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Paulocaust posted:So, I'm trying to record some acoustic practice tracks through my laptop's mic and it keeps on alternating between sounding decent and sounding like someone's put it through a weird filter or holding a towel over the speakers or something. If it is a Mac, check the audio settings: System Preferences>Sound>Input And uncheck "Use Ambient Noise Reduction"
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May 26, 2012 04:43
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| # ? May 16, 2024 23:01 |
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Paulocaust posted:So, I'm trying to record some acoustic practice tracks through my laptop's mic and it keeps on alternating between sounding decent and sounding like someone's put it through a weird filter or holding a towel over the speakers or something. Or what the guy above said when I didn't check the new page yet.
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May 26, 2012 06:38
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I'm trying to teach myself guitar using the Berklee Modern Method for Guitar books. What's a good timeframe for moving on from each set of exercises? I'm having trouble with the high F chord, where you have to do a sort of mini-barre on the 1st and 2nd strings. Should I be pressing into both with the pad of my finger?
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May 27, 2012 22:01
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Elephant posted:I'm trying to teach myself guitar using the Berklee Modern Method for Guitar books. What's a good timeframe for moving on from each set of exercises? I'm having trouble with the high F chord, where you have to do a sort of mini-barre on the 1st and 2nd strings. Should I be pressing into both with the pad of my finger? Use the side of your finger. Basically you'll have to find a very personal combination of rotation and placement that lets both notes sound cleanly. Its different for everyone.
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May 27, 2012 22:43
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http://www.justinguitar.com/en/BC-161-F-chord.php Oh Justin... 
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May 28, 2012 01:37
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My niece wants to learn guitar, and I am going to get her one for her birthday to get her started. Looking through the Rondo website, I found this: http://www.rondomusic.com/product1926.html Which fits what she asked for almost exactly. Does anyone have any experience with it? Is it a good beginner's guitar?
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May 28, 2012 06:53
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What amount of swelling on the body of an acoustic is considered okay? It's been getting really humid where I am (Minneapolis, 80-90 percent humidity at night, 50-60 during the day) and I think my Taylor's action is up a little bit? I can't tell for sure, part of me is being paranoid but another part of me wants to make sure to take good care of this thing. The documentation that came with the guitar about dealing with high humidity didn't strike me as very helpful (lovely pictures, and dealt more with an extreme example of humidity damage). What are some ways you folks deal with humidity? I've been letting the case (the 'case' is really more of a reinforced gig bag that came with the Taylor) kinda dry out on my deck in the sun now and then, and also found some silica gel packets and tossed them in my case. But in such conditions, is a bit of rise on the action unavoidable? I'm planning on taking it in to a shop, but everything's closed today so maybe I'm just posting this to ease my mind a little bit, as it sounds like humidity can seriously gently caress up a guitar. Here are some not very good pictures, for you guys to pull a Bill Frist and diagnose it via image: http://imgur.com/a/9Y66w roughly how high should the action be? it's a Taylor 214ce. If I sound like a fool, this is the nicest guitar I've ever owned, wanna treat it right 
global tetrahedron fucked around with this message at 19:11 on May 28, 2012 |
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May 28, 2012 18:52
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I can't offer much in the way of useful info beyond that I also live in the Twin Cities area and haven't had any long-term damage, and I have an unlacquered guitar. Generally speaking lower humidity is a lot more damaging than high humidity. You shouldn't have any extreme problems, higher action is normal for how humid it's been here the last couple of weeks. If it really bothers you, you could have a shop cut a "summer" saddle for you that's a little lower. Otherwise the swelling will ease off as we get drier days. Also, where are you planning on taking the guitar, if I may ask? For my money, Hoffman Guitars are the best acoustic guys in town, hands down.
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May 29, 2012 03:51
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MockingQuantum posted:Also, where are you planning on taking the guitar, if I may ask? For my money, Hoffman Guitars are the best acoustic guys in town, hands down. Thanks for easing my mind a bit. I'm near Uptown, was gonna go to Twin Tone probably because I am within walking distance. Never heard of Hoffman guitars, I'll check them out sometime. Looks like a cool place.
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May 29, 2012 14:28
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Elephant posted:I'm trying to teach myself guitar using the Berklee Modern Method for Guitar books. What's a good timeframe for moving on from each set of exercises? I'm having trouble with the high F chord, where you have to do a sort of mini-barre on the 1st and 2nd strings. Should I be pressing into both with the pad of my finger? You shouldn't worry too much about one chord, especially F because it's harder than most to get down. You may not be to the point where you can play an F barre chord for a couple of years! These exercises build on each other, though. Instead of concentrating on that etude with an f chord, i would instead spend about 10 minutes each day specifically working on moving from the other open position chords to an F chord.
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May 29, 2012 17:28
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Elephant posted:I'm trying to teach myself guitar using the Berklee Modern Method for Guitar books. What's a good timeframe for moving on from each set of exercises? I'm having trouble with the high F chord, where you have to do a sort of mini-barre on the 1st and 2nd strings. Should I be pressing into both with the pad of my finger? I've only been playing for about a month or so, for me just barring across the first fret and doing an E shape is waaay easier than doing the mini-barre. But really it's whatever is easiest for you I guess. I still can't switch to it very quickly.  I've been practicing that caged E shape scale (G major scale?) and I accidentally discovered the Pan's Labyrinth theme  It's also pretty cool that you can just play around in the scale, and it kinda sounds like actual music!
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May 29, 2012 18:17
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As frustrating and boring as scales can be, it's nice when things finally come together and you discover that noodling around up and down the scale actually makes music and not just well-organised noise.
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May 29, 2012 23:24
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Weird thing happened with my Takamine Acoustic. I changed strings on Sunday after not having played it in a while and when I did I found I had some pretty gnarly fret buzz and the neck was obviously bowed. I was pretty upset that my $500 guitar that I only bought a year ago was so hosed up so I finished restringing it and then left it in the case till this morning. To my surprise, no fret buzz. At all. I'm guessing that the old strings, (they might have even been the stock strings) had stopped being able to apply the right tension and so the neck bowed back but the new strings tightened it back into place? That doesn't seem like something that should happen and none of my other guitars have ever had something like that happen. Should I be worried? Should I take it to a tech or try to contact the manufacturer?
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May 31, 2012 16:53
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If you feel comfortable with an Allen wrench, you can adjust the truss rod yourself with the new strings on to make sure your guitar's neck is straight. The point of the truss rod is to counteract string tension. It's also usually normal for the neck to bow while changing strings due to tension changes top and bottom of the neck. Also, $500 dollar guitar and you're just now changing out the manufacturer strings after a year? poo poo son, you must not play it often.
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Jun 1, 2012 12:18
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Devorum posted:My niece wants to learn guitar, and I am going to get her one for her birthday to get her started. Looking through the Rondo website, I found this: I'm not sure you should trust a guitar that has been specially 'slimed down'
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Jun 1, 2012 14:52
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danucleus posted:If you feel comfortable with an Allen wrench, you can adjust the truss rod yourself with the new strings on to make sure your guitar's neck is straight. The point of the truss rod is to counteract string tension. It's also usually normal for the neck to bow while changing strings due to tension changes top and bottom of the neck. How often should you change the strings? My strat broke the high E string a few days ago. When I took the string out I noticed it was all rusted and brittle. Am I not taking care of my strings, or is that normal? I play one hour a day since I got it in April. Also, I noticed that all the other strings became wildly out of tune after my high E string broke. I'm guessing the neck is designed to only be straight when all 6 strings are present.
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Jun 2, 2012 02:35
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how!! posted:How often should you change the strings? My strat broke the high E string a few days ago. When I took the string out I noticed it was all rusted and brittle. Am I not taking care of my strings, or is that normal? I play one hour a day since I got it in April. You can usually tell when you need to change your strings. Pinch a string between your fingers and run them up and down the neck - if there's grime building up, you can feel it. If you can feel grime, change them. If you can't, but it's been three months or more, change them. (My advice is completely unvalidated, and entirely based on personal, anecdotal evidence.) And also, if you think you should change them, and you have five bucks, change them.
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Jun 2, 2012 04:26
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They shouldn't actually be rusting, that might be a humid environment (?) but it also might be your body chemistry reacting with the metal. Some people just corrode strings - it's a good idea to wipe them down properly after you play, especially underneath. If it's a persistent problem I saw Some Guy On The Internet talking about these Elixir strings, I can't find the video right now but he really loved either Polyweb or Nanoweb strings to solve this problem (loved one, hated the other, I forget which). Also yeah the note each string plays is down to the amount of tension on the string, and if you change the amount on one string it'll affect the amount on the others. Snapping a string will cause a pretty big shift on the remaining ones!
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Jun 2, 2012 04:52
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If you play with any regularity and/or don't do a full wipedown and case storage (the guitar equivalent of daily flossing), you should change your strings every month. You can get away with less, but they won't sound very good. The tension thing is due to your guitar having a tremolo bridge. Nothing to do with neck straightness. The bridge maintains the proper string tension with those springs in the back of the guitar, rather than just sticking two posts in the body of the guitar to keep the bridge in place. This allows you to use the tremolo bar and bend the pitch by moving the bridge, increasing/decreasing the tension. If you have a fixed bridge, you can break a string and it won't bother the others, but as baka kaba said, the tuning on your guitar will suffer greatly for it.
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Jun 2, 2012 05:07
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how!! posted:How often should you change the strings? My strat broke the high E string a few days ago. When I took the string out I noticed it was all rusted and brittle. Am I not taking care of my strings, or is that normal? I play one hour a day since I got it in April. Elixir and ClearTone are 2 different brands of strings that use nano-coatings to protect against grime/wear/rust, and are supposed to last longer and keep tone better as a result. I got a set, but haven't put them in yet as I'm waiting until I wear my current set down first.
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Jun 2, 2012 06:12
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I find that the Nanoweb stuff affects playability. I don't like it. Regular strings are $5 anyway, so changing them once every 3 months isn't really a savings if you pay $15-20 per set. For someone playing a bigass jazz box guitar with .12s, though, I can see it being useful.
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Jun 2, 2012 14:12
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CalvinDooglas posted:I find that the Nanoweb stuff affects playability. I don't like it. Regular strings are $5 anyway, so changing them once every 3 months isn't really a savings if you pay $15-20 per set. That guy's deleted his video for some reason but it was the Nanoweb ones he hated, he didn't like the feel or the sound. He liked the Polyweb coating because it felt and sounded transparent while keeping his strings from reacting to his chemistry. This is just second-hand information and it was really about solving that specific problem, but I figured I'd pass it along anway
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Jun 2, 2012 15:22
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I love the feel and sound of the nanowebs, and for me, they last a looong time. If these didn't work for me, I'd have to change my strings every few days, since my hands will reduce normal strings to rusty razorwire pretty quickly.
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Jun 2, 2012 19:35
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Anyone have experience playing Reverend guitars? I'm trying out a Gil Parris model tomorrow and it seems like a nice do-it-all kind of guitar, killer for the price.
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Jun 6, 2012 01:07
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Any goons have experience with Extended range electric guitars? I have played 6-strings for almost 16 years now and i just bought a Schecter Omen 8 (http://www.schecterguitars.com/Products/Guitar/Omen-8.aspx) In that awesome transparent red finish and it is a TON of guitar for 399. I had never played a 7 string or an 8 string but i love a lot of artists that do (Vai, Djent bands etc...) So at that little amount of money i thought i would try it and it was TOTALLY worth it. The songwriting potential this opened up is really interesting and i have started using it in a Jazz combo as well for some cool runs and the like. The one thing to be concerned with is because it is an Omen (Schecter's affordable range) That means it is as far as the body and neck are concerned fantastic, but the pickups leave a lot to be desired. They need switching bad for better, more even voicing but as an experimental guitar to cut your teeth on an 8 string the price tag for quality ratio is great. Does anyone have any experience with these guitars to recommend a pickup? I know Dimarzio and EMG make 8-string pickups are there any smaller company's i should check out? What sort of equipment should i be trying to get a great 8 string tone?
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Jun 7, 2012 02:08
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Duncan makes 8 string Blackouts too, and as far as small companies go, there's the legendary Lundgren, the now extremely popular Bareknuckle, and a ton of boutique pickup makers will also make 8 string pickups to order.
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Jun 7, 2012 02:56
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Pretentious Turtle posted:Duncan makes 8 string Blackouts too, and as far as small companies go, there's the legendary Lundgren, the now extremely popular Bareknuckle, and a ton of boutique pickup makers will also make 8 string pickups to order. I actually had never heard of Lundgren that's the company that manufactures Meshuggah's pickups? That would totally be worth a look. Have you tried any of these yourself?
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Jun 7, 2012 03:38
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Yeah, Meshuggah use Lundgren M8s. I haven't tried any Lundgrens, as they're pretty expensive, but I do have a pair of Bareknuckle Nailbombs which loving slay.
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Jun 7, 2012 03:43
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burritonegro posted:Anyone have experience playing Reverend guitars? I'm trying out a Gil Parris model tomorrow and it seems like a nice do-it-all kind of guitar, killer for the price. I just bought a Daredevil a week or so ago and I absolutely love it. Great pickups, love the bass contour knob. Will definitely pick up another once I have more money.
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Jun 7, 2012 15:21
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Does anyone have any experience with Epiphone's Wilshire Pro? I've had an Ibanez RG370 6 or 7 years, but I don't really play metal anymore and wanted a more strat/tele type of guitar for this kind of music, without spending too much. It sounds good value for the price, but is there something better in that range, around £250? My RG actually still goes for £380 but mine has a couple of problems.
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Jun 12, 2012 00:13
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how!! posted:How often should you change the strings? As often as needed. I change strings on my main guitar about once every 2-3 weeks when I'm not recording or playing tons of shows, other wise, I change strings before each show or session. As you play longer, you will decide how nasty you can tolerate the strings getting/sounding and string replacement will be based on that. It also depends on your ear as well. Some people can't tell the difference in sound between new strings and strings that have 30 hours of play time on them...others can (and don't like the sound of old strings). Also, grungy/oxidized strings are the worst. Nothing turns me off faster in a music store, or playing someone's guitar, than to have nasty old oxidized strings and I'll generally make a point to music store managers that if they want to sell that $5,000 Les Paul, they should keep it in new strings each month because I'll set that poo poo right back down if the strings are nasty.
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Jun 13, 2012 14:44
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FrankenVader posted:
This is real peeve of mine when I go to guitar shops. There'll be a really nice guitar with a big sign that says "Ask for Assistance", but it'll have the rustiest, most out of tune set of .09s I ever saw. How am I supposed to know what this thing sounds like?
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Jun 13, 2012 20:15
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CalvinDooglas posted:This is real peeve of mine when I go to guitar shops. There'll be a really nice guitar with a big sign that says "Ask for Assistance", but it'll have the rustiest, most out of tune set of .09s I ever saw. How am I supposed to know what this thing sounds like?
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Jun 14, 2012 05:12
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Can you put nylon strings on any ol' acoustic guitar?
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Jun 15, 2012 06:31
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There may be some hybrid nylon sets with ball ends, but it'd be pretty hard to tie unballed strings around a steel string acoustic bridge.
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Jun 15, 2012 06:35
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I think I have to replace my guitar strings, but I've never done it before and have no clue what to get! I've got a strat. What should I keep in mind when getting new strings?
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Jun 15, 2012 08:17
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If it's a new strat, you might as well buy some .009s if you're happy with how they feel. Probably 9-42. You can really buy any brand you want, but I'm generally happiest with DR tite-fits or hi-beams.
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Jun 15, 2012 08:20
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Anybody got experience trading stuff in / haggling prices down at pawn shops? Earlier today I saw this kick rear end Cort J Triggs (it looks exactly like this one) and they want $300 for it. It's not in mint, though - got some paint drips and some scuffs, plus a missing screw or too. Based on googling, I figure a good price would be a good bit lower.
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Jun 16, 2012 00:03
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Take cash, and tell the guy I noticed you have the price at xxx, I have here xxx in cash. Either he'll say ok you got a deal or he'll say nope come back with the rest some other time.
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Jun 16, 2012 02:58
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I've bought 4 good guitars in the last 3 years at different pawn shops and I didn't pay anywhere close to the asking price for any of them. First research what your buying because if its cheaper online then thats a bargaining chip right there. Make sure you plug it in and play it in the store because if the pots are scratchy or it has a loose switch or hum or something thats more bargaining power, but before you even test it ask him what's the lowest you could go? Most of the time they will go lower. Most of the time they will knock something off right there. TEST ALL THE FRETS. Next say something along the lines of I like it but it has a missing screw, scratches etc would you take xx amount cash? He will either agree, say no, or go get/ talk to a manager. If he says no then this is where you pull the classic walk out the door trick. Say something along the lines of gee it's nice but I won't be able to fill up tank, eat for a week etc. Too bad I really like it. Then hopefully they will stop you and counter offer you or agree to your offer. I got an electra phoenix with hardshell case for 130 asking 200, and a peavey t-20 bass with a bad solder for 65 dollars asking 130 using the walkout trick. The other guitars were a squire Jaguar missing 1 saddle for 70 asking 120, and a fender mim strat with a hardshell case, strap, a Honda civic key, and bad emo lyrics for 150 asking 225. On that one the 5 way switch was scratchy and I said someting along the lines of that will be 40 dollars to get replaced which they bought but I took it home and blew into it while rapidly switching it and it worked fine. Hope this helps good luck.
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Jun 16, 2012 04:38
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