Learning Guitar

[Marky]

Hey all,

I'm interested in learning to play the guitar...
I've checked eBay and a lot of people are selling these Starter Packs, where you get a pretty basic Squire Electric Guitar with all the neccessities etc.

I'm planning to just learn from the internet/youtube/experimenting on my own...

Any links or advice that you could give would be a great help! I'm a complete NEWBIE when it comes to guitars, I've never played one in my life. I think the nearest I've got is to playing Guitar on Rock Band on the XBox 360 ;D

I need help with the basics/which guitar to start with etc.

I'm dedicated, so please take your time and explain things in new boys terms

Thanks,

Marky

 

[Marky]

What differences do you recieve from one guitar to the next? Is the difference in the amp you choose?

Also, my music taste are in bands such as Foo Fighters, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers - not sure if that helps in any advice you guys have

Thanks jr1104 for that, great advice

 

[Marky]

Great advice guys!

if the music you want to learn is more acoustic get an acoustic, likewise with electric.

i would recommend the occassional 1 hour lesson, maybe one a month if you can afford.
even better having a 2 hour lesson every month or two.
definitely get a big chord book with pictures of each chord along with the tab & chord charts.
some great advice above as well

the main thing is that it requires a real load of legwork. a guitarist i play with is completely self-taught and he is of a very high standard, for a solid 3-4 years he played every day for an hour plus. having a teacher wont mean a thing unless you can clock in a good few hours every week
i was gonna post up a few worksheets that i give my students, i might get round to it this easter and ill let you know if i do

Cool are you a Guitar Teacher? Any worksheets etc. would be a great help so let me know if you do

Also - any suggestion on the guitar and/or starter pack to start with? I'm not sure what to look for in a guitar...

 

[Marky]

yeah i teach when im not sessioning! is it electric you're wanting to go for? and what styles of music?

I'd really love to play some of the Foo Fighters songs, also like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Them sort of songs are the sort of style I'd love to get into.

starter kits are pretty much the same, great value for everything but if you really find yourself progressing you'll be aching for a better guitar & amp quite early on.
good kit would be:
http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/yamaha-pacif-012/10383 for £260
quite expensive but pacificas are among the best quality guitars in that price range.

good thing is if you buy a guitar and amp at a shop, they'll throw in a soft case, strap and lead or you'll tell them you'll look elsewhere, always worked for me!

for hard rock/metal ive just bought a student an ibanez GRGR 121EX and im impressed
http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/79434
i like vintage guitars too for price range £100-200

I've read quite a lot about the ibanez and it's been nothing but positive reviews! May just start off with a starter kit however, due to me not even playing a guitar before. Then I'll work my way up and grab a better guitar later on.

for starter amps i really like kustoms
KGA10FX, can be had for maybe £70-80,
also the roland cubes - lots of different effects and distortion settings
roland microcubes are tiny tiny amps that can run on plug or battery and they're not bad, very very cheap. standard roland cube 15x are good too.
or go look for second hand at your music shop!

Cool thanks a lot buddy

i bought this to start with

http://www.reverb-store.co.uk/produc....asp?prod=1719

it wasnt 170 i think i got it for £110, think theres a price error there.

i prefered starting with an electric as thats the sort of music im into and want to be able to play, and i think they are overall a lot more comfortable and easy to play than an acoustic. id recommend something like this.

and most of the chillies songs are relatively easy, get your hands on the californication tabs book (or look on internet) its good for beginners i think

Similar packages are available on the auction site for around £100 - £120 so that's cool Thanks!

Marky

 

[Marky]

cool peppers stuff sounds good on a strat
will scan in some exercises tomoro

Nice one thanks

I started with an acoustic and taught myself with tabs off the internet. I also learnt my basic chords so when igot frustrated with learning tabs i could make basic tunes by just doing afew chords.

After a while i bought a bass guitar and now neglect acoustic a bit for bass. But i still use acoustic a bit to make hooks for whenever me and some mates hit the practice rooms.

All this was taught to me by myself and happened in 3 months.

ALSO: i found that bass guitar is quite basic. You can learn simple plucking techniques and get the general feel for playing guitar as well as develop hard ends on your fingers with bass. its less frutrating too. However, i did pick bass up a while after trying acoustic for a while so im not enitrley confident learning bass first is a good idea.

Cool I've been taking a look at some stuff on the net and have been reading how to read TABS I'll give them a go

Guitar

http://www.dv247.com/invt/41664/

Amp

http://www.dv247.com/invt/53192/

Don't buy one of the starting kits, they are trash.

I think I'll start with the starting kit purely because I don't want to spend as much as that on my first guitar. Gotta start small

-----

I found this...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Washburn-Elec...h=item270296527935&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262

Any thoughts?

Also... is that button next to the Gain dial the button to change to the distortion channel (Or the Dirty channel - See I'm already picking up the jargon )?

 

[Marky]

Hi Marky. Some good advice in this thread. If you want to chat about guitars and stuff feel free to add me to msn.



Blackvault

Nice one I'll add you buddy

yeah that button will change from clean to distortion
looks like a good deal there. good having a humbucker (the double pickup) at the back if you want a nice fat rocky sound. only thing that puts me off that is having the tremolo (whammy bar) because using it on cheaper guitars instantly plays havoc with tuning but its not a big deal at all, you wont find yourself using the whammy much at all except for guitar hero posing
go for it!

Are you not able to remove the whammy bar from the bridge? Or is this just one certain guitars?

 

[Marky]

one thing i'd definatly recomend is buying a guitar stand early on, they can be got for £10 and means that you are always looking at your guitar, it's not hiden away on some shelf or zipped in some case, when i started to play, i had my guitar in a gig bag under my bed.... two weeks and i didn't play it... at all.... then went to argos got a stand, and really haven't put my guitar down since

I was thinking about this, and a quick check on eBay found some nice cheap ones Think I will grab one soon

A tuner would help too.

Why do I need a Tuner and what advantages do you get from one?

----

I just brought the guitar that I linked above Hopefully will get it on Thursday and can get the ball rolling

 

[Marky]

It's an easy way to quickly tune your guitar.

As for advantages? Well... your guitar'll be in tune.


Something like this would be fine: http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/135-korg_ca_30_chromatic_tuner

Ahhh riight! Yeah I was having a funny moment then
You get an electronic tuner with the guitar above - will that do?

 

[Marky]

Good move going for an electric, I struggled for years with an acoustic, my playing came on leaps and bounds when I bought an electric, just wish I'd done it sooner.

When you have some spare cash, have a look at Line6 Guitarport and riffworks, I couldn't live without mine now.

Cool they look interesting I'll take a look

that switch actually does'nt change clean to distortion, it's like a treble knob, a 3 way tone switch, to change from clean to distortion you'd need a cheap footswitch, unless you have a 3rd arm to reach the amp's distortion switch

Are you sure on this? Do you know where the distortion switch will be?

Mrp77 - good idea about the stands. I have a few and a couple of guitars hanging off wall hangers. I would recommend the wall hangers as then you don't bump into them but also if your guitars are pretty then it is nice but expensive piece of wall art. lol

Blackvault

Ooo I'd love to have it on the wall Maybe when I get into it a bit more

Will keep an eye on this thread.
Got an Epiphone G310 and Peavy Vyper amp for my 40th.
Will get some lessons sorted with the same guitar teacher my son uses.
So far i can do one of the bits from Wish you were thanks to justinguitar web site.
Getting my hands and head round chords now. Got D, E and A sorted.

Nice one Good luck with your lessons
That Justinguitar website is very good I can already remember E,B,G,D,A,E from:

Easter Bunny Gets Drunk After Easter

How good is that guitar?

I'll tell you tomorrow

 

[Marky]

You haven't added me to msn yet lol



The fret dot markers are fine. Different designs will have the positioned in various places. The guitar is legit.

Blackvault

Heh I didn't add you yesterday as I was planning to go soon after
And I'm currently at work right now

Will add you when I get back tonight and we can do mucho guitar talkings

 

[Marky]

Sorry I didn't read the listing earlier - that tuner should be fine.

Will I need to tune it when I first get it? If not, when do I have to do it?

 

[Marky]

the button on the amp is definitely the button that changes between clean and distortion. confusion when the pic you posted was the guitar, and the switch on the guitar next to the volume knob is the pickup selector, which is what cosmic182 was talking about

Ah ha! I've read slightly about pickups etc. Can't wait to experiment with that

 

[Marky]

Marky if you have any questions I'm free to answer them

Have been playing for 7 years or so now so should be able to help you out with the basics.

Thanks buddy

With the amp you're getting i doubt there will be a difference in sound when changing pickup positions

Decent amp + decent pickups = significant change in sound when changing pickup position

Poor amp + poor pickups = very subtle change.

There are three positions

Bridge,middle and neck pickups. The washburn you've purchased has a humbucker in the bridge position (closest to bridge) and two single coils.

Bridge is usually used for lead, neck (closest to neck) for rhythm and the middle for either splitting the two humbuckers or giving a nice twangy sound.

I must warn you though if you get in to guitar be prepared for GAS

I think I've spent around £3000 since last august on gear and i only work once a week

Have a custom lined up that is going to cost around £1500

Thanks for the pickups information
I understand it's an expensive hobby but if I keep practising and enjoying it, I'm fully prepared for the spendage

Without a doubt it'll be out of tune when you get it.

As for when to tune, a quick check each time you pick it up wouldn't hurt, but it should hold the tuning pretty well if you're keeping it in the same room all the time.

Other than that, if it ever sounds a bit off just tweak it up.

Another thing to note: always tune up.

e.g. If you're trying to tune the E string, and the tuner's reading it as E#, don't just tune it down to E. Take it down to around D, then tune UP to E. This stops any risk of the string slipping.

Thanks for the tip I'll tune it first thing then

Just recieved confirmation it's arrived Will take some pics when I get back

 

[Marky]

Phew... I'm back
I've just been rocking out on my first guitar BOOO YARR

I've just been getting used to the guitar, and the feel of the pick against the strings. I've learn't a few of the chords (D, A and E), and I made a small little song
Lots of fun

Please do mate! Im eager.

Im actually hovering over it now, wether to order one! :d

Heh sorry I haven't been on earlier I'll get some pictures up tomorrow

 

[Marky]

Hmm this might annoy you marky

http://machinehead.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/274?osCsid=tgbacjfiqiav751v14ngfv46u6

I got mine for £139 - I win

just wondering, there are only 6 strings in the guitar, how do you hit the 7 notes you need on the scale ?

7 Notes on what scale?

 

[Marky]

It's a different guitar A better one

As I said... I'm not looking for anything that's that good as - in my current position - I'm not wanting to spend much on it. Who knows 2 weeks down the line I may not enjoy playing guitar! At least with this starter kit, if I decide it's not for me, I can just resell it

 

[Marky]

Grab a three chord song book before you buy anything else. You will be playing a mean Mr. Tambourine Man in no time.

This is the sort of book I was talking about.

http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/0404180/details.html

That book has an excellent collection of songs.

Thanks for the recommendation, I've been considering grabbing a chord book

Still no piccies

Haha sorry buddy I'm having too much fun rocking!!
I'll take some pics now

For anyone who is unaware of what a humbucker is, it is a larger pickup which creates a 'thicker' guitar sound. Essential for distorted rock at this price bracket.

My one has a humbucker \o/

 

[Marky]

Apologies for the bad quality - using my phone

Washburn X7 - The Guitar!

A Close Up

The head! (Is that the proper term? )

You get three picks

 

[Marky]

Hey guys - I've had to stop playing the guitar last week because I fell on my wrist and couldn't use it very well. But it's slowly recovering now so I should be able to play again now Think I will give it another go tonight. I'm still covering the chords as I want to get them completely under my belt.
Think I may buy a three chord song book, may make it a little more interesting learning the guitar!

Marky, what does the Washburn X7 guitar sound like? Does it sound cheap?

It sounds fine to be! I love both the clean and dirty channels. However, with me never playing the guitar before, I have nothing to compare it to