The Official Guitar Thread

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Seventh

Golden Squire
892
15
Duppin_sl said:
What string gauges do you guys use on your electric guitars? My Strat has 10s on it right now, but I'm sortof thinking about going down to 9s to make bending easier. As I understand it, the tradeoff is losing some sustain?
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I use these Elixir 10-52s on just about everything, with a .068 on the low B for my sevens.

http://www.juststrings.com/elx-12077.html

I can't stand light strings, but for a new player you're probably just better off with 9s. On my Suhr 6 (which is just a fancy strat) I run 11-49 in standard. I play better with higher string tension, and there's something about thick strings that (IMO) sounds better and feels better, especially for bluesy stuff.
 
S

Seventh

Golden Squire
892
15
Noodleface_sl said:
I think I read that some people convinced him to use 11s. I wonder if the tension of 13s in standard or even Eb would cause some problems with the neck.
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On a 25.5" scale guitar, you'd go mad snapping treble strings all the time before you'd screw up the neck (on a quality instrument, anyway). Not to mention that you'd need to make some nut adjustments. It's all about finding the right tension across the set, and generally the path to big strings is longer scale and/or lower tuning. I love big strings but playing any sort of leads on a 13-60 set would be obnoxious in the higher registers.

My baritone runs 14-68 tuned to A standard (A E A D F# A), but that's 27.7" scale so while the strings are still thick as fuck the actual string tension isn't too over the top. It sounds great and feels monstrous to play.
 
Gamma Rays

Gamma Rays

Large sized member
4,025
9,633
Thought I'd put this up here, I found it pretty interesting.

http://www.billyduffy.com/gear/

Billy Duffy the guitarist from the Cult, his own page where he talks about his gear. Guitars, amp and pedals.

And he does talk about the gear, if you click on each of the images, opens a page where he talks about the history of that piece of equipment and why he's come to use what he uses etc.

Also of interest is that with his pedals he doesn't just use a stock image of the pedal, it's a photo of the pedal from his on-stage rig. With the dials set and most of them has a piece of tape showing his default or favorite setting.

Example:

rrr_img_35875.jpg
 
Heriotze

Heriotze

<Gold Donor>
1,049
1,450
https://soundcloud.com/heriotze/whil...pins-around-us
just started messing around with trying to get back into recording things again. I feel like using compressors for live music has messed up how I understand their nuances when it comes to recording with a home studio. Stopping things from feeding back is vastly different than wanting things to start feeding back but not get so loud that they blow the sound out.
 
xKALECx

xKALECx

Golden Knight of the Realm
258
131
Gamma Rays_sl said:
Thought I'd put this up here, I found it pretty interesting.

http://www.billyduffy.com/gear/

Billy Duffy the guitarist from the Cult, his own page where he talks about his gear. Guitars, amp and pedals.

And he does talk about the gear, if you click on each of the images, opens a page where he talks about the history of that piece of equipment and why he's come to use what he uses etc.

Also of interest is that with his pedals he doesn't just use a stock image of the pedal, it's a photo of the pedal from his on-stage rig. With the dials set and most of them has a piece of tape showing his default or favorite setting.

Example:

rrr_img_35875.jpg
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I've been a fan of the Cult since the Love album was released. As a guitarist I absolutely love Billy's new site.
 
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Duppin_sl

shitlord
3,785
3
Do you guys think it's possible to do a decent version of "Dust My Broom" without having to play slide guitar? I'm thinking about that as my next song to sing.
 
Slaythe

Slaythe

<Bronze Donator>
3,389
141
Happened upon a cheapish Yamaha T100 a week or so ago and pulled the trigger. I've wanted one just to have for a while. Amp design was done by Soldano.

Thing absolutely rips. I can say without question its the best value tube amp I've ever heard. They go for ~500 these days and while the last thing I'd call it is versatile, it really excels at its main tone, which I'd call a modern take on British distortion. Along the lines of some of the modern Orange amps. Thing needs some cheap mods out of the box to really shine, but I'm really impressed with it.
 
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Duppin_sl

shitlord
3,785
3
Yeah, just got it today. I traded in the recording thing (it was cool, but I'm just not ready to be recording things yet) for that. Used, so it was basically straight up trade with a little cash thrown in on my end. They sell for about $750 new, this was in like new condition but listed at $340. Just some nicks on the back of the neck which don't bother me at all.

It has a weird mismatched set of strings on it from the prior owner, and a higher action than I'm used to, but it sounds great. Nice punchy humbuckers.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,356
16,243
Nice deal, I love getting good deals. A few years ago I randomly bid on this ESP M-II on ebay for $300, figuring I'd never win. I actually forgot about it and then got an email from the guy saying "you planning on paying?" Really a steal. Also the Ibanez RG3120, I got it as a year-end discontinued sale. Retailed for between $1000-1400 depending where you went, got it for $600. Absolutely best guitar I've ever owned.

rrr_img_37302.jpg


rrr_img_37303.jpg



Found a couple other pics, think I already posted them but it made me miss some of my gear. Purple is my current guitar, RG550:

rrr_img_37304.jpg


rrr_img_37305.jpg


rrr_img_37306.jpg


I still have the Gibson Les Paul Custom too. I call it my Randy Rhoads guitar.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,356
16,243
1976 or so my father says, it's our best guess. He bought it new for $600 but can't remember what year it was.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,356
16,243
Minus the pickups (which we have). It is worth a few grand but probably something I would never sell as my dad passed it down to me. I intend to pass it down if I have a child interested in playing too.
 
xKALECx

xKALECx

Golden Knight of the Realm
258
131
Noodleface_sl said:
1976 or so my father says, it's our best guess. He bought it new for $600 but can't remember what year it was.
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1st and 5th number of the serial should tell you the year on a 70's Les Paul (or most Les Pauls from the 60's up).
 
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Duppin_sl

shitlord
3,785
3
So, my playing is getting better, but one thing I'm finding is that all of my solo runs sound too staccato. I *think* it's because I don't alternate pick enough, but anybody have any tips?

You can hear it in this clip, which is just me noodling around over a backing track (with plenty of mistakes): soundcloud with my RL name removed, I'll set up another one later that is less lazy
 
Alex

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,710
7,527
You should be alternating picking pretty much all the time, but I don't think that's the issue here. It almost sounds you kill the note before it has a chance to sustain by either muting with your picking hand or completely removing your fingers from the frets. I'm not sure. You could also be reaching one of the plateaus where you realize you're not getting better for a while and then something clicks and before you know it your feel is a lot better. Some of your playing sounds a bit "tense". It doesn't sound very relaxed and loose.
 
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