***The Official Guitar Thread***

[Raymond Lin]

I started 9 months ago as a noob, and have followed Justin's beginner program, now I can play fairly well. Enough for a casual sing along. I know all the open chords and have started playing some barre chords. Want to make my own music. I read about best audio interfaces for musicians and hope to create a small budget recording studio in the future.

How often do you say you practice and did you get an acoustic or electric to learn?

 

[easyrider]

Had a Yolo Moment.

Bought a 1969 Marshall 50 anniversary Valve amp and Marshall Handwired 1960AHW 4 x 12 Cab

Sounds amazing...Literally end game for me....I've plugged my 11 Rack in to use the studio reverb FX and its sounds fantastic. I'll probaly sell my Vox pathfinders now and just keep the Fender Champ and Fender blues deluxe along with the Marshall







Also go a pro setup on my American fender Deluxe Strat and changed the pick guard to a black one. Plays beautifully now.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Was that Marshall Head used? They don't make them anymore (wish they did, they are so cool).

 

[easyrider]

Was that Marshall Head used? They don't make them anymore (wish they did, they are so cool).

Yeah, Marshall JTM1H . Basically Bought in 2012 by the seller then boxed up...Its mint....Cost me £600 two weeks ago....been on the search for over 3 years for one...Always wanted one...

 

[Raymond Lin]

Yeah, Marshall JTM1H . Basically Bought in 2012 by the seller then boxed up...Its mint....Cost me £600 two weeks ago....been on the search for over 3 years for one...Always wanted one...

I remember them coming out, my brother in law got a combo one. They hold their value well, handmade in the UK, limited edition.

 

[easyrider]

I remember them coming out, my brother in law got a combo one. They hold their value well, handmade in the UK, limited edition.

Yeah, 1 watt....the Beauty lies in the tone without breaking cracking the windows....I have read many things about this amp and they are certainly not a toy. Its Loud and drives the 4 x 12 brilliantly. Before I dropped £750 on the cab I posted in the Marshall forums and they said the 1 watt anniversary amp would shine with a 4 x 12 cab.

Whats nice about the JTM1H is the bass....Its creamy smooth with loads of crunch...while cutting through. TBH a little bit of wee came out when I plugged my Fender Telecaster through it.

Used in studios for that classic Marshall tone without the need to record high DB on say a 100w Plexi....

Another great feature is the attenuation button the back...You can Vamp out ACDC while my Dog sleeps

 

[Raymond Lin]

Yeah, 1 watt....the Beauty lies in the tone without breaking cracking the windows....I have read many things about this amp and they are certainly not a toy. Its Loud and drives the 4 x 12 brilliantly. Before I dropped £750 on the cab I posted in the Marshall forums and they said the 1 watt anniversary amp would shine with a 4 x 12 cab.

Whats nice about the JTM1H is the bass....Its creamy smooth with loads of crunch...while cutting through. TBH a little bit of wee came out when I plugged my Fender Telecaster through it.

Used in studios for that classic Marshall tone without the need to record high DB on say a 100w Plexi....

Another great feature is the attenuation button the back...You can Vamp out ACDC while my Dog sleeps

I thought about getting one (despite me being crap) purely on a collecting basis, but had the sense to hold off as I already more guitars/amps/pedals than Kevin Sheilds

 

[tedmaul]

I find the hardest thing learning at home by myself is from day to day i don't know what I should be learning next. Do I do scales ? Do I try to learn a new song ?

Why not combine the two?

I changed my practice routine a couple of years ago to only practice things in the context of songs.

So I tend to work on a different tune every month, and then whatever I'm working on is based around that tune. My focus is primarily jazz and blues, but you could adapt the approach to whatever interests you and whatever level you are at.

So for example I might:
- Learn the melody in a few different places on the neck
- work on playing through the song using only chord tones
- Work on my time feel, playing short phrases to a drum groove similar to the song - or along with the song itself.
- Isolate chord changes I find difficult to navigate when improvising - just loop the chords two at a time and just work on them in isolation like that. Maybe playing only chord tones, or just scale tones, or trying to resolve from one chord to the next targeting a specific note etc etc etc
- All of the above but comping chords rather than single note stuff
- etc etc etc

Just pick a song that you want to learn and work out some things you could work on in relation to it. Then you learn a song you like and get better at the same time. I try not to attack too many different things at once as well - so I'll pick a song and then maybe just 2 or 3 things I'm going to work on that month.

YMMV, but I've seen big improvements doing this. But you have to be consistent. I pick the guitar up pretty much every day and I do my little schedule based on this first, even if I do nothing else. Anything after that is a bonus. I also do the most difficult thing on my list first, when I'm fresh and have the most concentration. It's tough when I've been working all day and I'm mentally tired, so I try and prioritise stuff that's going to need my brain.

 

[easyrider]

 

[Aztec2Step]

I just bought a Jet City Amplification Jettenuator which means I can finally put my Peavey 6505+ 112 combo higher than 2-3 on the Post gain without needing earplugs! It subdues a lot of the high-end but nothing that can't be remedied by pumping the presence and highs on the amp.
Chuffed with it as I can now play using that beastly amp without rattling the windows or waking the nipper.

 

[uncle_rufus]

I just bought a Jet City Amplification Jettenuator which means I can finally put my Peavey 6505+ 112 combo higher than 2-3 on the Post gain without needing earplugs! It subdues a lot of the high-end but nothing that can't be remedied by pumping the presence and highs on the amp.
Chuffed with it as I can now play using that beastly amp without rattling the windows or waking the nipper.

Congrats! I did exactly this a few years ago, though I bought the Thomann/Harley Benton attenuator and I use it to run my Laney Lionheart L20H + matching 2x12 above a 2 on the volume without destroying everything in the room!!! Really good purchase wish I'd picked one up sooner

 

[Aztec2Step]

^Yeah, I wish I had bought an attenuator sooner too. I bought the amp in 2010 when I was a singleton living in a detached house so volume wasn't an issue back then haha!

 

[Raymond Lin]

^Yeah, I wish I had bought an attenuator sooner too. I bought the amp in 2010 when I was a singleton living in a detached house so volume wasn't an issue back then haha!

Congrats! I did exactly this a few years ago, though I bought the Thomann/Harley Benton attenuator and I use it to run my Laney Lionheart L20H + matching 2x12 above a 2 on the volume without destroying everything in the room!!! Really good purchase wish I'd picked one up sooner

Mine has it built in and even at 1W it is bloody loud.

Pedals to get gain is the way forward at home.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

So I drove 9hrs (round trip) to go see a 59 Les Paul (dream guitar). Obviously, I working from home and got lots done

I'm a bit gutted to be honest because the one I had my eye on seemed to look great on the online photos but it had a bit of a crappy spot in the flame. It wasn't anything you'd notice under the right light, but it was enough to make me question dropping big money on it. The others that they had in stock were lovely but for different reasons I left empty handed (some different colours, some quilt top and I wanted flame)... minus a phone full of photos.

Already eyeing up some visits to other shops but losing a full day to check out others is not my idea of fun.

 

[uncle_rufus]

Mine has it built in and even at 1W it is bloody loud.

Pedals to get gain is the way forward at home.

The Harley Benton one can attenuate all the way down to silence and then it has a line-out, so if you need a really silent situation you can route it into your interface or whatnot directly... love it!

Anybody here got an OCD drive? I've got a pedal - the Fuzzrocious Bongripper (quality name ) which is a blended drive (it's an OCD on one side and a RAT on the other). I'm using it as my main higher gain distortion and although I can get some good sounds out of it I can't help but feel like I don't really like the sound of the OCD side that much, but when I hear the OCD in demos online etc it sounds pretty good. I'm trying to work out if it's just a preference thing or if maybe there's something wrong with the OCD side of the pedal, maybe I should record how it sounds and see if someone with the real thing can compare it, hmm...

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Overdrives are best used on a slight crunch. In fact, some people use an OD to give a crunch then a distortion to give a thick lead sound.

Try setting your amp to a light gain and kick it in. You should be able to nail an AC/DC tone with any OD pedal in to a dirty amp.

 

[Nitefly]

Rule of thumb is 10x wattage = twice the loudness.

So a 5 watt amp is ‘only’ half as loud as a 50 watt amp, and there is barely any difference between a 50 watt and a 100 watt amp (i.e. both are ‘loud enough’).

Also I find most tube amps are utterly crap with their volume tapering. Quiet, quiet.... well done you’ve just imploded your eardrums.

 

[Blackvault]

Had a Yolo Moment.

Bought a 1969 Marshall 50 anniversary Valve amp and Marshall Handwired 1960AHW 4 x 12 Cab

Sounds amazing...Literally end game for me....I've plugged my 11 Rack in to use the studio reverb FX and its sounds fantastic. I'll probaly sell my Vox pathfinders now and just keep the Fender Champ and Fender blues deluxe along with the Marshall







Also go a pro setup on my American fender Deluxe Strat and changed the pick guard to a black one. Plays beautifully now.

Nice little amp. I've got one but it's a custom offset JTM1 with matching cab. Its super loud and I don't really use it now that I have a Kemper and just headphones in the house.

 

[easyrider]

Nice little amp. I've got one but it's a custom offset JTM1 with matching cab. Its super loud and I don't really use it now that I have a Kemper and just headphones in the house.

Nice!

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I gone done bought it (one on the right)