and will be using a celestion of some description. Open back to keep it simple.

Any thoughts on dimensions? Material, baffle thickness (contentious ) etc

Really fancied a smaller bodied acoustic so went to try a few:

As expected, the Faith options were just lovely – tried the Mercury parlour and a couple of the travel guitars and they didn’t disappoint. Pricey though.

Spotted a couple of reviews for the Fender Paramount series but didn’t take them too seriously. I’ve played a few Fender acoustics at friend’s houses and they’ve always felt dissappointing, no voice, no drive, just a pale imitation of a decent guitar.  Then a mate in work bought one of the Paramount dreads. He brought it into work and I was really  surprised by the quality and sound. Resonated like a champ. Nice thin finish, proper drive from the  bridge.

Soooo, the  parlour version arrived a couple of days ago – £339. Impressed. It sounds great, went for the spruce top and it has a clear, sparkly voice with nice mids.

The build quality is fine, but it’s no Martin. Some of the binding is sloppy and a couple of the machine heads are slightly on the piss. However, it plays like a champ.

@oldmanmtb2 – join thefretboard.co.uk forum and head to the ‘making and modding’ or ‘amps’ sections for advice. There are a number of amp/cab builders on there (including barefaced, who are also here!) who can provide recommendations

@oldmanmtb2 Buy a bare faced 1×10 they are really excellent

RustySpanner, I know it’s water under the bridge now, but if you can cope with the name on the headstock, the Sh**r*n range of Lowden guitars are really nice. Made in N.I. from some lovely bits of wood they’re a bargain.

@chipps – That Niagara riff has got some serious groove to it! Just had to down tools and figure it out. Great fun to play

I shall wander off to barefaced …

@justinbieber Such a catchy riff. I keep waking up humming it. Great fun to play, too!

Oh, and very happy Barefaced 1×10 owner here. Considering the vertical 2×10 too!

As we’re getting mentioned, I thought some of you might like to see our new thing!

It’s one of a family of powered amp modules which fit into any of our guitar cabs turning them active. Ideal for anyone embracing pedals and/or amp modelling (with or without speaker/cab modelling) with what feels like a million ways to configure the amp and cab combination.

Audition update… After much dithering, I took along the following micro-pedalboard and Barefaced 1×10. Not bad to have a 100W amp that fits on a Pedaltrain Nano… And a Fredric Effects Zombie Klone for dirt. Oh, and a tuner. (and my purple sparkle Fender Cabronita and an orange Strandberg…)

The evening went well – they rehearse in a big house on top of a hill about 45 minutes from me. It’s a good 20 minutes of singletrack, switchbacked road to get to. But no neighbours, so they can rehearse in the living room with the windows open – and often play live on the balcony. I managed to play a couple of their original tunes OK and did reasonable justice to the covers they play – although I only knew one before a couple of weeks ago.

They have another couple of guitarists to see, so we’ll see how I got on. Although I did get invited to stay for dinner and a glass of wine, I suspect that my lack of French fluency might count against me. Oh, and I was the only one of the five of us who didn’t smoke. It was like being in an eighties pub again – very bizarre! Either way, it was a fun experience and I’m keen/inspired to do it again, with them or another band.

Er, not sure how to put this, buuuuut……..

…………I’ve bought a PRS.

Popped down to Back Alley Music in Mold to try a very nicely priced  Yam Revstar; Gorgeous but the neck was too fat. Shame, lovely otherwise.

Tried a few others but was then introduced to the PRS Vela.

My word – angels singing, heavenly chorus, drag it out of my cold dead hands etc. Not felt this way about a guitar since I tried an Ibanez RG550 (my favourite guitar).  Sooo, I traded in a Cort CR300 and it’s mine…….

My word. All mahogany. Satin. Dots. Cherry. Neck single coil and bridge humbucker. It feels like an SG but sounds like a Tele crossed with a Gretsch.

Never, ever thought I would own a PRS – they’re too polite, too posh and waaay too bland. It’s delightful, sounds fantastic, weighs nothing and feels like it deserves a damn good thrashing. Most SG’s feel like they were built by Helen Keller, this feels perfect.

Great aren’t they? I have a satin tobacco one.

This popped up on my YouTube feed recently. Two entertaining guitarists just riffing and dicking about..

Theres more musical knowledge, literacy and mutual understanding going on in the above video than we will ever know

I still dont want to listen to guitar centric music though

Paul Gilbert seems a fantastic guy. He’s got a recent interview with Rick Beato too – well worth a watch. I’ve seen him live once and can’t say I was a fan of his actual music 🙂 but his in-person guitar clinics look to be fantastic.
I do like a lot of guitar-centric music – older stuff now, I guess, like Jeff Beck, Satriani, Eric Johnson, though some of the new stuff is pretty good too. Plini, Polyphia etc…

I sat next to Paul in the green room of Nottingham Rock city on the first Mr Big tour. A truely humbling experience

Why is fingerpicking so bloody difficult? This one is driving me to drink!

well i sold all my guitars last thursday (all 2 of them).

i go through phases of liking the guitar then getting despondent and selling everything.

no doubt i will get another guitar though (i am very tempted on the cort g300 raw guitar but all out of stock atm when i was checking).

well i sold all my guitars last thursday (all 2 of them).

I can’t imagine ever doing that! I’ve barely touched a bicycle in the last few years but I’ve still got a few!

(oh and I had several drinks and sadly it didn’t improve my fingerpicking 😅)

So @chipps-did you get the gig?

@plumber- what put you in rock city’s green room?

52. Just started learning properly last month.

One question – when does the pain in your fretting fingers ease off?

Really enjoying the slow and mediocre process I’m making.

I’ve been playing maybe 28 years, and it’s not bothered me recently I’m sure.

So something in the region of “less than 28 years” 🤣

Silliness aside, depending on how much you play your fingers soon toughen up. Stick with it and you’ll be ‘reet!

Your fingers will get stronger before you know it, but getting into the habit of using as little pressure as you can get away with, is a good thing because your tone and tuning improves and your fingers recover easier

Why is fingerpicking so bloody difficult? This one is driving me to drink!

What tab/music are you using for that, Simon? I think I tried to find an accurate version a while ago but failed.

How is you guitar set up, igm? If the nut is cut too high you have to press too hard even if the action measures OK. As a rough guide if you can slip a 0.6mm pick under the strings on the first fret and it doesn’t fall out the nut is cut low enough. Action adjusted to Fender (electric) and Gibson (acoustic) specs first.

What tab/music are you using for that, Simon?

I think it was this lesson (which is slightly different from the UG official TAB)

@Edukator – You may well have a point.
I’m learning on a 22 year old Yamaha acoustic which my wife bought me new for my 30th – and yes I’ve been a bit slow finding a guitar teacher.   Getting my eldest a Gretsch for Christmas finally kicked me into doing something about it.
The action is on the high side on the Yamaha and it’s booked in with a local guitar repairs and mods place to get it lowered – it does sound lovely though.
The Gretsch (electric, Les Paul-esque) is a lot lower and easier on the fingers.
I’m presently practicing on the acoustic until my fingers (finger tip bruising, not finger strength) can’t take it, then swapping to the electric (sans amp).

I will get there. I’m known for being stubborn (if not exactly talented)

What tab/music are you using for that, Simon?
I think it was this lesson (which is slightly different from the UG official TAB)

Ta! I’ll have a look later when I’m home.

@tall Martin

I’d already been an Eric Martin fan for years by the time he joined Mr Big. The first gig we attended we got talking to Eric and invited to Manchester Apollo green Room and were on the guest list of all subsequent dates on that tour and the next, we went to Bradford the next night and talked to Billy and Pat for a while, then Nottingham were we talked to Paul and Erics wife at the time. All lovely people

Ok tried what @Edukator suggested. Didn’t have a 0.6, but a 0.71 gripped and a 0.46 slipped so there or there abouts at the nut.

Checked the truss rod / neck line by eye (straight)

But then – measured the action and it’s a good bit more than that suggested but Gibson for an acoustic (ok it’s not a Gibson, but…).

I’m not redoing the bridge on an acoustic myself – we’ll see what the guitar tech place says.

I’ve got Yamaha, Epiphone and Sigma Martin acoustics. I’ve found the Gibson recommended height is the lowest I can go and still play hard without rattles or buzzes.

If you are patient and not worried about failing a couple of times you can make or correct a bridge yourself. You need a vernier caliper, flat surface (piece of glass) and fairly fine sand paper.

Measure the action at the 12th for each string and work out how much lower each string needs to be. Double that value to get how much you need to remove from the saddle. Take the lowest value and remove that from the bottom of the saddle all the way along. For the other strings you’ll need to take a bit off the top. If you have intonation problems on some strings you can sometimes displace the crown a bit at this point to correct. Bits of bone cost peanuts so measure the length and thickness and buy a couple of blanks before you start in case you get it wrong or the guitare won’t tolerate a Gibson standard action.

I like an unwound g-string because they’re brighter and easier to bend so I always have to make my own saddle if I want good intonation.

Thats a cool way to meet interesting folk 🙂

What tab/music are you using for that, Simon?
I think it was this lesson (which is slightly different from the UG official TAB)

Ok, I’ve had a look at the first part of that lesson and it’s pretty straightforward. I’d amend the Bm chord – don’t play a barre, try just fretting the A, G and B strings and don’t play either of the E strings. Quite hard to explain, but you only fret those three strings. It’s a nice Bm shortcut and sounds like it belongs in that tune.

It’s only pretty starightforward if you have half a clue how to play guitar. It’s quite tricky for me 🙂

It’s only pretty starightforward if you have half a clue how to play guitar. It’s quite tricky for me 🙂

I think it’s one of those tunes that sounds more complicated than it really is, not that it’s easy to play it well. The dropped D was the bit that I couldn’t pick out, and that makes a difference. I wasn’t making a veiled reference to the standard of your playing or how I’m fantastic – I’m definitely not, and I’m certainly not brave enough to film myself playing! 😀  But do try the Bm trick, it makes the transition from A much easier and sounds more like the original.

well i have ordered this guitar so won’t be without one for long now lol  https://www.peachguitars.com/cort-electrics-g-series-g300-glam-polar-ice-metallic-burst.htm

i was going to go for the raw version but absolutely nowhere has one in stock here in the uk.

it was on sale so i had to get it (i can live with the glam finish).

am very much looking forward to getting it as they are meant to be fantastic guitars for the money.