***The Official Guitar Thread***

Again I find myself agreeing with you easy... but I do think there is something to be said for pedals/effects - they can sometimes offer that exact source of inspiration you describe - learning how to get the most out of stacking delays, gain stacking etc. and finding new sounds that then inspire you to come up with new things to play
 
I'm not sure what you're getting at with your posts easy,
I told my story of 'playing' guitar ineffectually for 12 years until I got the right guitar for me (and that turned out to be a guitar I got for 10 quid!)
You say you ground out till you were good on the first guitar you got your hands on.

great, 2 different people, 2 different stories.

I'm sure you're good, I'm told I sound nice (I don't think I'm good)

Just saying don't discount that some people learn different
 
As usual with these things, the answer tends to be somewhere in between. I started out on a Marlin Sidewinder strat copy that I worked all summer washing dishes to afford (we were living in a matchbox with one piece of cheese to share among the whole family at the time). It was an absolute pos, the action was appalling, there were parts of the neck that it fretted out, it had the worst trem design I've seen to this day and wouldn't stay in tune if you looked at it wrong. But I was obsessed with music and certain guitarists and wanted to be able to do that, so i hacked away at it every hour i could.

Now that's great, i had dedication to learning even though my guitar was crap. But would I have practiced 'better' if my guitar had been decent? - i think i definitely would have. I picked up some pretty poor technical habits due to the limitations of that guitar that i only realised when i bought a better guitar a couple years later. And even on that next guitar, there was some stuff that I could never do very well due to limitations of the set up of that one too - I was pretty poor at legato and certain arpeggio rolls for example until about my 4th guitar which had really nice low, even action and made that stuff easier to play and practice. There's a reason someone like Frank Gambale has guitars with action so low the strings practically come out of the back of the neck. It's not that you can't play that stuff to a point on guitars that are not set up well, but you are making it much more difficult for yourself, which can end in both frustration and also even worse, ingrained bad habits. And those bad habits can be simple technical things like picking issues, or it can be much more serious problems like excessive tension in the hands/wrists. The latter can really come home to roost down the line. So i think there's a balance to be had - you need both the obsession with playing but also try and get an instrument that's as good as you can afford and makes you want to play it. Fortunately, that's easier to do at a lower price point than it's ever been.

There's definitely a point of diminishing returns. I'm in the fortunate position to be able to own some lovely instruments now - are they worth the money i paid? To me they are. I love music and i love playing but I like nice things, and I love how it makes me feel to pick up some of these instruments and play them. I am inspired by music and the things I hear in my head, but the instruments themselves can inspire too with how they sound, how they feel to play and how they look. And those things have a lot of importance too, at all stages of a guitar players development.

tl;dr
Whatever...here's some music instead, on a guitar I don't think I've shown in this group before - my Eastman archtop. A chord/melody I wrote on the jazz standard Days Of Wine and Roses with a solo improv:

 
GiraffePencils said:
I'm not sure what you're getting at with your posts easy,
I told my story of 'playing' guitar ineffectually for 12 years until I got the right guitar for me (and that turned out to be a guitar I got for 10 quid!)
You say you ground out till you were good on the first guitar you got your hands on.

great, 2 different people, 2 different stories.

I'm sure you're good, I'm told I sound nice (I don't think I'm good)

Just saying don't discount that some people learn different
Click to expand...

Clearly you got ripped off and should have only offered £9.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I know I don’t need the gear to learn. I don’t think anyone is arguing with that. The POINT is, I can, and I want to…your problem is?
.
Click to expand...

I don’t have a problem...You’re now agreeing with me....As for your gear that fine enjoy it mate...but I would argue it’s actually been detrimental to your quest....

The paradox of choice is a never a good thing....
 
uncle_rufus said:
Again I find myself agreeing with you easy... but I do think there is something to be said for pedals/effects - they can sometimes offer that exact source of inspiration you describe - learning how to get the most out of stacking delays, gain stacking etc. and finding new sounds that then inspire you to come up with new things to play
Click to expand...

Don’t get me wrong...I have pedals...I have a Boss Super Chorus CH1 that cost me £88 a fortune for me 30 or so years ago...I have a soul food by electro harmonix and a MXR digital delay....:p

I didn't buy these though until I could play a bit....what is a delay and phaser pedal If you can’t improvise a solo in B minor pentatonic over comfortably numb :D
 
Also....for my studio I have a lot of digital effects plugins that can give me any sound I want...I have the Eventide Anthology, Amplitube, the whole Plugin alliance catalogue....sound toys fab filter the lot.....Loads of others...

My guilty pleasure was My Marshall 4 x 12 cab....I have tonnes of gear....you can see it all at the start of this thread in my studio....but I was just making a point that all this is not really that important...
 
My board is a little bloated but has built up over the last 15 years... currently it looks like:

Korg Pitchblack tuner
DynaSorr compressor (a DIY job, clone of a Ross/Dyna circuit hybrid)
Epic boost (another DIY job, clone of Xotic Ep booster)
Maxon OD808 drive
Fuzzrocious Bongripper distortion/fuzz (so sick)
Boss DS-2 distortion
Wilson Effects Funk Factory Wah (clone of Ibanez WH10)
Big Muff w/ Tone wicker
Ibanez CS9 Chorus
MXR Carbon Copy delay
Boss DD-6 digi delay
Strymon El Capistan tape delay
Chasm Reverb (another DIY from deadastronaut FX)

But I have definitely fallen into the trap in the past of obsessing "if I can just get pedal X, I'll be able to play this or that" and spending hours of a practice session just tweaking pedal order and messing with the sounds. Which isn't a bad thing in itself - it is good to be able to get the most out of your gear. However there were points in the past where I realised that I wasn't spending enough time on what was really important (playing!) I am a lot better these days, but I still like having the pedals :p
 
easyrider said:
I was just making a point that all this is not really that important...
Click to expand...
I think this is why I'm drawn almost completely to acoustics. I do plug into my cheapo multi-effects box and plug into something to amplify it sometimes, but I end up hunting for 'the perfect sound' or just having fun instead of playing. Fun's fine, it's what hobbies are for, but the fewer the distractions I have, the better... especially when I left it so late in life to actually be able to get up to 'bluffing speed'.

I remain hideously jealous of folk starting out with access to the internet though. I was never any good at learning anything in any field, it was always a slog. Being able to endlessly examine and repeat videos and see how the complex sounds are broken down into attainable steps is an incredible aid to breaking through the "how the heck do they do that?" barrier. I could never connect the printed music/tab and actual sound well, and I still struggle to learn even basic songs by ear. I am either incredibly thick or even lazier than I ever suspected. Probably a bit of both. :-)
 
My suggestion for getting bogged down tone chasing is this... plan your practice... know how long you are going to practice for and be strict about how you divide the time. I give myself 5 minutes max at the start of a practice session to play with my pedals and setup to get whatever tones I want to use dialled in and then from that point onwards I stick with what I have setup and resist the urge to make any further changes (though actually by this point I have most of my board setup in a way that gets me the tones I know I like so I rarely need that 5 minutes to begin with)
 
uncle_rufus said:
My suggestion for getting bogged down tone chasing is this... plan your practice... know how long you are going to practice for and be strict about how you divide the time. I give myself 5 minutes max at the start of a practice session to play with my pedals and setup to get whatever tones I want to use dialled in and then from that point onwards I stick with what I have setup and resist the urge to make any further changes (though actually by this point I have most of my board setup in a way that gets me the tones I know I like so I rarely need that 5 minutes to begin with)
Click to expand...

this is how I learn my camera, I take 1 lens on holiday, fixed focal length and use they for the whole trip. No faffing with changing lenses, o faffing with anything. I just take pictures.
 
The funny thing is I think everyone posting in this thread is in agreement that the key thing to improving guitar is playing and practicing. I still think I’ll play a LP or a Tele more than a stray just because it will call to me every time I walk past it!

The other thing that we all forget is everyone has different goals when it comes to playing guitar. Some want to master every aspect of it and widdle diddle solo’s us mere mortals can only dream of before dropping into a funky jazz improvisation etc etc. I had a different set of goals when about a year and a half ago I decided to take lessons after the best part of 20 years messing around with guitars. I set myself a few simple goals which for the most part I have already achieved I can now pick up a tab online and strum through and sing a song reasonably well and I have learnt enough to allow me to write songs and accompany myself. I’ve moved on from those initial goals and am playing more classical guitar which means I’m reading music and learning the fret board. I’m not doing it because I want to be a great guitarist I’m doing it because I enjoy the challenge and I love listening to and playing music. I play other instruments some very well (tenor horn to the standard required of a top level competition brass band) and some terribly (piano about grade 2 I hated it but regret giving up as a teenager!). The point I’m trying to make Is music is very different things to different people and as long as you are enjoying your journey that is all that matters.

Now back to gassing over expensive guitars I will never own and writing really bad songs that nobody ever hears :)

Forgot to add yes Raymond I am jealous of your collection and not too proud to admit it, even I played hanging on my wall some of those would make me smile!
 
My goal is pretty simple - I want to be able to stick on virtually any song (virtually any meaning not some bizarre modal jazz or something) and be able to play over it with confidence. I'm pretty close at this point (to being able to play something over most things) but got a way to go to really master it
 
uncle_rufus said:
My board is a little bloated but has built up over the last 15 years... currently it looks like:

Korg Pitchblack tuner
DynaSorr compressor (a DIY job, clone of a Ross/Dyna circuit hybrid)
Epic boost (another DIY job, clone of Xotic Ep booster)
Maxon OD808 drive
Fuzzrocious Bongripper distortion/fuzz (so sick)
Boss DS-2 distortion
Wilson Effects Funk Factory Wah (clone of Ibanez WH10)
Big Muff w/ Tone wicker
Ibanez CS9 Chorus
MXR Carbon Copy delay
Boss DD-6 digi delay
Strymon El Capistan tape delay
Chasm Reverb (another DIY from deadastronaut FX)

But I have definitely fallen into the trap in the past of obsessing "if I can just get pedal X, I'll be able to play this or that" and spending hours of a practice session just tweaking pedal order and messing with the sounds. Which isn't a bad thing in itself - it is good to be able to get the most out of your gear. However there were points in the past where I realised that I wasn't spending enough time on what was really important (playing!) I am a lot better these days, but I still like having the pedals :p
Click to expand...


Thats disgusting! :D
 
a1ex2001 said:
Forgot to add yes Raymond I am jealous of your collection and not too proud to admit it, even I played hanging on my wall some of those would make me smile!
Click to expand...

I bought 99% of my gear within a 3 year period, at the time the exchange rate was much better and before gear prices went up quite a lot since. I took advantage of discount codes, haggle promos/sales. If I am starting again now I would not be able to afford to get 50% of it. Also, I am very fortunate that I photograph CBA pedals so I get to keep the ones I photograph. They amount to about 50% of my pedal collection.

I would trade it all to have the skills tbh, like my in photography, I am quite lax these days about gear (albeit I have a very nice system), I know what I need but I also know I how good I am and what I can produce with what’s in my hand. So I am much less bothered about having a fancy camera and that’s why I don’t have a flagship body or the latest and greatest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom