***The Official Guitar Thread***

uncle_rufus said:
Appreciate the tips - everyone is learning and I'm far from a great player! I've been playing for a loooong time (probably almost 20 years) but I've never had lessons, and for about the first 5-8 years I just didn't bother to try and learn any sort of lead playing (I just kind of assume that without proper lessons it would be out of my reach)... Have made okay progress since Youtube etc. made lesson content so much easier to access

So I'm not too bad but nowhere near as good as you'd expect of someone with this amount of time under their belt! I think my rhythm playing is pretty strong though.

Your point about pick angle, not sure from the picture but in my experience for fast playing, especially on the heavy strings, you often want the pick angled the other way to what you're showing there - i.e. slanted backwards... the idea being that the pick doesn't connect with the strings below the one/s you're trying to play (requiring extra movement to pull it up before you can move it back into position for the next downstroke)... Master of Puppets rhythm parts are an absolute masterclass in playing that way... all downstrokes and very fast
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Very interesting - my photo was purposefully for alternate picking but I only play it slightly less angled down picking (mainly to avoid a scratchy sound) - I’ll check it out! :)
 
Nitefly said:
Finally, I’ve been trying to improvise. It’s so horrible. The obvious place to start is pentatonics and they are so naff and generic sounding - so it’s really pleasing to learn, by ear, how to spice things up with other scales. My current favourite ‘sound musical’ cheat is to emphasise the third of whatever the chord is playing underneath. Dropping that note in makes the boring licks seem suddenly musical. I’m going to keep plugging at it. I find simple melodies quite easy to piece together but making phrases and kicks sound natural... man, that sorts the men from and boys and I am definitely a boy :)
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I can pull together a few tips around this stuff if you like? Maybe over a basic 3 chord 12 bar blues or something? I wouldn't worry too much about scales at this point, you can get a lot of mileage out of just pentatonic plus the dominant 7th arpeggios for each of the 3 chords - that's really where that nice sound is coming from you're hearing when you emphasise the third (great that you've picked that out by ear btw - it's the fundamental starting point to improvising over changes). b7 can sound great too. Just mapping that stuff out over each chord and getting it under the fingers automatically can be a bit of work initially but it's a first step through a gateway that can get you improvising over anything.
 
tedmaul said:
I can pull together a few tips around this stuff if you like? Maybe over a basic 3 chord 12 bar blues or something? I wouldn't worry too much about scales at this point, you can get a lot of mileage out of just pentatonic plus the dominant 7th arpeggios for each of the 3 chords - that's really where that nice sound is coming from you're hearing when you emphasise the third (great that you've picked that out by ear btw - it's the fundamental starting point to improvising over changes). b7 can sound great too. Just mapping that stuff out over each chord and getting it under the fingers automatically can be a bit of work initially but it's a first step through a gateway that can get you improvising over anything.
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Cheers for this! I didn’t have a chance to play yesterday so will have a look at those dominant 7ths this evening :)
 
All quiet from me this week as been busy with work but have had a few sessions. Currently sat outside world guitars waiting for it to open because I’m going to get my guitar set up.

Obscene guitar porn incoming to this thread!
 
Nitefly said:
All quiet from me this week as been busy with work but have had a few sessions. Currently sat outside world guitars waiting for it to open because I’m going to get my guitar set up.

Obscene guitar porn incoming to this thread!
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I love that store, my “local”.
 
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Fap fap fap fap fap.

They were kind enough to undo the horrific tweaking I had done and now the angel is singing. I have a huge amount of guitar books incoming, ones about how to improvise and use scales in context and have ‘speed mechanics’ to keep me busy with.

Gunna be a good weekend!
 
Mr.E. said:
Do you have a PC or console ? Get Rocksmith, it's great fun when learning.
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I do now. It's pretty fun but somewhat hard. I think I've messed up though, my guitar suffers the buzzing and also the game wasn't always registering some frets properly, even when played correctly. After looking up about potential problems, I thought it could be the bridge / intonation issue, so I set about working on that today. Now I have changed them enough I don't exactly know what I'm doing anymore.

How much should a general setup cost and possibly a restring? as these strings have been on since I bought it a good few years ago, even though it's had very little use in that time and has been in a padded bag
 
A half-decent setup which will include a new set of strings ought to be around £50 depending on where you take it

Some of my guitars buzz a little in certain spots but generally unless it affects the sound when amplified I just don't care!
 
Cleaned up and grabbed a few shots outside.
Owned this from new since 2008, By far my favourite guitar
Jackson pro series RR24 Rhoads (Limited Edition 75 made)
Hardly ever played it, might get it professional put back into standard instead of Drop C
see if it gets me to play it more as most songs i learn and play now are either standard or half step.

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uncle_rufus said:
Appreciate the tips - everyone is learning and I'm far from a great player! I've been playing for a loooong time (probably almost 20 years) but I've never had lessons, and for about the first 5-8 years I just didn't bother to try and learn any sort of lead playing (I just kind of assume that without proper lessons it would be out of my reach)... Have made okay progress since Youtube etc. made lesson content so much easier to access

So I'm not too bad but nowhere near as good as you'd expect of someone with this amount of time under their belt! I think my rhythm playing is pretty strong though.

Your point about pick angle, not sure from the picture but in my experience for fast playing, especially on the heavy strings, you often want the pick angled the other way to what you're showing there - i.e. slanted backwards... the idea being that the pick doesn't connect with the strings below the one/s you're trying to play (requiring extra movement to pull it up before you can move it back into position for the next downstroke)... Master of Puppets rhythm parts are an absolute masterclass in playing that way... all downstrokes and very fast
Click to expand...
This weekend I watched the ‘cracking the code’ YouTube series on picking which I think you’ll enjoy. It initially concludes that downward pickslanting solves everything and then ultimately determines that you need to slant the pick both ways depending on which string you are hopping to next. I think you’ll enjoy it the series - it’s a cool history lesson if nothing else! The first hour and a half is mostly filler but it’s fun.
 
Loads of electric chat in here, anyone keen on acoustic? :)
I play almost entirely fingerstyle arrangements and was wondering if people had any inspiration for songs they like etc?

I find myself going round the same pieces and getting stuck in a rut :/
 
uncle_rufus said:
A half-decent setup which will include a new set of strings ought to be around £50 depending on where you take it

Some of my guitars buzz a little in certain spots but generally unless it affects the sound when amplified I just don't care!
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Just dropped my guitar off, came out at £36 for the setup + strings. Providing nothing else is found to increase that, I think the price is pretty good. Hopefully I'll be picking it back up on Thursday.
 
Spacedeck said:
Just dropped my guitar off, came out at £36 for the setup + strings. Providing nothing else is found to increase that, I think the price is pretty good. Hopefully I'll be picking it back up on Thursday.
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Place near me it's 20 per half hour + expenses.
So your strings etc is an expense then cost changes depending on how long they need to spend.
Usual check over/truss adjust is just the half hour so comes out much the same
 
GiraffePencils said:
Place near me it's 20 per half hour + expenses.
So your strings etc is an expense then cost changes depending on how long they need to spend.
Usual check over/truss adjust is just the half hour so comes out much the same
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I don't understand how the pricing works. This guy has a list of repairs that can be done with prices and charges £30 / hour. I already paid the £36, so will I need to pay more come Thursday when I pick it up?

Is the setup an expense and I'll have more to pay for the time taken?
 
No, sorry.
My guy takes as long as it takes( and gives an estimate etc)
And if he replaces stuff that's an expense
So half hour setup :20
New strings :10-15(depends on what you have)
So comes to 35
 
GiraffePencils said:
I play almost entirely fingerstyle arrangements and was wondering if people had any inspiration for songs they like etc?
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Last thing I've learned is Tainted Love, which wasn't a song I thought I wanted to play until I heard this...
Sadly I can't make my hands play like him... I just can't do percussive stuff well yet. But I can bluff my way through his tab to play something that sounds good enough... until I hear him again and get depressed. :)

What I aspire to playing is this...
...which is another song I didn't think I was interested in until I heard this arrangement. I can't even master the first part of the tab, which is free, and I'm reluctant to hand over a tenner for fear of running out of talent at about £1.50. Besides, I have no end of stuff in pdf form that I can't play yet, so no need to spend money to get depressed. ;-)

Also on my practice list at the moment are...
...the tone of that guitar's horrible, but the tab's ok. I've learned this one of his too...
...but I still haven't mastered bars 29-32 despite months of fiddling with it. My fingers are stubborn! But then I waited a bit late in life to discover I could play better than I ever expected.

Better is always relative though. YouTube is a never ending source of inspiration and depression. :)

Before I snuff it I'd like to be able to something like this...
...but I will need to live to be about 150 without getting arthritis if that's going to happen. Besides, I can barely play the basic pattern so far. [Edit: talking rubbish about tab availability]

I can, however, just about manage this guy's version of Oxygene IV, which tickles my ancient teenage self. https://descordesetdubois.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/99-oxygene-iv-j-m-jarre-guitare/
 
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