CAA's Guitar Center: Discussion and Help For All Players

[Strafe]

But I agree with you dude. It gets really weird when they can tell you all about the output level of an alnico pickup vs ceramic and then they plonk along on guitar like they've never played before. Actually, unless you build guitars yourself, it's a bit weird to know that much anyways. I just like a thinnish neck and low action with easy bendability. All the rest is cool with me.

Heheh. I record in my basement on a netbook. It doesn't get very pro. The netbook should get back sometime nextweek then it's smooth sailing.

[TGJesusfreak]

This post is to wake this thread up.

I'm starting to learn electric guitar. But I can't find any good beginers basics vids on youtube. Anyone have any good advice or teachings?

[Syreth]

Anyone have any good advice or teachings?

Probably something you don't want to hear -- don't start with electric. Start with acoustic. It's better for developing technique and hand strength.

[TGJesusfreak]

Probably something you don't want to hear -- don't start with electric. Start with acoustic. It's better for developing technique and hand strength.

Actually I've already been playing acoustic for almost a year now. And I'm becoming familiar with the acoustic technique. (I'm a pretty fast learner XP)

Also I'm not planning on giving up acoustic once I start electric. In fact I want to learn both and quite possibly I'll prefer acoustic. I just want to be familiar with all types of guitar.

[Strafe]

heheh... I'd like to argue about starting electric first, but I started acoustic, so I'd have to say it's the best place to start. My friend started electric, and he can shred like crazy, but he can't bend more than 2 half steps and has a terrible sense of strumming technique/ rhythm. So yes. Acoustic is definitely the best place to start.

In any case, I have my comp back today, but couldn't install live. Incidentally, I'm too busy to actually record anything until the weekend, so I'm pretty much just waiting out the storm. I have a few ideas ready to record, so maybe something will pop up later on.

[Syreth]

Actually I've already been playing acoustic for almost a year now. And I'm becoming familiar with the acoustic technique. (I'm a pretty fast learner XP)

Also I'm not planning on giving up acoustic once I start electric. In fact I want to learn both and quite possibly I'll prefer acoustic. I just want to be familiar with all types of guitar.

Nice! Sounds like you already have a good foundation, then. I'd go right into learning scales in that case.

[TGJesusfreak]

Nice! Sounds like you already have a good foundation, then. I'd go right into learning scales in that case.

XD Way ahead of you on that. I've almost mastered the minor pentatonic and the blues scales.

[Syreth]

XD Way ahead of you on that. I've almost mastered the minor pentatonic and the blues scales.

That's good, man. I wouldn't minimize the usefulness of those scales, but I'd probably learn the traditional ones too. I'd recommend starting with Ionian and Aeolian, if you're looking for recommendations.

[Strafe]

(In other words, the tried and true "Major and Minor Scales". lol. No need to say things any fancier than they are. )

So... Homework, and I'm sick. I'm holding off until the weekend. Still need to install live... I did do some fun things with that archtop though. Open E tuning with a slide. Might make a vid on that. It's probably the easiest complicated-sounding thing ever.

[TGJesusfreak]

That's good, man. I wouldn't minimize the usefulness of those scales, but I'd probably learn the traditional ones too. I'd recommend starting with Ionian and Aeolian, if you're looking for recommendations.

Cool! Thanks! Got any links to s good diagram of them?

[LadyRushia]

Slide guitar is something that I haven't tried yet, but it sounds cool. I'd love to just play around with it one day or something, XD.

[Warrior4Christ]

Woo, just my new 250W Eden 2x10" amp arrived yesterday! It works quite sufficiently for my needs. Haven't been game enough to turn it anywhere near full yet....
As a bonus, it works as a nice and loud general purpose mono speaker too.

[Syreth]

Cool! Thanks! Got any links to s good diagram of them?

Here's a good diagram of some of the modes.

http://waltribeiro.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/modes-together_rt.jpg

(In other words, the tried and true "Major and Minor Scales". lol. No need to say things any fancier than they are. )

Aww come on... fancier is always better because it makes you look smarter!

In all seriousness, however, there are good reasons to refer to them as Aeolian and Ionian modes because it shows that these patterns are in fact modes of the same scale, not simply different scales.

True, they are the major and minor scale patterns as well, but recognizing that they're also modes makes them much more useful (you can essentially play any scale all the way up and down the neck when you know them all and how they work).

[TGJesusfreak]

Thanks dude!

[Strafe]

I dunno. I feel like there's a reason why we're taught the terms major and minor before ionian and aeolian modes. It's much easier for beginners to grasp. While it is much more convenient musically to refer to the diatonic mode, the concept has to be understood before the knowledge is usable. In the correct context, say a room with a bunch of musicians, it would be appropriate. But in a thread like this with people of varying experience, it would get lost on a lot of people. No need to make people look entire concepts up when you can just tell them what they already know a little bit about.

Anyways, I recorded a demo on Live, but there are no guitars, so there's no reason to post it here. I'm doing a rock song next, I'll have to recover my entire iTunes library first. it got deleted somehow... In the meantime, here's a vid on an easy trick for slide guitar.

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

[BlueDiamonds]

Guitar Experience: 2 years with guitar lessons
Style: Electric and acoustic. Rock, metal, blues
Gear: What model guitar(s) Squier Affinity Strat. Yes, I'm in that "everybody has that guitar" group! I run it through a Peavey amp.
Future gear: Esp F-350, still a Peavey or a Marshall perhaps?
Favorite Guitarist(s): Zacky, Gates, Jimi, Santana, Dimebag, Dan Donegan......The list could run forever forever...FoREVer!
Dream Gear: Swiping one of Zacky's or Gate's Schecters.
Last thing you were playing: The "bell' part to A7X's Nightmare and AC/DC's Back in Black.
Other/ About me: It's been two year with lessons, I've poured blood, sweat, and tears into that guitar........And I can barely play to save my life. Poor underdeveloped physical part of my body. My brain's working just fine. Maybe I'm missing something?

[Strafe]

Oh haha. I thought we were dying, but I never responded to you. my bad.

Hey, welcome to the thread. I see you like AX7. I think they're pretty cool. They did good for reintroducing the guitar solo to mainstream music.

Which Affinity Strat do you have? The fat strat or the regular one? You can tell by the bridge pickup, or the pickup closest to the bridge. The fat strat has a humbucker with two coils, and the regular has a singlecoil. I'm guessing you have the fat since you shred.

In Peavey vs. Marshall, go Marshall IMO. It's British vs American sound there, and I'm a big fan of british sounding guitar stuff, which is Marshall, Vox etc. Just my opinion. I don't care too much for marshall, but I care for peavey even less. Vox or if you have money, Matchless is tops IMO for amps.

---

And So... here it is. After 2 years of saving/ waiting, I am finally ordering a PRS on wednesday. Going to my favorite local shop, trying out my top picks and ordering from PRS through them. My top candidates are the DGT or Custom 24 25th anniversary model, which both look, sound, and feel incredible... and I have to wait 4-5 months for it... Longest 4-5 months of my life. But I'm so excited. I'm all giddy like a kid in a candy store. Can't wait.

[Strafe]

So this thread is dying...

And now begin the longest moments of my life. Today, I just ordered a 25th Anniversary Custom 24 after trying it out. It wasn't really much of a hard decision. I picked it up, and wow. Straight up from there, I knew it was the one.

So now I get to wait 3-5 months for PRS to build it for me... but atleast I know that the only person who ever plays my guitar is me. Cool feeling.

Here's what it will look like:

http://platinum.guitarcenter.com/platinum_images/products/large/17_159866_e_lg.jpg

[LadyRushia]

Oh wow. That's beautiful.

My dad and I are still waiting for my pedal to come in. Also, I'm going home this weekend to play at a neighborhood block party and I'm bringing some friends along. That should be fun.

[Strafe]

Thanks! It's only been 24 hours since I ordered it, and the wait is killing me.

But speaking of Dads, I just dug up some vids of my Dad at some concerts.

So this is him in Paris, covering Human by the killers. He's the singer. Apparently, French people like to dance.

Human (Paris)

This is the same song in a bigger concert hall. In DC with all this other stage set up

Human (DC)

How it Ends by Devotchka.

How it Ends

And what's this? Where have I seen that guitar he's playing before? Oh wait. It's in my room. It's my strat!

Moments of Beautiful

[BlueDiamonds]

Oh haha. I thought we were dying, but I never responded to you. my bad.

Hey, welcome to the thread. I see you like AX7. I think they're pretty cool. They did good for reintroducing the guitar solo to mainstream music.


Which Affinity Strat do you have? The fat strat or the regular one? You can tell by the bridge pickup, or the pickup closest to the bridge. The fat strat has a humbucker with two coils, and the regular has a singlecoil. I'm guessing you have the fat since you shred.


In Peavey vs. Marshall, go Marshall IMO. It's British vs American sound there, and I'm a big fan of british sounding guitar stuff, which is Marshall, Vox etc. Just my opinion. I don't care too much for marshall, but I care for peavey even less. Vox or if you have money, Matchless is tops IMO for amps.


---

And So... here it is. After 2 years of saving/ waiting, I am finally ordering a PRS on wednesday. Going to my favorite local shop, trying out my top picks and ordering from PRS through them. My top candidates are the DGT or Custom 24 25th anniversary model, which both look, sound, and feel incredible... and I have to wait 4-5 months for it... Longest 4-5 months of my life. But I'm so excited. I'm all giddy like a kid in a candy store. Can't wait.

Sorry, I've been a bit busy and wasn't able to reply as fast as I'd like to.

Uh-huh. Except their third album wasn't as good as I had expected. It seems like that with a lot of my bands. Anberlin, A7X, Disturbed...etc. Now August Burns Red better come through! Or Underoath better do something....Anything! I need them back to where they used to be which is a huge stretch.

I have a singlecoil actually. And no, what I do can not be called shredding. I'm a bit better than that fail of a Lil Wayne. It's just bad.....lol.

I see what you mean about the amps, but I'll see how they suit my tastes.

Wow....4-5 months. I think I could wait it out, but that's more like toying with a kid in a candy store. But it makes the candy all the more sweeter. I hope everything goes well!

[Strafe]

Nah yo. Lil Wayne is where it's at. He's so good. Like that time he busted out Mary had a little lamb during lollipop and missed every single note. He's my inspiration. (Cue sarcasm)

I'm sure you're a lot better than you give yourself credit for, Shredding or not.

[Strafe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-r9x_c0nfE

So double post, but I was feeling loopy, so I decided to go crazy in a La Grange Jam Track. It turned out better than I thought it would.

[BlueDiamonds]

Haha! Okay...I'm better than Lil Wayne, but I'm still not very good. If you've even heard Sum 41's the Hell song, I can get into the intro pretty close to the original as with the the chords without getting sloppy. Solo is out of the question though. XD

Sounds like something off of the Prince of Tennis soundtrack. It's good though.

[Strafe]

Sum 41 is always fun to jam to. Just straight forward stuff, nothing too complicated or fancy.

Lol. That was a track based on La Grange by ZZ Top. huge guitar song. If anything, Prince of Tennis Copied ZZ Top.

[BlueDiamonds]

I know. XD. I was just saying it sounded similiar to certain songs to Prince of Tennis, but I like em both just fine.

I suppose I should be working on Fat Lip, but I chose the Hell Song instead.

[TGJesusfreak]

Wow strafe! That's awesome! I want a guitar like that! XD And dude you can totally rock out! =D

Well I haven't played my guitrar in 4 days. XD I played again today as was all like "why am I so bad?" hmmmm... I wonder why?! XD

[Sapphy]

Learned drop-D (I believe it is?) tuning the other day... not much difference from regular tuning, of course. I do have all the chords memorized now, so I can find them pretty quickly. And from what I understand, bass guitar is fairly simple. I could probably find all the chords (are they chords on bass? Or notes? I fail ), at least... don't know any technique and have never tried it so I still can't actually play bass. But I'm closer! haha

Yup... that post wasn't really all that interesting...

[Syreth]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-r9x_c0nfE

So double post, but I was feeling loopy, so I decided to go crazy in a La Grange Jam Track. It turned out better than I thought it would.

Nice jam, dude!

[Strafe]

No, they're notes... Bass Chords are... blegh in my experience. I've yet to find any band that frequently uses bass chords on purpose.

Thanks man! That means alot coming from you.

But I've noticed a trend:

School is killing my chops. I realized that I hadn't played all week last week, and when I picked up the guitar, my hands were sluggish and clumsy. Not good since I have a sort of gig next thursday. Does anyone else besides me and TG have experience with this suckageness?