***The Official Guitar Thread***

Not sure about Camden I'm afraid.

I've had a very productive guitar day:

(1) set up my pedal board and re-wired it;

(2) diagnosed and solved a tube problem, which required 1337 removing tube skills and trial and error;

It was this bar steward!!!
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(3) opened up the back of my guitar, set the trem from floating to fixed and wrapped the springs in kitchen towel - seems to have improved tone :)

Problem is I've barely had more than 10 mins to play. Now watching 'A Dog's Purpose' under order of swmbo... although tbh it's quite cute.
 
With everything set up nice yesterday it's be ace having a good noodle today. I've sworn by humbuckers since you can struggle to get a convincing rock rhythm with a weedy singlecoil but with the coil taps on my new guitar it's allowed me to test out the single coil feel on songs that were played with single coils (e.g. Comfortably Numb solo) - you really do get that biting clarity that's hard to achieve with a humbucker.

Now I swear by the coil tap - so nice to have both options in one guitar!
 
because I'm so gobsmacked with the Roland GR-55 for stage use I've decided to save for one of these -



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Sandycheeks said:
Is guitar guitar good then? I was going to go to the Birmingham store for a nosey around.
I am only 30 mins from Liverpool though so going to have a look around there first.
Does anyone remember sound control in Salford, I went there once a good few years ago and was amazed at the sheer amount of guitars hanging from the walls. I sat and played around 20 different guitars and didn't end up buying one from there anyway.


I keep my guitars on stands in the living room and will continue to do so as it is so easy to pick one up for a bit of noodling whenever I get the urge - missus nipped to the loo mid film, no problem...fit a bit of playing in that 2 minutes.
Also I think guitars are good to look at and admire and I love them being on display.

I'm getting tempted by the Yamaha LL16 ARE, I like Yamaha guitars. As daft as this may sound, a lot of folks recommend the seagull S6 series but I just don't like the head-stock, I think it looks weird and I don't think I could get on with it.

Lets play a game...if you had £800 to spend on an acoustic guitar what would you buy and why.
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The guys at guitar guitar b'ham were very accommodating, both in the store itself and when ordering online from them. I have no problem recommending them as a nationwide chain store. They have quite a lot of kit, and know their stuff about the instruments and other kit they stock.
At the b'ham store they were quite happy to let us noodle about with some very expensive guitars, the only proviso being that we removed our coats etc so we didn't scratch any of the instruments with the zips or whatever.
Parking was limited at the b'ham store, but it's not all that much of an issue.



If I had £800 to spend on a guitar I'd probably get another seagull S6 folk. My old one is over a decade old and has been through the wars, but it's a great, loud guitar and solidly dependable for the money. For me the headstock is just part of their thing and I can dig that.
 
Nitefly said:
I drove up there two weeks ago. It was absolutely AMAZING. There is a whole acoustic shop and a seperate electric guitar shop a couple of doors down. Amazing customer service too - brought me cups of tea and brought an amp similar to mine to the sound room so I could play as if it were home.

I fact I took a picture:

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Wall behind me was guitars too.

I had no problem with parking but got there at store opening. There must be big standard street parking relatively nearby and you could always block someone in for 2 mins to collect your purchase.
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Looking at this photo they must have redecorated and rearranged the layout.
 
Morve said:
How do you find the tracking? when i demo'd one years ago the tracking was never quite able to keep up with faster runs etc, i've always wanted to get one but that stopped me
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I 99% use it with the guitar sounds which have zero latency however there are tracks where I'm strumming an acoustic with an Hammond behind it and that keeps up no problem. I also have strings behind a couple of acoustic sounds and those are OK. If you want to do a sax solo then it takes some discipline of not hitting other strings and plecking in the right place but I don't do that stuff. There are some great demos on You Tube where they have no problems with tracking.

There are little tricks, for instance I do the long sustained strings at the start of Shine On You Crazy Diamond but I kept hitting stray notes so I've turned off the other 5 strings and tuned my E string to G in the software - no more ghost notes.
Personally I think if I started doing trumpet and sax solos on a guitar I'd be getting into stupid territory so I don't want to do that. I'll let the keyboard player do that because after 3 decades it's become acceptable :)
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
I 99% use it with the guitar sounds which have zero latency however there are tracks where I'm strumming an acoustic with an Hammond behind it and that keeps up no problem. I also have strings behind a couple of acoustic sounds and those are OK. If you want to do a sax solo then it takes some discipline of not hitting other strings and plecking in the right place but I don't do that stuff. There are some great demos on You Tube where they have no problems with tracking.

There are little tricks, for instance I do the long sustained strings at the start of Shine On You Crazy Diamond but I kept hitting stray notes so I've turned off the other 5 strings and tuned my E string to G in the software - no more ghost notes.
Personally I think if I started doing trumpet and sax solos on a guitar I'd be getting into stupid territory so I don't want to do that. I'll let the keyboard player do that because after 3 decades it's become acceptable :)
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I think those 'long sustained strings' are actually wine glasses :p
 
Have had nothing but good experiences in GuitarGuitar in Glasgow. It's three stores all next to each other up here - acoustic store, electric store and the digital/drums/piano store. Service has been excellent in all 3.

Big Robert that works in the main electric store is a top bloke. I specced and ordered a custom made Suhr Standard a couple of years ago and he was fantastic to work with - really knows his stuff and his been over to the factories at Suhr and Fender Custom a few times, so knows the products really well. Good player too.
 
I've been to guitarguitar in Camden a couple of times. Really good size store, great selection of kit. Not the biggest out there, but for pretty central London I was impressed. Staff seemed really friendly and was not too busy at all on weeknights when I went.
 
Bit the bullet and bought a Taylor 214ce from GuitarGuitar in Camden today.
Played everything nearly and really liked a couple of others but the Taylor just picked me really.
 
^^

Good show. I always liked that thing where you pick up a guitar and it just feels right somehow. It's not just how it looks, but how it feels when you pick it up, play it and hear it.
As much as anything else with my taylor it just felt right when I picked it up. I get that same feeling every time I take it out of the case.
Happy strumming :)
 
At what point do you outgrow your first guitar?

In my case it's a late 60s Eko Ranger 6 (family sentimental thing). It's set up as best as it can be and I'm making progress, but it doesn't sound all that amazing, but not terrible (according to my tutor).

But at what point do you decide to lay down £3-400 on an upgrade? I guess that's a personal decision, assuming you've decided to stick with playing and not sack it off. I can only assume a new more expensive guitar would be potentially easier to play and it's a case of finding a comfort and tone you prefer.

For me I'm naturally introvert so it'll be when I naturally feel comfortable playing/trying out guitars in a shop as right now, I wouldn't like that experience one bit.
 
I love that Eko. My friend's dad had one growing up and it always sounded great, but if it's from the 60s then I can imagine it being a little compromised unless it's been really really looked after. It also won't benefit from modern improvements in building methods etc.

I think that if you feel that you've outgrown the guitar, maybe the tone really isn't to your liking, just get a new guitar. It's well worth going and playing a few - in the style that you play normally, don't attempt to show off - and just finding what you're comfortable with.

My most recent experience of buying an acoustic was going into Denmark Street in London and trying some out. Most importantly, I found one that felt really comfortable in my hands and had a lovely tone. I admittedly only looked at those in my price range. But I ended up with a guitar that I adore.

What you'll find, as well, if you're worried about investment is that a new guitar will almost certainly generate a huge amount of excitement for you and make you want to play it. I think that's the essence of buying a guitar personally - do you want to play it?
 
Anyone got any tips on cleaning an acoustic guitar fretboard, basically not sure what to use to clean it, would rather not have to buy a special guitar cleaner if I can use something from the household cleaning cupboard?
 
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