The Official Guitar Thread

Duppin_sl said:

Yeah. I'm not a metal guy. I can see how a good solid state would be good for metal stuff at lower volume.

Now praise my Kalamazoo.

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I'm not praising your Kalamazoo unless you buy me dinner first at the very least!

...

Is that yours? If so, holy shit how does it sound?

It has that sortof short sustain that that style of guitar has that you hear on a lot of old blues recordings, but it sounds and plays great.

It's the same model of guitar that it is theorized that Robert Johnson used on his studio recordings.

Seventh_sl said:

E--14---11-----------11----14---
B-----------12---12--------------
G--------------11----------------
D---------------------------------
A---------------------------------
E---------------------------------

That shape is movable anywhere, and in that example it's a basic three string sweep that you can do over B major. To make it minor, just move the second note down a half step. Play it slowly and listen to the difference. The "cheating" way to think of it is that the middle note (in this case the 12th fret) is the key you're in.

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Old video that I just linked, but relevant - that tab there is exactly what I'm playing in this video here at 2:47, if you want to hear it at speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvtPiMYicCg

Duppin_sl said:

It has that sortof short sustain that that style of guitar has that you hear on a lot of old blues recordings, but it sounds and plays great.

It's the same model of guitar that it is theorized that Robert Johnson used on his studio recordings.

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Well that certainly kicks all sorts of ass.

Yeah. Got it for $500. It's late 30s, they think it's a 1939 but it's really hard to date precisely.

Duppin_sl said:

Yeah. Got it for $500. It's late 30s, they think it's a 1939 but it's really hard to date precisely.

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I'm not really up on Gibsons because I'm a boring shredder who plays funny customs and boring superstrats, but I'm pretty sure you kind of stole that at that price man. Score!

Edit: Fuck, I am definitely praising the kalamazoo, and now I feel dirty.

Just another question re: practice amps.

Does anyone have any experience or opinions on the Marshall Class 5 combo?

Is it loud, or do you need to run it loud to get a good sound out of it.

Of the amps mentioned earlier I am sort of leaning towards the Orange tiny terror.

A class 5 Marshall would be WAY too loud for an apartment.

What kind of music you want to play/what sort of tone you want is an important consideration, too. So, what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah was thinking already that the Marshall would be a bit too much. I realised that as I posted the previous message. Pretty obvious when I read back over what I wrote.

As for the tone I'm looking for: music wise I like a wide range and I've picked up various songs that I can play so far. ACDC, the Cult to Pink Floyd.

Ultimately I'd say I'm mostly looking for the Gilmour sound, but with ability to get a raw late 70s - early 80's metal sound.

I've been to the website Gilmourish which is a great resource of information, for the Gilmour stuff. Got a shopping list of pedals also worked out. Which gets me back to needing a tube amp before getting the pedal. So the amp is stage one of a process.

Do you have a shop anywhere near you where you can go and play some stuff?

Gilmour's got great tone no doubt, but it's not going to be an easy thing to get. How long have you been playing? What kind of guitar do you have?

Also, what's your budget?

Duppin_sl said:

Do you have a shop anywhere near you where you can go and play some stuff?

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Well . . . I gotta explain that one a bit first: there is a good guitar store near me yes, but I doubt that I will be buying the amp from it, am hoping to save a bit by getting a 2nd hand one off Ebay, or even a new one from Ebay should be cheaper. And with that in mind, I wouldn't feel right going into the store and getting the guy to spend his time helping me to compare and test when I'm just going to walk out without buying. Or course if they have a clearance special or something similar and I am lucky to spot one of the amps I'm after then I'll get one. But that's unlikely.

To add: I have made a point of trying to buy things from the store when possible, it's the bigger stuff that the saving online is better.

Skip forward to -

Duppin_sl said:

How long have you been playing? What kind of guitar do you have?

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About 3 years, I went a little quiet on it for over a year - reason being had a really bad work situation : 2 lousy part time jobs, long inconvenient hours for crap money. With all that, kicking back and playing guitar didn't really get a look in. Fortunately past that now.

Guitars: I got an old knocked around Acoustic & 2 electric guitars (will try to get a pic up soon) I got an Epiphone Les Paul - It's a Custom model and from the serial number it was made in their Japanese factory, which is good to know (I think). And I've got a MIM Fender Strat.

Duppin_sl said:

Gilmour's got great tone no doubt, but it's not going to be an easy thing to get.

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I'm just looking to get something that is more 'in that direction' tone wise. One thing I've found that with the Line6 amp using the built in effects, is that the Les Paul sounds best of the 2 guitars. I think that with the Strat, the 'hum' of the single coil pickups makes the effects too noisy and over-driven. With the Les Paul I can go further with the Line6 effects and get a decent sound. With the strat I can get a good clean sound but not go as far effect wise as I want.

So am really wanting to have a cleaner and more versatile amp and then look into pedals. That website Gilmorish has a lot of advice and options for pedals, even with a small budget.

Duppin_sl said:

Also, what's your budget?

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Right now getting the amp will be about as big a stretch as I can do, but justifiable as it will be a big in the direction I want to head.

Alright, so someone more experienced than me should probably chime in, since you've actually been playing longer than I have. But I've been collecting information pretty extensively lately, so here is what I would suggest.

Get a Fender Blues Junior. It's about $500 most places, and while I actually just got rid of mine, that was more about a specific type of tone I was looking for. It's an excellent low-wattage (15w) tube amp that is pretty good for apartment playing, but can also get loud enough to play small rooms when you get to that point. You could try something from Orange too, but they're going to tend to have more "scooped" mids, which might get you further away from the tone you want to emulate. The Blues Junior also takes pedals really well.

Gilmour is mostly a Strat guy, and MIM Strats can actually be pretty nice (that's what my only electric is at the moment). I wouldn't judge any of your tone based on your Line6, particularly its built-in effects. It's a fine place to start, but a better amp and real effects are going to sound a world different.

As far as going to a shop and playing things; don't worry about that. Music stores are used to that behavior, and if it's a shop local to you, it'd be good for you to build a good relationship with them. Also, don't be 100% convinced that you're going to find a better deal on eBay. In my opinion, you should NEVER buy a musical instrument or amp that you haven't played in person. It's too easy to get a lemon. Not to mention shipping costs can skew things more than you'd think.

Also, make sure you get a pro setup done on both of your guitars. It makes a huge difference in playability and can also help your tone. It's an excellent investment.

Seventh_sl said:

Eventually, rolling your fingers through the shape will feel natural, just like fingering a G or C chord - which (at least for me, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) feels impossible when I was first starting out. You want to mute with the meat of your palm on your picking hand, so as you sweep the strings you're immediately dampening the note you just played.

There's really (imo, keeping in mind that I'm a mediocre sweeper at best) two techniques that you need to practice separately. First is the actual motion of your picking hand, so that you get the chick-chick-chick-chick-switch_directions-chick-chick-chick-chick of the pick hitting the strings down. Accurate fretting doesn't help at all if you aren't sweeping the strings themselves. Then there's the actual fingering the notes in time with your picking hand. I think getting smooth with the actual sweep motion is harder to master than the actual fretting of the notes.

Edit: Check out my buddy Sean's YT page, he's a monster sweeper and has a bunch of good tips for people starting out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiLYzTUSVUs

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Thanks 7 but I think I need to take a step back and learn how to properly sweep from the basics. I just kind of tried to teach myself and it seems like the conclusion I arrived on with regard to how to sweep was incorrect.

Anybody have a good source for lead-less backing tracks to play along with? I prefer blues stuff, but anything blues/rock/country/whatever would be fine. Just not metal, since I don't have much desire to shred.

A few years ago I used:

http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/

Not sure if it's still decent and/or relevant.

Additionally I used to hang out on the harmony-central forums and there were a lot of backing track contests/jamfests. Last I heard the owner really fucked with the website though, so it may not be as good of a place.

Actually, I found this and it looks pretty good:

http://www.guitarjamtracks.com/

I looked at the site you linked, but it doesn't give you what keys the tracks are in, which is a big thing for me. I'm still developing my ear and I can't just listen to something and know what key I should be in. It's also not searchable by genre.

Noodleface_sl said:

A few years ago I used:

http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/

Not sure if it's still decent and/or relevant.

Additionally I used to hang out on the harmony-central forums and there were a lot of backing track contests/jamfests. Last I heard the owner really fucked with the website though, so it may not be as good of a place.

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I use that site a ton when I need odd key shit. Tons of great stuff on there. If you don't mind paying for them (and they're worth it) David Walliman's site is fantastic. All the backing tracks come with tabs and such for modes/keys to play over them and he does a really nice job with it all.

http://www.guitarplayback.com

Duppin, embrace the shred sir.

Seventh_sl said:

I use that site a ton when I need odd key shit. Tons of great stuff on there. If you don't mind paying for them (and they're worth it) David Walliman's site is fantastic. All the backing tracks come with tabs and such for modes/keys to play over them and he does a really nice job with it all.

http://www.guitarplayback.com

Duppin, embrace the shred sir.

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Oh, nice. THat's even better. I don't mind paying for quality backing tracks.

Also, fuck. I got salt from my sweat on my Kalamazoo. My guitar polish didn't take it off. Is it safe to use a little bit of water or something? It's a sealed wood finish but I want to be super careful about fucking it up.