The Official Guitar Thread

Yeah, I think I might be one of those people. I just can't build any speed and I'm sloppy. Granted, I don't practice nearly enough, but you'd think I'd be a bit better than I am by a year and a half in.

Oh, and I have a different guitar since I posted here last. I hated that Les Paul.

Duppin_sl said:

How do you tell the difference between a plateau and just plain sucking?

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I find that a lot of the time I simply "can't" something, it's more because I have related movements that simply aren't developed that might seem simple or unrelated but ultimately play a huge part. Those sort of ancillary things that are easy for people who have done something but others who have not. As an example, playing funk develops a lot of rhythm skills including timing, but it will also help you become cleaner at picking notes out at every range of motion and direction with your hand.

IE, if you really want to start a solo with a rake into a bend, if you have not done a lot of percussive work with the guitar and practiced the shit out of your muting, it's just going to feel impossibly complicated even though the basic components are stupidly simple.

I'd suggest moving on to other things to practice. At the end of the day, guitar is really about muscle memory for thousands and thousands of miniscule movements that are all interrelated but not necessarily distinct. It's not like your body knows how to go from an open G chord to an open D just because you can go from an open A to an open D - each little thing is unique. That said, try stuff with more complicated chords (like 6th root Maj9 chords using your thumb) or funk rhythm to expand your core set of movements as every finger motion you learn starts to cover more and more 'new' things that you want to master and reinforces the old. Personal example, playing slide for me has immeasurably improved my fretboard mastery and ability to tune bends to pitch simply because Ihaveto pay more attention with slide.

I played a 1954 Stratocaster today.

Damn, this thread died for a while.

How was it, Duppin? Was it properly set up?

Honestly, it was a bitch to play. Not much left in the way of frets and a bit of a neck twist.

But I got to play an almost bone stock first year Strat.

The thread died mostly because I wasn't posting, I imagine. Long story short, I went through a period where I got pissed off and dumped everything; I recovered though and now I have a cool Strat. It's a Warmoth parts Strat with Fender Custom Shop pickups that own:

I honestly don't play much anymore. At 30 years old and a mediocre wannabe shredder, I'll never get famous. I play sometimes for fun, but at this point my life is far too busy to usually enjoy it.

That's the saddest post I've ever written in my life.

That's really sad.

I have less time to play now than I used to, as well; I'm going to school, have a new girlfriend, etc.

But it's still great to just pick up the guitar for 20 minutes while I'm watching a baseball game or something and noodle around. (pun intended!)

Fucking Crosby, Stills and Nash. They bought a Swart amp I'd been eyeing out from under me today.

What? Like all three of those dudes were at a shop and bought an amp you wanted?

No, one of their techs bought it from the shop for them. The shop I go to deals with all sorts of famous musicians.

I like it a lot; while some of the other guitars I've had have been cool, most of my favorite players play Strats, so it's the sound I associate most in my head with the guitar playing I like.

The neck is unusual, but pretty damn good; it's got a definite D shape to it, with a pretty flat fretboard. At first I wasn't sure about it, but now that I've played on it some it's one of the more comfortable necks I've played. I feel like I can reach notes easier, and barre chords feel like I can hold the full chord easier as well. I think I'll keep this one for a while, but I've said that before, heh.

No amp currently; that little Swart would've been perfect but I'll find something else. No plans to gig, or jam other than occasionally, for a while. School and girlfriend each take up a lot of time. I'm mostly just practicing the things I know and going through some stuff on Justinguitar, for now. (He's started a killer new series where he demos blues licks in various styles).

I can tune my low E string fine, but when I press down at the twelfth fret the E goes flat and I get a lot of fret buzz. New strings and setup time?


Still a noob with a MIM Tele and Fender's Greta amp

Probably needs a setup, yeah. Take it to a good reputable local shop. Shouldn't cost you more than about $40, depending on where you are.

90Proof_sl said:

I can tune my low E string fine, but when I press down at the twelfth fret the E goes flat and I get a lot of fret buzz. New strings and setup time?

Still a noob with a MIM Tele and Fender's Greta amp

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Glad there's another tele player here.

Slaythe_sl said:

Watch some videos on setting up a guitar and go at it yourself. Your intonation is off if you're tuned fine open but sharp or flat when fretting. This is very easy to fix. For the buzz, you can either raise the action or adjust the truss rod. There's a ton of warnings out there saying to be extra careful with the rod, and to only trust a pro with that sort of thing, but you really have to go overboard to permanently fuck up a guitar. It is possible, but I really don't think setting up a guitar is as big of a deal as a lot of people make it out to be. The more experience you get, the better you'll be at it, but it's a process I think any guitar player can learn themselves.

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It's not a big deal per se, but I'd advise against it if you're pretty new. It's REAL easy to screw up small things on a setup and make it worse rather than better.

A Tele is going to be simpler to set up than something with some sort of a tremolo, but it's still possible to jack it up, and it sounds like it might be a guitar that has some issues an experienced tech should look at anyway (I was thinking there might be a bit of a bow in the neck, from his description).

It might be good to look into some upgraded pickups too, it's one of the best things you can do for a MIM guitar.

A lot of people are afraid to setup their own guitars. I used the guide on Jemsite to learn many years ago and it worked great for me (probably better youtube videos now).

There's nothing really irreversible unless you snap your truss rod. That's why you never turn your truss rod more then 1/4 turn and then let it rest for awhile.

Worst comes to worst, you made the setup even worse than it was but the tech will still charge you the same.

Slaythe_sl said:

Watch some videos on setting up a guitar and go at it yourself. Your intonation is off if you're tuned fine open but sharp or flat when fretting. This is very easy to fix. For the buzz, you can either raise the action or adjust the truss rod. There's a ton of warnings out there saying to be extra careful with the rod, and to only trust a pro with that sort of thing, but you really have to go overboard to permanently fuck up a guitar. It is possible, but I really don't think setting up a guitar is as big of a deal as a lot of people make it out to be. The more experience you get, the better you'll be at it, but it's a process I think any guitar player can learn themselves.

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Although there is truth to that, the difference between me setting my basses myself and paying a pro to do it is night and day. I can make things better, but I can never fine tune things as well as someone with the proper measuring tools and know how.

edit: I also should add, it also depends on the climate where you live. Things here vary between mid/high 90s and humid in the summer to below freezing and dry as hell during the winter. 2 professional setups a year per instrument just has to go in my budget.