Hey! Guitar players, let's chat.

[Bezmotivnik]

Whoa! Note that the previous post was #1000 for the thread.

That's pretty amazing for sheer longevity. :-k

[matthew]

Whoa! Note that the previous post was #1000 for the thread.

That's pretty amazing for sheer longevity. :-kWow! What did I start here? :)

Let's go for another 1000. Guitars rock.

[Bezmotivnik]

Wow! What did I start here? :)

Let's go for another 1000. Guitars rock.

You The Man! ;)

[Patrick-Ruff]

lol, it kinda irritates me. maybe because of all these small flaws I notice I might naturally get that good.it could be how I hold the pick that's causing that slight ammount of rubbing. oh well, I"m figuring it out ;).

[Bezmotivnik]

oh well, I"m figuring it out ;).
As I mentioned, the guys who are really fast (if that matters to you -- and it doesn't to me) concentrate on the feel, the tactile feedback, of the pick's action against the string. Nominally, you should be picking with the pick almost perpendicular to the string if you are picking up/down, but again, you should use the method that creates the least wasted motion and the most sensitive feel for you. These, along with a very light touch, seem to be the tickets to fast picking.

[justin whitaker]

Say guys, anyone have one of these: Ibanez RG2EX1 (http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/buy_ibanez_re2ex1_electric_guitar?full_sku=1033821 15)?

I played guitar for about 15 years, then dropped it. That looks like a solid axe for very little dinero.

[eXcentra]

Hey, guys. I'm looking to get a guitar (first time :)) and I want it to last for a while.
At first, I was thinking of going for a Fender Standard Strat but my friend told me not to get it because the made in Mexico ones had bad construction; he had one, tried it out, and returned it. So then I was looking around for other guitars. The Epiphone les paul standard seemed good, but my friend advised me to get a Gibson Melody Maker (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gibson-Les-Paul-Melody-Maker-Electric-Guitar?sku=512640) (it's made in the US and is only $350). They have a little video demo of the Melody Maker at the Gibson site (http://www.gibson.com/Files/AllAccess/2007/Flash/MelodyMaker/video2.html).
But then I was thinking, since I will be sticking to one guitar for a while, why not go for a better one? I was taking a look at the epiphone les paul cstom (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Epiphone-Les-Paul-Custom-Electric-Guitar?sku=518350)... If budget permits, I might go for the les paul custom if it's better than the Melody Maker.

So in my situation, I'm deciding between a melody maker and a les paul custom; i'd prefer the guitar that is more "versatile" in genres..
I have yet to go out and try out the sound of these guitars for myself, but I want to know what you guys think. Any experience with them?, etc.
:)

Edit: I don't mind used guitars either. and for the record, i'm leaned more towards the melody maker :S

[victorbrca]

Anyone use any program on Ubuntu for recording, effects and/or rhythm machine??


Vic.

[Bezmotivnik]

Another spectacularly fugly axe:

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/3/8/8/229388.jpg

The Minarik "Diablo" -- not quite in the same class as the genuinely frightening Hallmark "Stradette" (previously discussed), but ugly enough to warrant an honorable mention, and it does it without resorting to geeky colors.

[Bezmotivnik]

anyone have one of these: Ibanez RG2EX1 (http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/buy_ibanez_re2ex1_electric_guitar?full_sku=1033821 15)?
I've never owned or even played an Ibanez, but it gets points for being a hardtail.

[Punker]

this forum has everything
I still jam I started when I was 16 yrs I don't play out/drunk anymore
I will smoke all of you at the guitar LOL J/K I took a bunch of lame Italian Spanish guitar lessons my grandfather loved Al Coala he was a great flamingo/Italian guitarist but I'm prob off topic here :mad:

[justin whitaker]

I've never owned or even played an Ibanez, but it gets points for being a hardtail.

Floyd Rose's confuse me. :)

[Bezmotivnik]

Floyd Rose's confuse me. :)
Here, read this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Rose).

Please note that the linked article perpetuates the gross error of referring to these devices as "tremolos." They categorically are not; they are vibrato mechanisms or "vibrolas," if you must. They aren't tremolos and never will be.

Anyhow, at least on paper, the Floyd Rose device is the only vibrato that doesn't have significant tuning problems.

[matthew]

Say guys, anyone have one of these: Ibanez RG2EX1 (http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/buy_ibanez_re2ex1_electric_guitar?full_sku=1033821 15)?

I played guitar for about 15 years, then dropped it. That looks like a solid axe for very little dinero.I've played a few Ibanez guitars and been impressed. They tend to have flatter necks than I prefer, but that's just personal taste. In general, they seem to be pretty good for the money and I hear very few complaints about them.

Another spectacularly fugly axe:

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/3/8/8/229388.jpg

The Minarik "Diablo"
Can you imagine this in neon yellow?

[Punker]

ho yea yellow is GREAT for that axe

[Bezmotivnik]

I've played a few Ibanez guitars and been impressed. They tend to have flatter necks than I prefer, but that's just personal taste.
I'm curious as to who actually manufactures them, which would tell me a lot about some of the finer points.

The RG-type Ibanez guitars are shredder-spec: Thinner ("Wizard") necks, flatter fretboard radius. I don't really mind that layout but it's not my favorite.

I very nearly got an RG when a second GC opened here and they had about twenty of them at 75% off in their grand opening sale, but I passed and they went in about fifteen minutes. They looked adequately well-made, but they're just not for me -- they're THE axe for teenage guitar jocks, though: Go into GC and the annoying kid desperately showing off his shreddy sweep-picking is always on an Ibanez. :rolleyes:

[Patrick-Ruff]

anyone know of any good guides on vibrato? (like beinding the strings with your finger(s) back and fourth) I have never been able to do it quite like a lot of the guitarists I see so I'd like to accomplish that.

maybe it's just hard for me because of the strings on my acoustic (a bit higher off the action, harder to bend, etc.)

[aeto]

bending and vibrato are different. Vibrato is more of a feel, wheras bending is dynamic.

vibrato = fret, pick, sway finger from side to side gently.

bending = fret, pick, move finger up and down, can be aggresive or can be light.

first timers on acoustic will have a slightly challenging task because of the tension of the strings on such guitars. Electric is easier. Just make sure you do not slip off the fret when doing either, and use less of the arm and more of the wrist onwards (its the basic rule so as to not tire).

I am sure youtube has lots of videos :)

Btw guys, www.has-sound.com if nobody has recommended yet. My personal favourite, and i really mean personal. Custom-handled pups, beats DiMarzio, Seymour Duncon and all other passive pups. Highlight would be the Viper, killer of the Evo/Evo 2. Next would be my own killer, the Hellion. It basically changed my mind about getting the X2N (but X2N is definitely hotter, and that can mean positive and negative to different musicians).

[Patrick-Ruff]

I knew the difference between vibrato and bending. vibrato is what I have trouble with on my guitar.

[Bezmotivnik]

vibrato is what I have trouble with on my guitar.
Vibrato was tough for me, too, until Kim Simmonds (http://savoybrown.com/) kindly showed me how when I was only a little older than you are. He was huge at the time. Leslie West (who was also not only huge, but very large (http://www.mountaintheband.com/photogallery/friends/pages/LynardSkyard1.htm) as well) had said in an interview that the measure of a guitarist, like an opera singer, was the quality and control of his vibrato, so I set out to earn how. Kim Simmonds took a couple of minutes to show me how he did it and the rest was just practice.

The way he showed me was with the wrist and hand locked solid and all movement being rotational straight from the elbow, with the string being held by the edge of the callus of the index finger, with the other fingers very loose. This gives a very strong vibrato with only minimal pressure at the fret, as the muscles in the arm are doing all the work. The string is pulled downward. An upward "push" vibrato with the ring finger can also be accomplished similarly, but in my experience never has the power or control of the way Simmonds showed me in about '68, or whenever it was. That was the way I played from then on.

Some vibrato can be done entirely with the individual finger that frets the note, but that requires more strength than I had in my hands and is difficult to control.

How you do it is not important -- all that's important is how it sounds.

[Patrick-Ruff]

right on, thanks for the info. I'll test it out

and here's a video of how I currently play/hold the pick, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3X6TpEwKSE

[Bezmotivnik]

bending and vibrato are different. Vibrato is more of a feel, wheras bending is dynamic.

vibrato = fret, pick, sway finger from side to side gently.

bending = fret, pick, move finger up and down, can be aggresive or can be light.

It sounds as though you are describing two kinds of vibrato ("a regular pulsating change of pitch"), just different in degree.

"Bending" is "choking," simply pushing a note sharper. No vibrato effect is involved.

[Tremolo, of course, is "a regular pulsating change of volume or iteration," which is why it is always wrong and ignorant to refer to a whammy bar as a "tremolo," as a passive instrument cannot produce volume pulsation -- only an active electronic circuit in an amp or effect can.]

[Punker]

Do you look in the mirror when you practice?
I find this useful I used to hate when I seen guitarist aways looked at their fret board I look into the eye of the beholder!

[matthew]

How you do it is not important -- all that's important is how it sounds.That sums up my attitude to playing the guitar perfectly. If it sounds right, it is right.

That said, I generally do vibrato by pulling the string down. I twist my arm while using the side of my hand as a pivot point on the lower edge of the fretboard. If you've ever seen B.B. King do the "butterfly" looking vibrato, mine is similar (but not as good...). :)

[Patrick-Ruff]

I always liked BB Kings vibrato, it seemed like he was putting his soul into it.

[Bezmotivnik]

You're holding the pick exactly like I do: The index finger and thumb intersecting at right angles, with the tip of the pick pointing straight down at a right angle to the string.

Tip: Pay very close attention to the way the pick feels in your hand as you play the string. That will tell you where your mistakes are happening and how to correct them, more so than your ears will. Play very lightly until you get really good control (when you go electric, this will be easier, as you will be using lighter strings, lower action and unlimited amplified volume -- shredders barely even touch the strings with either hand).

It will help to use a very thin pick for this at first, as it allows for more sensitive tactile "feedback." When I started, I always used the heaviest picks I could find because they lasted longer and I didn't have to replace them as often. That was a mistake. You can be too cheap!!

[Bezmotivnik]

I always liked BB Kings vibrato, it seemed like he was putting his soul into it.
He does vibrato exactly like I told you, too -- it strikes me now that that's where Simmonds probably picked it up, as everyone worshipped B.B. King's style then, when he was a much younger and stronger player -- he's a shadow of his former self now. It's a miracle he can still play at all with his medical problems.

My only formal teacher was the spectacularly fine guitarist Rich Hepner, who Zappa brought out from Colorado to play with Captain Beefheart (when his was a more conventional band -- Rich found the scene too crazy, quit, and was replaced by a teenaged kid named...Ry Cooder). Rich said that when in doubt play it like B. B. did. Technically, Rich was miles better than King, but had endless admiration for King's musicality.

Rich went into the ministry and apparently vanished from the face of the earth.

[Bezmotivnik]

Do you look in the mirror when you practice?
No, I'm too ugly. It's distracting.

When I was a professional performer I did, though -- in front of a full-length mirror. How you look matters...hugely.

But in the geezer home studio, you dont even need to wear pants!

[Patrick-Ruff]

yeah. that video I was playing with a medium pick. it's easier for me to pick on the higher strings. when I get to the bass E string, it's hard to pick fast without it sounding kinda like a machine gun (not the sound I'm going for ;) )

[jeffc313]

Currently I am building my own guitar amp from instructions on Make: Magazine. Luckily my soldering is better than my guitar playing.

[Punker]

No, I'm too ugly. It's distracting.

When I was a professional performer I did, though -- in front of a full-length mirror. How you look matters...hugely.

But in the geezer home studio, you dont even need to wear pants!

nice LOL you got to excuse me I'm all around this forum and irc a bunch I have not stoped playing but my guitar sit's over their ad looks at me she is mad at me when I played out if I would have stayed sober I would have handled myself better but my attitude was like their is nothing around here this band isent going anywhere but I did play with the bass player from White Lion LOL I played the song wate back stage for him he told me I played it good LOL I sat in with their band playing guitar I did a good solo but man I was drunk on tequila
what was it like being a pro performer?

[Bezmotivnik]

what was it like being a pro performer?
Touring was very, very, very hard work, plus we were constantly being cheated by absolutely everyone who had the opportunity. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Ask anyone!

I quit and went into radio broadcasting in California and in NYC. I worked almost as hard, was cheated almost as much, but I had much more influence on the music industry and more fans -- with the added bonus of being able to have almost total privacy. I always pretended that I was just someone who worked for me, and that I had just left. ;) People were often suspicious, but I always got away with it. Fans are great, but only if you never have any personal contact with them. They are deadly spiritual parasites who will destroy you, and that goes for anyone successfully doing creative work in any "glamour occupation" -- actors, media celebrities, musicians, writers, etc. -- any gig that attracts people with no lives who want a piece of yours and have created elaborate delusions about why you owe it to them.

I spent about half my working life in music & broadcasting and the other half in "something else."

[matthew]

Currently I am building my own guitar amp from instructions on Make: Magazine. Luckily my soldering is better than my guitar playing.I made one from a kit 7 or 8 years ago. Here's a really old, poorly designed web page (http://www.matthewhelmke.com/guitar-amp/allen/allen2005.html) (Web 1.0) from 1999 documenting the process. Sorry the mp3's are missing. Someday maybe I'll put them back. I've done some mods to the amp over the years.

Have fun! It's an enjoyable and educational process building your own amp. You won't likely save any money, but I thought it was worth it anyway.

[Punker]

Touring was very, very, very hard work, plus we were constantly being cheated by absolutely everyone who had the opportunity. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Ask anyone!

I quit and went into radio broadcasting in California and in NYC. I worked almost as hard, was cheated almost as much, but I had much more influence on the music industry and more fans -- with the added bonus of being able to have almost total privacy. I always pretended that I was just someone who worked for me, and that I had just left. ;) People were often suspicious, but I always got away with it. Fans are great, but only if you never have any personal contact with them. They are deadly spiritual parasites who will destroy you, and that goes for anyone successfully doing creative work in any "glamour occupation" -- actors, media celebrities, musicians, writers, etc. -- any gig that attracts people with no lives who want a piece of yours and have created elaborate delusions about why you owe it to them.

I spent about half my working life in music & broadcasting and the other half in "something else."

I agree 100% as a fan of rock music I never felt like the bands owed me something people are messed up but more fans = $$$$$$

[jeffc313]

I made one from a kit 7 or 8 years ago. Here's a really old, poorly designed web page (http://www.matthewhelmke.com/guitar-amp/allen/allen2005.html) (Web 1.0) from 1999 documenting the process. Sorry the mp3's are missing. Someday maybe I'll put them back. I've done some mods to the amp over the years.

Have fun! It's an enjoyable and educational process building your own amp. You won't likely save any money, but I thought it was worth it anyway.

no chicken head knobs?!?!?!?!!?? :lolflag:

[matthew]

no chicken head knobs?!?!?!?!!?? :lolflag:LOL. I liked the cream barrel knobs better on that amp.

I put chicken head knobs on this one I refurbished (http://www.matthewhelmke.com/guitar-amp/national/national2005.html)...1940's (?) era National/Valco. (another old web page warning...ancient design.)

[Bezmotivnik]

I agree 100% as a fan of rock music I never felt like the bands owed me something
As Bogart once said, the only thing you owe your fans is your best peformance.

people are messed up
And they get more so every day.
but more fans = $$$$$$
Their main function is to generate revenue, certainly.

Early in your career, fans are helpful to you in a personal sense. When you're starting out, everyone just kicks you in the face and treats you like dirt no matter how much you have to offer. It's hard to keep going when nobody believes in you but yourself, and even you have your doubts. When you first start accruing fans, they help give you some confidence in what you're doing and that someone appreciates your efforts. These early fans are usually more sane and sometimes their input is even worth considering. Above all, they generate buzz for you, which is absolutely essential to make it to the next level.

The problem arises once you reach a certain level of fame (however localized or general) and then you are besieged with people who want a piece of you simply because you're famous. They don't understand you or what you're trying to do or anything aside from the fact you were on the cover of a magazine or something that made you a star in their estimation.

These people are vermin.

They attach themselves to you like barnacles, and usually get their grip on you by telling you how great you are and worshipping you and your insecurities like a god. Everything you do is brilliant, you're a genius, you're beautiful.

If you're stupid enough -- and most celebrities are -- you believe it. You surround yourself with these manipulative creeps, fire anyone who doesn't kiss your feet, and immediately start making a lot of career-killing bad decisions because every stupid idea you come up with is competitively praised by all your toadies and groupies as your most brilliant idea ever.

What you really need at that point in your career are honest people who can and will tell you when you're being a jackass, and those aren't going to be your fans. It takes a firm grasp on emotional maturity to listen to criticism instead of adulation, and most newly-minted celebrities don't have it.

The quality of your work suffers and the party's over pretty quickly after that -- and you usually don't get a second chance. I've seen this happen hundreds of times.

[Patrick-Ruff]

nice analysis.

[Bezmotivnik]

I was thinking of going for a Fender Standard Strat but my friend told me not to get it because the made in Mexico ones had bad construction
He's right; there is effectively no quality control at the Ensenada plant. I'd say at least 80% of the MIMs I've seen had fairly serious build problems, at any price point.
my friend advised me to get a Gibson Melody Maker (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gibson-Les-Paul-Melody-Maker-Electric-Guitar?sku=512640) (it's made in the US and is only $350).
Forget it. Unless you're crazy about the Gibson name (in which case you deserve whatever happens to you), you can do hugely better for that amount of money.

But then I was thinking, since I will be sticking to one guitar for a while, why not go for a better one? I was taking a look at the epiphone les paul cstom (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Epiphone-Les-Paul-Custom-Electric-Guitar?sku=518350)... If budget permits, I might go for the les paul custom if it's better than the Melody Maker.

I'm deciding between a melody maker and a les paul custom; i'd prefer the guitar that is more "versatile" in genres...
Edit: I don't mind used guitars either. and for the record, i'm leaned more towards the melody maker :S
The Melody Maker is a joke. There's no "versatility" in a guitar this basic. There's not even a tunable bridge or a neck pickup. This is merely a nostalgia reissue of Gibson's old "student" guitar and the cheapest way yet to get a guitar bearing the name of the most overpriced and overrated guitar brand on the planet. I have quite a few vintage and modern Gibsons, but I wouldn't pay any real money for one. I was considering buying a J-100 I saw on sale at Guitar Center last week, but it was a dud. $2500 MSRP and it was full of dead spots, sounding like a guitar one tenth the price.

As I've said many times before here, since the introduction of robotic production, it's very hard to get either a really bad or really good guitar at any price these days.

I shop hard and buy a lot of guitars, basses and amps -- at least one a month, or more. I tend to find the contract product for various brands coming from Cor-Tek (and they seem to build guitars for EVERYone, I swear) to usually be of decent quality and if you shop hard and can maybe handle a closeout model or weird color, you can easily get a pro-grade instrument for under $350. I've gotten two Cor-Tek Fenders recently for less than that and they are excellent instruments with good build and top-quality US Seymour Duncan dual humbuckers.

It's like everything else -- shopping hard is like doubling or tripling your budget.

As far as used guitars go, unless you are an extremely competent guitar expert, I advise avoiding them totally unless you're getting them for about scrap value. Almost always, you're buying someone else's problems...whether you're savvy enough to realize it or not.

[Patrick-Ruff]

we had a huge discusson on that les paul custom a while back.

I was directed against it, not only is it more expensive, but all it is, is just better looks. gold hardware doesn't last that long, it loses that same shine it had when it was new and gradually turns into this tannish look. don't waste money on a custom.


personally, I've fallen in love with the normal epiphone les paul. it's like 400-500, better then a 600 dollar guitar that offers no tonal increase, no better sound, nothing but looks. I mean, just think about how much more you'll cry if you get that extra dent/scratch in it, especially if one of your strings break ;).


and bezmotivnic, I suspect it's my shitty acoustic design that is causing many of my picking problems (such as rubbing of the strings, etc.) I foudn that whenever I play on a slightly better acoustic . . . anywhere, my fingers don't rub at all. hopefully the forum discusson gets active again . . . I'm gonna need something to help get my mind off of life right now.

[Bezmotivnik]

If budget permits, I might go for the les paul custom if it's better than the Melody Maker.
There's currently a long sale on the Epiphone Les Paul Classic at MF, $349.99, which was what you were considering paying for the Melody Maker:

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/8/8/7/274887.jpg

The page for this (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Epiphone-Les-Paul-Classic-Quilt-Top?sku=518353) shows only the wine red version at that price, but the April warehouse flyer has the wine red, blue and vintage sunburst all for $349.99 on page 2. Promotion code is 704T.

MSRP on these $999.99.

[matthew]

There's currently a long sale on the Epiphone Les Paul Classic at MF, $349.99, which was what you were considering paying for the Melody Maker:

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/8/8/7/274887.jpg

The page for this (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Epiphone-Les-Paul-Classic-Quilt-Top?sku=518353) shows only the wine red version at that price, but the April warehouse flyer has the wine red, blue and vintage sunburst all for $349.99 on page 2. Promotion code is 704T.

MSRP on these $999.99.That's a good deal! I've played these and they're generally quite nice.

[Bezmotivnik]

That's a good deal! I've played these and they're generally quite nice.
Seemed like a very good price and this model supposedly has the highest user-rating of all the Epiphone Les Pauls...for what that's worth.

I've still never owned or even played an Epiphone. Seems impossible, but true. :-k

[Patrick-Ruff]

hmm, maybe you should go to guitar center and tell us what you think ;).

[Bezmotivnik]

Yeah, well...I got that Spector bass today. :rolleyes:

I can't make up my mind what to think of it. It took a huge amount of setup to get in the ballpark and the neck's still misaligned. I don't know if it's worth it to me to do a major disassembly to kludge a fix on the misdrilled bolt-on neck/body. The pocket is right, but the screwholes aren't, and with these five-screw necks, it's kind of difficult to get enough slack to pivot the neck straight in the pocket, but it's possible.

It plays and sounds OK, or will after I dump these awful, fret-killing stainless roundwounds. Pickups are passive EMG imports (I'm not a fan of active basses anyway) with quite a range of sound. Electrics are wired properly.

I'll see if I can get a replacement, and if not, I'll decide then. :-k

[justin whitaker]

They looked adequately well-made, but they're just not for me -- they're THE axe for teenage guitar jocks, though: Go into GC and the annoying kid desperately showing off his shreddy sweep-picking is always on an Ibanez. :rolleyes:

Sweep-picking is not that hard, AIRC. That's sort of like showing off by breathing. :D

[GuitarHero]

Sweep-picking is not that hard, AIRC. That's sort of like showing off by breathing. :D

Sweep picking is generally a parlor trick used to trick non musicians into believing the individual sweeping arps is talented. Most of the time there is little musicality in sweeping. Notice I said most of the time not all of the time.

[Bezmotivnik]

Sweep picking is generally a parlor trick used to trick non musicians into believing the individual sweeping arps is talented.
My point.

Most of the time there is little musicality in sweeping.

Again, my point. Same can be said of shredding in general, of course.

[Bezmotivnik]

hmm, maybe you should go to guitar center and tell us what you think ;).
I can't think in Guitar Center! :???:

[eXcentra]

Whoa, thanks for the input, Bemotivnik. :)
I was quite skeptical about the MM and the les paul custom :-k; I had no idea if they were worth the money or not. I guess I have my answers solved now.

I seem to be directed towards the epiphone les pauls. Would you guys think it's more worth it to get a classic or standard? on MF, they generally have the same ratings (although the classic has 688 reviews and the standard has 2175!) Is there any significant difference between the two?

Thanks, guys. :D

[Patrick-Ruff]

well, one of these days you should try grabbing one up bezmotivnik. unless you have some deep sort of justified resentment towards them, lol.

[Bezmotivnik]

well, one of these days you should try grabbing one up bezmotivnik. unless you have some deep sort of justified resentment towards them, lol.
No, not really, it's just that they're essentially Gibson designs and the Gibson designs I want I have already, in Gibsons. Make sense?

I'm not personally interested in the standard type Les Pauls because they're just too blasted heavy for me as a rule and the necks are too big for my hands.

Lots of people seem to be quite happy with these Epiphone Les Pauls.

[Bezmotivnik]

I seem to be directed towards the epiphone les pauls. Would you guys think it's more worth it to get a classic or standard?
I don't think there's much difference in them other than the covered pickups on the standard, which I believe are otherwise the same humbuckers, and the quilt top.

Considering the long deal on the Classic, I'd say it was the obvious choice at $349.99, shipped, with a MSRP of $999.99 vs. the Standard being $379.99 with an MSRP of $665.00. That's a pretty persuasive bottom line right there.

There's quite a bit of difference between the Gibson Les Paul Standard and the Classic, with the Classic being a much cheaper model than the standard, but I don't believe there is anywhere near as much with the Epiphones. It's somewhat hard to tell, though, as Epiphone doesn't have significant spec sheets online for their various models.

There are numerous Epiphone forums around, I'm sure, and you could probably get some information through them. I'm no Epiphone expert myself.

[matthew]

I seem to be directed towards the epiphone les pauls. Would you guys think it's more worth it to get a classic or standard?
The main differences are in the pickups and appearance, and therefore subjective. I've played examples of each that were nice, but I've never owned an Epi. I had a bandmate who had an Epi LP Standard that was 85-95% of the way to most Gibsons I've played...that convinced me to lead people to look that way and at least give them a consideration. Anyway, back to your question, if you aren't sure, get the cheaper one.

[Patrick-Ruff]

only thing I didn't like about that classic was the tuners . . . chrome would look much much better.

[Bezmotivnik]

if you aren't sure, get the cheaper one.
Especially when it's the much more expensive model. ;)

[Bezmotivnik]

Yeah, I've decided that Spector's going back. This "buy it and fix it" business is getting old and I'm fed up with it. I have more pressing things to do with my time than extensively repairing brand-new instruments for which I've paid good money. [-(

[Bezmotivnik]

I just gave the FAT HH Showmaster to Mark a while ago, so there'll be some pretty pictures soon. ;)

[Patrick-Ruff]

right on. I've been working on my picking for a while. not really sure if I have the pick sticking out too much, someone told me that I should put it back more, but that makes it harder to strum.

I know it's all about the sound, but I'd like to have the least resistence possible when playing.

[Bezmotivnik]

I know it's all about the sound, but I'd like to have the least resistence possible when playing.

Experiment with picks. I just got a few Everly "Jazz Star" picks (http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/6/1/7/367617.jpg) which (despite the huge picture!) are very small, almost like mandolin picks. Very little pick is exposed when you hold it. MF was closing them out cheap so I got a few. The downside with small picks is that though fast, you have a greater chance of your fingertips touching the string.

Another important thing that nobody's mentioned so far (I don't believe) is to always practice with a metronome, backing MIDI rhythm track or even the recording of the song you're learning. There are lots of options here, with a lot of freeware computer programs and other available solutions.

This is important for the student to resist the natural temptation to play faster and slower relative to the difficulty of what he's doing. A good sense of timing is essential, and it's important to establish it early.

[Patrick-Ruff]

http://www.metronomeonline.com/ there's one here, but I don't realy get how to use it.

the main issue I have with picking is my fingers rubbing and the speed. I find that with those dunlop picks it's easier as there is less resistence in the actual pick, and I have a feeilng it'll be easier to pick bass strings on electric anyways, but it was just something I was wondering about as I don't have a music teacher yet.

and I've used jazz picks before, a bit too small for me. that natural sensation to go fast you talked about, I got rid of that when I was in 5th grade learning the recorder. every time I play a song, unless I'm doing it intentionally, it's always at the same exact rhythm

[Bezmotivnik]

http://www.metronomeonline.com/ there's one here, but I don't realy get how to use it.
:confused: What's to get? Doesn't it work in your browser?

I have a feeilng it'll be easier to pick bass strings on electric anyway.
It probably will be.

every time I play a song, unless I'm doing it intentionally, it's always at the same exact rhythm
Are you sure? :D

The large majority of guitarists I've heard can't stay on beat for long without a drummer...and lets HOPE the drummer can stay on beat, though an amazingly large number of them can't, which is why they use click tracks in the studio.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I'm mostly sure. I've recorded my self playing these songs many times and they were /very/ close. and I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do with that metronome . . . like hit each string in sync with the beat?

[Bezmotivnik]

I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do with that metronome .
Pretend it's the drummer's snare or kickdrum. That's all. Move the tempo up or down, to suit.

[matthew]

The large majority of guitarists I've heard can't stay on beat for long without a drummer...and lets HOPE the drummer can stay on beat, though an amazingly large number of them can't, which is why they use click tracks in the studio.I'm a rare exception to that trend. I have an excellent sense of rhythm and stay on beat very well. I can't read a lick of music, though, so I have some real weaknesses, too.

[Bezmotivnik]

I'm a rare exception to that trend. I have an excellent sense of rhythm and stay on beat very well. I can't read a lick of music, though, so I have some real weaknesses, too.
I personally have a tendency to speed up when playing guitar, but not when drumming. I never record without a click or scratch track in any case. :oops:

[Hey, did you get my PM?]

[matthew]

I personally have a tendency to speed up when playing guitar, but not when drumming. I never record without a click or scratch track in any case. :oops:

[Hey, did you get my PM?]I'm a human click track...my problem is that I like to get creative with syncopation, and sometimes less experienced musicians get confused. :)

[I just found it and responded.]

[Patrick-Ruff]

*whistles* well this is off topic, but I just got a 320GB hard drive, I'm happy. LOTS of music now :).

[slayerboy]

*whistles* well this is off topic, but I just got a 320GB hard drive, I'm happy. LOTS of music now :).

ya I'm enjoying my 500GB external drive that I got a couple of weeks ago! LOL:D

[matthew]

*whistles* well this is off topic, but I just got a 320GB hard drive, I'm happy. LOTS of music now :).

ya I'm enjoying my 500GB external drive that I got a couple of weeks ago! LOL:D/me is happy for the two of you. I'm making do with a 100GB in my laptop and a 200GB external for backups, etc.

[slayerboy]

/me is happy for the two of you. I'm making do with a 100GB in my laptop and a 200GB external for backups, etc.

should I rub it in more by saying i also have a 250GB internal and an 80GB internal, and another drive lying around that is probably around 30GB lol

holy snikes...that's more than 3/4 of a terrabyte!

But to even it out, I'm willing to bet I have the smallest guitar collection and the least expensive one too lol. I think I would have to pay someone to take my guitar...LOL.

[Patrick-Ruff]

lol, seems like people put way too much pride into everything they have in their computers. kinda funny how I got nothing but (except for matthew) "OH LOOK, I HAVE A BIGGER ONE!"

[dbbolton]

oh, didn't you know ?

EVERYTHING has to be a competition here. if it makes you feel better, my hard drive is 80GB

[Bezmotivnik]

oh, didn't you know ?

EVERYTHING has to be a competition here.
OK, so, I counted the other day and I have ten basses and twenty-nine guitars.

What do I win?

Nothing? OK, oh well... :-k

Mark's lagging on the Showmaster pictures. "Wednesday, at the latest." We'll see. :confused:

[Bezmotivnik]

Here are the FAT Showmaster photos (http://photoweborama.com/guitars/showmaster?page=1).

[matthew]

Here are the FAT Showmaster photos (http://photoweborama.com/guitars/showmaster?page=1).Nice.

[Bezmotivnik]

Nice.
For $305, delivered, yeah! The trick now is getting it back from Mark, who's taken quite a shine to it.

[Bezmotivnik]

Oops -- Mark's blocked hotlinking!

[justin whitaker]

I haven't pulled the trigger on a guitar as yet.

My wife used to take Guitar lessons, and she gave me hers...a handmade classical made by a luthier in San Salvador...pretty nice "handmedown" except for it has been grossly mistreated.

It was stored in a basement, and now the soundboard is now cracked in 3 places, most dammingly a nice 4 inch split by the bridge. I'm not even sure the soundboard will take the tension of a new pack of strings and a full tuning.

Any suggestions on what to do with this? Get it patched? Trash it?

[Bezmotivnik]

Any suggestions on what to do with this? Get it patched? Trash it?
That's some pretty severe damage, and I suspect that there may be more problems you can't see.

I'm not an authority on major acoustic repairs except to know that it's almost impossible to get them done both well and cheaply. Competent major acoustic repairs almost always exceed the value of the instrument. :(

I'd take it to someone who's more up on classical instruments and see what he says.

[Bezmotivnik]

I'm expecting that soon we'll be seeing Kauri wood as the next replacement after the spalted maple fad blows over.

Kauri is the ultimate deadfall wood -- 50,000 years old, from New Zealand.

I have my doubts about it as a tonewood for a solid body (http://www.langcaster.com/Lancaster.Images/LT15-BIG.jpg), but in the gaudy wood top laminate derby, you must admit it's a strong frontrunner!

[Patrick-Ruff]

those high res pictures make any guitar (ALMOST) look ridiculously good. if guitar manufacturers did this more often, they would get a lot more sales, easy.

[Bezmotivnik]

those high res pictures make any guitar (ALMOST) look ridiculously good.

ONLY if it's meticulously prepped. Otherwise it makes your guitar look like the city dump.

[Pancetilla]

Hi, new here

I've got an epiphone casino and a fender telecaster (the bad one, lite ash, but enough for me and my crappy playing). I play them through a Roland Micro Cube and a Pignose, but I'm looking for a matamp minmat (all-tube 2 Watt amplifier) and a 1x12 cabinet (bedroom player, my gigging days are over).

I seldom use effects, tremolo and reverb from the microcube and a (lovely) big muff for David Gilmour sound, but I'm looking for a tubescreamer and I can't make up my mind. Money is not a problem, but I don't want to spend too much on it. I have heard clips of Ibanez TS-9 and maxon OD-808 and OD-9, but I like them all (sound clips are not often reliable, though). Any recommendations? I'm looking for a Disraeli Gears/Cream tone, Bluesbreakers too, maybe early Led Zep, with bluesy overdriven tones for the solos and some sustain.

Thank you!

[slayerboy]

ONLY if it's meticulously prepped. Otherwise it makes your guitar look like the city dump.

I should take a pic of my guitar....I think the city dump looks better!

[Bezmotivnik]

I should take a pic of my guitar....I think the city dump looks better!
I took a quick picture of the head of my beloved Höfner "Colorama Custom" which was only a couple of months old and I thought was pretty clean. The hi-res picture looked hideous --, absolutely filthy, grungy and sticky.

I was shocked. :shock:

Mark does an amazing amount of prepwork on these guitars getting them ready to shoot.

[Bezmotivnik]

a fender telecaster (the bad one, lite ash...

What don't you like about the Lite Ash?

I saw a few that weren't so hot, and I'm not big on the matte/MOP neck treatment, but essentially they're decent instruments. Good US Seymour Duncan pickups and -- generally -- pretty good detailing. I don't feel 100% OK with FMIC'S contract choices of hardware and neck finish, but they're OK. [shrug] If I could have bagged a deal on one I'm sure I would have bought one. I'm somewhat tempted by the current Koa version of the same instrument, but I doubt I'll ever see a long deal on one.

I'm looking for a matamp minmat (all-tube 2 Watt amplifier) and a 1x12 cabinet.

In the meantime you might want to fool with an Epiphone Valve Junior. It is a very pure Type A 5W tube amp with no tone stack, preamp gain control, effects or other rigmarole. It's extremely quiet (if you get one of the new ones with DC tube filaments), and dirt cheap. I got the combo for $107 delivered and it's now my #1 amp -- in a house full of them. I put a better preamp tube in it and that was it.

I'm looking for a tubescreamer and I can't make up my mind...(sound clips are not often reliable, though). Any recommendations?
I'd probably start with ignoring sound clips, as I've never, ever been able to duplicate their sounds with "identical" equipment.

Lots of people are insane for the Digitech "Bad Monkey" as their #1 Tubescreamer replacement. I have it and a whole lot of other so-called tube overdrive pedals and frankly they all sound more or less alike to me. The Tubescreamer was a very simple circuit that used lots of different components from one production run to the next, and people who are not overwhelmed by the mojo effect say that the whole Tubescreamer mystique is just snake oil and they usually sounded different from each other anyway. I'm inclined to agree. A lot of people seeking the holy grail sound are taking very simple Tubescreamer-type circuits, such as in the very cheap and moddable Arion Tubulator, and putting OpAmp and diode sockets in the PCBs, then swapping out various brands of 4558-series dual OpAmps and diode types until they find "their" sound.

Any stomp is just one item in the signal path and what sounds good with the rest of your setup may sound lousy with everybody else's.

[Pancetilla]

Thank you for taking some time to answer my questions :)

About the lite ash telecaster, i find it ok, I'm comfortable playing it, but I have tried some MIM teles and they sound brigher to me and a little easier to go up and down the neck...but with guitars you never know...maybe, it's all about overall settings (different strings, better amps or different pick ups), you never seem to get the right sound. But I'm curious about how the lite ash fare against some (cheaper) Squier teles.

About the Epi Valve Junior, i've been thinking about it as a cheap minimat replacement (the head with the new released cabinet...they look so vintage...) because of the rave reviews and all, but I live in a flat and I'm wondering if it's too loud when getting the overdrive (my neighbours are OK, but I don't want to disturb them more than the necessary). So I've got two options:

Epi Valve Junior+Cabinet+maybe attenuator (I was thinking of Weber micromass)
Minimat (less wattage, but with built in attenuator just in case)+1x12 cab

I've been GASing for the Zvex Nano Head too. Things is that I'm spanish and the Epiphone is way more expensive here in Europe than in the USA, so the price difference between the two configurations is smaller...

[Bezmotivnik]

About the lite ash telecaster, i find it ok, I'm comfortable playing it, but I have tried some MIM teles and they sound brigher to me and a little easier to go up and down the neck...but with guitars you never know...

The MIM "Standards" as well as the other MIMs have chronic quality control problems. I'm not a fan.

I'd say only about 20% come out of the Ensenada plant more or less right.

About the Epi Valve Junior, i've been thinking about it as a cheap minimat replacement (the head with the new released cabinet...they look so vintage...) because of the rave reviews and all, but I live in a flat and I'm wondering if it's too loud when getting the overdrive

In amps this small, the volume is mainly a function of speaker efficiency, not wattage. I think that probably the 10" combo version is a lot quieter than the new box & head arrangement, and that's what I've heard in the first reports from NAMM.
I've been GASing for the Zvex Nano Head too.
Zvex gear is too weird even for me. :shock:

Things is that I'm spanish and the Epiphone is way more expensive here in Europe than in the USA...
This always seems crazy to me. The amp's made in China, comes in via Atlantic (for some reason) ports. If it's any more expensive in, say, France than it is in Kansas, it's gotta all be politics. :(

Why everything is dirt cheap in the US, I dunno, but it is. :confused:

[Bezmotivnik]

Got the Showmaster back from Mark -- so highly polished that I almost dropped it several times.

Unreal... That guy is so obsessive.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I think that's awesome for you dude. that guitar looks whiked now. if I was taking pictures of guitars like that I'd probably be obsessive too ;).

[Bezmotivnik]

if I was taking pictures of guitars like that I'd probably be obsessive too ;).
The guy is really an unusual case. When I first knew him a couple of years ago, he couldn't play for squat, then out of nowhere he got to be a fairly competent metal shredder in about two months. I have absolutely no idea how, or even why. It's a complete mystery. :-k

Obsessive nature must have something to do with it.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I'd think so. if I had access to nice looking guitars, and I was completely obsessed with guitars like they were my life, I would probably be able to get hela good within 2 months if that was literally ALL I ever did . . . ever.

[Bezmotivnik]

if I had access to nice looking guitars, and I was completely obsessed with guitars like they were my life, I would probably be able to get hela good within 2 months if that was literally ALL I ever did . . . ever
Yeah, but he's got a job and a family with bratty kids and about thirty-seven real and imaginary illnesses, etc. etc. I totally don't get it. I can't understand how he gets anything done...or can even think straight.

[Patrick-Ruff]

interesting, yeah, that's pretty harsh. usually when the kids are gone it's easier . . . I would think.

back to guitars . . . is there any site or resource that might have sound clips from single coil guitars and humbuckers? I'd like to hear the difference for my self, but I life 75 miles away from the nearest guitar center . . .

[Bezmotivnik]

is there any site or resource that might have sound clips from single coil guitars and humbuckers?

Hmm. That's a good question...I guess.

I don't know. I'm not sure where you would find something like that that would be really clearly a demo of the pickup, rather than somebody's whole signal chain, which of course complicates things.

Seymour Duncan's audio clips site (http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/soundbytes.shtml) is pretty exhaustive, but I don't know if this will be helpful to you or not. Maybe.

[Patrick-Ruff]

thanks. doesn't seem to be a huge difference from what I can hear.

[Bezmotivnik]

doesn't seem to be a huge difference from what I can hear.
The differences between pickups of the same type are subtle and only clearly show up under certain circumstances. They also sound somewhat different on different guitars.

Likewise, you have to A/B-listen to those samples with a pretty good audio system or at least decent earphones; with the dinky speakers in my notebook, I couldn't tell ANY difference in the "Neck Clean" humbucker samples to save my life, and almost none between any humbucker and a P-90.

The differences are more pronounced at high volumes.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I think the reason I have so much trouble with this guitar is the fact that it's soo much like a classical guitar. the bridge is about 7 inches away from the sound hole so I can't get any support from the bridge for picking, the strings are pretty high off the action, and the neck is huge. quite lame.

[Bezmotivnik]

the bridge is about 7 inches away from the sound hole so I can't get any support from the bridge for picking, the strings are pretty high off the action, and the neck is huge.
It's worse if you don't have long fingers.

Yeah, if nothing else, you have a great deal more setup flexibility with the average electric...and that's the understatement of the week. Frankly, I hate acoustic flattops for their maintenance nightmares and short lifespans and unpredictable quality and about forty other things...though I bought another one yesterday for some reason. :-k

[Patrick-Ruff]

this one looks like it's been through hell.

the one great thing about it though is that I NEVER have to tune it. seriously, it seems like I only have to tune it once a month or every 2-3 months.

other then that, it's a complete pain. what are the thoughts on ibanez electrics (like the ones satriani plays)?

[matthew]

other then that, it's a complete pain. what are the thoughts on ibanez electrics (like the ones satriani plays)?The ones that I have played have been made well, been consistent, with reasonably good sound. They all seem to have narrow, flat necks and a really flat fretboard radius that people either love or not. If you see one, pull it off the shelf and give it a try.

[Bezmotivnik]

this one looks like it's been through hell.
So do I. For good reason.

the one great thing about it though is that I NEVER have to tune it. seriously, it seems like I only have to tune it once a month or every 2-3 months.
Something tells me you're not using an electronic tuner.

However, I blew the dust off of my Guild D-40 last night and played it after not touching it for at least six months and it was pretty much in tune. Very good instrument. Unlike all the other vintage flattops I have, it's stable and isn't in that typical slow process of self-destruction.

what are the thoughts on ibanez electrics (like the ones satriani plays)?
Don't know nor care what Satriani plays, but I think we discussed the Ibanez a week or two back.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I tuned it using a tuner application on my computer (I have a very good microphone.) it was never off too much, just slightly.

[Bezmotivnik]

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what that guitar is that Maijapop's (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=maijapop) playing (when she's not swinging that stupid leek around). Looks like a Russian Stratocaster knockoff. On the other hand, she got over 200,000 hits with the leek. :-k

[Patrick-Ruff]

looks pretty nice. I just looked through every fender on guitar center.com and couldn't find anything.

so unless I missed it, it's probably some look-alike.

[matthew]

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what that guitar is that Maijapop's (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=maijapop) playing (when she's not swinging that stupid leek around). Looks like a Russian Stratocaster knockoff. On the other hand, she got over 200,000 hits with the leek. :-kIt's likely a knockoff of the Fender Showmaster dual humbucker version. I don't recall ever seeing a Showmaster with body binding, though.

[Bezmotivnik]

looks pretty nice.
She does. The guitar's pretty weak.
so unless I missed it, it's probably some look-alike.
It looks like an old Eastern European knockoff of a Fender. In the past few years, it's been fairly difficult to get away with producing something with an unlicensed Fender headstock profile, even in Asia.

Of course, it could be some goofy European-market Chinese Fender, which don't exist in the US. There's a very large number of Fender guitar models that were and are sold in foreign markets only. Sometimes guys import them back here if they're interesting enough, like the MIM "Johnny Hallyday" Telecaster (http://fr.audiofanzine.com/commun/window.php?lien=%2Fimg%2Fproduits%2Fnormal%2F4%2F5 %2F45010.jpg).

I'd love to get my paws on some of these weird Eastern European monstrosities (http://www.junkguitars.com/pictures.html), which are dirt cheap there now that real guitars are being imported. I can't get my extended tribe to send me any because they're too lazy, though. :(

Go through that page and you'll see how far Asian import guitars have come in the past forty years!

[Bezmotivnik]

I don't recall ever seeing a Showmaster with body binding, though.
I have one in the other room (naturally!). One of these (http://www.guitartrader.com/itm_img/EGFNFH+BKSHSCOR-f.jpg).

Note the weird vibrato on hers. Nuts, I just wrote her and axed her what it is.

[Bezmotivnik]

Yikes! What a double-threat axe (http://meatexz.com/cheesyguitars/ussr_doubleneck.html)!

Lots of wonderful stuff on that site to prove once again that there is such a thing as progress!

[paul cooke]

But in the geezer home studio, you dont even need to wear pants!

ha ha... that's all fine and good until you get your wedding tackle caught in the springs for the whammy bar...

[Patrick-Ruff]

yikes.

[Patrick-Ruff]

been a bit silent . . .


what have you all been up to?

[Bezmotivnik]

been a bit silent . . .


what have you all been up to?

Marvelling at the improving quality of Chinese guitars, mainly. It's incredible.

I mentioned that I got a cheap acoustic on sale, which was a Washburn WD20SDAO, a solid spruce topped dreadnaught. Normally, I would never have touched this guitar, but it was on long sale at MF and I was curious about the quality. In the event, it was extremely impressive -- perfect build and finish AND setup except for some minor fret detailing I would have done slightly differently. The nut was even properly cut, which in itself is mind-boggling. Not a single glue drip inside. Beautiful work! Take it out of the box, tune it up and go. That's the first time I've seen that in a long time at any price. Got this as a beater/loaner, but it's too good for that.

I have no idea if that's typical or not, but I was impressed. Came with MF "bonus" Kases gigbag, which is only marginal. $149.99, shipped, on "Stupid Deal" sale (MSRP $545 + $30 bag). This is it (http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/6/2/7/438627.jpg), but they wisely added a tasteful pickguard since the photos were taken.

Got the replacement Spector "Performer DLX" for the lemon I sent back. This one is very nice, very pretty wood, everything straight, sounds fine. Here's the promo picture (http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/4/2/0/306420.jpg), but it looks hugely better with a darker, richer finish. Needed neck adjustment, fret touchup and a good wood oiling, etc. but otherwise a very decent, giggable bass with good range from the dual EMG-SSD pickups. $179.99 (shipped, 2-Day air), MSRP $545.

I'm utterly amazed at how much the quality of Chinese instruments has improved over the past two years.

There has never, ever been a time when quality instruments were this affordable.

[Patrick-Ruff]

heh, do they make chinese les pauls? :D

[voided3]

Yeah I can vouch for the improved quality of imported guitars. I have a Squier '51 I picked up on a whim for $100 at a local music store (blonde finish, black pickguard) and I have enjoyed it quite a bit. I might swap the bridge on it in the future with a GFS unit, but the electronics on it are nice and the playability is also quite good. If you ever find one for dirt cheap, I highly recommend it.

[Bezmotivnik]

heh, do they make chinese les pauls? :D

Yeah, they're called Epiphones. :neutral:

I was in GC Wednesday and they must have had a couple of metric tons of them. Didn't really look at them.

Users claim that the current Chinese ones are better than the Korean ones from some years ago. I dunno.

[Bezmotivnik]

I have a Squier '51 I picked up on a whim for $100 at a local music store (blonde finish, black pickguard) and I have enjoyed it quite a bit. I might swap the bridge on it in the future with a GFS unit, but the electronics on it are nice and the playability is also quite good. If you ever find one for dirt cheap, I highly recommend it.
The guy with the bucket on his head here got one a month or two back. I wonder what he thinks of it after some time to break it in.:confused:

They're very, VERY popular, but supposedly discontinued. I briefly considered picking one up out of curiosity and Overstock.Com had them on one-day sale in December with accumulating coupons and bonuses that got it down to about $51, shipped, but I missed that. :( GC had a stack of 'em at $99.99 yesterday.

From what I gather from reading the '51 mavens, over the production run they were made in at least two different factories in two different countries, with a lot of varying quality control and even different parts and materials. Some great, some not so...

[Patrick-Ruff]

woo, quiet for 3 days . . .

[NilsE]

Just a quick hello..

Take a look at my home page - My Guitar Page (http://home.nycap.rr.com/nils/)

[Bezmotivnik]

woo, quiet for 3 days . . .

Not much news; I'm going to have to do some major neck setup on the Spector bass I just got as the neck's sitting too deep in the pocket, which will require the use of a full-pocket shim due to the pocket and heel being assymetrical and the mounting being staggered five-screw.

I asked about common retail availability of good quality tapered shim stock on a guitar repair forum and just got the usual tangential and unhelpful responses one always gets in open internet discussions. While the responses were irrelevant to my question, I was yet again impressed (or depressed) by the utter stupidity and gross technical incompetence of these people who are working on other people's gear for money.

It's absolutely shocking, though completely consistent with my first-hand experience with these self-ordained "guitar techs" over the years. Not only are they incompetent, they have no idea they're incompetent. I've never personally encountered one who knew what he was doing. I know there must be some out there -- somewhere! -- but they're certainly not plentiful.

This is why I've been forced to do my own work all these decades. :(

[matthew]

It's absolutely shocking, though completely consistent with my first-hand experience with these self-ordained "guitar techs" over the years. Not only are they incompetent, they have no idea they're incompetent. I've never personally encountered one who knew what he was doing. I know there must be some out there -- somewhere! -- but they're certainly not plentiful.

This is why I've been forced to do my own work all these decades. :(This is why the Stewart-MacDonald catalog and Dan Erlewine's books have been indispensable to me. I've done my own work for years.

[Patrick-Ruff]

that's ridiculous . . . I'll make sure I read up on all that stuff.

is it really that dangerous to replace pickups your self? I talked to some kid online who was going to take his guitar to a luther(sp?) just to get the pickups replaced, and he was all paranoid about messing up the electronics in it or something . . .

[Bezmotivnik]

This is why the Stewart-MacDonald catalog and Dan Erlewine's books have been indispensable to me. I've done my own work for years.
Dan's a nice guy, but I'm not 100% on his books, which seem to have been written or edited in a bit of a rush with some things left out or misstated, apparently by accident, that I'm quite sure Dan would have changed had they been brought to his attention. I haven't seen these books for a couple of years (and haven't corresponded with Dan in even longer), so subsequent editions may have been corrected. He also makes a statement or two that do not make sense to me, at least not without further elaboration. The books generally could have done with at least 50% more explanitory text, in my view. They don't really convey Dan's knowledge in adequate depth relative to the breadth of subjects covered.

Something I've noticed that bothers me a little is that Dan used to eschew all (or at least most of) these repackaged snake-oil special "guitar" products in favor of more generic industrial materials like naptha, linseed oil, etc..."and this is a tool I made from a bicycle spoke..." Now that he's working for Stew-Mac, he can't flog their overpriced specialty stuff hard enough. :( They seem to have hired him for no other purpose than to be a salesman (I'm assuming you're getting his e-mailed tech letters from Stew-Mac).

It's also important for people to understand that people have different frames of reference and agenda about what work is even appropriate to undertake on a guitar, much less how to perform it. Dan's is sort of a platonic ideal of how to create the maximum functionality of a feature or most comprehensive repair, period, irrespective of cost or effect on what I refer to as the original integrity of the instrument. Dan has no problem with doing $600 worth of work on a $250 guitar, as long as the customer wants it done. That's perfectly valid, and indeed how a repairman makes his living and exhibits his skills.

Given the identical circumstances, my approach would almost always be different from Dan's because I have different objectives, particularly to maintain the originality of an instrument that is, or may become, valuable proportionally according to its originality and to also make sure any instrument remains profitable to turn over.

This means that I take a much more conservative approach to guitar work than Dan or most repairmen would. Dan does have a substantially more informed and careful approach to routine things like basic setup, though, which I share.

What I like most about Dan personally is that he loves learning and sharing new information from all available sources and isn't jealously guarding some ego-position of omniscient guru wisdom. Show him a new way of doing something and he's delighted and wants to tell everyone. That's a generosity of spirit and intellect that I find admirable and far too rare.

[Bezmotivnik]

is it really that dangerous to replace pickups your self?
Working on a guitar is ALWAYS dangerous to the instrument!

I can't emphasize that enough! It is surgery. You shouldn't do it unless there's a compelling reason, not just curiosity or "fun."

Swapping a pickup on a Les Paul is a technically bone-simple procedure, but there are lots of things you can do or forget to do that will cause problems, and these include matters of blind luck.

Doing a pickup swap is probably a debatable improvement anyway from either an absolute or economic standpoint.

For example, to swap a Les Paul pickup, you will have to remove and replace eight woodscrews which were not intended to be removed and replaced -- four on the pickup bezel and four on the control cavity cover. Even if you know how to properly remove and replace a screw without stripping it (and most people don't), you stand about a 50% chance of at least one stripping out the hole anyway because either the screw went into a soft spot in the wood or the monkeys at Gibson stripped it during assembly or the former owner stripped it or some debris fell into the hole you missed. Not a tragedy, but an annoyance -- the average tech will jam some glue-(or spit-) soaked paper in and fake a repair rather than to take the time to do it properly, which will take as long as changing the pickup does.

OK, now changing the pickup means that you have to use a soldering iron inside the control cavity. How many Three Stooges outcomes can you picture involving a hot soldering iron, a fancy guitar finish and molten metal? Go ahead, be creative! :rolleyes:

So, you get the control cavity open and find that it's typically filled with sawdust and dried-up buffing compound, abrasive dust and other manufacturing debris. You try to shake it all out, brush it out with something or blow it out with compressed air. You get the swap done, the cover back on and everything's great until you test it out and discover that one (or more) of the control pots are now noisy because some abrasive dust or other filth got blown into the opening in the cover and fouled the wiper.

Or...you got the wiring polarity wrong on the pickup because the wiring color-codes were different (and unsupplied) so the guitar sounds sick until you take it apart and start over.

There are maybe seventy-three other utterly stupid things that can happen to you doing "routine" work.

There are lots of things you can do to minimize some of these risks, but they take time and you're five days (or weeks, more likely) behind on your repair orders. Do you chance it? :-k Yep, every time, if you're a "professional guitar tech" trying to get out from under your workload. You can probably bury your screw-ups or blame them on the customer -- you're good at that, because it's about 2/3 of the job.

[matthew]

Something I've noticed that bothers me a little is that Dan used to eschew all (or at least most of) these repackaged snake-oil special "guitar" products in favor of more generic industrial materials like naptha, linseed oil, etc..."and this is a tool I made from a bicycle spoke..." Now that he's working for Stew-Mac, he can't flog their overpriced specialty stuff hard enough. :( I started reading his stuff at least 15 years ago. I really hadn't paid attention to this change, but it's obvious now that you mention it. I guess I got started in the early days and have been ignoring the "hey, buy this tool/product" bit.

I can see your point on the "not enough explanation" bit. I tend to be pretty handy with tools anyway, so I'm probably reading between the lines with some of his stuff.

What I like most about Dan personally is that he loves learning and sharing new information from all available sources and isn't jealously guarding some ego-position of omniscient guru wisdom. Show him a new way of doing something and he's delighted and wants to tell everyone. That's a generosity of spirit and intellect that I find admirable and far too rare.That does show in all his writing.

Working on a guitar is ALWAYS dangerous to the instrument!

I can't emphasize that enough! It is surgery. You shouldn't do it unless there's a compelling reason, not just curiosity or "fun."
Unless you're me, and you bought an instrument because you liked how it felt in your hands, or because you are compulsive about taking absolutely everything apart that you own. Overally, Bezmotivnik is right. That said, I have taken my Telecaster (admittedly, one of the most simple guitars ever) completely apart, changed the tone pot to my liking, installed new bridge saddles, engraved the pickguard with my name, and other assorted things. Then again, I let a professional cut and install the bone nut for my Guild acoustic...

[paul cooke]

It's absolutely shocking, though completely consistent with my first-hand experience with these self-ordained "guitar techs" over the years. Not only are they incompetent, they have no idea they're incompetent. I've never personally encountered one who knew what he was doing. I know there must be some out there -- somewhere! -- but they're certainly not plentiful.

This is why I've been forced to do my own work all these decades. :(

those that are any good are too busy to be posting on internet forums....

[Bezmotivnik]

those that are any good are too busy to be posting on internet forums....
The cycle for good techs works like this, and I'm talking from many years of observing it:

A really able guy starts doing work on his own gear out of necessity. He instinctively develops good technique and accrues knowledge and tools. Eventually he starts doing a few minor setups and fixes for his friends. Word spreads and he starts taking a few paying jobs in his basement shop. Eventually, some local shop asks him if he wants to be the house tech, or else he opens his own walk-in shop. He starts getting more work than he can do, especially as he finds there are incredible numbers of people interrupting his work to waste his time. He also has to take in more work as he's splitting 50/50 with the guitar store or else making the commercial overhead expense of a real shop of his own. He also takes jobs he wouldn't have touched before because he needs the money. Still, he has more work than he can actually do and he's stressed out by the hassle of business. The quality of his work (and life) suffers. Instead of working on guitars, he's dealing with irate musicians who want their work finished and more of them wasting his time asking for opinions and estimates on stupid work and mods that they'll never do anyway. In desperation, he hires some hang-around kid to help with the "easy" jobs to get out from under the backlog and let him have time to do the business end -- or the other way around. Either way, it usually doesn't work out because the assistant doesn't have the tech's knowledge or abilities in either doing the work or knowledge of running the business, and now he has to pay an employee and deal with the hassle of being a boss training the guy to do work his way and covering up or re-doing his blunders.

Eventually, and usually after some final disaster of some sort, he blows the whole thing off, sells the shop or just walks away from the guitar store and they get someone else to do their work (at which point we start at the top of this cycle again). He may go back to fixing a few instruments in his basement, but his love of the work is ruined forever.

What it's like -- exactly -- is someone saying, "Gee you're really a great cook! You should open a restaurant!" Being a good cook doesn't mean you can run a restaurant. Running a restaurant well as a business doesn't mean you can really cook well, either. What you wind up seeing is a successful restaurants with merely adequate food, because the business part is always more important. Most guitar repair is like that. The shop has the business down, but doesn't do great work because most of having a good business is convincing the customers that they're getting better value than they are. That's more profitable than actually doing good work.

Even the people who do superb work at something as a hobby rarely make it as pros.

[Patrick-Ruff]

heh, well, I have experience using a soldering iron, and I happen to have a friend who is /very/ good at repairs of just about anything. this guy got me into using a soldering iron to fix stuff, so I think if I ever had the need to fix a pickup, I could go to him and we could probably tackle it. (of course, this dude would understand exactly what I meant if I described to him the situation with the wood screws, etc. he probably would be able to fix it just like a luther would if it screwed(heh . . . screw) up.)

I would however like to build my own amp in the future. I'll have to start getting into tinkering with electrical stuff more :), all in which that guy is extremely good at.

so I suppose I'm fortunate at that, knowing people that have to know these things to survive. I live out in the middle of nowhere, and if you're strapped for money you find that you rely on useful friends to help you, or you fix it your self. the only real difference is, more **** can go wrong outside the city. I can't even count how many appliances and electrical problems we've had. it's ridiculous.

[matthew]

I would however like to build my own amp in the future. I'll have to start getting into tinkering with electrical stuff more :), all in which that guy is extremely good at. I've built an amplifier. Before you get that far, make sure you realize that 1) you won't save any money, but will probably spend more and 2) if you don't know what you're doing with high voltage electronics, like tube circuits, you can kill yourself. This isn't an exaggeration. Do lots of reading, learn good practices and really know what you're looking at before you start. Then it will be a lot of fun. :)

[Patrick-Ruff]

yeah, I get the emphasis on the dangers of it, as I wouldn't build it without my friend around, unless I knew I could do it.

though, I don't really understand how it can kill me if I'm building it while it's off ;).

I mean, we have voltage testers and all that :D

[matthew]

yeah, I get the emphasis on the dangers of it, as I wouldn't build it without my friend around, unless I knew I could do it.

though, I don't really understand how it can kill me if I'm building it while it's off ;).

I mean, we have voltage testers and all that :DCapacitors can store a large charge, even when the circuit is unplugged.

Read lots. Be safe. Have fun!!! If you want book recommendations, let me know.

[Bezmotivnik]

I've built an amplifier. Before you get that far, make sure you realize that 1) you won't save any money, but will probably spend more and 2) if you don't know what you're doing with high voltage electronics, like tube circuits, you can kill yourself. This isn't an exaggeration.
Repeat both points until memorized, then add #3: You'll wind up with a technically primitive amp for your troubles.

#2 doesn't often result in death -- though it absolutely can! -- but it routinely results in dreadfully painful and disfiguring permanent injuries to your hands. :shock:

Back in the old days when amps had larger electrolytics than are even made currently (you now have to make them yourself from multiple smaller ones to do a cap job on one of these old amps), the danger was even worse.

I used to do audio P2P & PCB assembly full-time for a boutique sound reinforcement gear manufacturer, so all the romance is gone from that stuff for me. Like I say, if you want to grow to hate something you enjoy, do it for your living for a while. :( Does it every time. When I got back from my gruelling European tour when I was a young guy, I didn't touch a guitar for about two years and never had another band. Same principle.

I've never built an amp simply because I can buy two or three for price of building one.

[Patrick-Ruff]

ah, I finally got my fingers strong enough to to the F major on my guitar, hardest thing ever. I could do it on ANY guitar but mine for the longest time.

barre chords are soo fun :D. it feels like something that if you're really good at them, changing and such, you could play like that for hours.

[Bezmotivnik]

ah, I finally got my fingers strong enough to to the F major on my guitar, hardest thing ever. I could do it on ANY guitar but mine for the longest time.
Sounds like heavy strings and/or high action. :-k
barre chords are soo fun :D. it feels like something that if you're really good at them, changing and such, you could play like that for hours.
Yeah, it's called orchestral guitar. A complex chord change every two beats through an elaborate jazz progression. That's serious guitar playing! You have the hands for it; I don't.

Watch a video of a '40s big band (for example) and pay attention to what the guitarist is doing.

Sort of puts nit-note shredding in perspective. :rolleyes:

[ronocdh]

Watch a video of a '40s big band (for example) and pay attention to what the guitarist is doing.

Sort of puts nit-note shredding in perspective. :rolleyes:
I'm a lifelong metalhead, and even I find this extremely insightful. I listen to a lot of technical death metal, so it's all about the shredding and fast arpeggios, but Bezmotivnik is right: them jazz players is sick.

\m/

[Patrick-Ruff]

yeah, when I first started doing that it was a major strain on my hand, but every day I do it and it gets easier and easier.

my picking still irritates me though, even though it's more then adequite . . . I usually rest the side of my palm on the bridge without muting and anchor my pinkey below it, which allows me to alternate pick REALLY fast. I've been mostly trying to master that.


could someone sum up what exactly is in music theory? from what I gather it seems like a bunch of stuff on writing music, but probably more complex then that.

[Bezmotivnik]

yeah, when I first started doing that it was a major strain on my hand, but every day I do it and it gets easier and easier.
You have to develop this strength while you're young, too.

could someone sum up what exactly is in music theory? from what I gather it seems like a bunch of stuff on writing music, but probably more complex then that.
You want this in a paragraph or two, right?

Ultimately, it's just which notes go together, when and why.

Look, you're in school -- take a music class. The more theory you have, the better you'll understand how to play and what you're playing. I didn't take music because I was too dyslexic to read charts (written music), but that was a mistake. I should have gutted it out until I found a way, like I did with everything else.

Understanding music theory is the difference between being a musician and a just being a guitar player. :(

Every guitar player I've ever personally known wishes he had more theory...including me.

[Bezmotivnik]

Unless you're me...compulsive about taking absolutely everything apart that you own.
Shhhh! :-$ Me too. I usually get away with it, but not always.

I have taken my Telecaster (admittedly, one of the most simple guitars ever) completely apart, changed the tone pot to my liking...

I got a really long deal on my Telecaster when they introduced the "American" series to replace the "American Standard," which had already phased in almost the changes anyway. The natural ash bodies unfortunately came with white pickguards, if you can imagine it, and I just couldn't handle that. I couldn't get a black one that fit locally and they wanted full list everywhere else, so I got a used one from some guy in Mississippi and undertook the switch. Big deal, no problem, routine bonehead work, right?

When I was done, the neck pickup was stone dead.

Because I couldn't see properly, I managed to touch the exposed, hairlike coil lead wire on the back and broke it. Fortunately, it was the outside lead and I managed to unwind a turn from the spool and delicately repair the pickup good as new. Otherwise, it would have been scrap.

There are almost limitless numbers of stupid things that can happen when even a fairly skilled person works on a "simple" guitar to peform a "routine" fix. [-X

[Patrick-Ruff]

heh, actually I'm taking a whole year of guitar class and I might take another year of band after that (4 year colleges don't count guitar class as a fine art.) so I will be gettnig a dosage of theory, and all sorts of stuff.

does anyone know if notation is easier to read then tabs? like as far as being able to pick it up faster then just simply reading a tab and all that. I know there's a lot more deep stuff into it, such as the beat and all thes other weird symbols and notes. oh well, perhaps these questions are pointless as they are things I will be finding out in the future. I'm the type of person that just wants to know, no wasted effort kind of guy. I don't like to do things that I end up regretting later, that's why I was so distinct and in depth about my technique and all that. I still am, but I keep it silenced. so far it's helped me a lot, frustration aside.

[Bezmotivnik]

heh, actually I'm taking a whole year of guitar class and I might take another year of band after that (4 year colleges don't count guitar class as a fine art.) so I will be gettnig a dosage of theory, and all sorts of stuff.
Smart move!

You have to go to school, so make it give you something you want for a change. In prison (which I have personally managed to narrowly avoid, but which bears an uncanny resemblance to school in principle) they say, "Don't serve your time; make your time serve you." ;)

does anyone know if notation is easier to read then tabs?

It carries more information and if you can read music well, it conveys a great deal more to you, much more efficiently. So...if you read it well, it's easier, I guess, as tab is very crude.

oh well, perhaps these questions are pointless as they are things I will be finding out in the future. I'm the type of person that just wants to know, no wasted effort kind of guy. I don't like to do things that I end up regretting later, that's why I was so distinct and in depth about my technique and all that.
I know, you want it all right now! :)

You may immediately regret the drudgery of learning, but you will not regret having the knowledge. I regard about 90% of what I learned in school as an utter waste (or simply false and/or misleading), but I truly wish I would have formally studied music when I had the chance. Instead, I have to do stuff through trial and error, then reverse-engineer it to figure out what that chord actually is. If I had theory, I would have known where those notes and chords wanted to go in the first place, as soon as I had the idea.

The other thing I wish I had is keyboards, which they usually put on you in music class. Frankly, I'd trade guitar for keys in a heartbeat, if I could. :( So, if they want you to do a little keyboards, put your back into it -- it will help your guitar playing and will make theory more obvious.

[jaywhy13]

Glad I found a thread like this. I have an acousitc gitz.. how do I connect that to my comps to play? What kinda commands and so on or programs can I use.

I currently have Guitar Pro installed. Sound playback is crappy though... it breaks up and sounds shaky, using Timidity.

Timidty on a midi file works perfectly though.

[Patrick-Ruff]

heh, I thought I posted a reply . . . but I didn't apparently.


sadly I forgot what I said.

[Bezmotivnik]

sadly I forgot what I said.
You're too young to have that problem!

:shock:

[Bezmotivnik]

Glad I found a thread like this. I have an acousitc gitz.. how do I connect that to my comps to play? What kinda commands and so on or programs can I use.
If you are experimenting now, then obviously you found some way to get an audio signal input to the computer.

Personally, I would never use Linux for serious digital recording as it's just too much hassle and the applications too buggy and primitive for real use.

At least in theory, you can use the audio/line in on your soundcard to record guitar, but I've never heard of anyone ever really getting decent results. Ultimately, they all seem to go to digital recording cards or outboard devices. Which ones (if any) are supported by Linux I have no idea. The cost can be anywhere from about $88 to several thousand, depending on features, number of channels, etc. What they do is convert audio input into high-quality digital output to the computer, which processes it with some program like Cubase, and then outputs it through the card to your studio monitors or headphones.

Choppiness, breaks and noise are due to numerous causes, but are generally because some type of processing capacity limits have been exceeded.

[Patrick-Ruff]

apparently not. I'm very very very very very forgetful. it's very irritating. I'm writing stuff down on my hand most of the time. I have ADD too, so that's a possible side-effect. (of course, if ADD is even a real condition, it's possible that it isn't, but lets not get into that ;) )


anyways, I think my guitar skills will accel much more during the summer, where I live, I have plenty of time to do a whole lot of nothing (which I plan to fill in with a whole lot of something.

[Patrick-Ruff]

how's everyone been? what's been going on? what have you guys been up to?

and all related questions.

[L2wis]

heya :) I'm going on a guitar hunt today, going to go have a go on some acoustics and strats/tele's :)

[matthew]

I had five of my friends over this week for an impromptu and informal acoustic guitar jam session that ended up being a tutoring session (by me). Had a blast. I'll have to do it again soon.

[Patrick-Ruff]

sounds like fun. I'm thinking about grinding down the plastic on the top of the neck to allow the strings to get down lower on the action to make it easier to play. not quite sure how I should go about doing this, I know they have to be completely level . . .

[Bezmotivnik]

how's everyone been? what's been going on? what have you guys been up to?
I've been trying to educate unwilling gristleheads on gear fora. Listen, the secret to getting along on those places is to ask questions, but never answer them.

Man, musicians are stupid! :rolleyes:

I remember when only mature, smart, intellectually capable people were on the Internet. Now it's like Wal-Mart, I swear. :(

Rant, rant, rant...

I've been tied up dithering over my garden and have been neglecting the guy who's more or less putting a band together for me. Lord only knows how that's going to end. Three guys are playing without me, which means I'm falling more and more behind before I've even met them. :(

I did a major remedial neck pocket setup (which dealt with a difficult problem in a very ingenious way, if I do say so myself! ;) ) on that Spector bass I recently bagged, then lost an eBay auction on two sets of light flatwounds for it and another bass (stainless roundwounds cut through frets like a plasma torch). I put that nifty new Washburn acoustic in its gigbag and set it aside when I was trying to straighten up the bedroom then promptly forgot about it.

I'm rethinking a lot of my bass preferences and analyzing how I came to have them in the first place. The conclusions are somewhat embarrassing.

[matthew]

sounds like fun. I'm thinking about grinding down the plastic on the top of the neck to allow the strings to get down lower on the action to make it easier to play. not quite sure how I should go about doing this, I know they have to be completely level . . .I would recommend that most people NOT attempt this themselves.

That said, it's not terribly difficult if you're careful. If you mess up, though, you will be cutting a new nut (or having one cut for you).

First, remove the nut (the plastic thing the strings go through near the headstock, before going to the tuning pegs) carefully with an X-Acto knife. Go slowly and don't break/cut anything. Just try to separate the nut from the wood.

Next, wrap a piece of relatively fine grit sandpaper around a block. Hold the nut with the grooves up and sand the backside evenly using the sandpaper block. A vise is useful for this, if you have one. Go slowly and do very little at a time. Keep it level, or maybe slightly higher on the bass side.

Carefully fit the nut back on the neck with a little Elmer's glue. Wait until it is dry, then restring slowly and carefully (so the nut doesn't pop off and injure you with a sharp sting-end to the eye or something).

Well, that's how I would do it, but never on anything of value...

[matthew]

I'm rethinking a lot of my bass preferences and analyzing how I came to have them in the first place. The conclusions are somewhat embarrassing.I hope she was cute. :)

[Bezmotivnik]

I hope she was cute. :)
Extremely. Tina Weymouth, ages ago. I was around her a bit and had a dreadful crush on her.

I was always bummed out about my stunted and somewhat weak hands and was at the time playing a '63 Gibson Thunderbird II (which I still have). She was playing a thick-necked Precision, which totally shamed me out of playing anything but the heaviest, biggest bass necks from that day to this, never mind that she switched to small necks later herself.

How's that for stupid? :oops:

I can't believe I haven't mentioned this ridiculous story before.

[matthew]

Extremely. Tina Weymouth, ages ago. I was around her a bit and had a dreadful crush on her.

I was always bummed out about my stunted and somewhat weak hands and was at the time playing a '63 Gibson Thunderbird II (which I still have). She was playing a thick-necked Precision, which totally shamed me out of playing anything but the heaviest, biggest bass necks from that day to this, never mind that she switched to small necks later herself.

How's that for stupid? :oops:

I can't believe I haven't mentioned this ridiculous story before.A beautiful woman can have an amazing affect on a man. I've seen people take on totally new personalities, new styles of dress, drop their friends and run with a new social circle, and far worse. At least you didn't start wearing spandex and playing a neon pink axe for her.

[Bezmotivnik]

I would recommend that most people NOT attempt this themselves.
I concur.

It sounds like a saddle lowering is more in order. I'm exhausted and don't have the clarity right now to explain how to tell if the nut needs work.

In any case, the only safe way to sand the base of either the nut or saddle is to place the sandpaper on a sheet of glass or other perfectly flat surface and then carefully move the base of the saddle or nut over it. Incredibly, you can still mess up the part this way and not have the absolutely flat mating surface you need.

[Bezmotivnik]

A beautiful woman can have an amazing affect on a man. I've seen people take on totally new personalities, new styles of dress, drop their friends and run with a new social circle, and far worse. At least you didn't start wearing spandex and playing a neon pink axe for her.
It wasn't really like that, it was more of a, "jeeze what are you crying about, her hands are even smaller than yours" thing. I just saw how she worked around it and it totally changed the way I played.

I've never changed myself for a woman and never will. My ex-wife discovered that.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I've never changed myself for a woman and never will. My ex-wife discovered that.

the 'ex' makes sense for that.


anyways, the way my mom's boyfriend did it was he grinded down the little indents where the strings usually go . . . I'm still a bit foggy on how you guys were saying how I should go about doing this.

the F major is SO hard to do on this guitar, it's ridiculous.

[matthew]

anyways, the way my mom's boyfriend did it was he grinded down the little indents where the strings usually go . . . I'm still a bit foggy on how you guys were saying how I should go about doing this.I'm still saying I don't think its a good idea for you to do this yourself.

What I described was taking that white thing with the indents in it (it's called the "nut") off and sanding the backside. That's easier to do and harder to mess up than messing with the grooves.

Bezmotivnik was talking about the white thing at the other end of the strings, taking it out and sanding the backside to make it not so tall.

the F major is SO hard to do on this guitar, it's ridiculous.It gets easier with lots of practice. Work on it at the 5th fret for a while (where it's an A chord) and then, when you can make it sound good on all six strings at that location, move up the the 3rd fret (where it's a G chord), etc.

[Bezmotivnik]

I'm still saying I don't think its a good idea for you to do this yourself.

What I described was taking that white thing with the indents in it (it's called the "nut") off and sanding the backside. That's easier to do and harder to mess up than messing with the grooves.
It's much harder to do than doing it correctly, but that requires nut files. If you don't have the files, then you don't have the choice. There are supposedly some new, much cheaper files than the extortionate stuff from Stew-Mac, and if so I'm going to get them.

In any case, screwing with the nut is not the textbook way to lower the action on an acoustic, and if by some miracle the nut is cut correctly to begin with (http://frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/GenSetup/NutAction/nutaction.html), you'll accomplish absolutely nothing but destroying it and have to start over from scratch with a new blank.

Nut work is not in the category of user maintenance.

Saddle work is a lot more accessible (http://frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/Guitar/Setup/LowerAction/loweraction01.html) and is the proper method of lowering the action on an acoustic, assuming a proper nut setup and no catastrophic neck and/or body problems.

The site on which the above links are found gives a broad overview on various acoustic work. I agree with most (but far from all) of the guy's explanations, and the more you learn about the difficulties in adjusting acoustic guitars, the more you'll understand why I hate them.

[Patrick-Ruff]

thanks for those sites. I can probably have my moms friend help me with the exacting stuff on it.

[Bezmotivnik]

thanks for those sites. I can probably have my moms friend help me with the exacting stuff on it.
Check the sections on diagnosing the neck angle and action height problems as well as the one on what a saddle is supposed to look like relative to the strings.

[Patrick-Ruff]

anyone know what's up with that new social forum? are they trying to get rid of the community chat on these forums?


if so, I will not stand for it.

[Bezmotivnik]

anyone know what's up with that new social forum? are they trying to get rid of the community chat on these forums?
Dunno, don't care. I won't be there in any case.

After some twenty-four years of Internet discussions and seeing the quality of discourse and users decline beyond belief in the past ten or twelve years, I'm about ready to pack it in for good. In any case, a bunch of adolescent Linux fanboys are about at the bottom of my list of people with whom I want to have serious discussions about the state of the world. :rolleyes:

if so, I will not stand for it.
Don't do anything rash, now! ;)

[Bezmotivnik]

thanks for those sites.
If you go back to the main index, you can find explanitory pages on almost everything connected with acoustic maintenance and repair.

[matthew]

anyone know what's up with that new social forum? are they trying to get rid of the community chat on these forums?

if so, I will not stand for it.
No changes will be made with the cafe or the backyard in these forums. The new social forum is being run by the same guy that owns/runs this forum, ubuntu-geek. It is intended to be a less-strict atmosphere for topics that don't really fit a linux forum. There's no pressure to leave here, he's just excited about his other project and wanted people to know they're welcome.

Disclaimer: I'm a moderator over there and I'm having fun in both places.

[Bezmotivnik]

he's just excited about his other project and wanted people to know they're welcome.

That would explain the spam mail. :-\"

[matthew]

That would explain the spam mail. :-\"Yeah. Not everyone got that, only users who have been pretty active around here in the last month or two. It was a one time shot...

[L2wis]

I was considering signing up for that chat thingy but unfortuantly i don't really have much time to even chat on here. (I rely on email notifications most of the time)

[Patrick-Ruff]

I like these forums more. more people, nicer interface, etc.

and this is pretty much the ONLY forum account I've ever had in one spot that has over 500 posts.

if it counted the community chat posts as real posts, I'd probably easily be in the 1500 range. (not that posts matter in the slightest)

oh and don't worry, I wouldn't do anything rash. I'll just never join it.

[Bezmotivnik]

I like these forums more. more people, nicer interface, etc.
It seems to be well-run and maintained -- but aside from this thread, I virtually never read or post in any others.

Ubuntu 7.04 came up a buggy, dangerous loser yet again on my notebook, where I do 95%+ of my work because sitting at a desk kills my back, and I haven't had my Ubuntu desk machine even on in four or five months, probably, except to test 7.04 Live on it only to find that (like 6.10) it didn't work as well as 6.06.

So...there's really no purpose for me even being on a Linux forum anymore. :neutral:

[reidms]

I got a Jackson RR1 and a Jackson Signature 7 string with a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier half stack-

Been playing about 5 years :D

[Bezmotivnik]

I got a Jackson RR1 and a Jackson Signature 7 string with a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier half stack-
Sounds like you have the "loud & pointy" concept about covered!

[matthew]

I got a Jackson RR1 and a Jackson Signature 7 string with a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier half stack-

Been playing about 5 years :D
Welcome!

BTW, I like loud and pointy. ;)

[Patrick-Ruff]

It seems to be well-run and maintained -- but aside from this thread, I virtually never read or post in any others.

Ubuntu 7.04 came up a buggy, dangerous loser yet again on my notebook, where I do 95%+ of my work because sitting at a desk kills my back, and I haven't had my Ubuntu desk machine even on in four or five months, probably, except to test 7.04 Live on it only to find that (like 6.10) it didn't work as well as 6.06.

So...there's really no purpose for me even being on a Linux forum anymore. :neutral:

there is essentially no point in my being here either. I haven't had linux as a main OS on either of my machines in over 7 months.

nor do I plan on /ever/ changing that unless things turn out way differently.

by way differently I mean, everything works flawlessly (atleast, as much as windows), and over all appears more attractive then other OS's.


for the time being, my eyes are COMPLETELY set on Mac OS X. but for now, I'm stuck in the middle.

------------END OF OS TALK----------------------


so I'm /really/ itching to play an epiphone, or a good electric guitar of any kind . . .

[BLTicklemonster]

Any of you geetar pickers get wind of this?

http://www.mxtabs.net/blog/2007/05/08/response-to-hal-leonard-e-mail-to-the-music-publishing-community/

wild stuff.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I'm too tired to read all of that. long and high level vocabulary. too much right now.

but thanks for making me aware of mxtabs :O. I usually use ultimate guitar . . .

[matthew]

Any of you geetar pickers get wind of this?

http://www.mxtabs.net/blog/2007/05/08/response-to-hal-leonard-e-mail-to-the-music-publishing-community/

wild stuff.I hadn't heard that. I was an early contributor to OLGA (On-Line Guitar Archive, the original internet source for guitar tabs, now pretty much defunct) back in the 1990s. I haven't written nor used tabs for several years.

I'm torn. On one side, I like that the publishers are willing to consider and try licensing their materials for internet distribution. On the other hand, they and their agents are still attacking people who come up with their own interpretation of how songs are played and try to share those tabs that they have come up with themselves.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing the link, BLT.

[Tom Mann]

I'm rather poor, so I only have a silver edition B.C. Rich Warlock, but am saving my pennies for a PRS Tremonti Guitar, though I'm undecided on a white one or a black one... :-D

[Patrick-Ruff]

Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan . . . that gave me a HUGE jolt today. turns out I can play it quite easily :)

[maniac_X]

Greets to all here in a legendary Ubuntu forums thread! :guitar:

I play (kinda) for personal pleasure.

Axes I personally own: Ibanez Les Paul copy circa '76/'77, Ibanez Iceman (undated but probably late 70s/early 80s. I also have a coupla cheap Acoustics.

[Bezmotivnik]

Another weird "Blue Guitar Deal"...

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/4/2/1/275421.jpg

Yamaha AES720 -- Dual DiMarzio humbuckers, mahogany/mahogany setneck, Grovers. High user ratings, $349.99 = 57% off, in blue only. OK, typical ugly blue guitar deal, right?

"But WAIT! There's MORE!" \\:D/ it gets weirder: You get a free MagicStomp (MSRP $299) in the deal! The Magicstomp has been totally extinct for at least a year. Yamaha pulled the plug on them because, despite their being one of the more advanced modeler/multieffects, with something like three THOUSAND individual parameters, they were staggeringy complex to program in deep-editing mode, even with the onscreen computer interface. :-k The gristlehead musician didn't have a prayer. After they were discontinued and blown out, Yamaha gave up the firmware and software for all three Magicstomps, the guitar, bass and acoustic models, so if you have any one of them, you can flash to v2.10 and have all three.

Where did the MagicStomps come from? :confused:

Not personally recommending this -- one way or the other -- but thought it was a particularly weird blue guitar deal.

[Patrick-Ruff]

looks like it . . .

[matthew]

Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan . . . that gave me a HUGE jolt today. turns out I can play it quite easily :)Rock on, dude!

Greets to all here in a legendary Ubuntu forums thread!

I play (kinda) for personal pleasure.Welcome!

Another weird "Blue Guitar Deal"...Odd/cool deal.

[ghosting0]

Just thought I'd stop by and say hi to everyone. I'm self-taught on a cheap, garage-sale sort of acoustic. I guess I play to get away from it all.

[[wakingeden]]

My list of guitars/amps:

Previously owned:

Peavy Acoustic
(Ply sides and top, Mahogany back, Rosewood fretboard - really deep bass / nice tone)

Epiphone / Fender Strat Hybrid
(Maple fret board, 3-Single Coils, Funky looking headstock - this thing was crazy, it sounded more like a Tele than a Strat)

Epiphone SG Bully
(Blood stain read finish, Dual Humbuckers, Rosewood fret board, After market high-hat tone & volume knobs - This thing would eat you for breakfast and spit you out, Nasty low-end (in a good way))

Vox Valvetronix AD120VT
(120watts of British power, 2 - 12" Celestions, Tube power amp, Hundreds of effects and amp models - I was stupid to let this go, I don't think they even sell this model anymore)

Crate 20 Watt
(Very straight forward, clean sound w/ and w/ out distortion - I would highly recommend Crate for studio recording)

Randall 15 Watt
(Probably the crappiest amp I've ever heard/played on, I dont even know why I had it)

Currently Owned

Fender Stratacoustic (Acoustic Electric)
(Hippie Flower paint job, Fiberglass sides and back, Fishman Pre-Amp / EQ - It's not really that bad :] )


I adjust the truss rod and action on all my guitars - if you really know how to play you can make anything sing with just a few adjustments.

[Bezmotivnik]

Sigh...

I've been very discouraged by the uphill battle with recording over the last six years (which produced absolutely nothing -- really, not a single useable track -- except frustration) and finally decided that it's time to throw out the whole mess and start over with a new box to replace the dedicated, very expensive ASUS one I built and got absolute zero use from before it became obsolete. So, I bagged a new X2 5600 AMD boxed CPU & GeForces momboard plus 2G of RAM for $218 yesterday at Fry's (yes, that is a good price). Now it occurs to me that I'll have to get a SATA drive, possibly two. That Oberheim front end that caused me nothing but pain for years may work with new drivers in XP/Cubase, we'll see.

I'm going to put this through the studio wall into the nearby closet for noise isolation (the racket a computer makes is not appreciated until you set up condenser microphones).

I hope I have better luck this time. :neutral: Now I have to clear all the excess gear out of the studio.

[matthew]

I hope I have better luck this time.Best wishes!

[Patrick-Ruff]

yeah good luck man

[Bezmotivnik]

So, whaddya think:

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/5/8/8/478588.jpg

Weird, but in a conservative way. Long deal on 'em (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-AE500-SemiHollow-Single-Cutaway-Dot-Neck-Electric-Guitar?sku=511905). I'm thinking about it.

[Bezmotivnik]

Oh, c'mon! It ain't that bad! ;)

[matthew]

I feel about it the way I usually feel about Yamaha guitars. I bet it plays pretty well, sounds pretty good, and is made with decent parts. It looks like it was designed by an engineer no input from an actual artist, though. The style seems a bit lacking, square even.

(insert appropriate comment about personal taste and all that)

[Bezmotivnik]

The style seems a bit lacking, square even.
Quadrangular or unhip?

[matthew]

Quadrangular or unhip?Unhip, but I get that vibe from most Yamaha gear...it could just be me.

[Bezmotivnik]

Unhip, but I get that vibe from most Yamaha gear...it could just be me.
Well, you'll probably hate this, then:

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/1/1/9/317119.jpg

No, I know what you mean. I think it's more of a chronic image problem that Yamaha has and never got past. They have quite a bit of artist input, but they just can't shake the soulless Japanese engineering department vibe. Of course, this is all a matter of perception.

I think I'm going to pick up one of those RGX A2 guitars locally on Memorial Day at GC. They have very light, chambered bodies, but have the weight distributed so that there's supposedly no neck dive. I can't bear heavy instruments any more. The really dumb thing about the RGX is that it has a battery -- but it's a passive axe. Can you guess why?

[matthew]

The really dumb thing about the RGX is that it has a battery -- but it's a passive axe. Can you guess why?This guitar has the same problem, no soul.

Hmm. Battery, but passive pickups. Okay, I'll take a go at answering without using a Google search. Does it have an onboard tuner? fuzz? parametric eq?

[Bezmotivnik]

This guitar has the same problem, no soul.
Players have soul; instruments don't. They're only hardware, light industrial product, nothing more.

Musicians forget this. They shouldn't.

Curiously, I've noticed that the more highly skilled and professionally advanced a musician gets as a player (not a "star") the less he believes in instrument mojo. The instrument becomes a tool, one that is superior in execution, sound and fit -- or not, and out it goes. I saw very little magical thinking among professional classical performers and studio musicians in NYC. Real guys are all business. Guitar Center trolls and jam trash, on the other hand, are all mojo all the time.

Also interesting to me was that they almost never listened to music recreationally and were not music fans. They'd listen to music to the point it was required to be professionally informed, but they didn't listen for pleasure, nor did they play for pleasure.

I'm the same way, I never listen to the sort of music I play except as an analytical exercise to improve my work and educate myself.

That said, I find virtually no instruments that are aesthetically pleasing to me as a Fine Arts guy. Most guitars are really ugly and ill-designed visually, plus they don't even play that well. The thing about that Yamaha is that it's possibly way ahead on the ergonomics, which are increasingly important to me as I age. I'm going to check it out in more detail at GC. I like the output jack placement, for example.

Hmm. Battery... Does it have an onboard tuner? fuzz? parametric eq?
No, it's dumber than that: It runs the LEDs to indicate which pickups are engaged.

Oy, can you believe it? :rolleyes:

[matthew]

Players have soul; instruments don't. They're only hardware, light industrial product, nothing more.

Musicians forget this. They shouldn't.
Intellectually, I know this is true. I can play any instrument of reasonable quality and I always sound like me, regardless of the combination of woods, the pickups installed, or whether the tuning pegs are chrome or gold.

I do tend to gravitate toward guitars I like the looks of and that feel good in my hands. Those guitars then get played more often, so they feel more comfortable, my hands find the controls more naturally solely because of familiarity.

There is a side of some people, myself included, that isn't logical. Why do I like Telecasters more than the $8000 PRSs that I have played? Why do I think tie-dye shirts are cool? I have no clue. But there are inherent preferences that I know exist, that I can't explain, that I will intellectually concede are silly, that still have some influence over me.

I've only rarely seen a Yamaha that I have wanted to play. There was a 12 string acoustic, actually a rather inexpensive one, that I bought (FG-411-12) and really liked. I also appreciated the ArtWood series, at least the one or two that I played. I can appreciate Yamaha electrics as a generally good to excellent value, as being made well and easy to play, but I've yet to find one that says to my illogical heart, "Play me!!!"

So there you go. No soul. ;)
No, it's dumber than that: It runs the LEDs to indicate which pickups are engaged.

Oy, can you believe it? :rolleyes:That made me laugh really hard! Okay, now if they made the LEDs into a clock that tells time in binary, I might actually want one. :P

[Bezmotivnik]

I do tend to gravitate toward guitars I like the looks of and that feel good in my hands. Those guitars then get played more often, so they feel more comfortable, my hands find the controls more naturally solely because of familiarity.

Sure, because it fits. Nothing strange or illogical about that at all.

Why do I like Telecasters more than the $8000 PRSs that I have played?
Almost certainly because you're intelligent enough to know that any $8000 guitar is at least $5000 pure BS that doesn't matter, and that tacitly offends you -- as it should.

But there are inherent preferences that I know exist, that I can't explain, that I will intellectually concede are silly, that still have some influence over me.
You probably can explain them, you just haven't gotten around to it yet.

When I was much younger and I had a much more acute intelligence and healthier brain, I posited that there was nothing I knew or felt that I couldn't clearly explain to a reasonably intelligent person, and if I couldn't explain it it was because I didn't understand it as truly as I thought I did or I wasn't as articulate as I should have been. I continually tried to stump myself and was rarely successful. What I found interesting was that while the people around me didn't understand why they did the things they did or how they would react in situations, I found that they were really pretty transparent and predictable and in short order I was able to tell what they were going to do and even say well before they did. I constantly (and intentionally) creeped people out with this ability, which I honed to a fine edge. I knew people far better than they knew themselves. Because I was blind until I was eight, I think my senses were just more developed and I paid closer attention to subtle cues and frantically analysed them because I had to. I picked up all sorts of stuff no one else even imagined. When I got my sight, there was just no stopping me. ;)

What does this have to do with axes? I believe I can tell purely by someone's gear choices and how he regards them what sort of a person he is to work with and whether I want to, and this is a lot more complex than you might think. Gear is an object lesson in psychology.

I've only rarely seen a Yamaha that I have wanted to play...I can appreciate Yamaha electrics as a generally good to excellent value, as being made well and easy to play, but I've yet to find one that says to my illogical heart, "Play me!!!"
I have the same reaction, but I am pretty unmoved in that way by guitars anyway. I just see them as "flawed vessels," so to speak, which in a sense is liberating. I know I'm not going to be particularly impressed with any guitar except as it reflects dollar value, plus I'm going to be using it in private, so I don't have to impress anyone. I find that as players, I'm much more impressed with relatively cheap stuff these days, though I wouldn't go on stage with it. It's like, "Wow, this axe is nowhere as bad as it should be! Cool!" But I've never seen a perfect guitar yet, at any price. So, if Yamaha, say, does some experimental design that addresses some known problems for me and I see a shot at one for a long price, I'll give it a look.

As for the AE500, check out the first review here (http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/product/Yamaha/AE500/10/1).

Yikes! :shock:

[Patrick-Ruff]

When I was much younger and I had a much more acute intelligence and healthier brain, I posited that there was nothing I knew or felt that I couldn't clearly explain to a reasonably intelligent person, and if I couldn't explain it it was because I didn't understand it as truly as I thought I did or I wasn't as articulate as I should have been. I continually tried to stump myself and was rarely successful. What I found interesting was that while the people around me didn't understand why they did the things they did or how they would react in situations, I found that they were really pretty transparent and predictable and in short order I was able to tell what they were going to do and even say well before they did. I constantly (and intentionally) creeped people out with this ability, which I honed to a fine edge. I knew people far better than they knew themselves. Because I was blind until I was eight, I think my senses were just more developed and I paid closer attention to subtle cues and frantically analysed them because I had to. I picked up all sorts of stuff no one else even imagined. When I got my sight, there was just no stopping me.

that's exactly what I experienced 4 years ago. I was 12. maybe it was before that but I can't quite remember. I dismissed the social lable I was given, the general dumbass.

often, when you get very very bad grades, you are generally seen as a non-intelligent person. I suppose my mind just started to wonder, I began using higher level vocabulary and writing more. getting into deeper subjects much higher then my grade level. not that vocabulary defines intelligence, but it was just one of those signs that I wasn't actually stupid. generally most people aren't in my opinion.

with me, anything I really analyze, I understand within a month. MOST of the time it's much much sooner then that, but I'm just saying in a general scope of things that I may come into contact with, deep concepts and such. took me a while to figure out the concept of space-time, though, I'm still missing a lot of stuff from that.


-----------------------------on topic----------------------------
I haven't played any of the guitars I've been drooling over for the past few months. I haven't been able to get my hands on one :(. so, until then, I just have to prey I don't pick up any bad habits from a low-quality acoustic.

[matthew]

Almost certainly because you're intelligent enough to know that any $8000 guitar is at least $5000 pure BS that doesn't matter, and that tacitly offends you -- as it should.Yeah, there is that aspect. :)

You probably can explain them, you just haven't gotten around to it yet.I think that's probably accurate. I've never had a need to really consider it.

Because I was blind until I was eight:shock: I didn't know that! How did you gain your sight? (If you want to talk about it...)

What does this have to do with axes? I believe I can tell purely by someone's gear choices and how he regards them what sort of a person he is to work with and whether I want to, and this is a lot more complex than you might think. Gear is an object lesson in psychology.I'm curious what my choices say about me:
1995 Fender Tele Special
1996 Guild D-4 (pre-Fender, from Westerly, R.I.)
2000(?) Fender Squier Starfire V
early 1990s Washburn Force V bass
Self-built tube amp, loosely based on the 40 watt blackface Fenders (Vibrolux, primarily), with significant mods
about 20 Boss pedals, all analog, all rarely used, but occasionally felt to be priceless (esp the DM2 Analog Delay) and 7 or 8 other brand pedals, also rarely used, but occasionally loved

As for the AE500, check out the first review here (http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/product/Yamaha/AE500/10/1).

Yikes! :shock:Wow! I'll be walking the other way.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I think he was speaking metaphorically about the blind thing. . .

[Bezmotivnik]

I think he was speaking metaphorically about the blind thing. . .
Well, you'd lose that bet. ;)

I'm still legally blind several times over, but I can see pretty well with glasses which correct to near-normal in certain circumstances. Without them, what I see is about like what a normal person sees through shower-door glass -- just blurred shapes and colors. I was eight before school vision testing turned up the evidence. Neither my teachers or my parents paid the slightest attention to my complaints about not being able to see, up to that point. Incredible, huh? I can see OK for about four inches, so I could read a lot, therefore I couldn't possibly be blind. The adults dismissed me as "accident-prone."

[Bezmotivnik]

I'm curious what my choices say about me:
Not a lot, guitar-wise. Fairly unobjectionable, routine stuff. The Allen amp would give me some pause, but a self-built or heavily-self-modded guitar would absolutely be the kiss of death, as would an extensive rack unit if you were a bassist. That shows a pretty stubborn and chronic misdirection of attention and resources that in my experience translates into an exasperating obliviousness in band members which drives everyone else nuts -- the classic case being the dread bass geek. Y'know...more strings, more switches, more laminations, more ugly geek-bling, more adjustments, more rack gear...and the guy NEVER has the first idea about what he should be doing or playing, much less what he should be looking or behaving like relative to the band. He's constantly twiddling with all this junk off in his own universe. You just want to kill him.

The question is always, "does this guy get it?" Usually his gear and his attitude toward it will give you some evidence one way or the other.

Wow! I'll be walking the other way.

Apparently the later ones are Cor-Tek Korean-built and OK. The self-destructing ones were Indonesian. Out of curiosity, I've asked MF to find out the country of origin on these.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I posted another video. if you guys have any tips/thoughts it'd be cool to hear them

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QL6O2D6NIsM

I still haven't really got the vibrato down :P

[Bezmotivnik]

I posted another video. if you guys have any tips/thoughts it'd be cool to hear them

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QL6O2D6NIsM

I still haven't really got the vibrato down :P
I'll take a look, but I'm not much of a technique teacher. If you can do any vibrato at all on an acoustic with the typical .013"s, you're doing better than I can. Seriously. :neutral:

Of course, you have inherently better guitarist hands than I do (who doesn't?).

[shen-an-doah]

Not a lot, guitar-wise. Fairly unobjectionable, routine stuff. The Allen amp would give me some pause, but a self-built or heavily-self-modded guitar would absolutely be the kiss of death, as would an extensive rack unit if you were a bassist. That shows a pretty stubborn and chronic misdirection of attention and resources that in my experience translates into an exasperating obliviousness in band members which drives everyone else nuts -- the classic case being the dread bass geek. Y'know...more strings, more switches, more laminations, more ugly geek-bling, more adjustments, more rack gear...and the guy NEVER has the first idea about what he should be doing or playing, much less what he should be looking or behaving like relative to the band. He's constantly twiddling with all this junk off in his own universe. You just want to kill him.

The question is always, "does this guy get it?" Usually his gear and his attitude toward it will give you some evidence one way or the other.

I'm guessing you're referring to something like Dirk Lance's rig (http://guitargeek.com/rigview/360/). Surprisingly enough, he's a damn good bassist...

As for heavily modified guitars, I've done a fair bit to mine (new tuners, new bridge pick-up, custom finish, built-in overdrive, soon to have a Bigsby attached), but my set-up is still pretty simple. It's just an SG copy (Vintage VS6B) into a Marshall shredmaster pedal, into a solid-state Fender twin...

[matthew]

Marshall shredmaster pedalOne of my absolute favorite pedals...I picked mine up at a pawn shop for $15. It has a permanent home on my pedalboard.

[shen-an-doah]

One of my absolute favorite pedals...I picked mine up at a pawn shop for $15. It has a permanent home on my pedalboard.

They are indeed awesome. Mine was £30 (about $60 at the current exchange rate). Some guy offered me £160 and I said no :p

Considering my tone comes from a solid-state pedal and a solid-state amp, it's pretty damn awesome...

[Bezmotivnik]

I'm guessing you're referring to something like Dirk Lance's rig (http://guitargeek.com/rigview/360/). Surprisingly enough, he's a damn good bassist...

My intuitive guess would be that he hasn't a clue of what being a "good bassist" even means, but yeah, that's an epic kiss-of-death bass-geek rig.

I was watching an instructional video by "Buddah" Dickens the other day. I was impressed as I could be with his dedication and sincerity and ability...but he was just excruciating to listen to. If there's anything worse than bass shredding, I don't know what it would be. Maybe bagpipe shredding with Yoko Ono on vocals.

[shen-an-doah]

My intuitive guess would be that he hasn't a clue of what being a "good bassist" even means, but yeah, that's an epic kiss-of-death bass-geek rig.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s1bTel0ey8

Judge for yourself.

[Patrick-Ruff]

he sounds alright. but then again, I don't know what makes a good bassist ;).

[Bezmotivnik]

Judge for yourself.
I listened for as long as I could stand it, but I didn't hear a single bass note in the clip. :( So much for youtube audio on a notebook.

[shen-an-doah]

I listened for as long as I could stand it, but I didn't hear a single bass note in the clip. :( So much for youtube audio on a notebook.

Really? You must have some horrible sound as the bass is waaaay out front...

[NewOldTimer]

I listened for as long as I could stand it, but I didn't hear a single

thing I could positively say...once again! End quote?
way to much blues in those viens...bummer...and such a bright sunshiny day to boot

[matthew]

If anyone is interested, I found an old web page on my hard drive that I made in 1999. It has some photos of the building process for my amp, and some half-way decent sound clips of me playing my Telecaster through it. No effects were used. Let me know what you think (of the sound clips, not the old, pathetic html...).

http://www.matthewhelmke.com/guitar-amp/allen/allen2005.html

[Patrick-Ruff]

can any of you link me to several guitars that feature pickups that can turn off one of the coils to turn into single-coil?

the JS100 is capable of this apparently (by pulling up on the tone adjusters). but I'm not sure how to find guitars like that online, it doesn't seem to be plainely stated.

[shen-an-doah]

can any of you link me to several guitars that feature pickups that can turn off one of the coils to turn into single-coil?

the JS100 is capable of this apparently. but I'm not sure how to find guitars like that online, it doesn't seem to be plainely stated.

You want to look for guitars with a "coil-tap" feature, there's lots out there. Also, any pick-up that comes with 4 wires can be wired in a certain way to provide a coil-tap...

[23meg]

It's been a while since I've posted here...

I came across a second hand Danelectro 56-U2 reissue. It's in good condition, but being a 90s Korean reissue, build quality isn't top notch. The Harmony Central reviews seem to give it top mark on sound quality though; looks like the pickups have some of the qualities of my favorite guitars: Rickenbackers and the Tele.

I'll try it tomorrow. The price is a bit steep at $325, but it's quite an original piece for where I live. In other words, GAS has kicked in...

Pics:

http://i14.tinypic.com/4qy085t.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/4lrwrb5.jpg
http://pigpog.com/system/files/images/2006-02-08danelectrocl.jpg

The one I found is the same color as the one in the third image.

[Patrick-Ruff]

I still can't seem to find any guitars other then the JS100 with this feature. I found several webpages on how to do it and many of them saying that a guitar luther could do it.


this is such an awesome feature it astonishes me that it's not listed in big print! I mean, you look up the JS100 on musicians friend or guitar center, you don't see information about coil-tap /anywhere/ . . .

[shen-an-doah]

I still can't seem to find any guitars other then the JS100 with this feature. I found several webpages on how to do it and many of them saying that a guitar luther could do it.


this is such an awesome feature it astonishes me that it's not listed in big print! I mean, you look up the JS100 on musicians friend or guitar center, you don't see information about coil-tap /anywhere/ . . .

Try sticking "guitar coil tap" into Google products search, that should give you a fair few options...

[matthew]

It's been a while since I've posted here...

I came across a second hand Danelectro 56-U2 reissue. It's in good condition, but being a 90s Korean reissue, build quality isn't top notch. The Harmony Central reviews seem to give it top mark on sound quality though; looks like the pickups have some of the qualities of my favorite guitars: Rickenbackers and the Tele.

I'll try it tomorrow. The price is a bit steep at $325, but it's quite an original piece for where I live. In other words, GAS has kicked in...

Pics:

http://i14.tinypic.com/4qy085t.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/4lrwrb5.jpg
http://pigpog.com/system/files/images/2006-02-08danelectrocl.jpg

The one I found is the same color as the one in the third image.I've played these. The build quality varies widely, the sound and look are quite unique, though. Let us know if you end up with it!

[shen-an-doah]

I've played these. The build quality varies widely, the sound and look are quite unique, though. Let us know if you end up with it!

Yeh, I think the intonation is usually a bit iffy, due to the lack of a proper bridge...

[matthew]

I still can't seem to find any guitars other then the JS100 with this feature. I found several webpages on how to do it and many of them saying that a guitar luther could do it.


this is such an awesome feature it astonishes me that it's not listed in big print! I mean, you look up the JS100 on musicians friend or guitar center, you don't see information about coil-tap /anywhere/ . . .I have a coil tap on my Tele. It has a humbucker in the neck position. I have a Strat-style 5 way switch, and the pickups are wired as if the humbucker was 2 separate pickups.

neck -> bridge

humbucker, both coils
humbucker, neck coil
humbucker, bridge coil
humbucker bridge coil + bridge pickup
bridge pickup

It still nails the standard Tele sounds, but has a bit more flexibility.

[23meg]

I've played these. The build quality varies widely, the sound and look are quite unique, though. Let us know if you end up with it!

The shop owner did me a favour and let me take it to the studio to try. It sounds surprisingly well with my AC30; especially the cleans, which are reminiscent of the Rickenbacker tone. I couldn't get an overdriven tone out of it that I liked, but I could only try so many settings in the 15 minutes I had with it; I can probably work around that by trying different pedal and amp gain combinations.

What's even more surprising is that the intonation is dead on, without an adjustable bridge. I haven't seen many guitars without adjustable saddles that "just work" regarding intonation, but this seems to. I also examined it for damage, and it's like new, except for one broken strap peg, which the reviews say is a common problem.

If I can convince the owner to pay in two parts, I'm getting it today or tomorrow!

[matthew]

The shop owner did me a favour and let me take it to the studio to try. It sounds surprisingly well with my AC30; especially the cleans, which are reminiscent of the Rickenbacker tone. I couldn't get an overdriven tone out of it that I liked, but I could only try so many settings in the 15 minutes I had with it; I can probably work around that by trying different pedal and amp gain combinations.

What's even more surprising is that the intonation is dead on, without an adjustable bridge. I haven't seen many guitars without adjustable saddles that "just work" regarding intonation, but this seems to. I also examined it for damage, and it's like new, except for one broken strap peg, which the reviews say is a common problem.

If I can convince the owner to pay in two parts, I'm getting it today or tomorrow!Cool. I hope it works out for you.

Those "lipstick" pickups (because they look like a tube of lipstick...) are generally low gain, so I'm not surprised you didn't get much of a distortion tone out of them. On the positive side, you can turn the amp louder and get more of your sound from the power tubes in your amp.

[23meg]

Right, the sustain is a bit low because of that too. I don't think it's going to be a problem once I find the right way to drive them.

A surprise to me was the fact that the pickups are wired in series, which means once you bring the switch to the middle position, volume just about doubles. Nice for those like me who are used to controlling the amount of drive with the guitar's volume knob.

[Patrick-Ruff]

after much consideration, I've decided I'm going to build an electric guitar for my senior project in high school. I think it'll be a fun project.


just thought I'd say something to get this thread alive again.

[matthew]

after much consideration, I've decided I'm going to build an electric guitar for my senior project in high school. I think it'll be a fun project.


just thought I'd say something to get this thread alive again.Dude! That will be so fun. Some thoughts to make it a little easier.

Measure twice and cut once. :) You probably already knew that one.

Buy the neck, don't make it from scratch. I recommend looking at one of these two places:

http://www.warmoth.com/
http://www.stewmac.com/

What are you going for in the looks department?

[Patrick-Ruff]

probably a les paul look. as I can't stand fender, and nothing else looks really that appealing to me.

I just gotta go with the classic on this one ;).

thanks for the tips, seriously. I've seen some videos of how manufactured guitars are made, seems like it's 5 layers of wood, which will definitely be some work. but I will be looking forward to it, especially keeping it years after.

how exactly would one go about making the finish?

[matthew]

probably a les paul look. as I can't stand fender, and nothing else looks really that appealing to me.

I just gotta go with the classic on this one ;).

thanks for the tips, seriously. I've seen some videos of how manufactured guitars are made, seems like it's 5 layers of wood, which will definitely be some work. but I will be looking forward to it, especially keeping it years after.

how exactly would one go about making the finish?For finishes where the wood grain will show through, any quality wood finish will work fine/well. Study up on furniture finishes and choose one you like. Some people demand a certain type of nitrocellouse lacquer, I don't think it makes any difference as long as it looks good and protects the wood.

For paints, where you don't want or plan for the wood grain to show through, you can use a good automotive paint--Fender has done this for 50 years.

Also, the stewmac site I linked to earlier is likely to have some good tips, albeit of the more expensive "buy our product" variety. Look for some good wood finishing/refinishing sites as well.

Both of those sites will have some good necks and hardware choices for you at reasonable prices (at least last time I checked).

[Patrick-Ruff]

thanks for the advice.


is Bezmotivnik still alive? haven't heard from him in awhile.

[bazzer]

Just thought I'd say hello again. Got GAS at the weekend and picked up a CHEAP Tele copy (says RMS Guitars on the headstock, apparently it's a 'Jack & Danny Brothers' effort from China) to hack about on until my Washburn comes back from the tech. I'm having the frets dressed, the nut installed properly, the locking trem cavity blocked and filled (Clapton style) and a setup. So I thought I'd be without it for a while I'd best get me another axe!

Teles are great! Never knew just how hard you want to play it!!! There's a 'quack' about this one that just gets fatter and fatter the harder you play and it's well addictive. Been swotting up on my country licks too, just for the hell of it. You know I might even get come Eagles CDs out and have a go tonight!! :D

[Patrick-Ruff]

looks like no bezmotivnik

[matthew]

Just thought I'd say hello again. Got GAS at the weekend and picked up a CHEAP Tele copy

Teles are great! Cool! and congratulations. I love Teles.

looks like no bezmotivnik
Yeah, it's been a while. Hopefully he's okay.

[Patrick-Ruff]

anyways, I ordered new strings and new picks, for some reason I'm really excited, lmao.

[shen-an-doah]

It's my 21st birthday today and I'm getting a Bigsby from my grandparents ^_^

Unfortunately I won't get it till I go home at the end of June :(

[Patrick-Ruff]

oh well, less then a month isn't long to wait for a guitar. I'm going to be waiting until I can scrounge up 600 bucks for a guitar + amp . . .

which could take over a year ;). so it's all good.

[shen-an-doah]

oh well, less then a month isn't long to wait for a guitar. I'm going to be waiting until I can scrounge up 600 bucks for a guitar + amp . . .

which could take over a year ;). so it's all good.

Well, I don't have to wait for the guitar as it's just my main one which I've had for about 6 years now and I love it to bits. I just have to wait for the Bigsby, which I shall then install :D

[bazzer]

OOPS.. Another GAS attack occurred this weekend... Got a pretty good Squier Strat on an ebay auction, local too. So I took it apart last night and cleaned it properly, put a good set of strings on it and JUST had time to stick it through the amp to see if it worked... So now I'm a 5-axe man.... :p

[Patrick-Ruff]

should we start sharing guitar porn again? lol.

I'd really like to see a high quality pic of someone's epiphone les paul standard :D.

[Patrick-Ruff]

or not . . .

is this thread going to be dead for good or what?

edit: and, I'm especially worried about bezmotivnik now. his signature is gone and so is his avatar . . . matthew, can you find out when he last logged on?

[matthew]

should we start sharing guitar porn again? lol.

I'd really like to see a high quality pic of someone's epiphone les paul standard :D.Here's an amp I bought off eBay and restored...(old html page...not updated in years. It's not pretty--you have been warned...)
http://www.matthewhelmke.com/guitar-amp/national/national2005.html

Before:
http://www.matthewhelmke.com/guitar-amp/national/NationalFrontOrig.jpg

After:
http://www.matthewhelmke.com/guitar-amp/national/NationalFront.jpg

or not . . .

is this thread going to be dead for good or what?

edit: and, I'm especially worried about bezmotivnik now. his signature is gone and so is his avatar . . . matthew, can you find out when he last logged on?He logged on 4 days ago, but he hasn't posted anything in 2 weeks. Hmm. I know he isn't using Ubuntu, so maybe he's thinking of moving on. That wouldn't be a surprise, but it would be a bummer for us--I enjoyed his input in this thread.

[th3james]

Hey guys

I'm putting together a custom strat atm (my first project!) and im currently considering these:

Lace Alumitones (www.agi-lace.com) (http://www.agi-lace.com/electric_pickups/alumitone/alumitone_specs.php)

anyone have any experience with them at all? im having a bit of trouble finding a UK supplier also...

also, if anyone has any experience with the lace sensor pickups i'd be keen to hear them, cuz im considering upgrading my tele's pups

[Patrick-Ruff]

well, thanks for checking that out for me matthew.

I find it to be quite surprising that I haven't really seen many les pauls in this thread. there were a few at the beginning, and that's pretty much it. I think I've read every page of this thread.

heh, my first post here was when I first started playing guitar . . . wow.

[matthew]

Hey guys

I'm putting together a custom strat atm (my first project!) and im currently considering these:

Lace Alumitones (www.agi-lace.com) (http://www.agi-lace.com/electric_pickups/alumitone/alumitone_specs.php)

anyone have any experience with them at all? im having a bit of trouble finding a UK supplier also...

also, if anyone has any experience with the lace sensor pickups i'd be keen to hear them, cuz im considering upgrading my tele's pupsI've used Lace sensors--it's a matter of personal taste, I think. I didn't like them, but I know people that swear they are the best pickups anywhere. I've never seend the Alumitones. Interesting concept.

I find it to be quite surprising that I haven't really seen many les pauls in this thread. there were a few at the beginning, and that's pretty much it. I think I've read every page of this thread.

heh, my first post here was when I first started playing guitar . . . wow.LPs are also a little more expensive, so fewer people tend to have them.

Your first post here was when you started playing? Wow!

[bazzer]

I think it's interesting how people tent to 'sit' in either a LP or Strat category.. I'm not saying everyone does this by any stretch of the imagination but there are two definite 'camps' of players... My father is a LP man, and I'm more Stratty... funny, innit!

[matthew]

I think it's interesting how people tent to 'sit' in either a LP or Strat category..
It's funny. I have always refused to fit in either category, for no particular reason other than I've never picked up one of either that "spoke" to me.

I own a Tele and a thin semi-hollow body (ES-335 style) as my main electrics.

[shen-an-doah]

It's funny. I have always refused to fit in either category, for no particular reason other than I've never picked up one of either that "spoke" to me.

I own a Tele and a thin semi-hollow body (ES-335 style) as my main electrics.

Same here. I own an SG as my main guitar and also a Tele. I do prefer LPs over Strats though as I hate the look of strats, but I find LPs too uncomfortable to play.

Seeing as I got into this thread late, I'll post my guitars now:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/shen-an-doah/guitarsnew.jpg

Left to right:

Marlon Mockingbird copy (yes, it is indeed covered in denim and it has a penguin on the headstock, also has a built-in overdrive)
Cruiser CX-100 bass (active pick-ups, 3-band EQ, 24 frets, Bubinga laminate top)
Vintage TC200B (my guitar for "experimenting" on, currently all the strings are tuned to E)
Johnson acoustic (cost me £55, was half price cos the finish was messed up)
Vintage VS6B (new tuners, new bridge pick-up (Bareknuckle warpig, hand-wound, very high output, like an EMG81 but in passive form), disconnected the neck pick-up, built-in overdrive (the red knob), soon to have a Bigsby added)

Here's a close-up of my SG:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/shen-an-doah/mysg.jpg

My set-up is usually just that through my Marshall Shredmaster pedal into the 100watt Fender twin you can see in the background. I use one basic sound that I just add the built-in overdrive to when I want a thicker, heavier sound. Check the Fay Wray link in my sig to see how it sounds. I played all the guitar parts as well as the bass parts (and no, I'm not a guitarist who just thinks he can play bass. I'm probably better than you ;) ).

[23meg]

It's funny. I have always refused to fit in either category, for no particular reason other than I've never picked up one of either that "spoke" to me.

Same here, plus very little Les Paul or Strat playing has ever appealed to me. Most guitar players I'm into use a Tele, a Jaguar/Mustang variety, an ES-335-like hollow body, or some other little known or self/custom made guitar.