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Hellblazer187
Oct 12, 2003

I've been trying to learn blues fingerstyle with Stefan Grossman's Complete Country Blues Guitar book and I just use the flesh of my fingertips instead of my nails. I hate having fingernails.

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Huxley
Oct 10, 2012



Grimey Drawer
I don't know where I hit on this particular site for chord noodling stuff, but I like it a lot. Here's DADGAD

http://www.chorderator.com//cgi-bin/designer.py?frets=0+0+0+0+0+0&tuning=dadgad

You can set any string to any note, and add and remove strings however. Like, here's a 13-string fully chromatic ... instrument? Some kind of mega Lute?

http://www.chorderator.com//cgi-bin/designer.py?frets=0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0&tuning=ABbBCC%23DEEbFGbGAbA

As for nails, I say if playing with nails and worrying about nails sucks and gets in your way, gently caress 'em. Cut them short, play flesh only and just get busy playing. You objectively give up some dynamic control, but the plus side is your nail routine is "cut them as short as you want whenever you feel like." Free yourself from it if it does not serve you. I'm a perfectly reasonable fingerstyle blues and classical player and cut my nails as short as I can manage once a week. It's fine. Everything's FINE.

a.p. dent
Oct 24, 2005
playing guitar with nails is a huge commitment, you need to file often and buff at least once a day, sometimes every time you play. i don’t recommend it unless you want to seriously study classical

for finger style playing in general, the 120 Right Hand Studies by Guiliani is pretty much the gold standard

Clayton Bigsby
Apr 17, 2005

Worth nothing that Tommy Emmanuel doesn’t grow his nails and I would say he has a pretty strong bright sound. Saw him play last week and drat it was some amazing poo poo.

a.p. dent
Oct 24, 2005
any Jackson Browne fans in the house? incredible songwriter imo. beautiful melodies that are deceptively complex / difficult to sing (trying to sing Late for the Sky at the moment). you'd probably know him from Runnin On Empty (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNmIbSre7Tw) and These Days from the Velvet Underground & Nico.

Verman
Jul 4, 2005
Third time is a charm right?
Love Jackson Browne. Always have. I'm a big warren zevon fan and they had a lot of overlap. Despite their lyrics being pretty different, their music is pretty similar. My step dad had several of their records growing up and I was always going through his crate playing everything. The excitable boy album was probably my favorite and still to this day.

Jackson Browne is like, the definition of how to write pop songs in the classic rock era. He has a great voice, always surrounded himself with great musicians. Good songs can be played with cowboy chords or you can deep dive and really get into the guitar parts. The vocal harmonies are great.

Waddy watchel was a link between the two. He played on a lot of zevon songs and I think he produced or sessioned on some Browne songs. He's great. A video interview he does on his gear is hilariously ... Honest. He has a few Les Paul's. He's not Uber gear tech savvy, and he just cranks his amps. His touch and feel for song parts is excellent.

JamesKPolk
Apr 9, 2009

I'm looking to improve my chord repertoire to 4 voiced things. I'm mostly playing jazz (swing, blues, sorta fusion? bop would be cool but its not where I am rn), 50-50 with a pick vs fingers.

Are there any good systems for like jazzy movable shapes? When I asked before I got recommended Freddie Green chords and that was perfect. Is there a typical/obvious next step? My goal is to be able to pick up an unfamiliar lead sheet and not gently caress it up (to a metronome).

Separately (or maybe not), is there a good reason not to tune my guitar to 4ths (EADGC...F?) if I think I'd like it? I think the way I learned the instrument predisposes me to gently caress up most on the b string and getting rid of that would be nice. Playing open chords makes sense but if I'm not doing that... am I getting much out of it? This is an aspect of the instrument I admittedly don't totally understand beyond like drop tuning

NonzeroCircle
Apr 12, 2010

El Camino
The more I think about standard tuning intervals, the cleverer I think they are as, off the top of my head, every string except A has a counterpart string rooted in it's relative major or minor, and if you're a fancypants with a seven string you also have 2 strings that are 2 octaves above the bottom 2.

This gives so much scope for playing stuff spanning many octaves, or adding harmonies/melodies.

All 4ths isnt going to make soloing any "easier", very few, if any tunings will because as soon as you decide you want to learn something not in your tuning you will likely have to do a bunch of transposition mental gymnastics.
Although the G-B shift is a bit weird at first, i actually find it makes learning the various modes quite straightforward.
Any major scale is the same pattern for each string pair and this is really powerful once you get to grips with it

Huxley
Oct 10, 2012



Grimey Drawer

JamesKPolk posted:

I'm looking to improve my chord repertoire to 4 voiced things. I'm mostly playing jazz (swing, blues, sorta fusion? bop would be cool but its not where I am rn), 50-50 with a pick vs fingers.

Here are shells, drop 2s, 6s and dims, all in F.



Those are all from Jens. The next set to learn would be the drop 4s on the middle and top 4. All that would probably do everything you could want on a guitar.

https://jenslarsen.nl/WP/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Drop24-voicings-Part-1.pdf

Huxley fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Oct 31, 2022

a.p. dent
Oct 24, 2005

Verman posted:

Love Jackson Browne. Always have. I'm a big warren zevon fan and they had a lot of overlap. Despite their lyrics being pretty different, their music is pretty similar. My step dad had several of their records growing up and I was always going through his crate playing everything. The excitable boy album was probably my favorite and still to this day.

Jackson Browne is like, the definition of how to write pop songs in the classic rock era. He has a great voice, always surrounded himself with great musicians. Good songs can be played with cowboy chords or you can deep dive and really get into the guitar parts. The vocal harmonies are great.

Waddy watchel was a link between the two. He played on a lot of zevon songs and I think he produced or sessioned on some Browne songs. He's great. A video interview he does on his gear is hilariously ... Honest. He has a few Les Paul's. He's not Uber gear tech savvy, and he just cranks his amps. His touch and feel for song parts is excellent.

right on! he always had great guitarists playing with him. i love when people use the guitar for tasteful little fills at the end of phrases, working with the drummer - a classic rock staple that i really enjoy

Verman
Jul 4, 2005
Third time is a charm right?

a.p. dent posted:

right on! he always had great guitarists playing with him. i love when people use the guitar for tasteful little fills at the end of phrases, working with the drummer - a classic rock staple that i really enjoy

He's one of those acts I want to see soon before he gets too old and stops touring. Nice thing is he usually plays the wineries and outdoor summer venues around here and there not too expensive.

ethanol
Jul 13, 2007



Time to share my guitars

2021 Am Pro II
2009 Sg Standard
2022 D-28

I'm so boring, i need to get a non boomer color for once

I'm kinda perplexed why I went with that color strat.

Still need a telecaster, and I want a mahogany orchestra model acoustic too.

JamesKPolk
Apr 9, 2009

NonzeroCircle posted:

The more I think about standard tuning intervals, the cleverer I think they are as, off the top of my head, every string except A has a counterpart string rooted in it's relative major or minor, and if you're a fancypants with a seven string you also have 2 strings that are 2 octaves above the bottom 2.

This gives so much scope for playing stuff spanning many octaves, or adding harmonies/melodies.

All 4ths isnt going to make soloing any "easier", very few, if any tunings will because as soon as you decide you want to learn something not in your tuning you will likely have to do a bunch of transposition mental gymnastics.
Although the G-B shift is a bit weird at first, i actually find it makes learning the various modes quite straightforward.
Any major scale is the same pattern for each string pair and this is really powerful once you get to grips with it

I want to understand this - please don't take this as me being like "this doesn't make sense/is wrong" so much as saying what my current understanding is that is stopping me from getting this.

What do you mean rooted in the relative major/minor? Like that there are major/minor thirds or sevenths between the strings? (e.g. ... E and G lol)? What is that getting me that 4ths (where you still have most of them and also get A/C) wouldn't? I feel like you get more range too, like the high note is higher.

What do you mean about learning modes? That like it would be trickier not starting and ending on the same fret on the 1st and 6th strings? (I think I sorta get this... and yeah this is I guess what I'm trying to figure out)

What do you mean about string pairs? Totally over my head but seems like it would be good to know about lol

Huxley posted:

Here are shells, drop 2s, 6s and dims, all in F.



Those are all from Jens. The next set to learn would be the drop 4s on the middle and top 4. All that would probably do everything you could want on a guitar.

https://jenslarsen.nl/WP/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Drop24-voicings-Part-1.pdf

Thanks, that looks great! Jens' videos are what got me thinking this would be good to learn in the first place

Verman
Jul 4, 2005
Third time is a charm right?
The acoustic is timeless, the sg is the best color option and full pick guard :chefkiss: I'm not big on sunburst strats but I'm sure it sounds and plays well, and that's a pretty good lineup of guitars.

Nobody ever got mad at a blonde tele, it's classic. My idea for another color is something crazy like orange or green glitter.

a.p. dent
Oct 24, 2005

Verman posted:

He's one of those acts I want to see soon before he gets too old and stops touring. Nice thing is he usually plays the wineries and outdoor summer venues around here and there not too expensive.

same, i've never seen him play but my dad & brother both have. i watched this today (from 2021) and he still sounds great. i love the low gravely voice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hWhnsl04RA

NonzeroCircle
Apr 12, 2010

El Camino
JamesK, it's stuff that's hard to convey in text so don't worry about it, no offence taken. This is also my interpretation of the instrument so it may be wrong or I may look at it from a weird angle.

(phone ate the post I spent ages writing so i have condensed a bit, probably no bad thing! The tab later on may appear fucky though so sorry bout that)

Seven strings;
Tuned low to high BEADGbe.
This means that the top two strings are the same as the bottom two, but sound two octaves higher.

Relative strings:
E minor is relative to G major (and there's two e strings wooo)
D Major is relative to B Minor.

I make use of this via the horizontal scales on each string. For example, if I'm playing a riff on the low E string in Em, I know that adding any twiddles or melodies on the G will fit as long as I stick to the major scale on it as its the same notes in both E minor and G major.

Having the highest three strings being tuned to an inversion of E minor makes them really easy to incorporate as open strings in arpeggiated parts, even if the only thing you are really doing is a moveable shape on the A and D strings (see the clean part in Welcome Home (Sanitarium) by Metallica. Or any clean Metallica part really). Also means easy access to major and minor chords in cool inversions without contortionism.

Parallel shapes:
Major scale (we'll go with G), hopefully the tab clarifies what I meant by parallel shapes on string pairs.

e-----------------------------------------------5-7-8-
b--------------------------------------5-7-8----------
G----------------------------4-5-7--------------------
D------------------4-5-7------------------------------
A---------3-5-7---------------------------------------
E-3-5-7------------------------------------------------

That's really about as straightforward a 3 note per string pattern as you're gonna get and is really fun as a speed/technique builder. Alt pick, down pick, economy pick+ legato, playing alternating notes or sequences up and down the scale, so much to do.

I may well be talking absolute poo poo, but hopefully this makes some sense :)

NonzeroCircle fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Oct 31, 2022

JamesKPolk
Apr 9, 2009

NonzeroCircle posted:


I may well be talking absolute poo poo, but hopefully this makes some sense :)

Thank you! Parallel shapes diagram is helping a lot

Good Soldier Svejk
Jul 5, 2010

ethanol posted:

Time to share my guitars

2021 Am Pro II
2009 Sg Standard
2022 D-28

I'm so boring, i need to get a non boomer color for once

I'm kinda perplexed why I went with that color strat.

Still need a telecaster, and I want a mahogany orchestra model acoustic too.

Classics are classic for a reason and I am sure there is not a musician worth their weight out there that couldn't get all the sounds they wanted out of one of those three guitars.

Tele should be maple fret board though.

And actually forget that it should be a G&L fallout.
Everyone needs to try one of those bridges my hands have never known the kind of comfort the one on my bass has.

landgrabber
Sep 13, 2015

don’t need it at all and have many other priorities but drat i would like a fallout. the bridge humbuckers they have are insaaaane

The Leck
Feb 27, 2001

a.p. dent posted:

any Jackson Browne fans in the house? incredible songwriter imo. beautiful melodies that are deceptively complex / difficult to sing (trying to sing Late for the Sky at the moment). you'd probably know him from Runnin On Empty (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNmIbSre7Tw) and These Days from the Velvet Underground & Nico.
Never really dug into him much beyond the Running on Empty album, but I do like that one a lot. I think he was also one of the original Dumble guys and provided amps for Texas Flood, which is a weird connection I wouldn't have expected.

I found this lesson on one of the lap steel solos from that song, and it's on my list to learn - just sounds so great all the way through.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXpwF0h6ZMs

Kazinsal
Dec 13, 2011


I pulled my old Fender acoustic (steel string) out of the closet and hooo boy these strings are grody and cannot handle a low tune for poo poo. I can't remember the last time I restrung it.

Still sounds great for the whole ten seconds it's in tune though.

ethanol
Jul 13, 2007



Good Soldier Svejk posted:

Classics are classic for a reason and I am sure there is not a musician worth their weight out there that couldn't get all the sounds they wanted out of one of those three guitars.

That's exactly why my collection is as it is.. to cover as much ground as possible (at least for my style). The SG was my stage guitar back in school, I sold my first stratocaster (maple neck) to get it. I thought it would be more versatile for jazz school stuff while also playing blues rock / pop on my own. I wanted a Les Paul standard but they were/are obscenely expensive (and heavy!) and I felt the sg was close enough to that... it seemed better quality all around than a les paul studio. Was a bit worried to buy from gibson in 2009 as there were a lot of QC rumors. No problems with it however in 13 years. I've only adjusted the relief recently and it was only barely out. It has a magical quality of sound that I'll never be able to part with.

Eventually I got a very ugly white with pearl pickguard MiM stratocaster to get strat sound again, but I gave that away. The American Pro II feel/soundwise is pretty much what I want from a strat. I liked how it looked in the store at the time but I wish I chose something more colorful, I think I might like it better with a mint green pickguard though. We'll see what happens in the long term.. I might want to go back to maple neck anyways. But I'm not gonna do anything about it soon except change the pickguard.

The D-28 is like a precious heirloom I feel like I have to treat with white gloves. Sounds great (I think it's still opening up though), and plays fantastically now that I've had it properly setup.

I might have to try a fallout though because at that price it seems like a why not

widefault
Mar 16, 2009
Feeling proud of myself. Sold 6 guitars in the last month and only bought two, and I'm $50 ahead.

The goal is to get this hoard down to a more manageable, focused, collection, by dumping a bunch of crap ones to pay for one nice one. So it's time to look over the spreadsheet again.

Red_Fred
Oct 21, 2010


Fallen Rib

widefault posted:

Feeling proud of myself. Sold 6 guitars in the last month and only bought two, and I'm $50 ahead.

The goal is to get this hoard down to a more manageable, focused, collection, by dumping a bunch of crap ones to pay for one nice one. So it's time to look over the spreadsheet again.

Can we please get a photo of the collection Yngwie?

a.p. dent
Oct 24, 2005
i've heard of putting the metronome on 2&4 and have found that valuable, but this is next level

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X1fhVLVF_4

Plank Walker
Aug 11, 2005
Finally been working on spider exercises while keeping all fingers fretted. Previously I would give up on trying to keep my fingers on the lower string while moving up because my brain and hands just couldn't handle it at all. Descending was ok, and I could pull the index and middle fingers to the higher string, but I'd get tied up trying to move my ring finger to the next string while leaving my pinky down:
code:
E|--------------------------------------------------------------5--6--7--8--
B|--------------------------------------------------5--6--7--8--------------
G|--------------------------------------5--6--7--8--------------------------
D|--------------------------5--6--7--8--------------------------------------
A|--------------5--6--7--8--------------------------------------------------
E|--5--6--7--8--------------------------------------------------------------
But after about a week of trying every day, I can actually make that move, and now I've "invented" a new variation to really hammer that ring/pinky independence:
code:
E|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
G|--------------------------------------------------------------------------7--8--------------------
D|--------------------------------------7--8--------------------5--6--7--8--------7--8--------7--8-- ... and so on
A|--------------7--8--------5--6--7--8--------7--8--------7--8--------------------------7--8--------
E|--5--6--7--8--------7--8--------------------------7--8--------------------------------------------
Anyway just posting because I literally thought for years that my brain and hands were just not capable of this kind of finger independence and the fact that I can do it at all, and with only about a week of really focusing on it is mindblowing to me. It still is super uncomfortable and slow, but it's progress!

The Leck
Feb 27, 2001

widefault posted:

Feeling proud of myself. Sold 6 guitars in the last month and only bought two, and I'm $50 ahead.

The goal is to get this hoard down to a more manageable, focused, collection, by dumping a bunch of crap ones to pay for one nice one. So it's time to look over the spreadsheet again.
For anyone here, how do you know when it's time to get rid of/replace one or more? I'm trying not to just endlessly cycle through buying and selling new gear, but there's always a feeling that the grass would be greener if I switched something out.

Gramps
Dec 30, 2006


The Leck posted:

For anyone here, how do you know when it's time to get rid of/replace one or more? I'm trying not to just endlessly cycle through buying and selling new gear, but there's always a feeling that the grass would be greener if I switched something out.

If I have an axe that sits for awhile, before I decide to sell it I like to let a friend borrow it for a bit. If I don't miss it, I either give/sell it to them, or I sell it once I get it back.

Verman
Jul 4, 2005
Third time is a charm right?
I only try to buy guitars that I want to play or keep for some reason.

The only time I get rid of a guitar is if it doesn't sound or play as well as I would like. I currently own, 5? And I certainly don't play then all, all the time. Some sit longer than others but I like playing each one for certain things.

I think I've said this before, I buy guitars that fill a tonal hole in my lineup for certain styles of music. I try not to have too much overlap but I can see owning multiple telecasters for some reason. Sometimes it's a model I've always wanted and can finally afford, or it's a great deal, or I'm bored and need something to get me back into playing.

I bought a telecaster deluxe thin line and was not happy with it. It just sounded, blah. Looked and played great though. Those wide range humbuckers are just bland.

Good Soldier Svejk
Jul 5, 2010

Gramps posted:

If I have an axe that sits for awhile, before I decide to sell it I like to let a friend borrow it for a bit. If I don't miss it, I either give/sell it to them, or I sell it once I get it back.

basically this (unless it's sentimental like my first rondo electric which I can't part with) if something goes unplayed to the point where the next time I pick it up, it's all corroded and out of tune, I know it should be somewhere else

and it's partially out of love for the instruments, I hate the idea of something beautiful going unused because I just don't have enough hands

Pondex
Jul 8, 2014

Just got back from a Jazz-guitar evening class. Finding new and unknown ways I stink at guitar.

widefault
Mar 16, 2009
My process is basically...

Have I been playing it recently?

Is it part of The Collection or does it have sentimental value?

Does it seem like it might appreciate in value?

Am I going to lose money on it?

If I were to buy another one in the future, am I going to have a hard time due to value or rarity?

Yes on any and it goes back on the rack.

The Collection is where things will change quickly as I discover other things I like or get bored. Some of those will remain for reasons above, which is how you end up with a shitload of guitars.

Huxley
Oct 10, 2012



Grimey Drawer
I have a Fender Mustang bass I came to really dislike, but I paid a good price for it and it has a rosewood board. And I can't bring myself to part with it yet because I suspect we are just a few years out from near-mint MiMs with rosewood starting to see a serious climb.

landgrabber
Sep 13, 2015

this is the sort of thing that google really sucks for:

what’s the best jazz guitar method book?

Huxley
Oct 10, 2012



Grimey Drawer
I've liked the Mel Bay book:

https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Complete-Jazz-Guitar-Method/dp/0786632631

The top comment compares it against this one, which may sound better to you:

https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Guitar-Complete-Book-CD/dp/0739066374

Those seem like big conventional methods. I know the Joe Pass books are supposed to be amazing, but I don't think they're really like, "Here's a page of chord forms and progressions, now go play them!" so much as like, a midway point between that and the Ted Greene books (which are like opening Einstein's notebooks and being able to understand about every other word).

a.p. dent
Oct 24, 2005
Leavitt Modern Method for Guitar, while not being specifically a "jazz method", will teach you everything you need to know about jazz chord forms and improvisation, especially in volume 2 when "Real Melodic Minor (Jazz Minor)" starts.

burdt
Feb 28, 2009

i wanna make it (wit chu)
https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/msg/d/montebello-left-handed-epiphone-sg-or/7553049254.html

Blew my fun money for this month but living vicariously though you guys. There was a bunch of chatter about SGs and left-handed guitars a while back. I don't think the topics intersected, but for any lefty goons in the LA area jonesing for a cheapie SG, here's your chance.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Clayton Bigsby
Apr 17, 2005

I keep thinking I have too many guitars but then I look at them and can't figure out what to get rid of.

Taylor 110ce: played a buttload of Taylors in all price ranges and just loved the feel and sound of this particular one. No need for anything fancier and I still love it.

PRS Custom 22: traded my way to this one and it just fits like a glove. It's the one I usually pull off the stand for exercises or just playing for fun.

Epiphone LP 1959: really nice Les Paul that didn't break the bank. Does everything an LP should and sounds amazing.

Parts strat (Fender body and neck, Wilkinson pickups): The Stratocaster of Theseus at this point since I've swapped everything including the body and neck... but now it's "right".

"Yngwie" strat: 2006 MIM Fender that a luthier scalloped (very nicely), painted aged Olympic White and put Lace Gold pickups in. Just a fantastic guitar.

Custom shop Subsonic strat: got it for around $1100 in an amazing deal and had a local luthier set it up. Awesome baritone that I can never let go.

Dean VMNT Mustaine: Gotta have some kind of V and this one rocks.


I do have a partscaster tele that I like but not love. Thinking about swapping the neck on it since that's the part that doesn't seem quite right so chances are it'll turn into something I really like at that point.

Like everyone else I'd like a new guitar or two though but I'm out of space and TBH I can't really figure out what I could possibly need that isn't covered by the current setup and I also don't want to get rid of anything.

Maybe I'll buy some more pedals.

Red_Fred
Oct 21, 2010


Fallen Rib
Looks like another new major Helix version just dropped. Pretty cool they are still actively supporting this thing. I was a little concerned about buying a 5 year old device for that reason but sounds like I didn’t need to worry!

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Clayton Bigsby
Apr 17, 2005

Speaking of new things, you guys see the Revv pedal that Youtuber Glenn Fricker helped develop? Sounds pretty drat awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ynXc3ROKGc

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