***The Official Guitar Thread***

I guess it's the state of the market at the moment, and they don't make them anymore either.
Yep. The guitar market is crazy. A bit like a lot of consumer goods at present. I've been watching Zen Market and Reverb but there aren't any bargains to be had. I've been looking for an Oly White strat with Rosewood board for months and can't find anything that's even reasonably priced. A 30 yo Japanese strat is £800 minimum - they were more like £600 18 months ago.
 
Yep. The guitar market is crazy. A bit like a lot of consumer goods at present. I've been watching Zen Market and Reverb but there aren't any bargains to be had. I've been looking for an Oly White strat with Rosewood board for months and can't find anything that's even reasonably priced. A 30 yo Japanese strat is £800 minimum - they were more like £600 18 months ago.

There has to be a million Olympic White Strat with RW board out there surely? You could get a Vintera one for about £600 new last year. Are you signed up to Facebook groups? The Fretboard Forum?
 
There has to be a million Olympic White Strat with RW board out there surely? You could get a Vintera one for about £600 new last year. Are you signed up to Facebook groups? The Fretboard Forum?
Yep - I'm a member at Fretboard but I don't have anything to do with Facebook based on a stubborn principle! Toying with importing one from Japan via Zenmarket. That's where you see most and with import duties you can prob land something for c£500- £600
 
I'm in a rut lately and not progressing.

I can play barre chords cleanly and improvise with the pentatonic in the first and 2nd position. But I really need to get back to learning new things and practicing them, it's way way too easy to just stay in the same place. I have FB videos which are coming up as memories a year old, and it's right there in my face that I haven't progressed much since.

Not sure what the answer is to this, but just get back and get stuck back in to it. Finish the Justin Guitar Intermediate course would be a good thing, I think.
 
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I'm in a rut lately and not progressing.

I can play barre chords cleanly and improvise with the pentatonic in the first and 2nd position. But I really need to get back to learning new things and practicing them, it's way way too easy to just stay in the same place. I have FB videos which are coming up as memories a year old, and it's right there in my face that I haven't progressed much since.

Not sure what the answer is to this, but just get back and get stuck back in to it. Finish the Justin Guitar Intermediate course would be a good thing, I think.
It happens to us all. One thing that can work is to pick a song that you think is beyond you and try and learn sections of it. It takes a while but you inevitably learn new techniques and aren't just noodling the same scale patterns. You should also learn triads on the E, B and G strings, then you can work on little arpeggios instead of chords. It's a slow process but when you get the hang of something that your heroes played then you get a lot of motivation.
 
I'm in a rut lately and not progressing.

I can play barre chords cleanly and improvise with the pentatonic in the first and 2nd position. But I really need to get back to learning new things and practicing them, it's way way too easy to just stay in the same place. I have FB videos which are coming up as memories a year old, and it's right there in my face that I haven't progressed much since.

Not sure what the answer is to this, but just get back and get stuck back in to it. Finish the Justin Guitar Intermediate course would be a good thing, I think.

Oh nice a post about actually playing :)

Definitely been here myself plenty of times - I agree with @Calpol above that really what you need when you feel like you're getting stuck and defaulting to just noodling the same things again and again is to pick something new and learn it in detail. It doesn't necessarily need to be "too hard" for your currently ability, but it should be something which you don't already know and ideally something which has a sound or whatever to it that you want to learn...

To give you an example maybe you've recently been listening to some G n' R and you notice that Slash tends to do these interesting patterns that play about with harmonic minor or interesting sounding descents - pick a song with it in and learn either the solo or the whole song

Also agree about spending a little time on theory - I spent quite a long time memorising all the notes on the fretboard, it felt kind of pointless while I was doing it but it helps a tonne once you start to have it become more ingrained
 
@uncle_rufus is it wrong to talk about guitar gear on here? Not as a poke at you but I want to know what you meant.

because there has been a lot of posts and videos about playing the last few months, I didn’t or anyone say no more talk about playing. The one post about gear you got quite worked up.

I get a feeling, or actually, it appears that you dislike talking about gear. That’s fine, the way you are putting it out there makes me, or may be anyone else hesitate to talk about guitar gear because people like you are offended, or perhaps even angry?

If this thread can be ALL about playing and theory and then another thread all about gear. That’s fine too. I am just wonder where you stand on this.

thanks

ps @2StepSteve i quite like the Fender app/course
 
I get the rut thing to I find myself playing the same handful of songs far too often admittedly it has really helped with some of the things I’ve written as playing then a ton has allowed me to experiment and tweak them. I decided to learn a few classic solo’s which has been a real challenge especially as I only play acoustic and my most played guitar is 12 frets to the body and no cutaway, they will be so much easier if I get an electric lol.

I really need to get stuck back into writing I find it really therapeutic and I have a few ideas floating around. I’d also like to get stuck back into recording I recently got a cajon so want to see if I can fill out my tracks a bit further. I’ve been eyeing up a cheap bass to complete the mix.
 
@uncle_rufus is it wrong to talk about guitar gear on here? Not as a poke at you but I want to know what you meant.

because there has been a lot of posts and videos about playing the last few months, I didn’t or anyone say no more talk about playing. The one post about gear you got quite worked up.

I get a feeling, or actually, it appears that you dislike talking about gear. That’s fine, the way you are putting it out there makes me, or may be anyone else hesitate to talk about guitar gear because people like you are offended, or perhaps even angry?

If this thread can be ALL about playing and theory and then another thread all about gear. That’s fine too. I am just wonder where you stand on this.

thanks

ps @2StepSteve i quite like the Fender app/course

Let me break it down for you - I'm jealous of everyone's nice gear and so I deflect by being salty about it because I can't afford lots of nice gear myself :p

I take your point and I will make an effort to avoid being so bitter; there's nothing wrong with gear nor discussing it and I'm sorry for the tone of those earlier posts
 
What’s the general consensus on multi effect pedals sub £300?

I have upgraded my guitar and amp over the last year and I feel like this is the next logical step :D.
 
I'm in a rut lately and not progressing.

I can play barre chords cleanly and improvise with the pentatonic in the first and 2nd position. But I really need to get back to learning new things and practicing them, it's way way too easy to just stay in the same place. I have FB videos which are coming up as memories a year old, and it's right there in my face that I haven't progressed much since.

Not sure what the answer is to this, but just get back and get stuck back in to it. Finish the Justin Guitar Intermediate course would be a good thing, I think.

Dunno what you mean by barre chords here, but learning the C shape barre is very helpful. At 2nd feet that gives you a nice sounding D which is very useful. Any other open chord can be barred, although g shape is difficult and requires big stretches.

Something else ththaos useful is fingerpicking. If you haven't tried that before, you'll find that opens up a lot of new avenues for you.
 
I've been playing a nice fingerstyle arrangement of She's Leaving Home by The Beatles for the last few days. It's such a beautiful song, it's hard to make it sound bad.

Again, I'm finding my poor fretting hand positioning is causing me issues. Many years of this bad habit means it is very difficult to fix. I guess it's a sign I'm improving that I can identify an issue like this, rather than just "playing". As I've got fairly big hands I've been able to work around it for years, but am now trying to retrain myself. Ugh. This may take a while...
 
I've been playing a nice fingerstyle arrangement of She's Leaving Home by The Beatles for the last few days. It's such a beautiful song, it's hard to make it sound bad.

Again, I'm finding my poor fretting hand positioning is causing me issues. Many years of this bad habit means it is very difficult to fix. I guess it's a sign I'm improving that I can identify an issue like this, rather than just "playing". As I've got fairly big hands I've been able to work around it for years, but am now trying to retrain myself. Ugh. This may take a while...

I'm interested in to what you think your issues are - I've probably got a few myself!
 
I'm interested in to what you think your issues are - I've probably got a few myself!

My fretting hand is angled, relative to the fretboard, so my first knuckle is closer to the neck than my little finger knuckle. That means I have to reach further with my little finger.

I suspect this is also why I've always had problems playing above 12th fret on a classical.
 
I'm the same...fairly long fingers and started with electric so could get away with it...

I made this vid and posted it on classical guitar del camp forum at the time...

https://youtu.be/8wzc36syCHM

advice I got to correct it was to try fixed finger exercises like these... Prob more the ones with a fixed pinky



 
I'm the same...fairly long fingers and started with electric so could get away with it...

I made this vid and posted it on classical guitar del camp forum at the time...

https://youtu.be/8wzc36syCHM

advice I got to correct it was to try fixed finger exercises like these... Prob more the ones with a fixed pinky





Thanks! That's really helpful and better than my idea which was just to do stuff and that until... um.

Edit: I've tried your suggestion and I think that may have been the answer to my problem. As an added bonus, as well as my hand positioning it seems to also work to improve my fretting accuracy.

Thanks!
 
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Good stuff, it’s a good exercise…I like how it’s challenging but fairly relaxed and not intense like pushing speed exercises

I never fully corrected the hand/wrist angle thing btw..maybe cos stopped playing classical really but def helps
 
A very very good focus on the impact of caps and electrical characteristics for guitars:

Not a beginner starting point but both accurate (unlike most YouTube videos on the subject) and holistic - covering the impact of the amp, the cable and the guitar.
 
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