Reply With QuoteThat's the spirit!Originally Posted by NikGixer750
Well done on A and D. Learn an E chord as well and you can play hundreds of songs.
Like you I need to learn guitar, unlike you I find it easy to buy and collect guitars, its shameful I cannot play a note..
That's the spirit!
Well done on A and D. Learn an E chord as well and you can play hundreds of songs.
Cheers,
Neil.
Spent my lunch break (wfh today) trying to learn the start of what’s my age again by blink 182, almost got the little intro down. Just messing about between A and D practice.
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Great start!
The more you learn the better you will get and you'll find when learning a new song/part you will already have a head start with your previous knowledge/chops.
Cheers,
Neil.
Well done! Puts me to shame on my Lockdown 1.0 purchase. I will put more effort into it.
I’m not sure if it’s using an AC-30 headphone amp vs a proper one that’s not giving me the love. Who knows.
Yes, the finger pain is very real indeed. That’s the part I’m not looking forward to again!
Geat stuff! Looks like a good set-up you have and a modelling amp will open things up for you and it’s often fun to just mess about with the range of amps and effects.
The finger pain goes away eventually… but yes, at the beginning it’s real.
Looks like a sweet first setup there Nik, good luck with the playing.
Oh and your finger pads will toughen up eventually, plus there is a whole world of chord fingering contortions to look forwards to
That looks a great set up!Spent my lunch break (wfh today) trying to learn the start of what’s my age again by blink 182, almost got the little intro down. Just messing about between A and D practice.
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Enjoy your A to D and back again practice, throw in G, C, F, and E when you're comfortable with those two. Then the E, A, and D minors and you have loads of songs literally at your fingertips.
I recommend looking at Smokie's "Do you think you know how to love me" to learn a whole song that's easy to play and sing. The only chords are A minor (actually a little easier to play than A), G, C, and D, and very easy to learn opening notes.
Last edited by Ruggertech; 28th November 2022 at 22:17.
Looks like a great guitar. A word of caution regarding SGs: be extra careful it doesn't fall over - they're well known for having broken necks and headstocks. Glad you've got a stand for it!
6 month update and a questions!
Still loving the guitar, don't get as much time to play it as I would like, started with online lessons then got a little bored and moved into learning songs from online videos and just messing about, which has been testing but more enjoyable. Just learning songs I have always liked to listen to. I can fully play Fear of the dark, albeit the solo is way slower than they play it, but the rest of the song is good. Almost finished up learning Enter sandman, again solo is taking time to get down but the intro, pre chorus and chorus, outro and fairly straight forward. As mentioned at the start from being 15 years old I always wanted to play Whiskey in the jar and that is my next project to get down.
Mostly use Carl Brown's (Guitar365) free video's, the guy is stupidly good at playing a guitar, the stuff he plays whilst casually talking to the camera is just insane. Worth a watch if you have never seen him before.
The thing I cant get to work, might be my guitar, amp, me or who knows what, is picking once and doing multiple things, for instance he will pick the D string, whilst holding fret 12, then pull off to 11, slide to 10, then to open, and he gets 4 distinct sounds, whenever I try this I get a sound on the 12 and 11 but after that just nothing, so I end up picking multiple times to play all the notes but it never quite sounds right. Might just be my bad technique but can never get it to work.
You'll probably need some sort of drive pedal or gain on the amp to get enough sustain so that the notes all keep ringing on for longer.
Cheers,
Neil.
Well done, like you I like metal/rock and only want to play riffs from favourite songs, I need to commit and hear something good come from the guitar and hopefully that will spur me on to practice every day even for a short time.
How did you find your fingers for soreness when starting and have you felt coordination has got better between your left and right while playing?
Fine mostly, playing fear of the dark there is a lot of bends using my wedding finger and little finger notes so they hurt for a few days when I started, as I had not used them much before, but once the initial pain is over its ok.
Coordination is getting much better, playing the songs above has sections of quick picking on different strings and my right hand hits the right string 90% of the time without thinking about it, this came without thinking about it and just practicing the left hand speed and the right just seemed to follow.
As I mentioned in the post above, if you want inspiration, search Carls YouTube channel for the songs and riff you like and play along with him. The ease at which he plays is worth watching, he also is very good at explaining how to play it.
As a side note on impressive things, my wife plays a little piano and has a leaning app, I watched the advanced version of someone playing Chop Suey by System of a Down and that also blew my mind how fast they play it.
Last edited by NikGixer750; 21st June 2023 at 16:11.
Thanks, I will look into ramping up the gain and having a play, I mostly just use the presets on the amp, standard rock or metal lead are my go-to ones for the songs I play.
For anyone needing quiet practise, One of these is very helpful, when coupled to headphones or ear buds!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mighty-Head...ps%2C73&sr=8-2
You can use the factory phone app to simulate a variety of amps, or use another one called Mightier app (has more tweakability).
A great piece of kit to save upsetting the household/neighbours!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByI5vNFbOOs
Last edited by tixntox; 21st June 2023 at 18:06.
As above for quiet practice I have one of these, they get good reviews and very cost effective, I just have to practice now!! - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Valeton-Cha...7W3K92ZM&psc=1
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You were right! Currently looking for another guitar! The Epiphone SG is great but is a little rough around the edges, a lot of buzz on the low E string (might be my playing), looking at an Ibanez as the next one and a RG, the RG J Customs look great! but almost £3k is alot of money. There is one on Reverb at £1900, but will probably end up with a second hand Prestige for around £600-£800.Be careful of the GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome). One guitar is never enough. The ideal number is N+1, where N is the number you currently have.
Yamaha Pacifica is a great starter. As are many of the Squier or Epiphones you can pick up. Like most things comes down to budget and what you’re willing to spend.
A good “budget” guitar will not sound or feel massively different to a premium guitar initially. It will eventually when you improve and get to understand it more.
As for Amps. Lots of good solid suggestions already in the thread. Boss, Blackstar, Fender, Vox.
Personally started with a Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster. One I’ll never part with. Now have four Teles. Two Strats, two Les Pauls and a bass. Plus too many amps.
I tend to play my scratch built Telecaster most and mostly through a Blackstar Fly portable battery amp. Great sound for the home and for playing quietly. The Classic Vibe goes with me in the Motorhome with the Fly amp.
A Squier Bullet can be made to play great by a good guitar tech.
https://www.musicradar.com/news/mike...d-squier-strat
And Whiskey In The Jar is not an easy song to play - 6 chords and 128bpm. Learn some three chord 12 bar blues first like Little Red Rooster
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Also started to delve into sound boards and pedals, what a rabbit hole that is! My amp can play tones which has been great so far but is very limiting, but I would like more options, as you cant change tone when playing on the amp without stopping and turning the dial. Picking up a Wah pedal tomorrow off marketplace and then getting a looper for Christmas, I quite like the idea of trying to build songs and then do some soloing and messing about. This then lead to all kind of pedals research, and hours watching videos and trying to decide what to build towards! Saw an amazing looking setup the guy was showing but it is about £2k to put it all together! Plan is a SD1 overdrive, DS1 distortion, a chorus and maybe a delay to start with (and the looper), in no rush so will keep checking ebay and marketplace for some decent deals. I think my amp can add some reverb into it all, maybe.
Still enjoying it all, trying to play more the last few weeks and be more structured, doing finger exercises and patterns on the fret to improve speed and accuracy, its sooooo frustrating at times, I do one exercise where you hold one finger on the B or G string then play a pentatonic shape with the other 3 fingers but try keep that 1 finger anchored, really struggle with the middle and ring finger, they just move!
Song wise, got a few good ones down, currently working on Killing in the name, which apart from the solo is pretty straight forward, but sounds funky and great. And also learning many riffs from songs just to have more little things to play.
It has almost been a year so far, so much to learn and to get better. Youtube is still great for tips and songs, some guys on there are just unreal, Bernth player can do some crazy shreds and also has some good content for learning and practice exercises. Wont ever get near that level, but should help to improve.
I've just ordered one of these direct from the manufacturer. Currently at £129 including delivery and a non padded gigbag.
There are very mixed reviews but at £129 defintitely worth a punt for a small easy to transport guitar with a bit of a Brian Jones vibe.Screenshot_20231127-153643_Google.jpg
Get a proper set up and it'll be like night and day. Guitars from the factory are almost never set up properly and then hang around in heated shops which does nothing for them.
Find a local luthier and for about £70 they'll make the guitar sound and play like it should do.
Keep up the good work and good call on the SG. My son has a left-handed standard:
Maybe worth looking at a multiple effects unit - like a Boss ME-80. They have loads of simulations of pedals on them, often with a looper and a wah pedal.
You can use something like that to experiment with different sounds without having the expense of each pedal.
If you find some you like and use a lot then you can always get the actual pedal.
You can get a great new Strat or Tele for that sort of money, especially in the Player series - and don't forget a really good amp.
The Boss pedals are very reasonably priced and personally I would rather go new with electrical stuff like that.
I don't know if you have a modelling amp as you said it can play tones but pedals don't normally work well with them.
SD-1 would be the first pedal I'd buy, I leave mine on most of the time.
Sounds like it is really coming together for you - well done!
BTW re Pedals , best to find the right stuff for the sort of music you like playing - less is often more!
Here's my lot, it does for all I need.
Last edited by Neil.C; 28th November 2023 at 15:06.
Cheers,
Neil.
I had an RG 1570 Prestige for a while. Some people love their impossibly skinny neck, Floyd Rose trems and locking nuts etc. I was not one of those people. I thought it was uncomfortable to play, sounded thin and felt dead even after throwing a set of Bare Knuckle pick ups in there. My mate on the other hand has three and loves them. Marmite guitars. I wouldn’t spend 3k on one unless you’re sure which side of the toast you’re on.
Thanks for the suggestions, I am 99% set of getting a boss katana mk2 and the airstep kat control bar, with a separate looper pedal. This will be good for my level for a long time, and works out considerably cheaper than loads of separate pedals.
I wont spend £3k on a new guitar, the wife would kill me and don't have the money. Looking at something 2nd hand around the £600-£800 mark. I will wait till after Christmas and hopefully people get new shiny guitars and sell off the old ones!
I’m a bit late to this thread. Until 2 years ago I had a small Marshall amp, an Orange Dark Terror and cab, various pedals and had been through a couple of multi-FX units but hadn’t gelled with their interfaces. I took the plunge on a Positive Grid spark amp and haven’t looked back. It’s a similar size to the VOX a few posts up. You connect to it with Bluetooth and it’s own app, and then have access to dozens of FX pedals and amp models. Noise gate, compressors, overdrives, EQ, chorus, flanger, all there plus more. Any tones you build can be saved, and there is a huge library of tones in their Tonecloud, which anyone can save to, all free to download and use. Normally as an impatient type I prefer to just search for a tone using song or artist and tweak it from there.
It’s not a perfect amp by any means, the sound is a little bass-heavy but I got used to that and tweaked tones to my preference. As a metal player I don’t mind that anyway. You can’t re-sequence FX, there is a set signal chain but most Fx are in the right place in that chain.
I play more now than ever and a major factor is I can just switch my amp on and change to any tone I need without twiddling dials.
You can also play Youtoob tracks or backing tracks to it via Bluetooth while playing along, and also use it as a regular Bluetooth speaker. This is now my office/guitar setup and has been brilliant.
Point is, for someone looking for maximum flexibility and tones on offer, you can go the pedal and amp route which will be fun but perhaps cost a bit until you find what works for you. Or grab a Spark for around £200 and have much of it all built in. There are other amps like this out there similar to the Spark but having tried a few I don’t believe any do it as well. I know folks who are gigging with the Spark by just running it into a PA or powered cab. I also have the Spark Go which is a palm-sized amp that does everything the Spark does. I can run that into a larger amp (with a clean/neutral setup) and it works just the same. Sorry if this sounds sales pitchy, I am just a big fan of this amp and it's made such a difference to how much I play.
Under each of those FX and amp there are various pedal types and options. The full list is here: https://help.positivegrid.com/hc/en-...mp-Effect-List
Last edited by nr73; 11th January 2024 at 09:54.
I enjoy watching these guys..............
They do some great stuff. Seemed to be having fun there with the Mini in particular!
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