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Realjones posted:I think bitching about Gibson's QC is the flavor of the month really. Of course some guitars have defects, but the majority come out just fine. Thanks for the help, RealJones. The sale that I'm looking at at the moment doesn't have anything used unfortunately, but I did get a chance to play a whole bunch of LP's. I played a couple of studios and was a little unimpressed to start with actually. Which is a shame, because price-wise, they're going for ~$1300 which to me seems pretty damned reasonable. Of course, as my luck would have it I ended up falling in love with an ebony standard that's going for about a grand more. It just had such a gorgeous full bodied tone to it that blew the first studio and the other traditional that I tried out of the water. I did check out another studio that was better than the first, and it actually stood up pretty well against the standard, tone wise. I mean, the standard was better, just gorgeous, but $1000 better? I don't really think I can justify it. My main problem is that I could probably improve the sound of the studio by changing the pickups around more to my liking, but there's no substituting how much smoother the standard played. The 50's neck on the studio just seemed a bit clunky to me, whereas the asymmetrical neck on the standard was perfect. What sucks about that is that I won't be able to find a studio with an asymmetrical neck and if I want one, it looks like I'm going to have to spend another thousand bucks to get it. Unless there's another option with the asymmetrical neck, but I've done some digging and can't seem to find anything but the standard that has it.
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Mar 13, 2012 09:58
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ibntumart posted:Is there any reason to favor a MIM Fender body over a Squier Classic Vibe body for my still-very-much-in-the-blueprint-stage partscaster project? Only if there are noticeable areas of better construction on the MIM. Or different body woods.
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Mar 13, 2012 13:46
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So, I still am having some trouble doing bends. My fingernail slides underneath the strings next to the ones I'm bending and depending how fast I'm going they'll get caught and hurt a lot when I release, or make a nice, horrible "TWANG" sound when I let go. My fingernails aren't long, I think it's just a problem with my technique. I notice on justinguitar.com the strings he bends gather underneath the fleshy part of his finger but when I bend a string the next ones are half way up my fingernail and if I bend a LOT the first one will be well up my finger and.. well it's just a mess. I can do it right if I concentrate, but when I'm trying to play fast it's tough. Is this a thing I'll just get better at as I play more?
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Mar 13, 2012 20:57
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When I bend (and I bend a lot) I suppose I make a sort of rolling motion with the finger, so that rather than just sliding the string against the fretboard, I'm pushing it up towards me. So like if you have your finger on the string, and you go to bend, make a motion like you're extending your finger from it's curled position.
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Mar 13, 2012 22:36
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explosivo posted:. I can do it right if I concentrate, but when I'm trying to play fast it's tough. Is this a thing I'll just get better at as I play more? You answered your own question.
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Mar 13, 2012 22:38
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Mr. Wiggles posted:When I bend (and I bend a lot) I suppose I make a sort of rolling motion with the finger, so that rather than just sliding the string against the fretboard, I'm pushing it up towards me. So like if you have your finger on the string, and you go to bend, make a motion like you're extending your finger from it's curled position. Thank you, I know exactly what you mean. I just need to keep at it I guess. 
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Mar 13, 2012 23:10
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How high's the action on your guitar? (Height of the strings above the fretboard.) If the action's too high you'll have to press down a lot more, which might explain why the other strings are high up on your nail. You can also use your first finger to mute the other strings by extending it a bit, so it catches them before your fretting finger gets there Also helps if you mute the lower strings with your picking hand, not just when you're bending either https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tmM83KeP28
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Mar 13, 2012 23:49
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I was thinking that too actually, I think my action is a little high because I get a noticeable amount of fret buzz. Is lowering the action something I can do or should I take it to a shop to get that done?
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Mar 14, 2012 02:26
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It's usually low action in conjunction with improper neck relief that causes buzzing. How much buzzing are you getting?
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Mar 14, 2012 02:41
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It buzzes a lot if I don't hit the fret perfectly in the center with just the right pressure. I'm almost certain it's an abnormal amount of buzz. I don't know how to quantify the amount of buzzing 
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Mar 14, 2012 02:47
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No, I mean, does it happen on every fret? And when you say "hit the fret perfectly in the center" do you mean on top of the fretwire or in between two pieces of fretwire?
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Mar 14, 2012 03:03
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Oh I see, it happens all over the neck. And doing it now it only buzzes if I have my finger closer to the top fretwire instead of right above the lower fretwire; which I know the proper technique is to finger just above the lower fretwire of whatever fret I'm trying to play, so when I'm playing single notes I don't get much buzz but if I have to move around fast or play chords there's usually a string or two that buzzes because my finger lands a bit father away than it should be. It could be a technique problem but I do think it's a bit off. I have to push really hard when I strum a chord for there not to be any buzz at all. Edit: And when I get farther up (down?) the neck into the higher notes it's really hard to not get any buzz at all because of the smaller space between fretwires. explosivo fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Mar 14, 2012 |
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Mar 14, 2012 03:16
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explosivo posted:Oh I see, it happens all over the neck. And doing it now it only buzzes if I have my finger closer to the top fretwire instead of right above the lower fretwire; which I know the proper technique is to finger just above the lower fretwire of whatever fret I'm trying to play, so when I'm playing single notes I don't get much buzz but if I have to move around fast or play chords there's usually a string or two that buzzes because my finger lands a bit father away than it should be. It could be a technique problem but I do think it's a bit off. I have to push really hard when I strum a chord for there not to be any buzz at all. Bring your guitar to a guitar tech and have it set up properly.
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Mar 14, 2012 04:22
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I think I will. Thanks!
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Mar 14, 2012 04:29
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So I finally got my new pickups, and I'm trying to figure out how I need to wire them. They're DiMarzios, so the setup is visually different from the Epiphone pickups they'll be replacing. How do I know if I need standard wiring or out-of-phase wiring? It's on a Les Paul, so I've got a tone & volume pot for each pickup and a standard 3-way selector switch. I'm planning on wiring them in series and the current pickups appear to be only 2-conductor. Also the instructions I found recommend using e-tape to cover the two conductors that get soldered together. Is there a preferred method to this? I found a couple of sites that recommend wire nuts, but in my experience wire nuts tend to cause nothing but headaches. MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Mar 16, 2012 |
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Mar 16, 2012 08:06
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MockingQuantum posted:So I finally got my new pickups, and I'm trying to figure out how I need to wire them. They're DiMarzios, so the setup is visually different from the Epiphone pickups they'll be replacing. How do I know if I need standard wiring or out-of-phase wiring? It's on a Les Paul, so I've got a tone & volume pot for each pickup and a standard 3-way selector switch. I'm planning on wiring them in series and the current pickups appear to be only 2-conductor. Get the stuff that shrinks with heat. It'd be a lot cleaner than regular electrical tape which can turn really gooey and loosen over time.
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Mar 16, 2012 09:46
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ibntumart posted:Is there any reason to favor a MIM Fender body over a Squier Classic Vibe body for my still-very-much-in-the-blueprint-stage partscaster project? Real answer: Pine is a really soft wood and does get dings pretty easily. But the CV has better sounding pups if you intend on keeping them.
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Mar 17, 2012 03:49
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Anyone have any suggestions for places to get backing tracks? Either of more well-known songs to play the guitar parts over, or just random bits someone made in FruityLoops or whatever to jam over the top of. Most of the sites I'm finding for them are offering backing tracks as a like, mid-90s $50 Casio Keyboard playing electric piano. I'd obviously prefer free, of course(who wouldn't), but I wouldn't be opposed to dropping a little money either. I was kind of hoping for a lot of variety, anything from rock to symphony, but because there's so many sites with such a terrible signal-to-noise ratio I'm willing to take what I can get.
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Mar 18, 2012 14:29
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When I hammer down on a fret to play it, I also get a secondary sound, apparently from the fret before it. If I mute the string above the fret I'm hitting, I get the intended note cleanly. Is this normal? Or could it be something wrong with my action/neck relief?
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Mar 18, 2012 23:42
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Just sounds like a technique thing.
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Mar 18, 2012 23:48
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404notfound posted:When I hammer down on a fret to play it, I also get a secondary sound, apparently from the fret before it. If I mute the string above the fret I'm hitting, I get the intended note cleanly. I'm pretty sure its normal, it sounds like its probably harmonics. What type of guitar are you using? I know on my classical if I mute all the strings over the sound hole and hammer on with just one finger at about fret 5 through 10 i can get clearly audible harmonics (not all sound good) from the length of string that is free to vibrate up to the nut.
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Mar 19, 2012 00:56
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Pretentious Turtle posted:It's usually low action in conjunction with improper neck relief that causes buzzing. In all honesty, some level of fret buzz is acceptable if you want really low action. It's not necessarily going to be noticible when amplified. 404notfound posted:When I hammer down on a fret to play it, I also get a secondary sound, apparently from the fret before it. If I mute the string above the fret I'm hitting, I get the intended note cleanly. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Mar 19, 2012 |
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Mar 19, 2012 01:05
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Vincent Valentine posted:Anyone have any suggestions for places to get backing tracks? Either of more well-known songs to play the guitar parts over, or just random bits someone made in FruityLoops or whatever to jam over the top of. Most of the sites I'm finding for them are offering backing tracks as a like, mid-90s $50 Casio Keyboard playing electric piano. I'd obviously prefer free, of course(who wouldn't), but I wouldn't be opposed to dropping a little money either. By backing tracks what exactly do you mean? Are you looking for re-records of songs without the guitar parts or what? Is there a reason karaoke backing tracks aren't useful for what you're doing?
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Mar 19, 2012 04:20
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Epi Lepi posted:By backing tracks what exactly do you mean? Are you looking for re-records of songs without the guitar parts or what? Is there a reason karaoke backing tracks aren't useful for what you're doing? Totally guitar-less tracks don't really exist beyond the occasional track that got imported into Rock Band or Guitar Hero. For the most part, there aren't a bunch of pro bands out there recording guitarless karaoke tracks. I would mostly just use those cheap Guitar Pro tracks and just deal with the fact they don't sound as good - it doesn't mostly matter for just the bass and drum part. They don't sound great, but it's not like you're making pro tracks. Pretentious Turtle posted:I'm looking for a new amp, I've been without one for too long and stuck with my (admittedly nice) Pod. Whether the 6505 combos that are MIC are "not quite as good as the real thing," for the most part it's basically the same amp. The whole MIC thing is really overblown, particularly with amps. It's not going to sound appreciably different because both amps are printed circuit board amps that are just done by robots on computers; they have the same circuit. Besides, old 5150 combos and heads rarely cost a lot due to the inherently cheapness of Peavey stuff so if you need to justify a US product, just buy a used one. I suppose the parts could be crummy, but really, the parts on a US made amp probably came from China too. Besides, the whole "MIC" craze hasn't been a totally merited complaint in a decade or so. I started playing 10 years ago and the products that were available then from Korea/etc. were poo poo compared to what we've got available now. It's insane the kind of gear you can pull these days on a normal person's budget. Even 5-10 years ago, you only really got tube amps if you were a pro or rich. They didn't have $350 Soldano-clone combos back then; you had to spend like 800+ to get a tube amp.
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Mar 19, 2012 05:24
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I was mostly referring to the speaker in it, but now that I think of it, isn't it the same one Peavey's been using in the 6505 combos anyway? That being said Jet City poo poo hadn't been on my radar, but I'll check it out and see how it compares to what I'm currently checking out - the Blackstar HT-5R.
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Mar 19, 2012 05:29
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Check out the Marshall Class 5 too. http://www.marshallamps.com/product_range.asp?productRangeId=29 Only one channel, but throw a tubescreamer or a boost or something in front of it if you want 2 sounds out of it. They are price dropping all over the place too.
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Mar 19, 2012 09:44
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Vincent Valentine posted:Anyone have any suggestions for places to get backing tracks? Either of more well-known songs to play the guitar parts over, or just random bits someone made in FruityLoops or whatever to jam over the top of. Most of the sites I'm finding for them are offering backing tracks as a like, mid-90s $50 Casio Keyboard playing electric piano. I'd obviously prefer free, of course(who wouldn't), but I wouldn't be opposed to dropping a little money either. Youtube has a ton of these. Search by key, etc. To get them into mp3 format, there are websites that you can punch in the Youtube url and it'll poop out a download link. Got a ton on my ipod.
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Mar 19, 2012 15:42
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Epi Lepi posted:By backing tracks what exactly do you mean? Are you looking for re-records of songs without the guitar parts or what? Is there a reason karaoke backing tracks aren't useful for what you're doing? Re-records without the guitar part are fine, but even just plain rhythms and stuff are great as well. I've been working on improvisation a lot lately and recorded a lot of my own rhythm playing to play over the top of, but I can't play drums or any other instrument at all so I was hoping to find some others. Unfortunately, guitar-less tracks are either rare or terrible in my experience. Especially of ones that are popular guitar songs with the guitar parts removed Philthy posted:Youtube has a ton of these. Search by key, etc. To get them into mp3 format, there are websites that you can punch in the Youtube url and it'll poop out a download link. Got a ton on my ipod. Ah, yeah, this did it. I don't know why I didn't think to search youtube before, but it's got pretty much anything I could want. Vincent Valentine fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Mar 20, 2012 |
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Mar 20, 2012 02:35
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Vincent Valentine posted:Ah, yeah, this did it. I don't know why I didn't think to search youtube before, but it's got pretty much anything I could want. Unless you are tuned to Eb...
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Mar 20, 2012 08:28
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Rog McDodge posted:Unless you are tuned to Eb... There are six little knobs on the guitar that can fix that problem
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Mar 20, 2012 14:52
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Why would what tuning you're in matter at all for jamming over backing tracks?
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Mar 20, 2012 15:11
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Vincent Valentine posted:Re-records without the guitar part are fine, but even just plain rhythms and stuff are great as well. I've been working on improvisation a lot lately and recorded a lot of my own rhythm playing to play over the top of, but I can't play drums or any other instrument at all so I was hoping to find some others. Unfortunately, guitar-less tracks are either rare or terrible in my experience. Especially of ones that are popular guitar songs with the guitar parts removed This isn't too bad if you look around. http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/
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Mar 20, 2012 15:22
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These are decent 12 bar blues backing tracks in multiple configurations and keys: http://www.torvund.net/guitar/index.php?page=Backing_blues I suggest tossing them into REAPER or something similar and adding your own VSTi's though because generic MIDI always sounds terrible.
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Mar 20, 2012 15:45
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Orthogonalus posted:Why would what tuning you're in matter at all for jamming over backing tracks? open strings and the highest notes. It's also kind of a pain to transpose everything if you're not familiar with all the keys. If you plan on playing songs written in standard tuning, though, why tune down in the first place? Either way, it's not hard to re-tune.
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Mar 20, 2012 16:13
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CalvinDooglas posted:open strings and the highest notes. It's also kind of a pain to transpose everything if you're not familiar with all the keys. You're right, I guess I was just thinking about improvising, not playing actual songs.
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Mar 20, 2012 16:39
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I've never been good at barre chords, and I feel like I've plateaued in my improvement. My problem is, I still have strings that are muting out (usually the G, as it tends to land near one of my knuckles), and after even a short time playing, my hand gets sore as hell. Anybody have any suggestions on what I could do, besides "play more barre chords?" I'm doing plenty of that, it just doesn't seem to help anymore. Are there any targeted exercises I could do that would help with barres?
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Mar 23, 2012 04:23
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Anyone have any tips on playing fast solos like the one from Master of Puppets? I can't play the fast alternate picking parts no matter how hard I try. I've had about 6 long sessions with the metronome gradually speeding up, but I'm nowhere near the full tempo. I've been playing for about 5 years, so it's frustrating that I still haven't developed the speed to do this yet. I also have similar trouble with the first guitar solo in La Grande, by ZZ Top. Even if I try to sweep pick and use legato I can't seem to get it (and then I don't get the right tone either).
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Mar 23, 2012 04:37
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^ I'm no shredder but I think it takes time to build up accurate speed. I always recommend playing at your target bpm, but playing at half-speed and throwing in some full-speed runs every now and then. So say you're trying to play 16ths at 130 bpm but your fingers are stumbling a little, play 8ths instead and throw in bursts of 16ths, like 1-2-3-4-1-2-3&4&1-2-3-4... It helps you play accurately for short bursts and gives you rest breaks, and gradually you can extend your fast bits as it gets easier to sustain playing at that speed. Something to try on top of your usual routine anywayMockingQuantum posted:I've never been good at barre chords, and I feel like I've plateaued in my improvement. My problem is, I still have strings that are muting out (usually the G, as it tends to land near one of my knuckles), and after even a short time playing, my hand gets sore as hell. Anybody have any suggestions on what I could do, besides "play more barre chords?" I'm doing plenty of that, it just doesn't seem to help anymore. Are there any targeted exercises I could do that would help with barres? If the barre itself is giving you problems, try rolling your first finger to the side slightly, so you're barring with the harder part of your finger instead of the soft, fleshy underside with all the gaps. Justin Geetar recommends kinda fretting at an angle too http://www.justinguitar.com/en/IM-111-EShapeMajorMinorBarreChords.php What shape are you muting the G on? E minor shapes? Or is it the extra barring on the A major shapes?
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Mar 23, 2012 19:14
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coolbian57 posted:Anyone have any tips on playing fast solos like the one from Master of Puppets? I can't play the fast alternate picking parts no matter how hard I try. I've had about 6 long sessions with the metronome gradually speeding up, but I'm nowhere near the full tempo. I've been playing for about 5 years, so it's frustrating that I still haven't developed the speed to do this yet. I also have similar trouble with the first guitar solo in La Grande, by ZZ Top. Even if I try to sweep pick and use legato I can't seem to get it (and then I don't get the right tone either). For context, Master of Puppets was the first song I tried to learn how to play (after One) 5 years ago, and I still can't nail that solo. (I also never practice it, but I know the notes.) Work on Metallica's riffs and then drop them, their riffs are super beginner friendly, but their solos are far harder. Branch out and then come back to them in a couple years. I suggest Megadeth after you're comfortable with Metallica, their riffs are much more technically demanding.
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Mar 23, 2012 22:05
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baka kaba posted:What shape are you muting the G on? E minor shapes? Or is it the extra barring on the A major shapes? Just the E minor or variations thereof. It's a problem with my index not being positioned right/not being strong enough, I'm just not sure which.
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Mar 24, 2012 05:57
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