Guitar thread

[Sky]

I used to be into that stuff when I had a full studio at my disposal. I guess it's a whole shift in my perspective since I got back into playing.

I got real lucky when I bought the SG, the shop's setup guy was there and had just finished setting it up (and several others). He walked me through stuff, watched how I played, he was a great help assisting me. He got a kick out of how I insisted on playing about 40 guitars before I'd plug any in. I had it narrowed to the SG and a nice little strat before I ever plugged them in, because I wanted a sweet fretboard.

I might have to pull out the 8x10 this weekend and see if I can rig it up to play through 2 of them for a practice cab ;)

[stray]

Ah, here's another cool SG vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUHz0i8_ziA

[Sky]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-twUOi1CM0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjYOXcWz_Uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkbMd3Bygzs - nice bonus, Geez is playing a Ricky bass. I had a chance to borrow one of those when my old bass got stolen, they're such great bass guitars (though they do lack some frets up top)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abc2WoORw54 - Not sure what kind of SG Frank is playing


FYI this is NOT me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkNAZcF18NA :) Ouch.

[stray]

Cool vids. I was checking out some of those, but couldn't decide what to post.

I wish there were vids of the Wipers. Greg Sage is my favorite SG player by far.

...

Moving away from SG's for a sec, I was looking up examples of cool Jazzmaster players. Too many Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. vids to sift from; I don't have the time. And there was hardly any video footage of Television back in the day.

I found this gem though.

Not sure if that's anybody else's kind of thing, but as far as I'm concerned, that's the shit. That's a perfect Jazzmaster song if there ever was one. Never heard of those guys before (of course, it's a 60's Lounge band from Belgium....So I guess I wouldn't).

[edit]

You mean to tell me there's another guy named "Sky" on Youtube posting faceless vids of himself playing his SG?

[Llava]

Basically, this seems to me like knowing all the events in the Lord of the Rings, having read the Silmarillon, knowing Aragorn's lineage and all the regions of Middle-Earth, but because you only speak a little Sindarin and no Quenya you don't consider yourself a Lord of the Rings geek.

[stray]

I think I'm just the type of person who, when he/she likes something, likes it in a totally obsessive way. I have no casual hobbies or interests. I geek out on all of them.

MMO's are one of the things I often wish I could pull away from though. :D

[Llava]

I should clarify that I'm not mocking you on this.  I'm certainly a geek on many worse things, and there's no doubt that if you're going to geek out about something, guitar is one of the few that'll get you laid.

[Engels]

More SG goodness from Seattle's all-women AC/DC cover band. Chose this particular track because its got better sound than most. Its still bootleg quality.

Semi NSFW due to semi-topless guitarist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rNcOSAE-RM&mode=related&search=

[stray]

Heh, too bad the singer adopts Johnson's manner and garb instead of Bon Scott's.


Scott makes a funny chick btw.  :-D

[stray]

Funny:

The "better" version of Third Stone.

I finally listened to my entire Hendrix box set and came across that. Is that a well known clip or what? I know it's basically the same track, but I never heard it before.

[stray]

Ah, how could I forget this? I ran across this vid awhile back. Very cool.

Sister Rosetta Sharpe and her Pearly Gates SG.

[Righ]

Scott makes a funny chick btw.  :-D

If you like that, you should buy the Family Jewels DVD, which is split evenly across two discs between Scott & Johnson periods.

Fuck SGs. '59 Les Paul

[stray]

Oh, I love LP's too. They're pretty heavy, but I'm not complaining (To speak of something totally silly, I've always thought that a Black LP would seal the deal for me as a rock star. Haha. They look perfect on me. Now if I just knew how to sound like a rock star, I'd be set ;) ).

Soundwise, both SG's and LP's aren't totally my thing, but there are times when I wish had one or the other around. Over the years, I've purchased several mahogany/humbucker guitars (Gibson or Gibson like SG's, LP and 335 copies, double cutaways), but I have a bad habit of selling them off. Next time I get one, I plan on keeping it.

....

Jimmy Page seems to look more and more Chinese with age. Is he part Chinese? I wonder now. Not long ago, I found out that the Van Halen brothers AND Zak from Saved By the Bell (yeah, the blonde guy) are part Indonesian. Surprised me.

[Sky]

I guess you could see it in Alex, he always looked a bit odd.

I'm all about the SG sound, with whatever pickups are in my 61 reiss. One of the first guitars I tried when I was shopping was a Black Beauty LP, but it was like trying to fret a baseball bat. Which was cool by me since it was also $4k. The thin, wide neck of the 61 SG is just too sweet for bending imo.

Just got back from vacation playing just my Alvarez acoustic/electric and my fingers are just recovering. Shredded them and then built up monster callus. It was great for building strength for bends and chords, especially since I'm trying to work on the CAGED system I've mentioned, which seems to be very cool.

[Nebu]

I remember playing a Gibson Explorer and an ES 325 when I was working in the 80's.  Neither belonged to me, but I really enjoyed their sound and how well they played.  I've never spent much time on an SG, is the neck much different than the Explorer? I remember both of them being more comfortable to my bass-player hands than the Telecaster I owned. 

[penfold]

I need to learn that CAGED system, i bought the book recommended further up the thread but havent really had any decent time with it yet. My latest guitar is finally back in action after i broke the output jack some time ago. I bought a replacement and soldering iron today and got it working and am pleased i bothered to do myself instead of taking it in.

I have problems with its tuning tho, its loses tune within seconds when im tuning, and i re-do over and over for 5 mins or so  and then it keeps it for a few sessions. Its a wilkinson trem, not a locking nut/floyd rose setup. I suspect i have too much string wrapped around the tuners, would that do it ? I think the innotation is ok. It's also used (toured with even) and is a bit battered.

 

[Righ]

Jimmy Page seems to look more and more Chinese with age. Is he part Chinese? I wonder now. Not long ago, I found out that the Van Halen brothers AND Zak from Saved By the Bell (yeah, the blonde guy) are part Indonesian. Surprised me.

There are rumours that he has some Chinese blood, though they're unsubstantiated as far as I know. I suspect its more likely that the majick rituals haven't been doing their job and he's had to resort to a little nip/tuck. :P

[stray]

I remember playing a Gibson Explorer and an ES 325 when I was working in the 80's.  Neither belonged to me, but I really enjoyed their sound and how well they played.  I've never spent much time on an SG, is the neck much different than the Explorer? I remember both of them being more comfortable to my bass-player hands than the Telecaster I owned. 

Most Gibson necks fall under the same category. The original Gibson design was borrowed from acoustic guitars (fat neck profile, 12" radius, etc.).

The SG, however, has a slim tapered neck (more akin to Fender), but retains the 12" radius (Fenders usually have a 7-9" radius). It's kind of a cross between the Fender and LP feel. This only goes for 60's reissues though (as well as Angus and Iommi models, which are based on the 60's design). Modern SG's feel more like Les Pauls and have fatter necks (though they are much lighter).

Anyways, to answer your question: A modern SG will feel more like that Explorer or 325 you played, but a 61 reissue, like Sky has, won't.

[Nebu]

Anyways, to answer your question: A modern SG will feel more like that Explorer or 325 you played, but a 61 reissue, like Sky has, won't.

Thanks!

Now the 2h drive to Denver to give it a whirl.  I've set aside money for a new 6 string, I just haven't found anything that screamed "BUY ME" yet.  I played a Schecter and a Les Paul studio, but I rather prefered my old G&L.  Maybe I should just buy a strat from the late 70s or early 80s.  A good compromise were the early Ibanez guitars.  Very similar feel for a fraction of the price.  The hard part is finding an early 80's Ibanez that wasn't beat to shreds as a backup. 

The only guitar that has really tempted me in the last 6 months was a 1978 Rickenbacker bass... I played one through the 80's (like everyone else) and miss the tone.  I like the feel of my Jazz, but I miss that Rick-o-sound.

[stray]

I wouldn't recommend 70's or 80's Strats really.  Your G&L is more than likely much, much better. Same goes for Ernie Ball: Whereever Leo went, the guitars were better Fenders than Fender's (Standout Fenders from the 70's were the Tele Deluxes, Tele Customs, and the Basses though. Not the Strats. Standout Fenders from the 80's were the Japanese ones, both for price and that they didn't try to change the original designs too much, as the Americans did).

[edit]

I must say though, unless you're set on getting a vintage Strat, you're much better off with a new one. Especially the '62 reissue. They're awesome guitars. No Strat from the 70's is going to match it in quality. Besides actually having a real 62 Strat (which I think will run about 30 or 40 thousand dollars these days), it's as good as a Strat can be.

[Nebu]

Thanks Stray.  Excellent advice as always!

[Sky]

I'd love a Ricky bass, too. At this point I'd consider trading up my ESP Custom bass for one, since I don't think I need more than one bass in my lineup. I would like a nice standup, but those are a bit pricey for a secondary instrument (these days). I'm still toying with the idea of a Baby Taylor, but I can't get over the decision-hump on it. I don't really need another steel-string acoustic, but it would be nice to have in the office...

At this point I'm balancing urges for an iPod 80GB, a hard disk recorder unit, and building a new pc next februaryish (which will cost a bundle). I'd like to get the recorder this winter if I can swing it, but as I've mentioned before the market is kinda odd. Doesn't seem to be a unit to do exactly what I'd like, fully functioning unit that can also bounce individual tracks to the pc for the mixing stage. They seem to either be pc interfaces (I don't want to have to boot my pc every time I want to jot an idea down) or only able to burn to cd or bounce a fully mixed stereo track over. Also on the wishlist is a drum machine for scratch tracks (I can play drums enough to lay the final) and a nice vintage wooden metronome (which I've found aren't cheap).

I did splurge and get a little pignose with some leftover vacation fundage ;) Hope to have it in by the weekend.

[Righ]

Just get a portable flash recorder like an Edirol R-09 or M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 and use that instead of an iPod.

[Sky]

Those are cool but still don't quite fit the bill. I need a couple more tracks and better monitoring, as well as bouncing. For instance, if I have a bass track, a guitar track, a scratch drum machine track and I'm laying down the drums on another track. I'd love to have a flash recorder for jotting down ideas, but that'd have to come after a more fully-featured recorder.

[MisterNoisy]

Those are cool but still don't quite fit the bill. I need a couple more tracks and better monitoring, as well as bouncing. For instance, if I have a bass track, a guitar track, a scratch drum machine track and I'm laying down the drums on another track. I'd love to have a flash recorder for jotting down ideas, but that'd have to come after a more fully-featured recorder.

What about something like this or this?

[Sky]

Yeah, I'm familiar with all the current hard disk recorders out there right now, I think. They're all just a bit lacking, and that's a lot of dough (imo) to drop on something that doesn't quite do what I want. I keep holding out hoping someone makes what I'm looking for, but I'm not sure it'll happen. It's academic right now anyway, truck is in the shop and I'm broke :)

Ideally, it'd be a fully-functioning recording unit (we used to have a tascam 8 channel for demos, but we also had a studio setup with a 24 channel board we fed into it, so I'm a little picky on features) that could be mounted as a hard drive on the pc/mac to be worked from in the full featured recording package (pro tools, eventually), importing individual tracks discreetly. There are some decent units way up high, but that's more than I want to spend on an intermidiate unit, it's in the price range of the Digi002 I hope to buy when I put the studio in my house (that I haven't found yet, heh).

I'll probably end up buying the Fostex at some point, though. Seems to be the only choice for a low-end unit, really.

[Sky]

Been playing around with the pignose amp for a while now. Great little amp, has a nice tone to it and really shines when I hook up the Boss GT-6. I've been playing long enough to have messed aroung with the onboard tone and volume settings on my guitars, but the pignose really puts that out front, because it doesn't have much, just the one volume knob. I can set it pretty loud and a little distorted and with the onboard controls shape the sound from fingerpicking rhythm to lead tones.

Hooking up the effects unit makes it a perfect practice amp, actually a bit loud (according to my girlfriend). Oddly, I could play quieter on my amp + 15" cab. *shrug*

The only downside is a noticeable hum, especially at low volume. Trying to isolate it, at first I had thought it was the flourescent bulbs I've been using, but it's not.

Anyway, for $75 or so, can't go wrong. Can't wait to try it with batteries, it has little bolts for a guitar strap, too. I've got an old Pantera video with Dimebag out on the street using this amp to play blues and beg for money.

[Miguel]

I know you said you didn't want to boot up a PC in order to lay down ideas, but for now if you want to do more than 4 tracks without bouncing it really is the best way to go.

You can get a copy of Sonar bundled with a Firewire audio interface for right around the $550 level.  It's totally worth the money.  You can record two mics and four line sources simultaneously (which I have found to be more than enough for most projects), and you can even connect it to a laptop for quick takes when out somewhere.  You can put hundreds of tracks in (provided you have the CPU horsepower) along with some really nice effects package (like Sonitus).

I just haven't found an all inclusive unit that offers the same amount of editing and tracking flexibility for a comparable cost.  I was using the Boss (e.g. Roland) unit and although it is nice and portable, you'll go out of your mind trying to fix mixes after you have bounced a few times.

[Righ]

Gear envy time again. Saw Porcupine Tree last week. As well as incorporating gorgeous Les Pauls into their arsenal for the first time, they also used these new Babicz Octanes. They sure do sound and look nice:

[stray]

Those are nice. Even the introductory model is nice (The Spider). Only in the $600 range too. I want one.

[penfold]

I traded in my Yamaha Strat and got myself a Pod XT Live. I was actually after the XT but the Live has come down in price and with the trade in worked out very cheap.  I've not bought any proper kit like this before, it even came with a ringbinder manual, which really appealed to the inner geek in me.

It's already changed so much, just having access to so many (128 presets you can programme or download to) tones and fx at the press of a pedal opens up so many more possibilities. Best still, i can just use it with headphones, as i'm in a small flat with thin walls..... according to the neighbours, heh. I've been playing with some user created sounds from customtone.com. various tones that sound like pantera, slayer, metalica etc. Mainly using a Burzum one tonight, but I won't be burning any churches down any time soon.

The next step is using it and the Line 6 software to interface with some means to record, and play over backing tracks, and I really must structure my learning on the guitar. I've more or less been playing for fun but now im at the stage I can hear stuff in my head that i just can't play.


 

[stray]

Took me awhile to play the stuff I was hearing in my head (and frankly, I still can't do it well after over 15 years of playing. Most of the songs I make up are just snippets of what I heard in my head --- I flesh the rest out with whatever my fingers want to do). So....Just have fun, like you're doing.

Pods are cool. Grats on the purchase. I used to have one, but I've since purchased a Vox/Valvetronix amp. Same principle, but it has better Vox and Marshall models than the Pod (Pod does other brands better.....Plus, it has custom cabinet configuration....While the Vox doesn't).

[NiX]

Just picked up one of these from my buddies brother for a decent price. Just wondering if you guys knew of any good resources for learning? I was learning to play and then my old acoustic fell to shit. It was something someone dumped on me. Esteban quality kinda guitar. Finally got around to picking up a new one and lost all my resources for learning acoustic.

[stray]

Lol, Esteban.

If possible, the best thing you can do is find an experienced guitar player (even someone who has played for a year or two) to strum songs with. Nothing beats learning that way.

If you're completely on your own, then learn the basic chords (if you haven't already) and get some kind of songbook. Learn through songs. The most important lessons are understanding the different sounds chords make (your ear), getting physically comfortable shaping those chords (your left hand), and getting a sense of rhythm (your right hand). Songs will help you with all three.

Stay away from bland/esoteric theory for the moment. Without an understand of songs, that shit is a vacuum.

I'll leave it up you about which songs to learn, but I'd suggest oldies. They lend themselves better to learning on an acoustic. Songs like Bad Moon Rising by CCR, No Reply by the Beatles, Knockin' On Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan. Beautifully simplistic songs.

If you had an electric, I'd just tell you to learn Iron Man and the Ramones' Commando. You'd be well on your way to rock stardom from there.

[Sky]

Esteban was the only flamenco instruction I could find in a store Looking at his picture and the packaging, I passed on it and went online and found some decent rasgeudo (sp) instruction books to slap on ye olde wishe liste. I'd like to flesh out my flamenco a bit because I'm pretty decent at the couple of things I've conjured from my anus, some celtic guys I jammed with a couple months ago were calling me the flamenco guy. Of course, I'm no Esteban or even a Charo (she rocks on guitar).

I'm completely inept as a teacher, though. I learned by smoking copious amounts of pot, drinking Yukon Jack, and jamming with friends who were also trying to learn. We sucked for at least a year or two, but it sure was fun.

I guess maybe one of the Travis picking books would be a good place to start with an acoustic. Fretboard Logic is a great book to wrap your head around the fingerboard, I'm working through that one now. Wish I'd had it when I was starting out. This general book has some nice ideas, but it's a bit light. There's a few pages on different genres, bluegrass, celtic, blues, rock, folk, etc, but the first half of the book is prose about acoustic guitarists so it's not all instruction.