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I have GraphTech's on my Bigsby equipped Tokai Goldtop. No string breakage at all, no change in tone. I had an issue with playing a lower gauged G string but going to the standard gauge that came with a .10 pack seems to have fixed that.
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Apr 8, 2014 22:18
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I had my first bout of GAS in almost 12 years   Does anyone have experience with Guitar Rig 5? And am I assuming Mixcraft is probably the best Windows alternative to GarageBand?
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Apr 9, 2014 06:28
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As a Gibson owner, I love me some Epiphones. You get so drat much more for your money. Guitar Rig 5 is good, but also check out Amplitube 3. They are different, but equal. Stupid question: If I have a pedal, thats plugged into a pedal that has its input jacked unused, meaning off, will they both be off, or will the patch cable be sucking the battery? I cant tell since my wah doesn't have any LED's.
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Apr 9, 2014 07:49
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ChocNitty posted:Stupid question: If I have a pedal, thats plugged into a pedal that has its input jacked unused, meaning off, will they both be off, or will the patch cable be sucking the battery? I cant tell since my wah doesn't have any LED's.
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Apr 9, 2014 08:14
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If there's anything plugged into the input jack, even if it's something odd like a patch cable cut in half, then it's going to allow the pedal to draw battery (unless there's something weird going on with it design-wise).
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Apr 9, 2014 08:20
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So a while back I bought a AL-3000. Its a nice guitar and all, but from it I basically learned that LP style guitars just aren't for me. I don't like the way it sits when I am playing sitting down. I feel like its too heavy on my shoulder when I am standing. And I feel like it has somewhat limiting access to the high notes, especially on the low strings (E, A, etc.). I also like the neck on my MIM strat a lot more than the neck on the LP. The LP one feels a bit to chunky for my medium to small size hands and the strat has much better access to those upper notes. I do, however, like dual humbuckers and the TOM bridge. I am looking at other guitars, which I might be able to get that have a strat like neck with humbuckers and a fixed bridge. I went to a few local guitar stores and nothing really caught my eye. I figured a telecaster would have a neck similar to a strat, but it didn't seem like it at the store, but I feel uncomfortable in a guitar store for whatever reason and feel like I have never pickup a guitar before, so nothing feels quite right. I did like a Jag I picked up, but it has a 24" scale, which from what I read, the bridge can be tricky to adjust to a good string height and require heavier gauge strings to prevent the strings from popping out of the saddles. Which has me a little concerned because I normally use 9s or 10s. Is this typical of that style guitar? Do you not get additional string tension because of the shorter scale even with heavier strings, so bends won't be any more difficult? I was originally looking for something with 22 frets, because the strat sometimes toys with me that it only has 21 frets, and a TOM, but these aren't hard requirements. The obvious answer is an SG, of course, but I figured it would have the same type of neck as an LP. I was hoping to keep it under $500 if I can. I also don't mind the electronics and hardware to be crap if its a great platform to build off of. I kinda was looking at this as a project guitar anyway. I for a short time considered just getting a telecaster body with a TOM routed for humbuckers on warmoth, but I was worried that starting from scratch might be getting over my head very quickly. Any suggestions on where I should go in my search? I don't really know much about various necks and how they compare. So I figured I should at least find a place to start rather than running all over the place with no direction. For reference, the Jag I messed around with in store was this one: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/fender-classic-player-jaguar-special-electric-guitar So it wasn't the squire or the blacktop.
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Apr 9, 2014 17:10
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You need to try an Explorer body shape. Seems to be everything your looking for. I own an ibanez dt-50 that is really nice but I've also played some Hammer and Epiphone explorers that were solid as well. I think they are especially good for people with long arms. I have owned every guitar type you listed and I'm set on the explorers now.
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Apr 9, 2014 17:45
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Gripen5 posted:I did like a Jag I picked up, but it has a 24" scale, which from what I read, the bridge can be tricky to adjust to a good string height and require heavier gauge strings to prevent the strings from popping out of the saddles. Which has me a little concerned because I normally use 9s or 10s. Is this typical of that style guitar? Do you not get additional string tension because of the shorter scale The only Jag bridge you'll need to worry about is the standard kind;  which is different from the kind that's on a Classic Player Jag (which is notorious for being 'vintage inaccurate'), which is an 'off-brand' TOM called the Adjust-o-matic;  And if you also notice, that in the picture above, the distance between the tailpiece and the bridge is a shorter distance than on a standard Jag; this increases the downward pressure so that there's less issues with tension.  But to answer your questions, there can be issues with standard offset bridges, though they're not impossible to fix without the right tools (mostly loctite). But to get the best out of a Jag, it pretty much requires .11's or .12's. However this is not much of an issue, since despite your assumption, a shorter scale length reduces the tension on guitar strings and makes heavier gauges feel a bit like shorter ones. Though, with that said, it's pretty typical to need to treat an offset like a Jaguar or a Jazzmaster a bit specially to get it to work properly; however certain variations like the Classic Player were designed to solve these 'problems', as well as several products (Mastery Bridge, Buzz Stop, Warmoth Modified Mustang Bridge). On a final note, do you know which model of Stratocaster you have? Some have weird necks which can make it difficult to know what exactly you want/need. Also, just curious, why do you like TOM's over something like a through-body hardtail on a Telecaster?
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Apr 9, 2014 17:56
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Krustic posted:You need to try an Explorer body shape. Seems to be everything your looking for. I own an ibanez dt-50 that is really nice but I've also played some Hammer and Epiphone explorers that were solid as well. I think they are especially good for people with long arms. I have owned every guitar type you listed and I'm set on the explorers now. Thanks. I will definitely look into them. umalt posted:The only Jag bridge you'll need to worry about is the standard kind; Thanks for all the info on Jags. I always liked the look of them, but between the fact that they have all the controls, the short scale, and are typically on the higher range of prices, I never really looked at them too closely. I guess they are definitely an option. The stratocaster I have is a Mexican made one from around '08. I don't know much more about it than that. If there is something I can look at on my instrument to get you more info, I can take a look when I get home tonight. As far as TOM bridge go, I felt like palm muting on the LP was easier than on the strat. However, a large part of that reason is because the volume control is right below the bridge and it feels in the way when palm muting the e, B, and sometimes G strings. I am probably focusing on it too much for no particular reason in truth. But I do want a hardtail. I love my strat, but sometimes you just don't want to have to deal with a tremolo.
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Apr 9, 2014 18:17
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Just deck your trem and install a humbucker in your strat.
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Apr 9, 2014 18:22
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comes along bort posted:Just deck your trem and install a humbucker in your strat. That isn't a bad idea. Looked it up, seems simple enough. I will have to take a look how the guitar is routed. I know it can fit a humbucker in the bridge, not sure about the neck. But I might want to rethink how I want to do the neck pickup, because I do like the strat sound on neck pickup that it has now. Maybe I can do an HSH or HHS configuration? Still leaves me with 21 frets, but probably a whole lot cheaper than getting a whole new guitar.
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Apr 9, 2014 18:52
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Gripen5 posted:That isn't a bad idea. Looked it up, seems simple enough. I will have to take a look how the guitar is routed. I know it can fit a humbucker in the bridge, not sure about the neck. But I might want to rethink how I want to do the neck pickup, because I do like the strat sound on neck pickup that it has now. Maybe I can do an HSH or HHS configuration? Still leaves me with 21 frets, but probably a whole lot cheaper than getting a whole new guitar. A dremel with a couple sanding drums can make your Strat fit HH if you're into that. As for the volume control, you could always just go with one volume, one tone, and remove the top offending knob.
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Apr 9, 2014 19:36
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E-Money posted:I'm a former classical guitarist and wanted to get back into playing again. Was thinking about picking up a reasonable electric that will keep me happy for a while. I was leaning towards an epiphone les paul after playing around. I really like the versatility of the plus top pros with the coil-split probuckers. Is it worth the extra $100? It seems lie a good deal, but then i wonder for $500, could I be getting a lot more guitar for my money? I really liked the body shape and the fast action. I played a few teles and strats as well as an epiphone SG and the LP was my favorite by far. Thanks everyone for the tips! Ended up finding an Epi Les Paul Royale from 2011 used about 4 times for $250. It's plenty enough guitar for me to last a few years, and I can put the money I saved toward an amp - looking at you, Blackstar HT1!
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Apr 9, 2014 19:40
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Gripen5 posted:Thanks for all the info on Jags. I always liked the look of them, but between the fact that they have all the controls, the short scale, and are typically on the higher range of prices, I never really looked at them too closely. I guess they are definitely an option. What about Jazzmasters? Basically the same body, fewer controls, standard scale length...
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Apr 9, 2014 20:01
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+1 for Jazzmasters, it's easily the most comfy guitar I have. When you got your Agile, did you go with the stock or slim neck? I know the body was an issue as well, but just trying to get an idea because the neck on my slim Agile LP is less chunky than my Tele and JM.
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Apr 9, 2014 20:19
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^^ I think it was just the standard neck. I think what I like better about the strat is that it has both a smaller neck and a smaller fretboard. It lets me use my thumb a little bit better than on the LP. But it also just feels more comfortable. baka kaba posted:What about Jazzmasters? Basically the same body, fewer controls, standard scale length... Interesting. The Vintage Modified line looks very close to what I am looking for. It has a locking button on the tremolo system, so you can change that in no time. Two humbuckers. I need to look closer at the specs of the neck, but the 9.5" radius is the same as what is on my strat. It lacks the typical upper horn controls that are in normal jags and jazzmasters, but I doubt I would miss the functionality. Thanks for all this info, guys. It gives me a lot to think about. I am leaning towards selling the Agile and getting something new to replace it at this point, while leaving the strat alone. I got some upgraded stuff for it and like it as is for the moment. Gripen5 fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Apr 9, 2014 |
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Apr 9, 2014 20:31
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Gripen5 posted:Interesting. The Vintage Modified line looks very close to what I am looking for. It has a locking button on the tremolo system, so you can change that in no time. Two humbuckers. I need to look closer at the specs of the neck, but the 9.5" radius is the same as what is on my strat. It lacks the typical upper horn controls that are in normal jags and jazzmasters, but I doubt I would miss the functionality. I don't think you were looking at a VM Jazzmaster. The trem is non-locking, it has a SS pickup configuration, and it has all of the standard JM controls. e: This is the VMJM that I have (and others I believe too): http://www.fender.com/guitars/jazzmaster/vintage-modified-jazzmaster-rosewood-fingerboard-sonic-blue/ Ignore the price they go for $300 new. e2: Haha, even in their promo photo, all of the higher strings are barely in their saddles on the bridge. Can't wait for my modified Mustang bridge to get here. booshi fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Apr 9, 2014 |
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Apr 9, 2014 20:43
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booshi posted:I don't think you were looking at a VM Jazzmaster. The trem is non-locking, it has a SS pickup configuration, and it has all of the standard JM controls. You are right. I think I was looking at the Modern Player. http://www.fender.com/series/modern-player/modern-player-jazzmaster-hh-rosewood-fingerboard-crimson-red-transparent/ I was planning on replacing the pickups no matter what I did. So I might just go for the squire and upgrade the hardware and electronics and still probably make out in terms of price. Is the replacement Mustang bridge pretty standard?
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Apr 9, 2014 20:51
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booshi posted:e2: Haha, even in their promo photo, all of the higher strings are barely in their saddles on the bridge. Can't wait for my modified Mustang bridge to get here. They wanted an accurate photo.
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Apr 9, 2014 20:54
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^^^^^^ Haha, yep.Gripen5 posted:You are right. I think I was looking at the Modern Player. Yeah, on the VMJM, but the Modern Player has an Adjust-o-matic bridge so you'll be good on the bridge. What kind of budget do you have for pickups? I feel like I always am pushing them, but GFS (at guitarfetish.com) has great pickups at a good price. I have a Pro Series set in my Tele and a pair of Crunchy Pats in my Agile.
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Apr 9, 2014 21:08
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booshi posted:^^^^^^ Haha, yep. I was looking at GFS at least to play around with various sounds. When I started thinking about a new guitar, I had this weird idea of putting their humbucker sized mean 90 in the neck and a power rails in the bridge. But I think that is mostly because I have been listening to a lot of Muse lately, and they are vaguely similar to pickups Matt Bellamy uses, without spending over $100 per pickup. However, I will probably end up with something like a Crunchy PAT in the neck and a VEH in the bridge, since I probably play more blues and Rock than anything really.
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Apr 9, 2014 21:24
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Hmmm. May pick up a cheapo and tune it like a ukulele.
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Apr 9, 2014 21:25
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Gripen5 posted:I was looking at GFS at least to play around with various sounds. When I started thinking about a new guitar, I had this weird idea of putting their humbucker sized mean 90 in the neck and a power rails in the bridge. But I think that is mostly because I have been listening to a lot of Muse lately, and they are vaguely similar to pickups Matt Bellamy uses, without spending over $100 per pickup. However, I will probably end up with something like a Crunchy PAT in the neck and a VEH in the bridge, since I probably play more blues and Rock than anything really. A humbucker in the bridge and h90 in the neck is a pretty good combination. Gives you some more versatility.
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Apr 10, 2014 03:15
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Gripen5 posted:I was looking at GFS at least to play around with various sounds. When I started thinking about a new guitar, I had this weird idea of putting their humbucker sized mean 90 in the neck and a power rails in the bridge. But I think that is mostly because I have been listening to a lot of Muse lately, and they are vaguely similar to pickups Matt Bellamy uses, without spending over $100 per pickup. However, I will probably end up with something like a Crunchy PAT in the neck and a VEH in the bridge, since I probably play more blues and Rock than anything really. The mean 90s are badass pickups. I'll vouch for them. No idea about the power rails, but I'm sure they are cool. I really want to put mean 90s in another guitar, since I sold the guitar I had with them in it.
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Apr 10, 2014 03:44
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Power rails are stupidly high output and kinda dark because of the emphasis on low-mids. You'd need to screw them down pretty far to balance a P90. Great for sludge/doom stuff though.
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Apr 10, 2014 05:13
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So guys, I've been doing luthiery and guitar repair for a few years now, but I've decided I want to go back to school this fall full time. I'm hoping to be able to run my own repair business out of my garage, enough to pay for some gas and food at least while I'm in school. I'd like some input from you guys, how could I drum up business? I've tried Craigslist without much luck. I've been looking in to a website but SEO and adwords seem a little out of my budget. I've been trying find a local shop I could work out of but I haven't had much luck on that front. I was thinking of going to local shows and talking to people and handing out business cards, as well as hanging fliers. Who do you guys go to for your repairs? What might make you try a different tech?
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Apr 10, 2014 06:21
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JD posted:So guys, I've been doing luthiery and guitar repair for a few years now, but I've decided I want to go back to school this fall full time. I'm hoping to be able to run my own repair business out of my garage, enough to pay for some gas and food at least while I'm in school. Personally, I use a local guy from a small shop who's been around forever. They handmake acoustic instruments as well as doing repairs and such and I trust him implicitly with anything serious. For quick setups and little poo poo (be prepared to laugh) I've made friends with the tech at the local Guitar Center (who knows his poo poo) and I'll drop whatever over during the week with some beer every now and again. Please don't take this the wrong way, I mean no disrespect at all, but it'd take a LOT of persuading to get me to drop one of my guitars off with a guy from Craigslist without knowing he had insurance to cover if anything happened to something. Incidentally, where are you located?
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Apr 10, 2014 06:45
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Yeah, I figured I'd get insurance eventually. I'm in Southern California, Inland Empire area. And I wouldn't laugh at the Guitar Center tech, I did 2 years there.
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Apr 10, 2014 07:11
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Guitar Center tech has to be better than the rear end in a top hat who did my last setup. Got more buzzing than a loving beehive. Didn't even restring and intonate it with the strings I asked him to. Don't always trust the local music store guy, because they might be loving idiots who don't know how to do their loving jobs.
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Apr 10, 2014 13:29
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comes along bort posted:Power rails are stupidly high output and kinda dark because of the emphasis on low-mids. You'd need to screw them down pretty far to balance a P90. Yeah. I don't need anything that is super high output. I don't really do a lot of super high gain stuff, so something meant for a little less distortion is probably better. I guess I can still do my plan of a mean P90 in the neck and maybe do a VEH in the bridge. I know GFS did that one one of their guitars at some point. I do like to turn up the gain and distortion sometimes, but I doubt it really gets much past basic 80s metal sort of sound. Edit: Something I didn't think about until now is that since P90s are single coil, they probably have some minor hum. Does that disappear or at least reduce when the pickup selector is in the middle position when wired with a humbucker? Gripen5 fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Apr 10, 2014 |
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Apr 10, 2014 13:48
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Gripen5 posted:Edit: Something I didn't think about until now is that since P90s are single coil, they probably have some minor hum. Does that disappear or at least reduce when the pickup selector is in the middle position when wired with a humbucker? Not really. I think you could get some hum cancelling going on if you tapped the humbucker.
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Apr 10, 2014 14:32
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Gripen5 posted:
Playing at home for me it does, but I think that may be due to the electrical wiring in my apartment. Single coil noise issues are 99% related to electrical wiring and its quality.
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Apr 10, 2014 14:47
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I got a rondo lp copy for christmas that I've been practicing on fairly regularly. The other day I finally had a string break on it, I thought to myself "neat! I'll get to learn to change the strings on my guitar!". After reading half a dozen sites, and watching several different youtube videos I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing with it. I tried changing the strings on it, didn't put enough slack on the high E and had it snap right in front of me. I repeated this with next string until finally figuring out what I did wrong. I managed to get the rest of the strings on there but the winding looks absolutely awful. I bought a new set yesterday, thinking after all I learned from the first time I could surely figure it out, I struggled and eventually got them all on there but, still can't make my winding look nearly as neat as all the videos and tutorials I'd seen online. Then it came down to tuning/stretching it in and I couldn't for the life of me get the G string in tune. Looking closely I realized that I had mixed up the strings and stuck the wrong string in! Initially I didn't want to bother taking it to a store just to have the strings changed becuase I figured I'd be losing time I'd rather spending practicing and viewed it as a skill that I would need to know if I was going to invest any sort of time into playing but, it seems like I still haven't quite got the hang of it and would prefer to not burn another 10$ screwing up stringing my guitar. I ended up emailing one of the guitarists in my churches band and he said he be more than happy to help me change them if I brought it up Sunday after the worship set (I run the presentation software for them). Kind of a let down that I wasnt able to do it myself and ended up wasting more time doing it this way than taking it to the shop and having them change it would have been. Though at least now I will be able to get it changed and resume working on my F chord.
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Apr 10, 2014 14:56
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Eh, it's a learning experience and we all make mistakes... sometimes after years of playing! You can probably take off that misplaced string and put it where it's meant to be, worth a try and you'll get a bit more experience too. At worst you'll just have to replace the strings anyway D'addario strings come with colour-coded ends (not sure which other brands do it) which might help until you get used to the feel of them
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Apr 10, 2014 15:33
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Yeah it's something you'll never learn unless you do it yourself. Though I have no idea how or why the closed tuners became the norm. The ones with the open top and a slit and are so simple and tidy.
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Apr 10, 2014 15:40
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Neutral Zone Trap posted:Yeah it's something you'll never learn unless you do it yourself. Blah I hate the shift from open tops to the side hole. I've never enjoyed string through the sides, or the way the string pokes out regardless of what you do. It's so easy to slide it in the top, lock it around the side, and tune it up looking nice and neat. Open tops and locking tuners are all I like using.
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Apr 10, 2014 15:45
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Open top tuners are good and really easy as long as you have a string cutter (which is probably why they fell out of fashion) Anyways, I want to refinish my battered Epiphone Dot because red is like, so cliche. The last time I did this I ended up partially stripping the finish and staining it which I really liked the look of, but this time I'm opting for a solid color (I don't know what color yet). Can I use the finish on the guitar as a primer after I sand it down or should I put a coat of white on it first? Or should I just strip the whole thing (I don't care about ~tone paintz~ or ~wood breathing~ so I'm not concerned about how much paint is on my guitar).
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Apr 10, 2014 17:18
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Kilometers Davis posted:Blah I hate the shift from open tops to the side hole. I've never enjoyed string through the sides, or the way the string pokes out regardless of what you do. It's so easy to slide it in the top, lock it around the side, and tune it up looking nice and neat. Open tops and locking tuners are all I like using. Poke string tighten screw tune. The open top tuners confuse me. Give a fella a holler sometime btw.
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Apr 10, 2014 17:33
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I've never used open top tuners, but the ones with the hole seem pretty easy to work with. Put the string through. Pull back two finger worth. Crease the string on both sides of the tuner. Even before winding, you can pull on the string and its clearly not going anywhere.
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Apr 10, 2014 18:22
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Declan MacManus posted:Anyways, I want to refinish my battered Epiphone Dot because red is like, so cliche. The last time I did this I ended up partially stripping the finish and staining it which I really liked the look of, but this time I'm opting for a solid color (I don't know what color yet). Can I use the finish on the guitar as a primer after I sand it down or should I put a coat of white on it first? Or should I just strip the whole thing (I don't care about ~tone paintz~ or ~wood breathing~ so I'm not concerned about how much paint is on my guitar). Nah you don't need to take the finish off- it acts as a sealer which makes it easier to build up a flat finish later. Just sand it down with 220 and 320 then put on a couple coats of primer, which will make sure the old color doesn't show through the new paint.
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Apr 10, 2014 18:24
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