***The Official Guitar Thread***

Soldato
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plugged in and out and In and out and in...……….. :)
Careful with that. You'll blow your amp too soon. :eek:

I think electrics have their place though... they look great hung on a wall! :p Of course if most people heard me play they'd think my acoustic sounds best hung on a wall too. But whether wired or free range, I think we all agree it's the best instrument in the known universe. Apart from the swanee whistle, obviously.

 
Soldato
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My best friend is a prolific bass player, and I wanted to get him a gift for being my best man. I dicovered his dream guitar is the Musicman Stingray 5... :eek:

Man i'm watching ebay but you guys really look after your guitars. Not even a broken one to snap up and repair for you know, less than what those guitars cost :D
 
Soldato
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Guitars hold their value (or even appreciate in value) really well provided they are taken care of (in the functional sense; cosmetic damage generally also makes little difference) so if you did find a "broken" one for cheap it would likely be broken in a way far too significant to be easily fixable (e.g. twisted or severely bowed neck)
 
Caporegime
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My best friend is a prolific bass player, and I wanted to get him a gift for being my best man. I dicovered his dream guitar is the Musicman Stingray 5... :eek:

Man i'm watching ebay but you guys really look after your guitars. Not even a broken one to snap up and repair for you know, less than what those guitars cost :D

The only “broken” ones would be the neck, people don’t generally call broken pots or switches to be broken. Neck breaks are often seen as the death of a guitar, although they don’t have to be but people really would prefer one they had never had a neck break. It would be like getting a used car that has been in a big accident with a bent frame, as opposed to needing a new calliper.

Personally, I wouldn’t get a guitar with a repaired neck and especially for a Musicman, the offset angle is not like a Gibson so it would take a hell of a bang to snap that neck, whereas a Gibson neck break is fairly common.
 
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Soldato
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Recently got a new Acoustic, a Baton Rouge. Different neck width and scale to what I'm used to so I'm trying to practice new songs rather than confuse myself
New guitars can be a bit like new shoes... though I have way more experience of shoes than guitars, and Baton Rouge wasn't on my radar. Mind you, neither was Faith until I fell into a YouTube review black hole last year and then bought one, only because it was £400 instead of £519. Bargainitis strikes again, which is apparently not the way to buy guitars, because the neck is as narrow as my 12 year old and rarely played Yamaha Pacifica electric. (Only bought that because I was sick of living in a flat and feeling I shouldn't disturb the neighbours with an acoustic... electrics do have their advantages).

I'd definitely prefer a wider neck, because I've done most of my playing on nylon strings (I just prefer the tone to jangly steel). But it's been good for me to be forced to play a narrow neck again, because it means I stand a better chance of playing other guitars I might meet in my travels. Having said that, I put silk & steel's on the Faith as soon as I got it, so your average medium strung guitar's still going to feel like a cheese grater and I'm probably kidding myself about being able to play other guitars. :)

My dream guitar would be a handmade one made locally. I met one of his guitars in the wild last year and the tone was wonderful. I'm a bit skeptical about the whole 'tonewood' debate (all feels a bit like the debate about speaker wires or wine!) but there's no doubt that all guitars are not equal. I just think that the biggest factor is probably the care and craft rather than exactly which side of the valley the tree grew on.

Ideally I'd just have one guitar, because any time spent deciding which guitar to pick up is time which could be spend playing, but it's just as well my lifestyle (as a 24/7 dementia carer for my mother) restricts my access to guitar shops. The urge to fall in love with something new is always there! But I would be totally lost without a guitar and the best thing about my circumstances is that for as long as I care for Mum I'm able to live in a detached bungalow so don't have to worry about neighbours... just whether my mother is having a bad day and will object to any noise.

Fortunately the old 'music soothes the savage beast' thing works well, and I'll play anything that makes her foot tap, whether that's Tainted Love or 'Daisy, Daisy'. Must admit I'm a bit sick of 'Run Rabbit', but playing is playing, right? :)

Currently working through through...
I'm onto the instrumental

Another nice old classic, and quite a fiddle to play and sing at the same time! It took me ages to manage to sing even the simplest of songs while playing basic chords. I think that's why I generally stick to solo fingerstyle arrangements. I save my voice for the silly songs I write for our local dementia group... folk are easier to please if they're smiling!

Right, enough boring everyone with my autobioguitarography. Time to get back to posting pics of guitar and pedal collections everyone! :p (I have a Zoom G1on, does that count?)

PS In case I ever get to a guitar shop again, I'm (very) slowly learning...
Music shop workers love that tune, right? ;)
 
Soldato
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I'd definitely prefer a wider neck, because I've done most of my playing on nylon strings (I just prefer the tone to jangly steel). But it's been good for me to be forced to play a narrow neck again, because it means I stand a better chance of playing other guitars I might meet in my travels. Having said that, I put silk & steel's on the Faith as soon as I got it, so your average medium strung guitar's still going to feel like a cheese grater and I'm probably kidding myself about being able to play other guitars. :)

My dream guitar would be a handmade one made locally. I met one of his guitars in the wild last year and the tone was wonderful. I'm a bit skeptical about the whole 'tonewood' debate (all feels a bit like the debate about speaker wires or wine!) but there's no doubt that all guitars are not equal. I just think that the biggest factor is probably the care and craft rather than exactly which side of the valley the tree grew on.

I came off of a classical to play the BR, It's a wider neck than most steel string (46mm) but a fair number of their models have 48mm.
I've still got an electric (Hollowbodied gretsch) but honestly never play it.

I'd like a resonator down the road, but can't play enough in that style to justify it haha.

Got 'time in a bottle' finished off last night, getting the transitions and words lined up right's the next challenge :p
 
Soldato
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I'd like a resonator down the road, but can't play enough in that style to justify it
There is only one reason to buy a resonator, IMO, and it's enough all on its own. :)
Which reminds me... the first single I bought was Sultans of Swing, and I still can't play it well. I think it's a bit like the Floyd stuff I always thought I'd learn one day... no matter how well I play it, it's never going to sound good enough to my ear. Of course that's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy!

There is one other song I'd consider a specific type of guitar just to play it 'well', and that's this...
But without them singing the song loses a lot of its appeal, so I think that's unlikely to happen. Probably a nice style of guitar for a bit of blues though, so who knows. As ever, a new guitar is only an excuse away!

Of course if we had any sense we'd be learning Ed Sheeran songs. According to the News today he's doing quite well for himself... though I have yet to work out why. Seems like a nice bloke, writing perfectly adequate pop, but I've never had one of his songs lodge in my head for long enough to get a taste for it (even though he plays for Team Acoustic).
 
Man of Honour
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Ed Sheehan is awesome, purely for the fact he sold out ~5nights at Wembley just him and a loop pedal. I mean, can you imagine that? ****ing hell. That’s god like tbh - I don’t care what anyone says.

Wembley with a loop pedal!
 
Soldato
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Man of Honour
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I’ve made huge progress with learning the guitar neck and the notes in it with the CAGED system. Only pentatonics down so far :o But I’m really pushing forward. World domination awaits!

Also I was pulling off stuff that actually sounded good to my ears yesterday :eek: very rewarding when that happens.
 
Soldato
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I’ve made huge progress with learning the guitar neck and the notes in it with the CAGED system. Only pentatonics down so far :o But I’m really pushing forward. World domination awaits!

Also I was pulling off stuff that actually sounded good to my ears yesterday :eek: very rewarding when that happens.

I wish that I were doing that well, I still feel like I am running around blindly no matter what I do, I know I will get there eventually and must persevere, and being in my 40s doesn't help.. but damn I wish my fingers would do what I want them to.
 
Soldato
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Damn it! Had my guitar back since last Thursday and we just had an accident where someone got in the way and accidently hit the neck of the guitar, now I think the intonation is off... I play the frets game in Rocksmith and now its detecting a fret up.

How can I fix this? As it was already set up, is it as simple as maybe moving one thing a little? I imagine the truss rod, Bridge height and things was corrected during the setup, so hopefully it is just moving that little nut things backwards / forwards slightly.

EDIT: So walked away from the guitar as I felt bummed. I think it might be okay, everything seems to play but I might have pressed too hard previously. Will see how it goes.
 
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Man of Honour
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Damn it! Had my guitar back since last Thursday and we just had an accident where someone got in the way and accidently hit the neck of the guitar, now I think the intonation is off... I play the frets game in Rocksmith and now its detecting a fret up.

How can I fix this? As it was already set up, is it as simple as maybe moving one thing a little? I imagine the truss rod, Bridge height and things was corrected during the setup, so hopefully it is just moving that little nut things backwards / forwards slightly.

EDIT: So walked away from the guitar as I felt bummed. I think it might be okay, everything seems to play but I might have pressed too hard previously. Will see how it goes.
Do a little googling and see what the symptoms suggest. Minor intonation adjustments tend to be done on the bridge. It may be that the person setting it up didn’t bother with intonation?

I hit the ultra zone yesterday. Really making big leaps. Hoping to join a band in the upcoming months :D
 
Soldato
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Do a little googling and see what the symptoms suggest. Minor intonation adjustments tend to be done on the bridge. It may be that the person setting it up didn’t bother with intonation?

I hit the ultra zone yesterday. Really making big leaps. Hoping to join a band in the upcoming months :D

I'm pretty sure he did, the bridge had all been adjusted and it sounds clean when strum. It was working a charm when I got it home on the shooting ducks frets game. Before I took it in, I couldn't even get the game to play the first fret properly.

As I said though, I'm wondering if I was just pressing too hard on the frets. It seems okay when I'm lightly touching the string, I'll play around with it again today to see how it plays. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid about messing it up.

Can anyone recommend a guitar tuner? The last two I've bought around £10-15 have developed back-light issues or just stopped working.
 
Soldato
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Guitartuna app's pretty widely used.
you'll get better at doing it by ear, even if you don't specifically practice to.

I found I could tune mine well enough to play in a few months, get to the point that you could touch it up with the tuner if needed but it was never more that a few ct out
 
Caporegime
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I'm pretty sure he did, the bridge had all been adjusted and it sounds clean when strum. It was working a charm when I got it home on the shooting ducks frets game. Before I took it in, I couldn't even get the game to play the first fret properly.

As I said though, I'm wondering if I was just pressing too hard on the frets. It seems okay when I'm lightly touching the string, I'll play around with it again today to see how it plays. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid about messing it up.

Can anyone recommend a guitar tuner? The last two I've bought around £10-15 have developed back-light issues or just stopped working.

Polytune?
 
Man of Honour
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It’s mega pricey but my Peterson Stomp Classic tuner is just godlike. Probably actually the pedal I get the most value out of. I love how it’s always on and I can then use it as a mute switch. Would deffo recommend it as an investment.
 
Man of Honour
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I’ve had to eat a massive slice of humble pie. After years of thinking that Plug in Baby by Muse is something well within my comfort zone I’ve been forced to concede it is not. My transition between the notes is not clear, but choppy and inconsistent. I am nowhere near as good at it as I thought! Problem evidently is the little finger wanting to misbehave and fly up every time there is a switch from the first finger to the second. This is the exactly same problem I have with the tornoado of souls riff. At speed my hand is undisciplined and the distances to move get further... it’s not speed... it’s control.

Metronome going slow, going to get this down!!! :mad:

*rocky montage*
 
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