The Guitar Thread

[Uppercut]

On a mildly related note, i play the mandolin.



I love small things.

[Kweek]

just got one of these

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Dad picked up one of these today. The built in options are incredible.

[Top_Cat]

Hah! Nifty little thing, by the sounds of it. Just checked out the specs, looks like a pretty handy practice amp or one you can use for busking.

Myself, just bought me one of these to play with;



Will post vids when I play get my head around it and use it live.

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Haha, looks like an absolute beast!

[Top_Cat]

Originally Posted by dontcloseyoureyes

Haha, looks like an absolute beast!

That it is but not as beastly as the local guitar shops. They quoted me $1200 for it whereas buying it from the US online cost me $648 in total. Unbelieveable.

For people who are curious as to what they can do;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdF5R3EkaDM

Not that hard to do technically but Adam (local dude) pulls it off with such style, you can't help but love it I reckon. For the record, he's a sax player by training. The rest he's just picked up over the years.

Let this be a lesson, folks; never, ever, ever buy any musical equipment locally. The shops will happily ream you.

So....... when are we going to convert this into a guitar-playing Y00T00b thread?

[nightprowler10]

This is me before I had facial surgery.

[sledger]

Originally Posted by nightprowler10

This is me before I had facial surgery.

Put him back, he's not done yet!

[Josh]

I gnabbed a Monterey mock Telecaster. Sounds unbelievably clean and really good for a cheap guitar. Most people that hear it are amazed that it is a Monterey and not a Squire. The only problem is it picks up the bass E a bit heavy in the pickup, but a good sound mixer gets rid of that

[Days of Grace]

Decided that I want to learn guitar.

Have no idea how to start though.

1. Better to start with acoustic or electric. I think the former.
2. I'm naturally left-handed, so do I have to buy a left-handed guitar, or can I force myself to learn right-handed? Just thinking about it, learning right-handed from the beginning would be very difficult.
3. I'm living in Japan, so any guitar books will be in Japanese. Would you recommend getting a beginner's DVD?

[Steulen]

Originally Posted by Days of Grace

Decided that I want to learn guitar.

Have no idea how to start though.

1. Better to start with acoustic or electric. I think the former.
2. I'm naturally left-handed, so do I have to buy a left-handed guitar, or can I force myself to learn right-handed? Just thinking about it, learning right-handed from the beginning would be very difficult.
3. I'm living in Japan, so any guitar books will be in Japanese. Would you recommend getting a beginner's DVD?

1. On an electric guitar it is far easier to make things sound good, as a bit of overdrive will obscure any imperfections in your finger setting and timing. Needless to say, if you want to become a good guitar player and have the will power, go acoustic first. It can be a put off as it will sound horribly the first few,,,,ahem...decades, in my case.

2. I am also left-handed but play on right-handed guitars. I feel it helps me a lot with setting the fingers for chords etc., as that is done by my good hand, but I'm ****e at playing without a plectrum because it's my motor-impaired right hand that has to do that.

3. DVD's are good, you might also want to check out the Guitar for Dummies book, as it has a really good explanation of the system behind finger settings and what kind of lick is often used in different kinds of music. It basically is a great textbook for all the cliche riffs you'd ever want to use without sounding like you're just playing a really bad cover song. Other than that, you can find easy-to-understand tablature for almost any song you can think of on the Internet. They're good for quickly picking up skills as well.

Go for it, it's the coolest thing.

[Steulen]

Originally Posted by Uppercut

On a mildly related note, i play the mandolin.



I love small things.

How does it compare to playing the guitar? Is it basically the same? A mandoline is on my wish list, as I think they sound fantastic in heavy rock music, but I don't have the time nor drive to try and master a completely new instrument.

[Days of Grace]

Originally Posted by Steulen

2. I am also left-handed but play on right-handed guitars. I feel it helps me a lot with setting the fingers for chords etc., as that is done by my good hand, but I'm ****e at playing without a plectrum because it's my motor-impaired right hand that has to do that.
.

The thing is though that in cricket I bowl left-handed but bat right-handed. One of those people. It just feels more natural to play left-handed, but I don't think the local stores here have left-handed guitars.

One more question: do you have any recommendations for an actual make of guitar that would be good for a novice?

Cheers.

[Steulen]

Originally Posted by Days of Grace

The thing is though that in cricket I bowl left-handed but bat right-handed. One of those people. It just feels more natural to play left-handed, but I don't think the local stores here have left-handed guitars.

One more question: do you have any recommendations for an actual make of guitar that would be good for a novice?

Cheers.

If you buy a symmetric guitar, you can just take off the strings and put them back on in reverse order. That will give you a left-handed guitar.

Avoid a really cheap guitar as they will be difficult to play on. What you're looking for is a smooth-playing neck. Lots of brands will give you that. From personal experience, avoid the cheapest things in the Fender range. If you dare, just go to a shop and try a few that fit your budget. By just gliding your hand over the neck you will get a feel for how smooth they are. And ignore the wannabe guitar god playing away in the practice area, if he was really any good he wouldn't be there.

[Uppercut]

Originally Posted by Steulen

How does it compare to playing the guitar? Is it basically the same?

It's not that different to playing a guitar, but guitarists generally find it quite frustrating at first. Basic chords are much easier on mandolin than on guitar so if you want to play that kind of thing it wouldn't take too long to get good. If you want to play tunes it's awkward and takes some getting used to. Tremolo is a new skill in itself.

In my experience, really good guitarists still start off as complete beginners on a mandolin, so loads of them just cbf. But if they start playing properly they learn waaaay faster than the people who don't play guitar.