***The Official Guitar Thread***

I love the aesthetic of guitars and full understand those who get into collecting for the value and ornamental side of things. I'd love to have the means to purchase similar.

For now I'll stick with my 40+ year old cheap acoustic which I'm learning to play as I will never get rid (sentimental) and I don't want it to be an ornament.
 
Dup said:
I love the aesthetic of guitars and full understand those who get into collecting for the value and ornamental side of things. I'd love to have the means to purchase similar.

For now I'll stick with my 40+ year old cheap acoustic which I'm learning to play as I will never get rid (sentimental) and I don't want it to be an ornament.
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I had my Yamaha acoustic in 1972 and it plays like a dream, so much so that I wanted to add a MIDI pickup so I could use it on stage with my Synth pedal but I couldn't get the pickup onto it :(
Last week I decided to take it to band practice because it sounds great but when I plugged it in, it sounded like the worst guitar you've ever heard.
Around 1974 I fitted a really cheap pickup to it and it sounds awful so perhaps I need something a lot better because I'd love to play it on stage.
 
Dup said:
I love the aesthetic of guitars and full understand those who get into collecting for the value and ornamental side of things. I'd love to have the means to purchase similar.

For now I'll stick with my 40+ year old cheap acoustic which I'm learning to play as I will never get rid (sentimental) and I don't want it to be an ornament.
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In 40 years you haven't accumulated enough dosh to buy a decent guitar or got one as a present from a beloved ?

[ hold on, where is my violin ]
 
Roland Butter said:
In 40 years you haven't accumulated enough dosh to buy a decent guitar or got one as a present from a beloved ?

[ hold on, where is my violin ]
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Erm, why the unnecessary condescending post? I inherited my guitar in 2016 from my late father. Instead of having it sat doing nothing, I decided to learn to play it. I will likely upgrade at some point as it's very bright sounding, but will always keep it for sentimental reasons. In getting familiar with what I had however, my research had me all over the internet admiring alsorts of guitars despite my lack of abilty, so I can fully understand why someone would guy and collect on aesthetic alone, which was my point.


SexyGreyFox said:
I had my Yamaha acoustic in 1972 and it plays like a dream, so much so that I wanted to add a MIDI pickup so I could use it on stage with my Synth pedal but I couldn't get the pickup onto it :(
Last week I decided to take it to band practice because it sounds great but when I plugged it in, it sounded like the worst guitar you've ever heard.
Around 1974 I fitted a really cheap pickup to it and it sounds awful so perhaps I need something a lot better because I'd love to play it on stage.
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Never heard/seen an acoustic used like that (looked it up), interesting :)

If I ever reach a stage of being good enough I'd love to record myself, both mic and with a pickup. Might have an under saddle tranducer fitted to mine to extend its life assuming I keep it up, but think I would prefer raw mic recording. It's all money... It needn't be expensive I know, but apparently I have fussy ears for someone who has only been properly learning 6 months! (My teacher says I'm picking up quick. I make beginner mistakes but my ears and learning speed are that of someone more advanced).
 
Dup said:
Erm, why the unnecessary condescending post? I inherited my guitar in 2016 from my late father. Instead of having it sat doing nothing, I decided to learn to play it. I will likely upgrade at some point as it's very bright sounding, but will always keep it for sentimental reasons. In getting familiar with what I had however, my research had me all over the internet admiring alsorts of guitars despite my lack of abilty, so I can fully understand why someone would guy and collect on aesthetic alone, which was my point.
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Sounds wonderful. If it's too bright, you might want to consider a different type of strings. They all have different properties, so for an acoustic you could try bronze strings if you don't already have those. Thickers strings are likely to be less bright, although you shouldn't go too thick as they normally require higher tension which might damage an older instrument.
 
Those are beautiful. I must admit that I don't feel entirely confident about hollow bodied guitars myself, having never owned one, but they're great.

I need some general bass-related advice, if anyone can help. I installed a high mass Omega bridge on my P-bass recently, to replace the original Fender one as I much prefer the thicker tone of the higher mass.

That all went well, though I had to make the notches in the bridge myself. I've sort of set up the bass, though I've never had to before now I'm pretty hands on when it comes to guitars. Set the intonation, attack, etc and it mostly seems ok...except...the E string now sounds gravelly.

I have two theories, but both of them could be expensive. First, I may have cut the E string too short as it's not wound very much around the peg, but then nor are the other strings.

The second is that I've notched the bridge badly, but I was really quite conservative so I hope that's not it, or that it's too shallow.

Any suggestions?
 
Still haven't got my guitar that I ordered in November. Originally December 4th delivery date, then January 29th and now I have found out it's been discontinued. Useless shop, I always had to chase them.

Might spend a few weeks trying out RockSmith with my housemate's electric to gauge and go from there.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
Sounds wonderful. If it's too bright, you might want to consider a different type of strings. They all have different properties, so for an acoustic you could try bronze strings if you don't already have those. Thickers strings are likely to be less bright, although you shouldn't go too thick as they normally require higher tension which might damage an older instrument.
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Sorry, just noticed this. I have D'Addario Phosphor Bronze Extra Light (.010-.047) strings on it. I'm not sure what it had previously but they sounded too far the other way. I'll try lights next time. It's build like a tank, weighs noticeably more than my instructors Tacoma so I don't think thicker strings will bother it much.

I'm actually puzzled as to why I bought extra light... must have been a mistake (I had to check my order history to check).

Did you sort your E string?

So, your orders been cancelled @doodah? Shame. Give it a go to see if you get into it before committing to another, but don't rule out formal lessons if Rocksmith doesn't work as I tried it and didn't get along with it. I did better from YouTube videos.
 
doodah said:
Still haven't got my guitar that I ordered in November. Originally December 4th delivery date, then January 29th and now I have found out it's been discontinued. Useless shop, I always had to chase them.

Might spend a few weeks trying out RockSmith with my housemate's electric to gauge and go from there.
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Winter NAMM just finished so companies are launching a new line of guitar for 2018, try look for deals for 2017 guitars, you might get a bargain.
 
@Dup - I cancelled it as this has been going on for months. Now that I have access to an electric guitar, I can dabble a little to see if RockSmith is for me :)

@Raymond Lin - thanks I will keep an eye out.
 
Dup said:
Sorry, just noticed this. I have D'Addario Phosphor Bronze Extra Light (.010-.047) strings on it. I'm not sure what it had previously but they sounded too far the other way. I'll try lights next time. It's build like a tank, weighs noticeably more than my instructors Tacoma so I don't think thicker strings will bother it much.

I'm actually puzzled as to why I bought extra light... must have been a mistake (I had to check my order history to check).

Did you sort your E string?
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Honestly, extra lights are lovely. I have them on my acoustic, but it really depends on your tone. The heavier strings will make a lot more noise too. Give them a go...guitar strings are so cheap!

I haven't sorted my string, unfortunately. Just as a price comparison, a set of strings for your acoustic will be maybe £6...it's cost me at least £8 just to change that single bass string, with a full set costing about £20!
 
Ok, so how do I go about identifying pickups? I spotted an auction on eBay - someone selling seven humbuckers. Two naff looking mother of pearl ones with gold poles, one with a plain silver cover, and four identical looking gold ones. No info about any of them, though one of the photos shows the back of one of the gold ones and there’s a familiar looking “S” logo on there... I’ve just bid and won the lot for £31 in the hopes of picking up as many as four Seymour Duncan... somethings. I can stand to lose that if they’re fake or broken, but if they’re genuine and working then I reckon that could be a few hundred quid worth of pickups.

So... How can I test them short of putting them in a guitar? And what will I need to do to identify them? I suppose they could be anything under the casings. I gather you can tell by measuring the resistance with a multimeter and comparing them to known values. Any other ideas?
 
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Post pictures! I imagine if they are being sold off in bulk like this they may be stock pickups from various guitars - just a case of testing them I guess. You can tell how ‘hot’ they are but afaik not how they’ll sound in terms of mids etc.

Tbh I think the choice of pickup, aside from single coil / humbuker / noiseless / hotness etc is less important than pick up height and amp settings (especially if you have an EQ). Yeah they’ll be a difference if you A/B then but there are always ways of compensating. Perhaps I’m just saying that because changing pick ups is a PITA.
 
I tried to create a quick-change pickup solution years ago. I'm sure there must be a simple way of adjusting the wiring inside your guitar to just have a male/female connector and to be able to quickly swap out pickups.

At the time, I didn't think too hard and just lookup up what someone else did - they'd used something for quick battery swaps on RC planes. They didn't work, but I think that may well have been me just being stupid. Now, if I did it, I think I'd probably use some form of small chock block - there's obviously not much space behind your pickguard.

Anyway, could be an option for you.
 
Nitefly said:
Post pictures!
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Here’s the listing, picture 5 is what caught my eye.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/162887021596

I’ll post more when they arrive.

I’m wondering whether I can do a rough test by using electrical tape to attach the pickup wires to one end of a cable, plug the other end into an amp, lay my guitar down and then use books or something to balance the pickup over the strings and give my guitar a quick strum and see what happens...
 
Dup said:
I love the aesthetic of guitars and full understand those who get into collecting for the value and ornamental side of things. I'd love to have the means to purchase similar.

For now I'll stick with my 40+ year old cheap acoustic which I'm learning to play as I will never get rid (sentimental) and I don't want it to be an ornament.
Click to expand...

Have to say I've never really had a strong attachment to any guitar I've owned, so I've sold them all at some point. So you are lucky to have that.

Given the choice between a new guitar and buying back one of my old ones, I'd probably pick a new one. If I had loads of money and bought my old guitars back, I'd probably mod them to get rid of what ever disliked feature that made me sell them in the first place. So I'd probably be better just buying a new guitar.

Whereas my mate only electric is the first decent one he bought. That said its lovely. But he didn't keep any of his starter guitars either.
 
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