GUITAR MEGATHREAD: Sorry for the nipple, I'm depressed.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No More Drake > Musician's Lounge > GUITAR MEGATHREAD: Sorry for the nipple, I'm depressed.

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ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Back in January I posted inhere about buying a new D28 from sweetwater.

Earlier this week I took that guitar in for a setup primarily to lower the action and the luthier pointed out an issue with the neck angle and suggested the area around the sound hole might have sunk from low humidity (i've already been keeping it at 45% in its case 24/7 with humidpaks and sponges though), and looking at the bridge said its too thick, beyond martin's spec. He tried to show me what he was talking about but I really couldn't see it at all.

So he said he wasn't keen on doing a neck reset on such a new guitar and did a few other things instead while instructing me to keep it humidified and keep an eye on the top for sinking:

So in the end he shaved off some saddle height, changed to .11 light strings (saying that would help with neck relief and suit my fingers better), and did some truss adjustments. I'm not sure if he messed with the nut or not. The action is about 2.0 mm at 12 fret now, so pretty dang low.

The guitar is very playable now, I'm not sure how I feel about the difference of the light strings to tone yet but it's very playable and still sounds great.

So googling neck relief and neck angle this week to try to understand what he was talking about, I took a straight edge and laid it on the neck towards the saddle and it doesn't clear the ebony bridge. like videos are suggesting the straight edge should rest just above the ebony at the base of the saddle, but mine is like 1/16" below the bridge. It's really close.

My thoughts are he was being a bit of a perfectionist about the neck angle by suggesting a neck reset. I mean the relief looks perfect to me. And that job is like $800 for this guitar. Edit: he also suggested fixing the saddle thickness at some point, i think he said in doing this in addition to the neck reset. (!!!, $$$$$)

Just wondering what y'all think. It reads to me like he's selling me work I don't need, but this dude seems to really know his stuff by talking with him and looking at his shop, and he has excellent reviews, and also was in the end resistant to do this work right away and wants to see if the guitar moves more in the future.

ethanol fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Sep 23, 2022

# ¿ Sep 23, 2022 14:43

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:40

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

He is a certified martin tech, one of like 2 in my state. So taking it elsewhere for a second opinion can be challenging although I am considering it.

His take on the warranty was that martin is very stingy and won't cover this stuff, but maybe it's worth asking them directly.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2022 15:00

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

I'm hesitant to swap the guitar like that... I already did one return with sweetwater because the first came with a cracked bridge... and I've grown attached to this one... plus it's been 9 months now since purchase

I'm thinking wait and see while keeping an eye on relief and action might be the best way to go. Perhaps I should also call the luthier again and ask him if he would attempt to swap the guitar with sweetwater for what he saw, if it was his. I didn't mention that as a possibility.

ethanol fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Sep 23, 2022

# ¿ Sep 23, 2022 15:12

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Huxley posted:

My Martin is an OM, not a dread, but I imagine spec is similar.

My low E string is exactly 11mm off the top coming off the saddle

i did the same measurement and got a touch over 12 mm off the saddle, like 12.2 mm.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2022 15:26

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

random question, how long does it take for a martin to stop smelling like fresh cut cedar lol.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2022 00:33

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Spanish Manlove posted:

if it lives in a case: years.

I love that smell though, it's amazing.

I worded that wrong, I hope it never fades. I just don�t remember the old �70s d-35 I used to play having any hint of cedar. That one was probably more out of a case than in though

# ¿ Oct 27, 2022 13:58

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Disco Pope posted:

My new SG still smells vaguely chemically, and that's in a hardcase (I have my others in gig bags). I wouldn't say its a nice smell, per se, but it is a "new" smell.

I have a 2009 sg standard I bought from the factory, it still smells of something, I wouldn�t call it bad. Never quite placed what it is

# ¿ Oct 27, 2022 14:38

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

BCRock posted:

In other guitar news, I did a favor for a buddy of mine who happens to be sponsored by Fender, so he hooked me up with this:

Mod shop HSS Strat in Lake Placid Blue. Set up was nearly perfect out of the box and it still smells like the paint shop after a week.

One of my fav colors, in fact I�m constantly upset I bought a sunburst pro II instead of that color (or now the new fiesta red 61 vintage II which has me on the edge of very bad decision making)

# ¿ Oct 28, 2022 18:17

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

when I was in college I had a belt buckle that had a 3 inch section of 6 strings strapped to the front to practice finger picking on.

I pluck with finger pads and use the edge of my short nails occasionally, I don't bother growing nails out for it. I'm not terribly great at it anymore and kinda gave up on it. It used to be the only way I played though

# ¿ Oct 30, 2022 23:06

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.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2022 21:30

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

# ¿ Nov 1, 2022 01:23

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

really could have used that switch on my mustang GTX. It's fine on clean channels with the master volume knob at the lowest setting but add something with a lot of gain and it's too loud. At least it models pretty decently with headphones on.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2022 14:53

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

if you're going to complain about I V vi IV then you might as well complain about big boy I IV V and all derivative blues progressions in which case guitar I feel like will be a difficult path for you... but of course I went deep into ego jazz technical school looking for the secret progression that would open up my world and came out thinking that shits blows and all that theory just gets in the way of feeling your own voice.....man

# ¿ Nov 16, 2022 08:37

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Deep down in my heart I know there are only two chords in all of music the triads on the I and the triads on the II

# ¿ Nov 17, 2022 21:07

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

JamesKPolk posted:

wish this is how I got exposed to modes rather than "heres this Miles Davis album and 5 extra scales w/ the names of Greek column styles"

I struggle with fluency of the modes a lot even thinking of them as just relative to the parent major for many years. my first guitar teacher (high school) taught me one position of the major scale and then a bunch of positions of the pentatonic scales for each key. my second guitar teacher (at jazz school) taught me every position of the parent major scale and said start from different roots and you get the modes.

the problem for me with thinking in parent major is tending to accent the notes of that parent major tonic because of muscle memory, so instead I need to build muscle memory starting from numerous roots. It's too much to be thinking about live, for me anyways, so we're kinda right back at learning a bunch of modes as independent things. I tend to fall back to guitar teacher 1's strategy when things are getting dicey and I'm losing sense of where I should be going

no idea if I'm explaining that right.

ethanol fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Nov 17, 2022

# ¿ Nov 17, 2022 23:25

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

I was definitely talking about "major scale, but it starts on the nth scale degree" is primarily how I think of modes. I also use the method of think of major scale but flatten or sharpen certain notes.

landgrabber posted:

in a broader music theory context, parallel keys are generally closer to each other than relative keys. it sucks because you want to just memorize "oh D dorian is C major" but in the grand scheme of things what opens up the world is actually having a good concept of the feel of the different modes. the same way major and minor have a feel-- the same way natural minor and harmonic minor have a feel, even.

yes, and in that sense, I can get stuck in the parent major (C major scale played from nth degree), meaning it is harder to consider accents for any borrowed chords. Wheres selecting right parallel key feels more like a binary choice between "is this feeling major or is this minor". and then hopefully have a good gut feel for the intervals from there to select the right flats. They did invent the pentatonic to get you out of this mess if needed.

If you have a really great understanding of where all the notes as numbers are in every key as sort of a mental fretboard projection (without even thinking of the tone), well that's great too, but I think I've relegated my self to my memory doesn't work that way reliably enough. So in that case, substituting in strong tonal feel and muscle memory for the intervals, in practice much is much less thinking and frees me up to focus on the melody (and timing)

I do find sometimes when I get in the zone thinking the parent major I often feel like I'm reducing the entire progressions to a binary decision between even triads on one chord, and odd triads a second chord. Combined with a feel for the accentuations from the melody and I'm not doing any math in my head.

ethanol fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Nov 18, 2022

# ¿ Nov 18, 2022 15:03

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

I dunno if it will help and maybe is obvious already but I recorded a simple bit of what I how I would practice scales daily in jazz school for technique. Played slow here, but of course, I would run it as fast as possible
https://on.soundcloud.com/nx468

It works best in a boxed position so you can ingrain muscle memory, but it's also important to practice breaking out of the position. Here I am starting in A major, instead of running straight up and down the major scale I am alternating thirds. The second run through is just running up the scale but emphasizing the root, 3rd, 5th by playing it once, resting, then again and continuing. One I've run up and down the scale twice I move to B Dorian at the same position I just played A major. You can just keep going through all the modes.

it can be very grating and torturous but it is a hell of a finger exercise.

ethanol fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Nov 20, 2022

# ¿ Nov 20, 2022 05:26

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Disco Pope posted:

Is there a good way of telling whether buzzing frets is an action problem or a fret-wear issue?

Buy a cheap feeler gauge and a string height gauge (a ruler works but the ~ $5 daddario gauges have all all the increments easily laid out), if it�s in spec then a lot of the guesswork is removed. The measurement taking is pretty easy and simple

# ¿ Nov 22, 2022 16:27

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

theres a lot of media on modes, but a lot of it is terrible.

did you say you were at a music school currently?

# ¿ Nov 24, 2022 16:40

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

oh im sorry.

I was going to suggest trying to find a master guitar teacher through the school. I mean you dont need the school to do that, the master teacher I saw in school also gave private lessons. But it does cost money so I get it. But that can help with technique barriers a lot and they can teach a lot of interesting stuff

i used to read the jazz mode books, they had some cool ideas but just really dense and trying to piece the notation to the fretboard could get boring.

recently ive been browsing youtube guitarists and using https://grunfy.com/scaler.html and https://www.all-guitar-chords.com/scales to look at scales in different ways and https://www.tonegym.co/tool/item?id=circle-of-fifths to limited success for songwriting.

ethanol fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Nov 24, 2022

# ¿ Nov 24, 2022 16:55

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

I think there�s also end of board spacing?

# ¿ Nov 24, 2022 17:20

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

G&L fallout

gibson SG

(sg don't come standard with P90s but i'm pretty sure thats a thing)

ethanol fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Nov 24, 2022

# ¿ Nov 24, 2022 17:37

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

landgrabber posted:

fallouts absolutely fuckin rip but i thought the p90 was only in the neck?

those buckers are sick but i do already have a bridge humbucker.

actually a more real question is what i should do with the strat pickups, cause i'm not really into the current strat pickups. the middle one is reversed, so the neck + middle setting is really weird and not super usable.

either interested in better strat pickups to counteract the bridge humbucker, or maybe a low output neck humbucker or something that i can use to get a more jangly/dreamy sound. i have to start with a new pickguard anyway whenever i get around to getting that guitar wiring fixed, so i may as well think about that.

eh yeah, the sg special does come with dual p90s tho, the epiphone version is $500, that's what I was thinking of. i dunno anything about humbucker strats lol

edit: the sg is probably a bad suggestion since you were just complaining about string spacing being too big though. compared to my stratocaster my sg is like a baseball bat

ethanol fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Nov 24, 2022

# ¿ Nov 24, 2022 17:52

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

i like the boss mroe than the thr10, i personally went with a mustang GTX though, just easier to dial into the fender amps i like

# ¿ Nov 24, 2022 21:07

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

a.p. dent posted:

the answer is A Modern Method for Guitar by William Leavitt

learning to sight read all over the fretboard is a fools errand

# ¿ Nov 26, 2022 20:44

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

In any given hour of guitar playing I will range from thinking I�m a prodigal genius to thinking I�m dogshit. I went to music school and ended up feeling not talented enough and then completely changed careers so I have plenty of weird anxious thoughts associated with that when I play too

Anyways when I feel like I can�t make anything sound good I just take a break from playing or switch to something really simple. Rather than try to tackle lead and chord combined solo pieces like soloing jazz standards or whatever, I have a lot more fun just keeping it simple, like a blues or something, and playing open chords. Let it complicate itself from there but I hate going straight into writing with deliberate chromatic alterations a la jazz chords when I don�t even know what I want out of it. And that�s a good way for everything to sound like jazz instead of what I want

Something that really has radically changed now I�ve been writing is using logic to record rhythms with the AI drummer. So much less space to fill and I can have a lot of fun making a rhythm in my acoustic and then switching to some melody or lead on my electric. I�ll then do hundreds of takes to get something right if I�m feeling it sounds good. With the drum track i feel like I have to fill in soooo much less space

# ¿ Nov 28, 2022 19:30

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

the first thing that comes to mind whenever you guys complain about GAS for squire products is gently caress i wish i had it for squire instead of for american series

# ¿ Nov 29, 2022 02:50

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Pondex posted:

I found an old handout with a blues that ends on an E7#9 which sounds like garbage to my ears.

A7/D7/A7/A7/
D7/D7/A7/A7/
E7/D7/A7/E7#9/

Is it some kind a jazzy thing I don't understand or what?

it's pretty ubiquitous to the blues. the 9 of E is just the 7 in the A7. (G) it helps lead back to the A7 on the turn around. if it sounds like garbage you're playing it wrong tbh. the optional V chord at the end of the 12 bar blues is the turnaround and you should gently caress around with it to make it sound good and unique to you

edit: sorry that is a G# isn't it, not a G natural, so I can see why you think it sounds bad. I believe it is still intended as part of the turnaround as a passing tone.

ethanol fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Nov 29, 2022

# ¿ Nov 29, 2022 23:43

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

If you're blasting on the #9 for 4 beats I think it's going to sound odd. the way I hear that is a walk down turnaround melody over the E7 chord from G# to G to F# to E and then falling back to the A7. I would't get too stuck on it being present in the last E7, again as the turnaround you should be mixing it up there anyways

ethanol fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Nov 30, 2022

# ¿ Nov 30, 2022 00:15

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

darkwasthenight posted:

X
8
7
6
7
0

Clang the low E hard then give it a bit of vibrato and attitude on the rest of the chord.

oh yes, ahhh. I'm an idiot and counting wrong. it's just the F# being altered.

What was confusing me is it's a loving double sharp in a E with a #9 as oppose to a E7(9).. it is already an F#... so E7#9 becomes F double sharp? which is that G I was talking about in my first post... the G# is there as well as the major third, hence why I was super confused. so it is just the 7 in the A7. what a rabbit hole im getting sunk into.

ethanol fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Nov 30, 2022

# ¿ Nov 30, 2022 01:02

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

well it does have 4 pictures on there of it on a coffee table

# ¿ Dec 2, 2022 19:33

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

does anybody know how high i should set my strat single coils, i hosed them all up

# ¿ Dec 2, 2022 20:29

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Huxley posted:

https://fendercustomersupport.microsoftcrmportals.com/en-us/knowledgebase/article/KA-01901

code:


 	                Bass Side	Treble Side
Texas Specials	        8/64" (3.2 mm)	6/64" (2.4 mm)
Vintage style	        6/64" (2.4 mm)	5/64" (2 mm)
Noiseless� Series	8/64" (3.2 mm)	6/64" (2.4 mm)
Standard Single-Coil	5/64" (2 mm)	4/64" (1.6 mm)
Humbuckers	        4/64" (1.6 mm)	4/64" (1.6 mm)
Lace Sensors	As close as desired (allowing for string vibration)

what is that measuring from (top of the magnets? because they're all set at different heights across the coil) and where do the weird am pro II v mod pickups go, vintage? the v stands for vintage i think

# ¿ Dec 2, 2022 20:36

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Huxley posted:

Depress the string at the last fret and measure from the bottom of the string to the top of the magnet on each side, let the middle ones fall where they fall.

I think I'd set them like Standards, I don't think the V means vintage, I think it means the magnet type (or something).

Ok, I was definitely not depressing the string when measuring

# ¿ Dec 2, 2022 20:47

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

I noticed recently on my martin when I was blaming strings for going dead too fast it was actually my inventory of old picks being dull, soft, some burred edges on a few of them

# ¿ Dec 4, 2022 18:37

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

You only really have two choices of wood really on a �real� Martin, mahogany and rosewood. The stuff in the lower price ranges is mostly laminates I think. (Before getting into regionally sourced rosewoods/spruces)

I�m not sure what the lower models are but when you go over to Taylor they have better mastered the art of laminate guitars imo and then also a better selection of cheaper solid woods that mimic rosewood / mahogany.

Mahogany is a cheaper wood so sometimes that sneaks into the $1500 range. It�s when you get to rosewood then you�re really forced to be spending cash.

But my point is, nothing beats or compares to solid rosewood and Sitka. Going mahogany on a Martin is usually a conscious decision to get the mahogany sound (d18 is great, Gibson j45 probably the most popular). My $600 mystery wood (layered sapele) Taylor sounds much closer to a mahogany than rosewood. Comparing to my new Martin rosewood it�s no contest quality but they also don�t sound at all similar.

So not knocking budget martins, but they definitely have stiff competition in the segment

ethanol fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Dec 6, 2022

# ¿ Dec 6, 2022 04:17

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

It�s a good jazz guitar lol

Here�s mine:

# ¿ Dec 8, 2022 13:28

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

polish sausage posted:

Hello friend. I'm also deciding to run back to my favoritist instrument in all the land after giving it up to concentrate on studying programming. Now its almost 10 years later and it seems I have my third IT job lined up January so I thought I'd spice it up from my 150 dollar Epiphone les paul special for the the guitar I always wanted as a teen

Actually, What model is this? I thought it was a special but no p90s? But it has the satin finish

Is it a tribute? Where is the little crown symbol on the headstock?

# ¿ Dec 8, 2022 20:33

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

how do you tell if a tune-o-matic saddle is collapsed? (aside from being totally cracked and obvious) Do they come with a tiny bit of concave arch or should they be completely flat?

# ¿ Dec 10, 2022 05:54

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:40

ethanol: Jul 13, 2007

Slight buzz on g and d on an electric isnt too abnormal, as long as you can�t hear it through the amp is the general consensus but ymmv. I can�t really get d string buzz to ever go away fully on my sg.

A couple things I�m going to look into on my sg about that: the bridge (mine is slightly collapsing, and I�ve also heard the notches if improperly sized or burred in the bridge metal can create buzz). And I haven�t attacked the nut yet

ethanol fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Dec 14, 2022

# ¿ Dec 14, 2022 18:10

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No More Drake > Musician's Lounge > GUITAR MEGATHREAD: Sorry for the nipple, I'm depressed.

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