@tall_martin I’ve not heard a saucisson, so I assume that I didn’t get the gig. I’ll drop them a reminder though.
I’m kind of relieved, though, given that I didn’t know any but one of their tunes before, and the enormous amount of smoking in the rehearsal would have got to me in the end. I did enjoy the process though, so I’m going to get out and find some more folks to play with – and hopefully I can find someone vaguely local who likes a bit of blues to jam with…

@racefaceec90 – that’s a nice guitar. They’ve had some great reviews…

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

don’t try fleetwood macs never going back again! 🙂 It’s a complete bloody mind ****!

But do try the Bm trick, it makes the transition from A much easier and sounds more like the original.

I actually find it harder doing that so am sticking with the Bm shape for now.

don’t try fleetwood macs never going back again! 🙂 It’s a complete bloody mind ****!

Don’t give me ideas 🤣

Now then guitarists, any thoughts on flatwound strings for downtuned stuff?

I’ve had some on a 355-shaped guitar before, but for various reasons only ever ended up playing it unplugged. I liked them unplugged, they had a nice mellow/jazzy sound and the lack of string noise was nice. I’m thinking it could translate well to a kind of “wall of sound” doom setting 🤔

Does anyone have any experience of them through an amp? Preferably in fairly high-gain settings?

I should just try it I suppose but maybe some else already has and can give me a steer!

Had a wander down to the newly opened Gibson Garage in that london

Nice enough but as you would expect from a lifestyle brand pretty expensive

Worth a trip if you are already in the area but otherwise not really

I spend most of my time playing at whatever speed / timing my fingers happen to come up with. This morning I thought I’d try actually playing along with a whole song. It’s really difficult to do, massive respect to all of the proper musicians that play perfectly in time with the other instruments & vocals!

https://www.tiktok.com/@simondbarnes/video/7341726952652295456

Edit : tiktok links are a bit rubbish, sorry!

I’m terrible for just learning the intro to a song then getting distracted and moving onto something else. I did this with Landslide, however I’ve spent the morning trying to learn to play the end of the verse / pre-chorus / chorus. I have sore fingers now but I think I’ve made some progress. Going to put the guitar down now and go out and drink beer for the afternoon (and watch a bit of live music)

New guitar (and new guitar strap) week! Second things first, the strap was a birthday present from my wife, a ‘made in France from old-school fabric’ kind of vibe, so it’s gone on the Strat.

And now the Tele Thinline – I’d taken my Les Paul LPJ to Sound Affects to commission sale back in September. As of the end of Feb, they’d not sold it, so I asked if I could trade it against a guitar in stock, which they were fine with. This shell pink ’70s style Tele Thinline had been taunting me for a while, so my LPJ (which I think I got for £500) plus £350 and it was mine. The Tele was sold as secondhand, but it still had all the original plastic on it and strings that needed stretching still. Could only have been played for five minutes before being chopped in. I reckon it was a bargain.

And as to where I got my recent obsession with ’70s Tele Thinlines from, I give you Tab Benoit…

@Chipps, I’ve (Kevin) been taking lessons from a mate of yours, Brian.

And now the Tele Thinline

I love the look of that! not sure I could live with a pink guitar, but I like it!

I love the look of that! not sure I could live with a pink guitar, but I like it!

Think of it more as a faded red, or very lively grey and you’ll be fine 🙂

Thats a great looking thinline Chipps

apologies if this is a thread hijack but since we’re talking teles…

recently picked this one up in a trade, expecting to have to change the pickups or spend an age getting it right for playing but, for what it is, as it is, it plays soooo nicely and the sound it makes…I think it’s fast becoming my favourite in the stable

https://ibb.co/gMXNdw9

I took ages before I even played a Tele but the one I bought nearly 3 years ago is the guitar I couldn’t sell ever.

I also have a Baritone and PRS SE DGT and those three cover all the bases I ever intend to visit.

Selling a load of gear I don’t use on Reverb now and doing a lot more playing than tweaking pedalboards.

@eddiebaby what’s your Reverb name?

I’m just John Stanley on Reverb. I sold my last item this morning on there so this evening a bunch of Origin Effects stuff will be going up.

Revival Drive Custom and footswitch

Revival Drive Compact

Revival Drive Compact Hot Rod

Halcyon Gold

I’m keeping the Deluxe61 and the Magma57 and Cali76 Stacked.

Over the next few days a couple of loopers and maybe some Chase Bliss will be added.

I’ll post a link when the Reverb stuff goes live. Obviously I’ll discount to STW members.

Right, will look out for CBA and loopers!

@donslow – Lovely Squier Tele! There was a time when I wasn’t sure about the fat humbucker Teles, but I’ve warmed to them. (Was it Snow Patrol’s influence? Surely not… I’m sticking with Tab Benoit.)

@eddiebaby I’m going to be trying to have a gear clear-out next month. I’ve gone a bit too big recently (and I’ve not ‘fessed half of it on here yet…) and probably need to get shot of a dozen or more pedals that aren’t being used. Reckon I’ll do my regular trick of 99p start, three day auctions on ebay and see where we end up… 🙂

I want a thinline tele now. I should really learn to play the ones I’ve already got though 😅

Today I’ve been trying to make my fingers play some SRV on @chipps ‘s old Jap Strat. Bit (a lot) too difficult for me but will stick at it!

Sounding good, Simon – both the tone and the playing. Now you just need to play that ten times every time you pick up a guitar before you’re allowed any noodling time – until you’re sick and tired of it. And then, suddenly, you’ll find it’s under your fingers…

Origin gear on my Reverb page now. 20-30 quids off for STW folk.

https://reverb.com/shop/johns-shop-4636?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=shop&utm_content=3234877

Looks like it’s all gone @eddiebaby ! Nicely done… I need to do a similar purge soon, I reckon.

In other news, I appear to have passed my French band audition (or they couldn’t find anyone else…) but it’s come with promises of a gig at the end of June, plus another one in August that looks like a festival gig or something. Fun times! Mustn’t use it as a justification to go buying more gear though… 🙂

Woohoo!

@chipps sadly the only one that has gone is the big Revival Drive, the rest are all hit by bloody spammers wanting me to email them directly.

Hey ho, if they don’t shift at these prices then I start slowly dropping them. Unless I  decide to keep them.

I was thinking the other day that I wished I could play the guitar and thought I had left it to late (nearly 50).

That awful thought triggered me into booking a lesson and loaning a guitar! Had it last night. I can do Em and G, hoping to play Nirvana – Where did you sleep last night asap!

Any tips. resources?

Mick

It’s never too late to learn!

There is loads of great stuff on YouTube. I like these…

https://www.youtube.com/@MartyMusic

https://www.youtube.com/@justinguitar

https://www.youtube.com/@AngelaPetrilliMusic

https://www.youtube.com/@andycrowley

https://www.youtube.com/@RyanLendt

Best of luck 🙂

“That awful thought triggered me into booking a lesson and loaning a guitar! Had it last night. I can do Em and G, hoping to play Nirvana – Where did you sleep last night asap!”

With Em and G you’ve got the intro and verse of About A Girl sorted 🙂

Where Did You Sleep Last Night is Emaj, I think, and you’ll also need A and B to round out the roster.

I agree with Simon that there’s loads of great stuff on YT these days. I imagine one thing to watch out for though is “fake learning”, which is something I’m doing quite a lot with chess at the moment, whereby you watch a bunch of YT videos on the subject and feel like you’re making progress whereas in fact you’re just watching videos.

Good luck though, and I agree it’s never too late to learn. As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is right now.

I started properly trying at the end of last year and I’m 50+

Literally never picked up an instrument since those awful compulsory piano lessons when I was 10!

I did buy a guitar a bit earlier but soon realised you have to fully commit or its just a waste of time, so now I’m trying to do at least 30mins to an hour each day. You Tube can be your friend but its also a bit of a minefield and easy to get distracted or go down rabbit holes which don’t actually help you learn. I found learning the chords pretty easy and thinking I was getting somewhere but then trying to change them quick enough was a nightmare and still is. I was trying Bad Moon Rising last night at 179bpm and though its only got 4 chords its hard to get them right!  Its also very easy when starting, especially if you are older to get a bit caught up in the theory and forget the musicality if that makes sense – you end up chugging out chords and progressions but it just sounds dead. Playing along to songs, even if you are ropey and miss out the odd chord or change a couple to easier ones is much more fun and although Justin Guitar says ‘practice makes permanent so practice perfectly’ I still reckon the musicality you learn is worth the duff chord playing, especially if you record yourself so you can spot mistakes afterwards.

Its basically incredibly hard, especially from a standing start. I think setting goals works or at least knowing why you want to learn. For me, I’ve got a ‘bucket’ list of things I want to do and one of them is performing  something in front of strangers as I’ve never done that – so the goal is an open mike night. I don’t care if its 2 old guys and a dog, its the getting up there that counts.

EDIT and if you like going to see live music, especially in smaller venues (like I do) it gives you a massive new found respect for the bands! Try singing and playing in time even a simple song – its a LOT harder than it looks

although Justin Guitar says ‘practice makes permanent so practice perfectly’ I still reckon the musicality you learn is worth the duff chord playing, especially if you record yourself so you can spot mistakes afterwards.

I think he means that continually practicing the same mistake will make that mistake stick, but if, for instance, you are lying flat on your back on the sofa and can’t quite reach the correct fretting but are happy in the knowledge that it sounds crap on this occasion then crack on. Otherwise we’d all practice in a perfect environment, with correct posture, metronome and video playback review. 😀

Started bass guitar back in November aged 49, despite never having even picked up any guitar before. Loving it. Using Fender Play and Yousician for learning. Fender can be a bit dry theory wise, where Yousician doesn’t go deep enough. Both together is a great balance. Some things I’d like in person lessons for but can’t find anyone local that does bass.

After owning guitars for 25+ years and starting to practice more seriously 4 years ago after not really touching them for 10+ years I had my first ever lesson last Saturday – a free 30 minute “taster” that actually went on for over an hour.

We spent some time talking about what I wanted to learn, why I wanted lessons, favourite guitarists etc, and also with him showing me how he taught, playing himself to demonstrate ideas.

Two things I was struggling with he helped with immediately, just a couple of simple pointers and tips.

One example – this time last week I was struggling with speeding up alternate picking, I’m now 25% faster. And he gave me a magic training pick too.

I’m another Youtube fan, it’s great being able to see how the original artists play things. Some tutorials are good, some not so good. Some covers are very good, some not so good. Some people do covers so good I prefer them to the originals. I usually start by listening to and if possible watching the original and seeing how far I can get before tabs and tutorials. I made the mistake of watching tutorials and looking at tabs to Echo Beach before watching the  vid of the band playing it – back to square one but at least the proper way is a lot easier than any of the tabs or tutorials. Same with ZZ top stuff, people tie their hands in knots and Billy does it the easy way live.

“I can do Em and G, hoping to play Nirvana –”

With G you can play ’10 in the bed’. Em7 (a one finger chord) and Am7 and you’ve got Horse With No Name… When I started aged 15 if someone had just told me that F was just E moved up a fret it would have saved me months.

I have played in front of people, mainly in student shows at the Edin fringe in neolithic times. I know but it was a hell of a laugh playing backing and interval songs at the end of night review and then down to the Fringe club.

Anyway, you just had to work things out in those days, so deciphering sheet music for Summertime or Ain’t Misbehaving I got from a Louis Armstrong LP, working out the chords till they fit. Which gives you some warped sense of theory. It’s now just all there on YouTube. Kids these days…

I’ve started trying to play again, past few months after years of not. Bought an old Gretsch acoustic on impulse because I liked the look (hard to play, narrow fretboard, tuning isn’t perfect up the neck, idiosyncratic tone. Did I say it looks great?).

Seem to be on a bit of a country blues thing for some reason, not a genre I know out about. And can now do a mogadon as opposed to crystal meth speed version of solo version of Dust in a Baggie, rough round the edges go at a boom chuck Mr Sandman type thing. Feels a bit like cheating

Anyway, just remembered why I posted. I’m thinking of buying an okay acoustic to bash this stuff out on (my er “style”). But know zilch about them if anyone has tips on what might be good (and yeah I know, play all the guitars in the shop. Any links to a jazz take on smoke on the water?)

In other news, I appear to have passed my French band audition

@chipps

Congratulations 😃 they sound a super fun band. Hows your French music chat? I’d be bricking joining a band in another language 😧

(The internet seems to have eaten my previous answer, so here goes again…) 🙂
Thanks @tall_martin – yeah, they seem pretty keen and are all experienced musos. They rehearse at the singer’s house, which is a massive place in the middle of nowhere up a mountain road – so full volume with the windows open isn’t an issue… Luckily the keyboard player speaks English, so we’re not completely on sign language, but all of the band banter is in French. It’ll probably be better for my French than my guitar playing I reckon!
We have an all-afternoon rehearsal next week, so I have until Wednesday to master five original songs by ear, plus four covers (only one of which I’d heard before meeting this lot. Should be fun. And then to decide what guitars and amps to play/take along and what my Spinal Tap stage outfit will be… All good fun. Terrifying, but fun 🙂

Does anyone know some kind of guitar superstore in Manchester/ Cheshire? I’d love to go in one and try a load before I buy.

PMT Salford

Used to be pretty good when I was a regular but thats over 15 years ago now

I know a few of us on here have PRS SE guitars. Amazon have the SE locking tuners at £81 currently, £18 cheaper than Andertons.

It appears that I got very drunk yesterday and played Hey Joe on stage to a room full of people 😮

Any sound engineers or reasonably knowledgeable people who can explain how to DI an electric guitar into a house PA system please?

I play bass in a church band.  We’ve recently started looking beyond “Shine Jesus Shine” at the occasional service and we need to tighten up on various bits and pieces.

I’ve done away with my combo amp and use my Aguilar Tone Hammer Preamp pedal DI’d to the mixer (a Behringer XAir 18) and use  wireless IEM .  FOH is a main amp into passive PAs.

The guitarist swaps between Acoustic and electric guitars, and at the moment is playing into a combo amp which is also DI’d into the mixer.

We’d like to get rid of his combo amp and DI him to the mixer from a pedalboard but I’m struggling to work out what we need. As I understand it his guitar signal needs some form of preamp, which can be achieved via a drive pedal as a minimum, but then I’m lost as to whether he needs a further poweramp if he’s just going into the mixer, or whether an active DI box would work.