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

[Dr.Faust]

Ooh. Thanks dude, that really means alot to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMj7MHGkZKE

I covered Moon on the Water this morning. What other songs should I cover? Maybe anime, maybe anything else? I was thinking maybe Uso by SID, downtuning it a step or two... Mao's voice is incredible for a guy.

EDIT: Skimpy post, so I thought I might add some more stuff to make it unskinny:

So my guitar, or my Dad's old Strat, has been acting up alot lately, with new problems every so often. Makes sense, since it's like 12 years old. Not a vintage instrument, but I really ought to take better care of it. First, the Middle pickup started picking up microphonic feedback, which makes it unusable for anything but clean tones because any gain will cause it to squeal loudly. Then I had the issue with the truss rod and straightening it, which threw the action terribly off. The bridge saddles on the b string got really sharp and makes me break a string every 2 days... I went through 6 .10 mm strings in the past 2 weeks. I ran out of .11s a long time ago. And finally, the strap button... fell off today... The screw inside deteriorated the inside wood, so...

I'm going to home depot tomorrow... wish me luck on my little DIY projects... Can't wait until I get my own guitar... I'm also going to pick up a plank of wood, some spray paint and some handles to make a pedal board, which I'm going to name Stompy... Because I stomp on it...

Speaking of names, I named by Amp Liberty because I bought it on the 4th of July... well 5th, but if anyone asks, it's the 4th. It's really dorky to name inanimate objects, but I was feeling dorky-cool. And my own guitar will be named Evangeline, or Good news to remind me of the purpose it is for, or preaching the good news first and foremostly. Just a little tidbit about me.

Hay I'm facebook friends with my exgutiar teacher I can ask him advice on how to fix you strat if you want. As for now try heavy bottom Elexcer strings so they won't break so often. The cothing on the Elexcers will make them last longer. As far as covering songs you could try Weak by Skunk Anansie, or not its all depends if it fits you styal or not. Oh and Librity isen't a dorky name for an amp. My fluts name is Zato-1 and my Gutiar's name is Grandspaz Gutiar.

[Strafe]

Alright. Anytime then, LadyRushia.

You don't have to worry about it, Dr. Faust. I went to home depot and got some super epoxy type glue and shoved the screw back in. Shouldn't come out for a while now. And while I was there, I went and got stuff to make this:

My Pedal Board

And I did name it stompy.

Anyways. What next lesson should I do?

[Dr.Faust]

I say try some speed training, how to find cords, rythem for beiggner at the gutiar(that will be for the ultra beiggner), And maybe some licks. Yeah I know its a lot so do what you want and I'll try to lighten the load and help to some of the begginers.

[Strafe]

Those aren't really things you can teach. Speed comes after practicing the drills I showed in the second vid. Especially the chromatic picking coordination one that uses all four fingers. After time, chords are snaked into naturally. Rhythm is acquired. it can be practiced, but not taught. All of these things need to be practiced, not taught.

I can show you my favorite licks though. My Buddy guy lick and my David Gilmour bends are pretty simple, but sound fancy.

[Strafe]

Ok. A new lesson and some licks:

Legato Scales
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEn4W60jQBE

Stolen Licks For Your Lick Repertoire Library
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyg1uKqPWQ8

And I tried to cover Sid, but It really really really really sucked so I decided to record it some other day.

[Dr.Faust]

Good vids I like the lagoto scale

[Strafe]

Oh hey, LadyRushia! I noticed your avatar's from K-On and thought that you might be interested in this:

Yui Hirasawa Signature Les Paul

Now, it's probably not a super good guitar, but it's an interesting fandom piece nonetheless. Can't be worse than an Epiphone.

I never watched K-On, but I think I probably would like it... to an extent with all the moe and whatnot. I really really loved Beck though. Probably one of my favorite anime ever. It was just really cool. Actually, ever since I watched Beck, I've wanted a guitar with bullet holes in it... or a vintage tele... Or a vintage tele with bullet holes in it.

Speaking of damaged guitars, I've taken up a sort of hobby of refurbishing old beat up guitars, so I've learned alot about how they're made. I've taken apart and cleaned a fretless bass from maybe 20 years ago. An acoustic from the 70s which had lots of hippie paints and weird colors. There was alot of dirty stuff on it... And today, I might take a look at this vintage Archtop Acoustic that could be anywhere from 20 to 50 years old. It's neck is broken, so I might try to woodglue it back together to see what happens.

My grandparents went to this antique auction and picked up the guitars for really cheap prices. The bass was $8. The acoustic was $20, the Archtop, maybe $15. I would be proud of owning them... except they sound terrible since they were so neglected and nobody took care of them. No vintage tone whatsoever. We'll see if the archtop sounds any better if I can fix it.

[LadyRushia]

lol yeah, I wouldn't expect a gimmicky guitar like that to be too good. Yui's guitar is actually a top line Les Paul. I saw one exactly like it in a store and it was like $3,000.

I love K-ON, but one of my frustrations with the first season is that they didn't play as much music as I thought they would. The show is really about a group of girls who eat cake and drink tea and sometimes play really awesome music. Season two has some more character development. It's a very relaxed slice-of-life series, so not much happens simply due to the nature of the genre.

But K-ON sometimes brings up some interesting things regarding females and guitar playing. There's one episode where they're trying to get Yui a guitar and Mio the bass player is like "You're a girl, so you need something with a smaller/narrower neck" to which I am like "NO U" because being able to play the guitar has absolutely nothing to do with the size of your hands. It's all in building up your muscle strength. I have small hands and I do just fine with regular guitars, so when I see these "made for girls" brands, I cringe A) because they're sparkly and hideous and B) because I really don't see the point, XD. I understand having smaller guitars for children, but enforcing the gender line in the guitar world is not an awesome idea to me, XD. Sure, there are some guitars (mostly acoustic) that are too big for me or whatever, but that's not because I'm a girl. That's just because the guitar is too big and even with guitars that are "too big," most of it is just a matter of getting used to holding it and stuff.

/rant

Also, I'm still trying to get into a routine with school and everything else, so my time online is going to be limited for a bit longer.

[Sapphy]

See, I didn't realize there were guitars made more for girls O.0 I wouldn't use one.
I do understand how some acoustic guitars can be too big, because mine was too big a few years ago, but it's not because I'm a girl. And I learned how to hold it until it fit me anyway. Now I just have long arms and have no problem with it xD I mean, yeah, I had to build up muscles strength in my hands, but that has nothing to do with my hands... my hands aren't all that small. And I've found long fingers are helpful....
Now, I know some electric guitars are rather heavy, and I wouldn't want something like that, but that's just personal preference. Girls can play whatever guitar they want to.

[Rusty Claymore]

I want to see K-on... oh well. Besides, doesn't Mio want to be a standard guitarist? So since she's untrue to her instrement she's not one to give advice like that. XP
Quick question from a super novice: Can the metalic tone of strings fade over time, or are there strings that are enginered for resonence rather than twang?

[Diamond Dragon]

SAPPHY!!!!!! *glomp* I didn't know you where on CAA!

[LadyRushia]

I'm pretty sure Mio never says anything about wanting to be a certain type of player. She wants to play bass because she hates being in the spotlight. She gets embarrassed easily and doesn't like being the center of attention. She acts a little bit as Yui's instructor until Azusa comes along, which is kind of pointless because unless Mio knows a ridiculous amount about music, she as a bass player could only help Yui with very basic things. Oh well. It doesn't really matter since the girls in K-ON don't practice a lot, but then they have concerts and they're really awesome, XD.

[Sapphy]

@RC: I'm pretty sure different strings for electric guitar have different sounds -- more twang with lighter strings, more power -for lack of a better word- with heaver strings. I believe. I've just started learning electric.
For acoustic, I don't know how much the strings would change the sound.
After time the sound is more... flat, I guess you could say? The notes aren't as clear. You have to replace the strings every so often.

I think I understood the question correctly? xP And feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Rusty Claymore]

@RC: I'm pretty sure different strings for electric guitar have different sounds -- more twang with lighter strings, more power -for lack of a better word- with heaver strings. I believe. I've just started learning electric.
For acoustic, I don't know how much the strings would change the sound.
After time the sound is more... flat, I guess you could say? The notes aren't as clear. You have to replace the strings every so often.

I think I understood the question correctly? xP And feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I was just wondering since I play two different bass, one is new and the strings have a more metalic soundwhere you hear more of the actual plucking of the string, the other one is old and you mostly just hear the resonence, but the sound quality is fine. The worship leader thinks it's cause he strings need replacing(could be too, since they're the same strings as when I first started playing 4-5 years ago), but I wondered if there was more to it than that, since I like the resonence for what I'm stuck doing. XP

[Strafe]

Hrm... I kind of want to get a girl guitar... just to be funny in a dumb way. I go back and play my kiddy guitar sometimes, and it's alot of fun since it's so fast.

<_< 4-5 year old strings... I break a string every week, one time every two days... What I get for trying to be Buddy Guy. But I prefer the duller bass sound personally... since I'm a guitarist lol. I have my ideas of what sounds good, but I really have no idea.

I play 9s, and they're pretty quiet, but very fast. I could do 10s just fine, but I don't feel like adjusting. I play 12s on acoustic, and they're a good balance. Loud enough, but not bloody. I would do 13s, but I set my action high on the Taylor.

Speaking of Acoustic vs. Electric, I just covered Uso by SID in two versions. Which one is worse?

Electric
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGY-tTOk5tw&feature=channel

Acoustic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xg8jy41Hqs

[LadyRushia]

Okay, so I finally updated and changed things and whatnot, XD. I think I got all of the videos, but if I missed any let me know. Also, if there's something I should add or take out, let me know.

I briefly saw something about names for your instruments and stuff. All three of my guitars have names, XD. My Epiphone is Epi for obvious reasons (not very creative, XD). He has two younger sisters (my other two guitars, lol). There's Neza, who's an Ibanez acoustic/electric, and there's Seku-chan, my PRS. For the longest time, my PRS didn't have a name or a gender and I felt bad for it, but I finally figured it out a few weeks ago. It's an SE Custom, so I was like SE+Cu=Secu=Seku=Seku-chan!"

That's usually how I name things. That, or I name them after anime characters.

[Strafe]

Epi is an Epic Name... ... ... bad Joke I'm sorry.

I decided to name this guitar Tarantella, because some bug was living inside of it and bit me... I'm pretty sure it was a spider... But I'm wearing long sleeves to school now.

Before I fixed it

After I fixed it

EDIT: OH RIGHT I FORGOT

A big thank you to LadyRushia for taking time out of her busy schedule to edit the thread.

[color="Yellow"]THANK YOU!!![/color]

[Sapphy]

I guess I've never named my guitar xD Although my acoustic is supposedly my brother's too (psh, yeah right... he has no interest in learning guitar ), and I haven't really even used my electric.

[blkmage]

Username: blkmage
Guitar Experience: I've been learning on my own really sparsely/on and off over the last five years
Style: ┐(´～`；)┌
Gear: Squier P-Bass and some Fender bass amp that came with it
Future gear: I do not currently have plans to acquire more gear.
Favorite Guitarist(s): ┐(´～`；)┌
Dream Gear: ┐(´～`；)┌
Last thing you were playing: さよならメモリーズ
Other/ About me: I should probably learn fingerings properly.

[Strafe]

Whoa whoa dude. Slow down. That was a huge wall of text there...

I kid. Welcome to CAA's Guitar Center! Do you have any plans to get really into it any time soon? Maybe some of the other bassists could chime in about it too.

Is learning bass any different for people who've formally learned both? I play bass like I play guitar.

[TGJesusfreak]

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I've had a lot going on guys. I'll post again soon.

[Sapphy]

Gonna start working on electric guitar ^^ I have a lesson later today...

[Strafe]

YAY! Tell us how it goes!

[Sapphy]

It went pretty good... gotta remember where all the chords are, but that shouldn't take too long. Only take a couple minutes to remember them long enough to practice, and after a week or two I should have them memorized. I love being able to learn guitar stuff easily x3
My amp sucks though T_T I need a job... Between needing a hard case for both guitars eventually (I don't trust soft cases all that much, and they like to fold in half when I'm trying to put my guitar in), and a good amp. At least. Not to mention I want to learn bass and drums eventually. I need money. haha... *sigh*
This strum pattern thing is kind of hard to figure out after playing acoustic so much though. I'm alright if was just steady downstrokes, fairly fast, but at the moment I don't really have any songs to work on like that. Just gotta work on the chords, trying to figure out a couple songs I've already learned before on acoustic.

[Htom Sirveaux]

I got me a sweet new tube amp today It's a Fender Superchamp XD. And no, I'm not laughing, "XD" is part of the model name. Though it is an amusing coincidence. Anyway, it's on the small side but it packs a heck of a wallop. It's really versatile too, you can get all kinds of sound out of that thing. Paid $269 for it.

XD, indeed.

[Strafe]

I never really played acoustic and electric any different at the beginning. It wasn't until I got into playing leads that I really favored the electric. But acoustic is still my trusty vocal partner. Either way, I thought you already played acoustic. How are the chords any different? Strumming vs. Picking? Actually, how is anything acoustic played any differently on electric? <_<

Nice Dude. I'm not much for 6v6 tubes, or fender tubes in general, but I'm sure you'll be happy with it. Has all the effects too. Pretty decent for what you need I'm sure. A nice clean to slight break up for rhythm I guess. Not like you need a Marshall sound to lead worship.

Anyways, Me and my Mom bought my Dad a new amp for his birthday yesterday, a Vox AC4 half stack. 4 watts of just straight up vox goodness, so he can blast the amp, and not be loud at church. He always complains that his Fender Hot Rod is way too loud to lead worship. First legit birthday present I ever bought for Dad. And It was split $320. Comes in the mail next week. I'll tell you about how it sounds.

[Sapphy]

I never really played acoustic and electric any different at the beginning. It wasn't until I got into playing leads that I really favored the electric. But acoustic is still my trusty vocal partner. Either way, I thought you already played acoustic. How are the chords any different? Strumming vs. Picking? Actually, how is anything acoustic played any differently on electric? <_<

I'm told that bar chords are typically used on electric, rather than the fingering used for acoustic. Therefore instead of an up and down strum pattern, you would just use a down strum. I never really learned any sort of picking patterns.
The guy that's teaching me plays rhythm, not lead, so I'll have to figure out how to play lead by myself later, probably.

[Strafe]

It's easier than open chords actually. Learn one bar chord, you know 12. 12 majors with tonic note on the 6th string. 12 minors 6th string. 12 5th majors, 12 5th minors, and if you really want to, 4th string, but that's too annoying for me to do. 48 chords, 4 shapes. Then you can get into Maj 7 and whatnot. Bar makes everything simple. Note placement comes naturally. Open 6th is E, Open 5th is A, and then you get a feel of where the notes are from there. 6th string 3rd fret is G, because G is 3 half steps above E. Makes sense, right? Just know your alphabet well from A to G#

I learned bar chords on the acoustic though. The strum patterns should be exactly the same, save for skipped strings on an open chord. An up down strum pattern works with bar chords no problem. It's really no different unless you want to heavily focus on the bass tonic. Not sure what your teacher means.

[LadyRushia]

Yeah, I'm not so sure about the strictness of those differences either. I mean yeah, open chords work very well on acoustic guitars, but many songs that use acoustic guitars use barre chords--at least F and F# major and minor and B minor. All of the other differences have more to do with the fact that acoustic and electric guitars are two different breeds of the same instrument. Basic things like rhythms and chords shouldn't be different. I mean, there's more than one way to play a chord for sure but there aren't rhythms you play only on one and not the other unless you're talking about speed picking, but even speed picking can be done on an acoustic guitar, although it sounds more Spanish or Western than metal, XD.

[Sapphy]

There's not a whole lot of difference really. I'm just bad at explaining things xD