Starting Electric Guitair

[Mojo]

erm got a little question myself actually.

a while ago i got some locking strap buttons, but when i tried fixing them to my guitar (see up page) the screws were too small for the holes already made by the exisiting strap buttons. The guy in the shop suggested woodfiller, but i dont wanna ruin it. Anyone had any problems with this and what they do to fix the locking strap buttons in?

Spooky, i was talking to somone on Tuesday about that exact same thing, maybe use thicker screws, use your existing screwes maybe?

 

[Oldleaf]

Want to add another great guitar duet by Frank Zappa and Steve Vai.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ORGWfJiTI

 

[Yshynsin]

BTW, if you have a comp get your hands on Guitar Pro and as much tab as you can.

http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php

I only use it for learning new tunes, but it can do much, much more.

That software is brillaint learning tool, its also good to write your riffs down when you randomly play good ones so that you don;t forget them. and then you can develop them into music.

 

[Eva]

BTW, if you have a comp get your hands on Guitar Pro and as much tab as you can.

http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php

I only use it for learning new tunes, but it can do much, much more.

It's incredibly good. I've been using it since I started playing, and it have made it a lot easier.

^ 100% gp5 tabs ^_^;;

 

[Heta]

wonder why the hell I sat and read the whole thread, I don't know jack about playing guitarr and have no interest in doing it ...

 

[Succi]

epiphone SG400 Custom. Perfect guitar for me, neck is perfect for my hands, middle pickup really adds a lot, tone is fucking awesome. Better than the gibson sg i owned before.
the neck looks darker on my one though.

Which gibson sg model ?

 

[Mojo]

wonder why the hell I sat and read the whole thread, I don't know jack about playing guitarr and have no interest in doing it ...

Because you are fucking bonkers.

 

[Sharma]

wonder why the hell I sat and read the whole thread, I don't know jack about playing guitarr and have no interest in doing it ...

Ah well, you're missing out.

 

[Heta]

Well, I took lessons when I was a kid, but I really sucked at it there for my lack of interest in it. And generally lack interest of music so... kinda odd tho as all my friends are music geeks and have bands and all what comes with it.

And also might be as Mojo say

 

[Mojo]

This thread rules, why did it drop so far down the boards

 

[tris-]

i dont know if this has been answerd, long thread QQ

how hard is it exactly to teach your self, starting with an acoustic?
could anyone recommend a cheap but also decent enough acoustic?

 

[Mojo]

i dont know if this has been answerd, long thread QQ

how hard is it exactly to teach your self, starting with an acoustic?
could anyone recommend a cheap but also decent enough acoustic?

I would get a few lessons to get you going or if you have a friend that plays get them to show you some stuff. Once you have started you can start to teach yourself things but without the basics it will be hard going and very slow.

Tanglewood or Fender makes guitars in the £70 - £80 Price range, They will be just as good as any to get you going, get something with steel strings and avoid spending less than £60 if u can.

 

[tris-]

Tanglewood or Fender makes guitars in the £70 - £80 Price range, They will be just as good as any to get you going, get something with steel strings and avoid spending less than £60 if u can.

ive seen a couple starter packs that have a guitar, tuner/spare strings, picks, dvd and a case. they are about £75 or so, are they worth it?

 

[Mojo]

ive seen a couple starter packs that have a guitar, tuner/spare strings, picks, dvd and a case. they are about £75 or so, are they worth it?

I would say no, if you are goning to learn and are sure that you will stick with it then deffo no. The pack will contain a £40 Guitar and won't be up to much it wont stay in tune etc etc. If you don't know yet then maybe.

You don't need to spend £300, £400, £500 and so on but a £40 guitar is scraping the barrel, its the sort of thing you would get for a nagging kid who needs something shaped like a guitar.

If you are sure you want to learn then get something vaugley OK, get one in the sale even if you don't like the colour or so, try and get some discount to get a better guitar.

Oh an u just need a tuner and a pick, none of the other stuff.

Not all guitars are Equal, not all £40 Guitars are real guitars.

 

[tris-]

heres some examples of what i found -

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5407574.htm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yamaha-F310-Acoustic-Guitar-Starter/dp/B000I1V5KA

i dont know yet if i would stick to it, i may end up being shit. so i only want to spend about £80.

 

[Mojo]

i dont know yet if i would stick to it, i may end up being shit. so i only want to spend about £80.

It all comes down to hours spent playing so you will be shit if you don't practice.

Seriously tho man, I would take that £80 into a guitar shop and see what you can find. I would be more inclined to buy a decent ex demo than a cheap one new. A guitar with a shit sound that wont stay in tune will discourage you from picking her up, and will gather dust. something that looks and feel nice begs to be touched.

 

[tris-]

It all comes down to hours spent playing so you will be shit if you don't practice.

Seriously tho man, I would take that £80 into a guitar shop and see what you can find. I would be more inclined to buy a decent ex demo than a cheap one new. A guitar with a shit sound that wont stay in tune will discourage you from picking her up, and will gather dust. something that looks and feel nice begs to be touched.

so what your saying then is -

£60-£80
tanglewood/fender
steel strings

any particular tuning device, or does it not matter?

 

[Mojo]

so what your saying then is -

£60-£80
tanglewood/fender
steel strings

any particular tuning device, or does it not matter?

Yeah, basically go into the guitar shop find the cheap ones then look for something on sale/discounted. Ignore the £40-£50 ones. (unles they are discounted down to that)

An electric tuner, Korg make some cheap ones. About £12 or so.

I got a Fender on offer for £60 down from £80 when I got mine so with tuner and pick my total spend was £72.50 and the guitar was pretty good and 3 years on is still good for me I haven't out grown it.

 

[Jarakin]

This is my starter guitar: http://www.guitars.co.uk/acatalog/Vintage_VS6B.html bought this along with a Kustom 16watt practice amp with effects. I bought this about 2 years ago and have pretty much just messed around with it, been using guitar pro to play (or rather, try to play) songs that I like... Muse, Foo Fighters etc. I love my guitar, but its crap to play standing up as its very top heavy and is a continual struggle to keep upright, and it has a pretty high action making it harder to fret without buzzing, so I don't think its great to learn on, but I still love it anyway. Really need to work on my finger strength though! (Just purchased a gripmaster, but I won't over-use it as it could cause more damage than good!)

My fiancée has a yamaha pacifica thats lovely, that i use whenever i want to give my fingers a bit of a rest! Its a really nice guitar for learning on i think, nice low action, easy to fret. I tend to hold my pick too long while playing it though as im used to higher action!

Anyway, i'm now at the stage where I want to mess around less and learn things properly to actually improve and be able to play the guitar "properly" instead of mindlessly mimicing songs read off a tab and hopefully progress from "beginner" status!

Pretty much wondering if anyone knows some good (And free if possible, i'm poor) online resources for beginners mostly and some intermediate level stuff for theory, chords and progression, scales and some decent rock/jazz/blues tunes thrown in to keep me interested. I've got some books, but ive always found tutorial videos and such easier to learn off, but at the same time, I want some structure to my learning!

Cheers guys!

 

[Mojo]

I Recently purchased these books to help with theory and understanding of chord progression etc.

Music Theory for Guitarists: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask
Fretboard Roadmaps: The Essential Guitar Patterns That All the Pros Know and Use (Guitar Techniques)
Chord Chemistry

Fretboard Roadmaps is good, it has filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. I play an hour a day then spend 30 mins on some exercises. Stuff like finding every A on the fretboard, once in memory go for A# and so on. Playing different scales is pretty cool too and good for acuracy.

I also try to mess with the songs I know,, figure out the notes and the chords then move them arround the fretboard, (They usualy sound crap but that's not the point of doing it)

But the best tool I used is this

It's a great way to check what u think you know and map stuff out. I have maybe 20 of these printed out with all kinds of crap drawn all over them now.

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

Made a file a little while ago which lists all the main major and minor scales (upto 7 sharps and 7 flats)

It's not much, there's little explanation and all, but it was suffice for me at that time, and never got to the information add part, but for those that are interrested in it:

Bugger, PDF attachment is 19KB max.....

Deebs or Jupitus!! please raise this to a more normal level. 19KB pdf is like a single page without images... :/

 

[Healer McHeal]

when i started playing a few months back, started with a Fender (elec), was a cheapy one but sounded ok so i kept with it a while (was using a Laney amp).

Now im using a Jackson guitar (not a overly cheap one either heh) and a nice Marshall MG100 DFX, basically if you get a half decent guitar when you start it makes it seem easier then it actually is because stuff sounds nicer, its when you buy a real cheap guitar that you learn real slow and dont really want to try.

So, in short, a good guitar makes it easier to learn (imo).

These days i can just look at say... november rain solo tabs and start playing it (albeit not completely right instantly but still) it dont take long to actually learn stuff once you know the basics. Unfortunatly i only get to play 3-4 hours a day a couple of days a week but still.

Oh and about the acoustic question, you will want to ask some one in the shop to play it or take a friend who can play so you can hear its sound, if you like the sound it makes more chance you will actually try and play it. And if your friend can play ok it makes you think "if i get that good it will sound like 'this' etc" if all that makes sense .

 

[fl3a]

stop calling squiers fenders, people!

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

okay, the pdf file with the scales
I used sharpened flats and double sharps in there to show what's actually going on in harmonic and melodic scales, but ofcourse a raised flat is thesame as the flat removed, ie. a Besis is thesame as a B etc. and a doublesharp note like Fisis is a G...

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

stop calling squiers fenders, people!

Squiers are made by fender, hence they are fenders. Whether or not you think they qualify to carry the fender name, really doesn't matter.

 

[Healer McHeal]

okay, the pdf file with the scales
I used sharpened flats and double sharps in there to show what's actually going on in harmonic and melodic scales, but ofcourse a raised flat is thesame as the flat removed, ie. a Besis is thesame as a B etc. and a doublesharp note like Fisis is a G...

quite useful that made me have to remember which fret is which 'note' lol, anyway, reading it reminded me.

Anyone able to tell me how to 'harm' a note? i know its to do with pressure on the frett and finding the sweet spot but ive only ever done it a couple of times by accident and it bugs me lol. so any one got a fairly simple way of doing it?

Cheers

 

[fl3a]

Squiers are made by fender, hence they are fenders. Whether or not you think they qualify to carry the fender name, really doesn't matter.

if they were fenders they would be called fenders they are not made in the same factories, of different quality materials. lamborghinis arent audis, even though audi owns lambo.

 

[tris-]

went into the local music shop today. i asked the guy for a beginners acoustic guitar in the 60-80 range with steel strings. he produced a blue guitar of some sort for 89, and the manufacturer escapes me. according to him its the best they have for beginners but im wondering, is there a particular manufacturer i should be aware of?

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

if they were fenders they would be called fenders they are not made in the same factories, of different quality materials. lamborghinis arent audis, even though audi owns lambo.

What does it say on the bottom right of the logo??

A fiat logo doesn't sport a horse in its logo.

 

[Yshynsin]

quite useful that made me have to remember which fret is which 'note' lol, anyway, reading it reminded me.

Anyone able to tell me how to 'harm' a note? i know its to do with pressure on the frett and finding the sweet spot but ive only ever done it a couple of times by accident and it bugs me lol. so any one got a fairly simple way of doing it?

Cheers

Theres many ways of doing this.

For a Natural Harmonic, put your finger just over the strings over the fret bar. it works best on fret 12, on the bar there, with the top 3 strings, E, B G.

for a pinch harmonic (im still trying these) you need to turn your pick, so that your thumb/finger and strike and at the end, make contact with the finger/thumb and it will produce the pinch harmonic. This is v diffucult tho.