Tips for an old guy trying to learn guitar

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GrogNerd said:
I like my Marshall JCM900. 100 watts, but it's got a switch in the back to cut that to 50w. better for practice and smaller venues

no modeling on it, just 1 mode: British Stack

plus, it goes to 20

View attachment 362186
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These are what I play at the studio, awesome with a drummer. I've seen guys bringing pedals and boards. Not a bad idea
 
Been dabbling on and off with my old Fender F35 since my retirement 2-1/2 years ago. Finally decided to get serious about actually learning how to play. So, I jumped in and bought a new Stratocaster and Peavey Vypyr VIP 1 modeling amp, and signed up for lessons for the first time in my life.

My Strat.jpg

Brew on & rock on :mug:
 
When you guys play your Strats, do you ever accidentally stroke the pickup selector switch down when strumming?

Every time I play a Strat I do it. Decided I'm going to have to be a Tele kinda guy.
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
When you guys play your Strats, do you ever accidentally stroke the pickup selector switch down when strumming?

Every time I play a Strat I do it. Decided I'm going to have to be a Tele kinda guy.
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I may have, but don't recall ever doing it

my right-hand technique is based on economy-of-motion... don't move unless you need to move, so my strumming pretty much stays within the strings

plus I spend 90% of my time on the bridge pickup, so the switch is all the way down
 
Yeah, never caught on with the Pete Townshend "Windmill" strum technique.

I don't actually own a Strat, but I can't see catching the selector, personally.

I can totally see catching a knob, but I don't think that's ever happened to me. I think I've stepped on the cord once or twice and unplugged it...
 
I seem to bump the knobs more than I ever do the switch. I usually do keep the selector more toward the bridge though.

Here is something guitar related I've been working on, building a small amplifier than I can carry around or play in the living room at a lower volume. Since this video I replaced the chip with a real TI one and have changed the circuit so that there are only 4 AAs, also added a volume knob, so may have a board made soon. This was supposed to be a nice and simple project BUT, I keep thinking well I need distortion right? What about overdrive?

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZOqMLcVXW8[/ame]


@Ridire, hope your playing is coming along well, have you warmed up to the new guitar more?
 
doug293cz said:
Been dabbling on and off with my old Fender F35 since my retirement 2-1/2 years ago. Finally decided to get serious about actually learning how to play. So, I jumped in and bought a new Stratocaster and Peavey Vypyr VIP 1 modeling amp, and signed up for lessons for the first time in my life.

View attachment 366556

Brew on & rock on :mug:
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Thats a sweet strat. American strat? Looks it. I started on a mexican strat and did hit pick ups btw. Happy you are going for it. Let us know if we can help. With your talent i suspect your playing will come along well.

Sweet axe nerd. What are those pick ups?
 
applescrap said:
Thats a sweet strat. American strat? Looks it. I started on a mexican strat and did hit pick ups btw. Happy you are going for it. Let us know if we can help. With your talent i suspect your playing will come along well.

Sweet axe nerd. What are those pick ups?
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Yeah, it's an American Strat. I don't know enough about 'lectrics to know if I will be happy with the pickups long term, but I need to start somewhere (same with the amp.) Besides, every guitarist needs to own a Strat at some point in their life. Amp doesn't get delivered until tomorrow (Thurs), but have been practicing what little I do know on it without the amp. So far I am quite happy with how the store set up the action.

Brew on :mug:
 
the best advice i can give you is to either find a good video site that has guitar lesson u can find some on you tube but they are kinda randaom about what they teach i bout a video lesson set from hastings about 20 years ago to learn and it worked well for me also hal leonard makes a good general guitar video lesson course and individual group song lesson courses that show u how the songs are broken down the chords that are used and how they are picked out for lead and rythm
 
applescrap said:
Thats a sweet strat. American strat? Looks it. I started on a mexican strat and did hit pick ups btw. Happy you are going for it. Let us know if we can help. With your talent i suspect your playing will come along well.

Sweet axe nerd. What are those pick ups?
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sorry... didn't realize you were asking ME

I answered for doug293cz... his are Texas Specials

mine is a California Strat. American parts shipped to Mexico to be painted, in order to avoid environmental laws. and maybe child labor laws too

assembled back in the US... only made for two years, I got mine the day MARS Springfield, VA opened.

came with Tex Mex pickups, I replaced the bridge with a Jeff Beck Jr and the neck with a Lil '59, the middle is still the Tex Mex.

I did some custom electronics works on it... shielded it a bit better and installed push-pull pots under the tone knobs to split the coils on the humbuckers.

eventually replaced all the electronics with a ToneShaper
 
^^damn thats sweet. Double humbuckers awesome. Like that you can split the coils to if you want a more vintage sound.
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
When you guys play your Strats, do you ever accidentally stroke the pickup selector switch down when strumming?

Every time I play a Strat I do it. Decided I'm going to have to be a Tele kinda guy.
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stumbled across this today

http://loknob.com/nut-hugga.aspx

(ok, now I remember it was about the pickup selector switch... NOT the volume knobs. still thought you guys may be interested in the product. or the other stuff they have)
 
I'm 34 and I've been a student of the guitar since age 13. It's been a long road and I've gone 2-3 month long stretches without touching a guitar. It is a great thing to keep in the corner of your living room and pick up whenever you have a few minutes to noodle around.

I've never had a lesson so here's what I did to get to where I am now, which is knowing about 15 songs I can sing and play at the same time.
Learn the triad chords and learn how to change back and fourth between them. It's all muscle memory so you can work on, for instance, going from C to G then once you have that go from G to D, then D to F, then F to A, then A to E, etc etc...
A lot of old folk tunes are all basic triad chords and are fun to play. Check out youtube for covers from other people and play it in your own way.

When you want to learn to play lead I suggest getting a loop station pedal. You can play a simple 2-3 chord melody, loop it, and noodle around over it. It's fun and both you and your son can play along with the loop and learn together while jamming out.

Good luck and have fun!
 
The looper is a great tool because there's no pressure to keep up with someone else. Just play at your pace. It also can show you how unsynchronized you are by how tough it is to do a good loop.

I think that red headed irish kid (descriptive I know) is a good example to listen to.
 
Been a little quiet around here so I'll share something off topic you may enjoy.

A while back I picked up a CL guitar called a Gavelston. Made in China. Piece of crap. The whole idea was to destroy it and hang it up. Wife's idea - I think she wanted to take out her anger on a guitar.

Anyways right now I'm using tea to yellow the headstock. Already wore down finger marks on the neck.

I'll share more pics in the next few days once it's complete.

View attachment 1479410744088.jpg
 
Nice. A got a couple of friends who like to buy cheap-ass guitars and "fix them up" with new pickup arrangements and whatnot. Looks like something I could get into. I've been meaning to build a cigar box guitar for a while now. Maybe some day.

For now, my 17 to daughter is enjoying her birthday present Ukulele and learning some Christmas songs. I may check them out too and see if I can add some Guitar accompaniment. Hardest part will be not wanting to turn it into a kind of metal carol with crappy solo and everything. Maybe I should just tune up the acoustic and call it good.
 
Homercidal said:
Nice. A got a couple of friends who like to buy cheap-ass guitars and "fix them up" with new pickup arrangements and whatnot. Looks like something I could get into. I've been meaning to build a cigar box guitar for a while now. Maybe some day.

For now, my 17 to daughter is enjoying her birthday present Ukulele and learning some Christmas songs. I may check them out too and see if I can add some Guitar accompaniment. Hardest part will be not wanting to turn it into a kind of metal carol with crappy solo and everything. Maybe I should just tune up the acoustic and call it good.
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My dad ran a Uke through a Line 6 amp with a metal setting and did a pretty solid heavy metal version of Good Kind Wencelas (sp.). There's a time and a place!
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
My dad ran a Uke through a Line 6 amp with a metal setting and did a pretty solid heavy metal version of Good Kind Wencelas (sp.). There's a time and a place!
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I'll have to get her to plug into my amp and try out all the different amp and effect settings and see how it sounds. I think some delay or reverb would be cool to play with.
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
Been a little quiet around here so I'll share something off topic you may enjoy.

A while back I picked up a CL guitar called a Gavelston. Made in China. Piece of crap. The whole idea was to destroy it and hang it up. Wife's idea - I think she wanted to take out her anger on a guitar.

Anyways right now I'm using tea to yellow the headstock. Already wore down finger marks on the neck.

I'll share more pics in the next few days once it's complete.
Click to expand...

Update: The tea trick didn't work. I had seen a few very cool videos about it but it didn't work for me at all, despite having sanded way down. Oh well, no yellow color, but that's fine.

I put the guitar on the wall and will take a pic and post it later tonight.
 
Yea guys, don't let the thread die. I'm still working to improve on some basic chord changes but a guy that can actually play came over to my house today and made my cheap guitar sound pretty good. So now I'm inspired to practice a little more.
 
Haven't updated for a while. Been taking lessons on my Strat since September, and am now comfortable playing some new chords such as the open B7, playing the G with 2nd, 3rd & 4th fingers, and transitioning to and from barre chords based on the open C (up from just the E and A based barre chords.) Have been working on playing combinations of chords and riffs. Was working on "Jingle Bell Rock" before Christmas, but since then have gotten to were I can play a passable lead to the Ventures "Walk, Don't Run." Still can't seem to play anything completely thru mistake free however.

Brew on :mug:
 
applescrap said:
Awesome, what are you playing? Happy memorial day
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I played my Gibson Songwriter Deluxe Studio EC. I used my 75 watt Line 6 Spider Jam and an SM58 mic. I played about 3 hours and it was a blast. Lots of family and friends, some people from our Church showed up, more people than I anticipated. Some did Karaoke while I took a break, and later another guitar player showed up and we jammed after everyone had mostly left.

Playing with musicians who are better than me definitely encourages me to go home and practice more. I take inspiration from any place I can find it.

I love the Ventures, actually played a couple Ventures tunes today, including Walk, Don't Run. I've noticed all of their riffs seem to be based entirely from Major Scales. I wish I had a simple loop pedal for playing rhythm.

18740380_297776744015627_1610621512321169211_n.jpg
 
I just got an Epiphone Wildkat - hollow body guitar with P-90 pickups. It was about 23% off, and I'd been eyeing it for about 6 months so I couldn't say no.

The reason I got it was because I've been playing more Blues and I love the deep tones these hollow bodies give. I had an Epiphone which was nice for rock but I wasn't really playing that anyways. I played a ton of Hollow bodies, from Gibson to Gretsch to Harmony, but I kept coming back to the Wildkat because of it's feel and tone.

The P90 pickups just growl. Absolutely growl and shake everything, even through my little 25 or 30 Watt amp. Reaaallly nice for blues. They give a fantastic subdued tone, and the guitar gives a lot of great control. The down side is, because of this the bridge pick up doesn't have much sharpness or clarity at all. That said, I'm tempted to swap in some pickups from a Strat for the Bridge pickup. I don't know if it's possible but thinking about it.

Anyways, that's my little guitar update. Glad to hear from people again.
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
I just got an Epiphone Wildkat - hollow body guitar with P-90 pickups. It was about 23% off, and I'd been eyeing it for about 6 months so I couldn't say no.

The reason I got it was because I've been playing more Blues and I love the deep tones these hollow bodies give. I had an Epiphone which was nice for rock but I wasn't really playing that anyways. I played a ton of Hollow bodies, from Gibson to Gretsch to Harmony, but I kept coming back to the Wildkat because of it's feel and tone.

The P90 pickups just growl. Absolutely growl and shake everything, even through my little 25 or 30 Watt amp. Reaaallly nice for blues. They give a fantastic subdued tone, and the guitar gives a lot of great control. The down side is, because of this the bridge pick up doesn't have much sharpness or clarity at all. That said, I'm tempted to swap in some pickups from a Strat for the Bridge pickup. I don't know if it's possible but thinking about it.

Anyways, that's my little guitar update. Glad to hear from people again.
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Sort of interested in the P90s, pretty serious about getting a new electric toward the end of the year. It's probably going to be an SG or Les Paul, leaning heavily toward the SG. Not sure which model though.

I have a gig at a coffee shop next week, and I decided to get some new PA gear. I bought a Mackie Mix 8 and a pair of Behry 12 inch powered monitors. I will probably use 1 as a main and 1 as a monitor for now. I also bought all new cables and picked up a new gig bag for my backup acoustic.

I've still been practicing the piano quite a bit lately, my goal is to get good enough at the piano so that I can play both instruments at gigs or church. For now, I can play some whole songs on the piano but it isn't very polished. I also do not own a synthesizer anymore and am practicing on a Kimball. Who knows, if I'm improving well by the end of the year I may look for a good synth in the 1000-1500 dollar range instead of the guitar.

I hope you all are well, and I hope your enjoying your instruments.

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20170721_200434.jpg
 
Funny you mention the Mackie, I had been looking at one for our church but ultimately I decided to go with the Yamaha. We also just purchased the bose tower speaker and... Wow. It's just unreal. We got the largest model because we are in a large auditorium but we can't hardly give it any volume or it is too much. I may sometimes get to practice a little early just to crack it a bit before anyone else arrives... ;)

I need to practice more. Aside from playing acoustic each week I hardly pick up the guitar. Looks like I'll have the house to myself here this morning so maybe I'll see how much I can make the P90s howl.
 
Sounds like awesome gear gents. Wish I could sing well enough to have my own gig. I play piano estricklin and gig on it to. Glad you are at it. You could find my board for cheap now and i have seen pros use it. Its a yamaha s80 or is it s08. Wish i would have gotten something more fun, but if you want something that sounds and feels very real and is durable for gigs, this is kind of what you have to get. Makes a couple thousand different sounds. It was 1500 or 1600 new and the step up was close to 3k I think, but was similar. You could pick one up for like 400 I think. Note....its big and heavy.
 

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