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I've never played the guitar before. I recently sort of remembered that my ex had given me this Ensenada FG-43 and I had it re-strung (though I've learned to do it myself since) and started strumming around. It was really a bitch to play and learn with because it was so old and lovely, so I sunk a little money last night into a new Martin DXK2AE. I was fooling around with a bunch of different steel string guitars and I just ended up loving that one. I am reading up on all of this music theory while my first thumb blister goes away from my old lovely guitar, but I can't wait to jump into things with what I am learning!
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Sep 2, 2010 01:32
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I've been really looking at Rock Band 3 but I don't want my first electric to be some poo poo electric just to play a videogame. I wish there was some way to adapt a guitar to the game but I know that there's sensors built into the board 
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Oct 18, 2010 21:36
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I am currently shopping around for an electric and I have come across the following two items at guitar center: Fender 72 Telecaster Thinline Electric Guitar - $800 Fender Super Champ XD Guitar Combo Amp - $300 From what I've played in my price range (pretty much $1,100) so far, I like the combo. Apparently the Tele parts are made in the US but assembled in Mexico. Can anyone (without being a dick) recommend anything else I may want to look at in the same price range for either a guitar or amp? If you had to ask what I was looking to eventually play, I'd probably say chicago style 50's blues but I guess you never know. I heard one of the employees complaining about Domino's and I figured I found someone who might help me get a better price. He told me basically that I could use a 10% off coupon with one of the items, but if I purchased both in two weeks at full retail and then came in with them on Black Friday I'd be looking at 20% off on it all in the long run from the 30 day price guarantee. Anyone know if this sounds legit?
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Oct 20, 2010 06:36
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Thanks for the good advice there. My only hang up with the used market (besides the usuals) is the whole deal with the coupon, as it may allow me to buy a new guitar for what a used might run, so hopefully someone here may know something about it. I am definitely looking for more suggestions, and will be scouring my local Best Buy music store for other used guitars in the interim. Edit: Well, that sealed the deal! I went into Best Buy during lunch just to fool around while I waited and I saw the exact same guitar, on clearance for $650, and had them take an additional 10% off since I was buying an amp. Which amp? http://www.guitarcenter.com/Fender-Hot-Rod-Series-Blues-Junior-III-15W-1x12-Tube-Guitar-Combo-Amp-H12886-i1552007.gc That is about as good as an amp I can afford is going to get, I figured. I really loved the tones. Incredulous Dylan fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Oct 20, 2010 |
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Oct 20, 2010 15:52
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Those are some beautiful looking guitars IMO. Man that 72' Strat would be a hell of a pairing with my 72' Thinline Tele   
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Apr 13, 2011 19:41
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Isn't there a difference in the quality control and parts used? Whenever I shopped around my guitar playing friends would all agree that an american made fender was vastly superior to whatever squire knockoff version.
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Apr 13, 2011 20:40
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Incredulous Dylan from last year posted:I've never played the guitar before. I recently sort of remembered that my ex had given me this Ensenada FG-43 and I had it re-strung (though I've learned to do it myself since) and started strumming around. It was really a bitch to play and learn with because it was so old and lovely, so I sunk a little money last night into a new Martin DXK2AE. I was fooling around with a bunch of different steel string guitars and I just ended up loving that one. Woah - update on my progress from page two of an excellent thread! I now play twice a week with a mixture of very skilled and beginner musicians who are also my close friends. We all meet at my buddy's house, and his father has been in a million bands and has tons of equipment (awesome living room setup) and he jams on keyboards while we all play old songs, and he teaches us as we play. In the beginning I only really "practiced" while jamming, but now I practice all the time and have learned all the usual music theory for my level. The "band" even gifted me with a nice keyboard for Christmas, which I use to compose after I've thought about it for a while. I now own two guitars, the Martin above and a Fender 72' Telecaster Thinline. I bought a Fender Blue Jr. III amp with the Tele, and the combo I found to just be amazing. I sort of ignored the Martin for a few months while I played the Tele, but recently I have come to have a real appreciation and love for my acoustic, especially after playing so many others at the jams. There's really a universal love among all the musicians there for that Martin, and I can't recommend it enough for a beginning guitar player who wants a quality acoustic that will likely hold a lot of its value and keep you wanting to play. My guitar playing has really satisfied the creative side of me and I don't think that from this point forward I could go without being able to compose and play on my guitar. I love the Tele and have babied it like nothing else, but I plan on selling it soon and grabbing either an american standard Tele or Strat - I'm going to play a lot of both and decide which. It's all pretty exciting! Actually, does anyone have any recommendations on the best way to sell my Tele? I'm guessing maybe Craigslist will have to do - I don't want to pay for auctions, etc.
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Apr 14, 2011 18:57
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So I did go out and get a Strat after all - Fender Billy Corgan. What a beautiful sounding guitar - no hum whatsoever and just incredibly clean and bright tones. The guys at Best Buy all begged me to take turns playing some solos on it before I left, since it was the last in stock and their favorite on the wall. Did I mention this was Best Buy? Their music store here really owns - all the employees are musicians who don't work on quotas or commissions, so they are really cool and laid back and just want to help you find the best sound you can. After this guy I know there spent almost an hour and a half asking me all sorts of questions while adjusting the heck out of my new guitar, the manager offered to buy my old one.
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Apr 15, 2011 03:17
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I purchased a Boss ME-70 multi effects processor the other day to go with that new strat, and I'm totally in love with it so far. It has a lot of those things you sort of go "man, that would be cool to have" (especially the 38 sec phrase loop). I'd say check out that demo video, but for me my reasoning was really that I'd rather have one of these from a well known name than a collection of different pedals that would end up costing more.
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May 2, 2011 20:04
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I was at a buddy's house and brought my Blues Jr. III over so I could jam with some guys for a bit. This dude pulled my cord out while the amp was on (I was turned away talking for a moment) so he could plug his piece of poo poo Burnswood strat in and I heard a massive pop. I had then switched over to drums for a bit and didn't get to try the amp until the next day. I turned it on and just plugged my Fender in without any sort of preamp and there was some sort of feedbacky, echoing high pitched sound I don't think I've ever heard before ringing out without me playing anything. I said feedback because it seemed to oscillate and would get louder then softer after a crescendo of sorts. This is at just 2.5 volume. It seemed to not be noticeable or otherwise went away after I played for a bit (it persisted a while through my playing) and the amp seemed to be "warmed up". Is my amp damaged? Btw this is the same guy that insists on using this Burnswood because it bowing horribly under his bed for years makes it "perfect for slide guitar" (i.e. ready for unbelievably dissonant, out of rythym playing at all times). Dude also gives me nasty looks with I decide to put some gain on my Billy Corgan strat because "real musicians don't need gain". Incredulous Dylan fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jun 8, 2011 |
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Jun 8, 2011 21:59
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meatcookie posted:Please kick him square in the genitals as hard as you possibly can. Dude only listens to Big Bill Broonzy and old blues or older musicians. Music officially died at 1979 apparently. Don't get me wrong, I love the blues and the older stuff. I ran an internet radio blues show for months introducing people to everyone from Robert Johnson to Lightnin' Hopkins to Otha Turner & the Rising Star Drum & Fife Band. I ran a Beatles bootleg show for months as well that had a nice little goon following, but I believe you should never set boundaries when it comes to music. The amp is now making a hissing sound constantly when on, even when volume is turned off entirely. Lackadaisical - Some quick things to check about your F: You are probably doing this naturally, but roll your barre finger a bit so that you are a bit more on the bonier edge as opposed to having all that finger padding. For some reason I am temporarily losing the ability to describe the human finger, but make sure you don't have any strings in the knuckle crevices of your barre finger. If you are playing F, you are probably having trouble with your G or B strings due to this. You'll have to shift around your finger a bit and figure out where you need to press a little harder, etc. Pretty basic, but make sure you are as close to the frets as possible on your strings. When you are first learning to barre it is easy to sort of lose track of where your other fingers are and how hard they are pressing. Most importantly, don't get frustrated. A lot of it is simply the fact that your muscle needs to develop. Three days is not enough time for this to physically happen. It is an extremely useful technique that is just one of those things you need to be able to do to open up your guitar potential. Plus, once you start moving some voicings around you'll have tons of fun! Incredulous Dylan fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Jun 9, 2011 |
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Jun 9, 2011 16:45
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Calvin, from reading your earlier posts about tube amps, I believe I'll probably have to replace one of these tubes. How should I go about safely isolating the tube in question and replacing it? Is this something a store should be handling? Like you said, they are all groove tubes.
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Jun 9, 2011 17:31
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Excellent, thanks for the advice. I'm sure that it is just an issue with a preamp tube, but a second opinion is always nice!
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Jun 9, 2011 17:59
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Just recently got some spare preamp tubes and am in the process of switching them around - hopefully this'll clear my amp issue up. At the same time, now my Strat is acting up. The output jack is loose (a common problem) - but instead of my guitar just cutting out, there is a horrific feedback explosion when it moves that makes me dive to turn the amp volume off. I am going to try just tightening some things tonight to see if there's improvement.
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Jun 15, 2011 21:24
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I just opened it up and that's exactly it - loose wire. Let that damned jack get loose too long and it must have rotated it right out.
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Jun 16, 2011 00:16
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DaJe posted:Alright, so I haven't been playing for too long. I first really got into it sometime last year, when I got the mom of my at the time boyfriend to ship out his guitar he had laying around there house out to here. And then when I broke up with him, he took it with him, so I was without it for over half a year, until I managed to convince him to give it back to me last month. It's a really cheap Fender, pretty much the lowest end guitar they make, just a beginners guitar. This is at the top of your price range, but I'd go ahead and recommend what ended up being my first bought acoustic electric - the Martin DXk2AE. You should be able to find it cheaper than this if you hunt a bit, but basically the higher cost is absolutely worth it. IMO this has the quality and sound of more expensive acoustic, and in fact my friend after borrowing it for a few days is getting rid of his Ovation AE for one. I link to this on Guitar Center just because it is convenient, but if your Best Buy has a music store they should have one of these as well to play. Even though it is Best Buy (lol), their music store employees do not work on commission, and at least at my local one the manager there only hires musicians who know what they are talking about and aren't dicks. Plus, I've worked out deals on my last two guitar purchases there for a few hundred (!) off each. If you do play it, just be sure not to use DADGAD at first because you'll instantly buy it without looking around which is never smart 
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Oct 20, 2011 15:25
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I feel like I have basic rhythm and ideas about progressions down. Right now I can still basically only strum - which is fine since I play with some friends now and they handle the tough stuff  . I wanted to mess around and try recording some stuff for myself to be able to hear what mistakes I am making, etc. I hooked up my little effects processor to my soundcard and the recordings were really...flat and muffled I guess? I'm assuming I need some piece of equipment I can plug my cable into from out of my processor that would then plug into the soundcard so things don't sound so awful. Anyone have any recommendations? Here's a quick thing I did for some GBS thread about mermaids over someone's fish lyrics (ignore the joke singing ). The guitar just sounds really crappy IMO: Thanks for the advice - I don't know jack about any of this stuff
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Nov 18, 2011 18:57
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That's not a real answer
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Nov 19, 2011 00:12
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My soundcard is a ASUS Xonar Essence STX. Basically I'm running my line out of my guitar, into my multi effects processor and then out of the L Amp Out (mono) on the processor into my souncard's line in. Oh boy, I just saw that the headphone port also says "Rec Out" so I may have just been using a totally wrong port! It would suck to not be able to hear what I sound like while I'm playing but I think that's what I need to do. The unfortunate thing with the Xonar is while I think its great for playing music theres a small delay if you are monitoring the line in and it really fucks with you if you are playing and listening
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Nov 19, 2011 01:16
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Thanks for all of the excellent information, guys! Pretty much covers everything I need to know to get started
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Nov 19, 2011 08:33
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:Might as well ask a question since it has been bugging me. I'm really wanting to get into the blues. I'm comfortable with the basics, 12 bar (and standard variations) in all 12 keys, a few basic licks to spice things up and I can put together an average at best solo over someone else putting down a the rhythm. But I really want to get into it and I'm a bit stuck, never really got exposed to it when growing up and non of my friends are into it. So where to go from here? I ran an all-blues internet radio show for a while where I would set up a flow throughout the different blues eras and get drunk and talk over the music horribly but also talk about the artists : ). I actually have them archived in a new thread for the goon DJ station Ghettoradio so feel free to check it out. Blues episodes are prefaces with "TCS" or some variation of (for The Chicken Shack). Be forewarned - I was even worse of a DJ back then but I will say I played it all. If you have a question about what a particular song is let me know and I'll try and consult my playlist from that night. I often switched things around on the fly but there's a good chance I'd remember who did it. For acoustic blues some names off the top of my head in NO order - Mississippi John Hurt - Not only a very unique blues sound but also a humble, excellent human being. I often included him in the "wind down" tempo portions of my show because he has something of a whispering singing style and a very gentle and melodic way of playing. Spent the majority of his life working on farms and playing for parties. Released a few unsuccessful recordings back in the 20s before being re-discovered 40 years later. I think his Coffee Blues is another great showcasing of his style! Son House - You likely already know of him but I figured I would link to a video of him playing so you could see how he handles the guitar. Hard to find a more expressive and raw emotional interpretation of the early blues John Cephas and Phil Wiggins - A duo every bit as good as Sonny & Terry IMO. While they joined up together after the "golden era" of the blues revival they are both excellent blues players who really just sound better together (the same could have been said for Willie Big Eyes & Pinetop Perkins - not acoustic players though). Not much free time left at work. Other greats include Reverend Gary Davis, Lonnie Johnson (not an acoustic video but shows him playing) and Lightnin' Hopkins. One last artists who is not really a "blues" man (more folk with occasional blues) but combined all styles and in my opinion should be looked up to by any aspiring acoustic player - Davy Graham. Flavors of east and west, old and new in all of his compositions. One man on guitar who manages to sound like two (at minimum!) and helped in the revival of the folk movement during the 60s. If you've heard of DADGAD or Jimmy Page you likely already know of him but if you didn't there you go! Incredulous Dylan fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Nov 21, 2011 |
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Nov 21, 2011 19:41
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Tony Montana posted:I think I really want to play an instrument again. I'd just like to say that I've been progressing on my own (bad, I know ) in guitar for just about two years now. I started playing piano earlier this year in May and I felt that it 100% improved my understanding of not only guitar but music in general. I went from playing covers with the guys all the time to regularly coming up with new compositions on piano and guitar! In fact I keep my guitars right next to my digital piano as I practice so I can easily switch and play them off each other. It's awesome! I tend to take little breaks from one and focus on the other for a week or two and when I come back I always find I learn something new with a fresh perspective.
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Dec 15, 2011 16:15
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Did someone say moving bassline?
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Jan 5, 2012 19:19
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My little group took the time to rearrange our playing space so that everything ended up (somehow) on clean power and it really makes a difference!
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Jan 20, 2012 17:09
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When I eventually got my Billy Corgan strat I was really psyched and I haven't stopped enjoying just how awesome it is to have a quality instrument. If you have a good quality strat with a multi-effects processor (I use a Boss ME-70) you can get almost any sound you'd want. I play with friends weekly and we play a wide range of stuff so it's great to be able to bust out whatever is needed and have it sound great! I was using a nice classic series 72' Tele thinline before but all of the little things that are improved by making the jump just makes it so worth it.
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Mar 1, 2012 21:42
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Epi Lepi posted:I probably should have just let that recording go and not bothered to post it, listening to it again, it makes me sound way worse than I actually am. Maybe this weekend I'll get a new version up to redeem myself. (Sans bass since my friend who played on the track is about 300 miles away.) This may be blasphemy in the guitar thread ( ) but personally I believe nothing will further your ear training and general ability to compose more than taking up piano. While these days I prefer my piano to my guitar I still play both and you'll find that they improve your understanding of music that much more when you play both.
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Apr 12, 2012 19:01
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RE90 posted:Hate to barge in like this but I'm going to Guitar Center tomorrow with a $450 budget (think $400+), and have no clue how I will decide on an acoustic guitar (after my roommate's drunk friend ran off with my previous one). Echoing the "play it all man" sentiment. I just missed Martin dropping by my local Guitar Center and doing a big thing there . Please do not leave GC without putting your hands on a DXK2AE. It is right in your budget and is a hell of a great Martin for that amount of money. They also offer a non-electric variant (or used to). Also check if your local Best Buy has a music department - I believe many of those carry this guitar as well and the BB music departments are separate from the rest of the store and will actually haggle with you on price. I actually bought mine (off the wall) at my local BB two years ago and paid just a bit under $400 IIRC. I've bought every one of my guitars off the wall at a Best Buy (even ones running over a grand) and they have all been superb instruments - the fact is that nobody plays guitars at Best Buy.
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Oct 1, 2012 19:19
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Warcabbit posted:Is there any way to tell, by the way? I have yet to find one around me that does. Since I'm around a large city it could just be a targeted thing. You'd have to get someone on the phone (HAH) at the store and ask. However, I did just look up a locator for stores that offer music lessons, which I assume means they have a music department to take place in. Try this link and go to your state on the "Lessons Store Locator". Good luck!
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Oct 3, 2012 03:30
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I use a standard set of coated Elixirs on my Martin DXK2AE and while they definitely are too bright at first, when they get worn in the sound is just fantastic. Really, though, you just gotta use them strings and get them sounding old. I was actually wondering about what strings to try out next - looking for something to compliment that rich dreadnought sound. I want those strings to sound right at home in DADGAD or something.
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May 6, 2013 21:05
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I have that bridge on my Nashville tele and it ownnnsssss.
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May 17, 2013 14:40
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Torabi posted:Thanks for all of the tips. Good thing you guys are around to stop me from doing something stupid. I'll keep looking around. The Les Paul ones are the ones I'm leaning towards right now though but that is mostly because I've actually tried them. I'll just echo the sentiments here that you should buy what you love the sound of. Out of all my guitar purchases my absolute favorite (and the one that still gets a ton of compliments) is my Martin DXK2AE. Made of high-pressed laminate wood scraps with a fake koa wood texture. The sound is out of this world for the price of the guitar and I've kept it over some $1,500+ Fender strat purchases.
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Oct 4, 2013 18:45
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