Guitar Megathread - learn-share-talk-lessons-tips-fun

[EoR]

Co-signed. His early playing was a lot more interesting to me and I preferred his tone in the Ibanez days.



Did you ever see when Chet gave him this award? Hence the "C.G.P." inlay on his guitars. That was a really genuine moment. When he was a kid out in the country he always dreamed of going to the US and playing with him and not only did he do that but they became very close.

Many times. A perfect display of genuine emotions of pride, respect and humility. I've seen all his videos with Chet as well, you could just see the joy on his face the whole time.

I have a photo I framed properly of myself with Tommy Emmanuel, I will always remember that meeting and the concert before - I got to meet him after as a VIP package. He played flawlessly outside and in the cold, just ridiculously talented.


As with your John Petrucci thought--as you know I am a huge DT fan--I agree that his playing now lacks that variety he used to have when they were really prog. These days a lot of his solos have drifted to more cliche shred. However he does pull out gems here and there for example "The Count Of Tuscany".

I don't like his new series of guitars either and yes I have played one.

[Dominik]

As with your John Petrucci thought--as you know I am a huge DT fan--I agree that his playing now lacks that variety he used to have when they were really prog. These days a lot of his solos have drifted to more cliche shred. However he does pull out gems here and there for example "The Count Of Tuscany".

Just had a listen to it. Wish he'd do more of that David Gilmour-esque playing in the middle and tell the singer to take some time off.

Pre-jacked heavily bearded Jesus was best.

I don't like his new series of guitars either and yes I have played one.

The basic JP models look okay (would still prefer a Prestige Ibanez) but I'm not a fan of the carbon fiber shovel creations with names like Monarchy and Majesty. Check out the wiring.

[EoR]

That wiring, fuking yikes.

[SwimToTheMoon]

Agree with Tommy Emmanuel, his technique and songwriting ability is one in a billion and he is probably one of the most important figures of fingerstyle guitar.. I've tried learning some of his music but honestly it's like another instrument for a guy that mainly plays electric, hard as fuk cuz..

[MrBourbon]

New Katanas AND new Yamaha THR series are out this month...

Might be time for my little office Blackstar Fly to get an upgrade

[SuperGuitarDude]

Was listening to some Guthrie Govan recently. How have I not heard that man's music before? Such a clean picking guitarist.



Currently learning how to play Con Garbo y Salero - Sabicas



Flamenco strumming is easily the thing I need to work on the most.

[VTheKing]

Checked with the local techs to see how much it'd cost to level + dress a project Squier... $150-200 CAD. After much research and loading up my StewMac cart, all the tools needed to do a fret job... $200 CAD.

Time to get my hands dirty :')

[Dominik]

Checked with the local techs to see how much it'd cost to level + dress a project Squier... $150-200 CAD. After much research and loading up my StewMac cart, all the tools needed to do a fret job... $200 CAD.

Time to get my hands dirty :')

I like this plan. Teach a man to fish... The hardest part of a fret job is pulling frets cleanly which you don't have to worry about this time around. Level and crown with the right tools is definitely worth doing yourself.

[MrBourbon]

Pulled the trigger on one of the new THR ii's. Looks like an absolutely perfect amp for my home office setup. If I ever need more power for jams/gigs I can mike this, or probably just grab a Katana 50/100. Doesn't ship for 3 weeks but I'll be back with a review for the boys.

[Dominik]

Pulled the trigger on one of the new THR ii's. Looks like an absolutely perfect amp for my home office setup. If I ever need more power for jams/gigs I can mike this, or probably just grab a Katana 50/100. Doesn't ship for 3 weeks but I'll be back with a review for the boys.

It's a shame they couldn't include XLR/TRS outputs at that price point to run out to a mixer/PA system.

There's a Peavey USB-P USB to XLR interface for $50 which solves that problem.



https://www.amazon.com/Peavey-300137.../dp/B004A4PSEU
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...SB_Direct.html

[MrBourbon]

It's a shame they couldn't include XLR/TRS outputs at that price point to run out to a mixer/PA system.

There's a Peavey USB-P USB to XLR interface for $50 which solves that problem.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/s9VHbRY.jpg[/ig]

https://www.amazon.com/Peavey-300137.../dp/B004A4PSEU
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...SB_Direct.html

Good looking out, Dominik! No plans to gig with it but that's a nice option.

And those prices are the MSRP - if you look on Sweetwater is starts from $299, nowhere near the $700 list price. Still a little dear but the tone is there and the look of the amp is wife-approved in the way a half stack would not be.

[Dominik]

Good looking out, Dominik! No plans to gig with it but that's a nice option.

And those prices are the MSRP - if you look on Sweetwater is starts from $299, nowhere near the $700 list price. Still a little dear but the tone is there and the look of the amp is wife-approved in the way a half stack would not be.

I saw Paul Gilbert playing one the other day.

I've noticed with several modeling amps there's USB out for recording and a headphone jack but no balanced line level output. It would cost them about $5 to wire in a Neutrik XLR jack. Maybe that's too much in a competitive market or maybe they're not considering that a gigging musician might actually want to use it that way live without an audio interface.

All an engineer sitting at the FOH desk cares about is that you can supply a balanced mic cable with a signal to the mixer. Anyway good to know there's a $50 box that can do it so you're not having to spend more on a USB interface if you don't already have one and some only work when tethered to a computer.

[VTheKing]

the guitar meme god drops another nuclear bomb

[Dominik]

TIL Berklee costs $70K/yr.

Youtuber is a graduate so I'm guessing pumped over $200K into that degree and despite "reaching out to them multiple times" to collaborate on a video he never got a reply. That must have felt good.

[VTheKing]

TIL Berklee costs $70K/yr.

Youtuber is a graduate so I'm guessing pumped over $200K into that degree and despite "reaching out to them multiple times" to collaborate on a video he never got a reply. That must have felt good.

Music is Win's brand is "hi I'm a Berklee grad and I play a PRS", get strong Zucc robot vibes from him.

[Dominik]

Music is Win's brand is "hi I'm a Berklee grad and I play a PRS", get strong Zucc robot vibes from him.

He did a video last month with PRS where the man himself said "we don't pay you to play PRS guitars" and then seconds later said "although we do give you some guitars."

$250K from that Berklee degree would buy you a nice studio, all the guitars and amps you could want, and a lot of private lessons.

[VTheKing]

He did a video last month with PRS where the man himself said "we don't pay you to play PRS guitars" and then seconds later said "although we do give you some guitars."

$250K from that Berklee degree would buy you a nice studio, all the guitars and amps you could want, and a lot of private lessons.

I was reading about music school experiences recently, and it's kind of like going to business school if you want to be a musician doing your own thing. It's more about the networking and the exposure opportunities from attending the school. A few years down the road if I get more serious about my playing I'd definitively considering doing a music diploma just to meet people and leverage whatever opportunities the school offers, though I'd also benefit greatly from learning theory in a structured setting.

[EoR]

He did a video last month with PRS where the man himself said "we don't pay you to play PRS guitars" and then seconds later said "although we do give you some guitars."

$250K from that Berklee degree would buy you a nice studio, all the guitars and amps you could want, and a lot of private lessons.

And they will still get smoked by so much talent out there. The internet, time, playing live with skilled musicians and some natural talent is all you need. It's fine if you want to teach music then yes it's probably worth it but a degree in music is definitely a subject where it has nearly no strong relation to skill - not in today's age.

[ChewYourFood]

Am I the only one not aware of Steel Panther?

YouTube suggested a Satchel rig rundown and since then I have gotten a steady stream of recommendations. Party like it’s the end of the world just popped up and was shocked at the number of cameos, but it also made me laugh. I hate that I like them, but I do.

[Dominik]

Am I the only one not aware of Steel Panther?

YouTube suggested a Satchel rig rundown and since then I have gotten a steady stream of recommendations. Party like it’s the end of the world just popped up and was shocked at the number of cameos, but it also made me laugh. I hate that I like them, but I do.

[z4v4]

I was reading about music school experiences recently, and it's kind of like going to business school if you want to be a musician doing your own thing. It's more about the networking and the exposure opportunities from attending the school. A few years down the road if I get more serious about my playing I'd definitively considering doing a music diploma just to meet people and leverage whatever opportunities the school offers, though I'd also benefit greatly from learning theory in a structured setting.

It depends on what a person is wanting to get from school, but if a person is looking to get paid or land a cake gig, the only real useful leverage a school provides is networking with the teachers (which can be had in any serious music town with or without attending a school), not the other students.

If one is good enough to stand out and have teachers ask you to gig with them or sub for them on a gig, then it could be worthwhile until things get rolling. On the other hand, the old saying from the symphonic world, "take lessons from the person whose gig you want" is a lot cheaper than yearly school tuition and usually works much better.

Basically, if you want to obtain info and hang with like-minded individuals, then that's fine and there are certain advantages, but if you're looking for a career in performance, it's usually not the best way in most cases.

[Dominik]

It depends on what a person is wanting to get from school, but if a person is looking to get paid or land a cake gig, the only real useful leverage a school provides is networking with the teachers (which can be had in any serious music town with or without attending a school), not the other students.

If one is good enough to stand out and have teachers ask you to gig with them or sub for them on a gig, then it could be worthwhile until things get rolling. On the other hand, the old saying from the symphonic world, "take lessons from the person whose gig you want" is a lot cheaper than yearly school tuition and usually works much better.

Basically, if you want to obtain info and hang with like-minded individuals, then that's fine and there are certain advantages, but if you're looking for a career in performance, it's usually not the best way in most cases.

I spent a year doing something similar and in addition to having access to some nice gear in the studio the best part was hanging out with other musicians all day and jamming. It teaches you to listen to what other musicians are contributing instead of just wanking over everything. The bedroom might be a solid proving ground for developing technique and syncing up with a metronome or backing tracks but it's not the same as sitting in a room with other musicians.

Also seeing the way people versed in certain styles blend them with what you're doing and vice versa. For example one afternoon a drummer and bass player were working on something funk oriented and the guitarist they first asked wasn't working out so they asked me if I wanted to write 3 songs with them for a music contest. We literally jammed for 20 minutes and wrote 3 songs. Then they said "by the way it's on at 8pm... tonight." We didn't win, placed 3rd, but someone approached us that night for more gigs. Of course you can seek out that stuff outside a college but it made it a lot easier to collaborate.

I can see the value in Berklee, MI, etc. but not $70K/yr value. Unless you have wealthy parents I can think of better ways to spend that money.

[ChewYourFood]

I don’t even know if this is a parody or not.

[Dominik]

I don’t even know if this is a parody or not.

It's real. He was an instructor at GIT in the early 90s and lived with Paul Gilbert for a while. Back in the day players would send their tapes in to Mike Varney who had his own label called Shrapnel. That was from a 1986 magazine someone posted on Troy Grady's forum.

[Bando]

'Sup Fellas. My 18 year old Son has been thriving with his used Ibanez acoustic at college and I paid for voice lessons for him over the summer so he's got his chit pretty well together. Visited him yesterday and went to a guitar store with maybe 700 guitars, I played a $4k Taylor acoustic, was nice but nothing I would ever be comfortable owning. I brought him up an electric Fender squire I found recently for when he jams with other kids there, gonna miss that around the house. I've tried to teach my daughter a few times, but now she's actually getting serious. I was surprised at how her playing keyboards and clarinet for years actually made her a quick study, I think she's gonna be the best out of all of us. She's 15 but been in band & marching band since she could carry an instrument. Excited to see how well my next student does.

[MrBourbon]

'Sup Fellas. My 18 year old Son has been thriving with his used Ibanez acoustic at college and I paid for voice lessons for him over the summer so he's got his chit pretty well together. Visited him yesterday and went to a guitar store with maybe 700 guitars, I played a $4k Taylor acoustic, was nice but nothing I would ever be comfortable owning. I brought him up an electric Fender squire I found recently for when he jams with other kids there, gonna miss that around the house. I've tried to teach my daughter a few times, but now she's actually getting serious. I was surprised at how her playing keyboards and clarinet for years actually made her a quick study, I think she's gonna be the best out of all of us. She's 15 but been in band & marching band since she could carry an instrument. Excited to see how well my next student does.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/IteUrab.jpg[/mg]

What a great story and pic. Proud dads of the misc.

My 4 year old is getting a keyboard for Christmas. I think you're right that your daughter will advance quickly because of that background. I feel like I should learn a little keys to get better at guitar myself.

[VTheKing]

cool to see dads ITT getting their kids into music

I'm not that old, so maybe I'll rant a bit - my parents were never too much into music, but they did have instruments laying around that I could play, namely a classic guitar and a keyboard. I made a fair go of playing keyboard but I never got into it, wasn't my calling. Never was the bass guitar, which I had asked as a gift when I was 16. Then when I had just finished undergrad I went on an EDM streak, but I couldn't put it together as a producer either.

It only hit me that I had a heavily suppressed desire to play guitar once I held a steady job and money was no longer at the forefront for me. At one point I was like "ok, I have a bunch of leftover money that I don't have to save up for something else, what do I REALLY want to do with my spare time?" and the answer was, play electric guitar. Because my parents had a badly setup classical with a tree trunk neck, and that I had irl friends who seemed to play the instrument effortlessly, I associated playing guitar as inherently uncomfortable that required some sort of hidden talent and not really for me. I have small hands, which just means I have to be conscious of what/how I play but at the time I didn't realize that my anatomy also had something to do with not really "getting" guitar at first - because classicals have huge, wide necks and that's what I had experienced. I just never visualized myself doing it.

/rant

[VTheKing]

damn I'm a thread killer

Been enjoying some 90's/00's jams, ended up running into this guy's channel who does alt rock covers. Simple songs of course, but fuk I love the tone he gets and I dig his guitar.

[EoR]

It's been a while since I've played with different gauge strings on my electric guitars but I put some 8-36s on one. I made the action demonically low and it was glorious for soloing, but that thicc bottom end from higher gauges is too noticeable to give up.

It was a dream for single note soloing, you can fret a note or just play anything without picking with so much ease. It helps with making your playing non-linear, treating the fret board more like a piano will really broaden your phrasing and approach to notes. Learning the same phrase in different positions and with different notes per string can make it easier to set up transitions, it can also make the same phrase A LOT easier to play.

One example, it sounds simple--but 95+% of all players I hear are victim to--is when ascending/descending not always going left to right and right to left, try both ways for each direction and just that ALONE will broaden how you approach scales. It also doesn't matter if you play the same note twice when swapping to another string, in fact it can spice up passages making some lines impossible to play smoothly otherwise. People need exercises like this to break out of the cliche type playing.

That's what I really do these days with practice, since I feel my technique is nearly maxed out I just spend my time trying to take different approaches and really learn the fretboard. As long as my fingers/tendons are kept in shape I can spend my practice time learning songs, creating songs/solos, and picking up new approaches. Though I should be practicing on my piano a lot more, I think to spice things up learning another instrument once you're comfortable on guitar only enhances your abilities for both.

I think the greatest check to see if you're getting to that point of mastery is if you solo similarly on another instrument, that's when you reach that "Playing what's in your head" point. It's definitely hard to do it and there's no way I play the piano like the guitar but one day I hope to - obviously I mean note selection and not dynamics since the guitar has way more ways to manipulate a note than a piano.

For all the Dads in the thread I think any kid should strive to pursue one hobby that has a decent skill ceiling. Learning an instrument properly definitely checks that list and engages all sorts of brain/motor functions.

It's real. He was an instructor at GIT in the early 90s and lived with Paul Gilbert for a while. Back in the day players would send their tapes in to Mike Varney who had his own label called Shrapnel. That was from a 1986 magazine someone posted on Troy Grady's forum.

And I remember in an interview PG saying everyone would be hyped and saying: "Have you heard this Shawn Lane guy playing?". This was one of his Varney demos: Just a demo of speed but just the dexterity to play like that for 3min with no tapping is nearly inhuman. He also had demos of him playing Jimi Hendrix and other songs just perfectly. Also his actual MVP solos when you break it down and realize it's not all nonsense but perfectly deliberate approaches is eye opening.



I actually prefer this one since it has a little more dynamics:

[Dominik]

damn I'm a thread killer

Step aside and let a real pro at killing threads take care of this one.

It's been a while since I've played with different gauge strings on my electric guitars but I put some 8-36s on one. I made the action demonically low and it was glorious for soloing, but that thicc bottom end from higher gauges is too noticeable to give up.

I've experimented with a lot of different gauges including custom sets and I'm currently playing 13.5-18-22-34-46-60 tuned to Eb. Tuning down a half step is purely a tone choice plus I feel I can bend strings further without breaking them.

I blame SRV for all this nonsense. I've said it before but he played a pack of 11s tuned down to Eb only with .013 on the top and a .058 on the bottom. Most of his big bends were on the B and G strings with a .015 and .019P respectively. In Eb it would feel like a pack of 10s in standard with an 11.5 on the top. That is not heavy. I can tell you now heavy deadlifts with chalk worked my hands more than some puny wire on a plank of wood.

Anyway compared to 9-42 back in the shred days the difference I hear is quite dramatic. Heavy strings have a stronger fundamental tone much like what we associate with an acoustic guitar. To my ear the harmonic overtones aren't as present probably because of that and with distorted tones I can completely see why some players might not like them even if they've got the hand strength. Went up to .024 plain on the 3rd string and it sounded dead. Lifeless. I have absolutely no idea how anyone playing above the 9th fret on those could like the sound. I tried a wound 3rd and playing higher up it sounded too much like a 5 string bass plus I could only bend it a whole step. Settled on .022 plain G.

As you know Holdsworth used 8s and his sound was massive so it really comes down to the pickups, rig, and the player. An excuse to play a song very few have probably heard but is brilliant. Tell me if you find yourself thinking "that could use more low end." The control he had with 8s in unmatched by any other player I've heard including Malmsteen. Flawless.