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

[BlueDiamonds]

Me? XD I usually practice mid week because that's when our teachers give us a slight break from homework minus AP classes. My lessons are Saturdays so I usually practice Sunday..Pick it up mid week and Friday. Tuesdays are vocals for classical music. (BLEH!...Ish...Some songs I like....) So my vocals get nill attention.

[Sapphy]

Ah, okay... shows how much I know Which is nothing.

And no, I guess I've not had a problem with school not leaving time for guitar.

[Strafe]

Ok. So added 3 new pedals to my board today: TC Electronics Polytune, which lets you tune all six strings at once. Super cool and fast. Dunlop Crybaby Wah. Nothing fancy. Just a nice cheap wah pedal to play around with. And my Dad's old Sparkle drive, which has some tubescreamer sounds that go great with delay and SRV.

That gives me a total of 5 gain stages: Vox OD (Bright British), OCD (Marshall), Sparkle Drive (Tubescreamer), Big Muff (Fuzz), Fatboost (Take it past 11). I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm done with gain stages for now. Running in combination, I basically have a ridiculous number of tones that I could get.

Actually, the only thing left to do is replace the compressor, and get a better AB switch. The ones I have now are noisy and suck tone.

Picture:

Stompy update!

[Syreth]

Ok. So added 3 new pedals to my board today: TC Electronics Polytune, which lets you tune all six strings at once. Super cool and fast. Dunlop Crybaby Wah. Nothing fancy. Just a nice cheap wah pedal to play around with. And my Dad's old Sparkle drive, which has some tubescreamer sounds that go great with delay and SRV.

That gives me a total of 5 gain stages: Vox OD (Bright British), OCD (Marshall), Sparkle Drive (Tubescreamer), Big Muff (Fuzz), Fatboost (Take it past 11). I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm done with gain stages for now. Running in combination, I basically have a ridiculous number of tones that I could get.

Actually, the only thing left to do is replace the compressor, and get a better AB switch. The ones I have now are noisy and suck tone.

Picture:

Stompy update!

And people say that money can't buy happiness? lol

I wish I had half the equipment you do. Seriously. But alas, I am dirt poor.

Congrats on the new pedals. Sounds like they are really useful.

[Strafe]

Yeah. They're really nice, although I don't quite deserve them yet. Hopefully someday I'll be able to justify having them with my playing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0GhvwGyABs

So I played a gig today... and I thought we sucked when we actually didn't sound that bad. I picked up this really good drummer without practicing, and wow, he was incredible. It sucked that my friend's amp was so quiet though. He can kill at guitar.

[BlueDiamonds]

Yeah, it's actually pretty decent. It sounds familiar.....Maybe Nirvana? I can't quite put my finger on it. So did all those people come to see the gig then?

[Strafe]

I wrote it in a 90s grunge style, so pretty good guess. Sort of a Nirvana/ Soundgarden thing. I just needed my earplugs so I could sing in tune and tell my guitar was out of tune sooner. Earplugs really help you hear through the mix, and your own voice. I forgot them though. heheh. It was a coffeehouse sort of gig, I was just one of the many acts playing.

[Strafe]

So is this thread dying? Then how about a new question:

What are your favorite guitar tones?

My all time favorite is the Van Halen Brown sound, which I have a pseudo version of emulating with cascading gain stages. Then Straight after is the AC30 crowd Brian May and the Edge. Basically why I got an AC15. Then another great tone is Angus Young into his Marshall.

[Strafe]

I suppose Lady Rushia is a bit too busy to come around with college, there's not much to talk about, and everyone else sort of stopped coming to CAA... in that case, Triple post!!!

I've been thinking about modding my amp... but I played around with the settings, and found some really incredible sounds that I didn't know the amp could do, so I'm keeping it around.

Trying out for my school's Jazz Band I on Sax and Jazz Band II on Guitar. I'll definitely be lead Alto for Jazz I, which is the higher band, and also confident on making jazz II on guitar. It'll be fun trying to play jazz.

Getting my Strat's middle pickup repaired soon too...

yeah... basically nothings happening, and I'm getting pretty busy myself. Hrm... Dying thread...

[LadyRushia]

I played in a jazz band once. Definitely the most diverse guitar chords I've ever seen and I only remember how to play one of them properly, XD.

Also yes, I'm busy with school and stuff, but I'm still alive! I got my loop pedal a couple weeks ago and I've played around with it a bit, but haven't had much time to discover everything it can do. So far, I've basically had some relaxing 10-minute jam sessions with myself, XD.

Oh! And back in October I took my friends home for the weekend and I played a bit at our annual neighborhood block party. It was a lot of fun and my dad's music friends were full of compliments as always, even though I don't think I'm all that good of a player, XD.

[Strafe]

YAY! We be not dead-ish!

The audition music is pretty easy on chords, which is nice. There's a swing blues in F with a bunch of 2-5-1-5 turnarounds, and a bossa nova. The hardest chord between the two is F7#11 which is just the ending flourish chord for the blues. Everything else is just 7s and 6s. The problem is that the melody is in standard notation, which is a pain to read on guitar. Not something I could sightread.

Yeah I was wondering how your gig turned out. As you could see, mine turned out not so good. Good to hear that yours did.

I've been playing my acoustic guitar as if it were electric lately to help build my finger strength, but I decided to go back on my thoughts on finger picking and learn something acoustic today, So I started on Neon by John Mayer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPvkSo1itgc

the guitar part is alot easier than it sounds. I got it almost completely down in about 30 minutes, but my right hands have no callous, so I tore open my ring finger and now it's bleeding. Hopefully it'll be a callous when it heals... <_< The real hard part is singing and playing it at the same time.

[BlueDiamonds]

So is this thread dying? Then how about a new question:

What are your favorite guitar tones?

My all time favorite is the Van Halen Brown sound, which I have a pseudo version of emulating with cascading gain stages. Then Straight after is the AC30 crowd Brian May and the Edge. Basically why I got an AC15. Then another great tone is Angus Young into his Marshall.

Sorry about that. I've been pretty busy.....With finishing Soul Eater. And school! School most importantly! XD

My favorite tones would have to be a mix of the Hawthorne Heights or a little Taking Back Sunday and Underoath on TOCS album. It's kind of hard to explain. I've always loved the type of feel it has when the song sounds like it's been recorded in a wooden basement studio down south or something. Does this make any sense?

[Warrior4Christ]

Ok. So added 3 new pedals to my board today: TC Electronics Polytune, which lets you tune all six strings at once. Super cool and fast. Dunlop Crybaby Wah. Nothing fancy. Just a nice cheap wah pedal to play around with. And my Dad's old Sparkle drive, which has some tubescreamer sounds that go great with delay and SRV.

That gives me a total of 5 gain stages: Vox OD (Bright British), OCD (Marshall), Sparkle Drive (Tubescreamer), Big Muff (Fuzz), Fatboost (Take it past 11). I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm done with gain stages for now. Running in combination, I basically have a ridiculous number of tones that I could get.

Actually, the only thing left to do is replace the compressor, and get a better AB switch. The ones I have now are noisy and suck tone.

Picture:

Stompy update!

Very nice collection there...
I've used the Sparkle Drive with bass before - it's didn't work too badly.
I got my first effects pedal the other day - T-Rex Bass Juice. It's like the Sparkle Drive, but designed for bass, and it has a Boost button! You can get mega distortion with it - it's basically the only time I've heard squealing feedback through a bass! So that's my excitement with the new toy.

[Strafe]

@BlueDiamonds

Yeah, I think I know what you mean, like the modern distorted humbucker guitar tone from like a marshall or Mesa. Modern guitars sound nice and huge. The clean tone, however <_<.... But not too sure about what the wooden cabin down south means. That would make me think of something like ZZ Top, which is very far away from the modern alternative/ punk/ emo stuff.

@Warrior4Christ

Yeah. Distorted bass is cool, but certain types of break up sounds bad on it. Like el84 break up sounds kind of bad when I do it. T-Rex pedals are really nice. If I didn't have the Sparkle Drive, I would have gotten the MAB Overdrive.

But how often do bassists use distortion? The only song that instantly comes to mind is Starlight by Muse.

[Syreth]

Figured I'd chime in with something I'm absolutely stoked about. See, I haven't played on an amplified electric guitar for months because I temporarily moved across the country and couldn't take my amp with me. Long story short, my amp was mistakenly given to someone... and I've been trying to track it down for months, and yesterday, the person with my amp finally got back to me! So finally my long lost amp will be in my possession once again. It's nothing special - just a 100 watt Peavey Bandit 112. But exciting nonetheless.

[BlueDiamonds]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNCoih1G9_Q&ob=av2e
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkiE-TEU7DU
I think these two might be the best at what I'm driving at?...Maybe....I will find the perfect example! Maybe something like Kiss Me: New Found Glory? This is driving me nuts! XP
AC/DC's Back in Black is close though.

Nevermind nevermind! I remember! It's the Shinedown Save Me feel! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8dyxGiBx3g&ob=av2n

[Strafe]

@Syreth

That amp actually looks pretty nice. Sounds nice on youtube. The Tube Hybrid thing is really cool. Those seem to be getting more popular lately. Very versatile. And since it's a peavey, I'll bet it shreds like a monster... for being a 1x12 atleast. Although 1x12s are alot larger sounding than people think.

@BlueDiamonds

yeah. The huge modern sound I got it. It's nice and giant. Sort of like what would happen if I plugged into a closed back 4x12 and turned on multiple gain stages. I like that sound too.

[BlueDiamonds]

Yeah. Kind of like Black Stone Cherry? I'm glad I got that across!

[Warrior4Christ]

Yeah. Distorted bass is cool, but certain types of break up sounds bad on it. Like el84 break up sounds kind of bad when I do it. T-Rex pedals are really nice. If I didn't have the Sparkle Drive, I would have gotten the MAB Overdrive.

But how often do bassists use distortion? The only song that instantly comes to mind is Starlight by Muse.

Yeah, I don't seriously use mega distortion at all with bass... it's just in playing around "because I can". I'm mostly use a subtle distortion to help it cut through the band mix a bit. Sometimes it'll be more than subtle, of course...

There's a number that I can think of... Everything About You by Sanctus Real, Codename: Raven by House of Heroes, Buckets For Bullets by House of Heroes (actually, quite a few (almost all) HoH ones do), I'm So Sick and Swept Away by Flyleaf (again, probably almost all of their songs do too!), Nothing To Say and Dancing On The Inside by Antiskeptic, This Is Your Life by Switchfoot (okay, it's probably synthesised on the recording)... As a guess, perhaps even most rock/alternative songs would have at least some subtle distortion to help bring it out a bit, without you even noticing...

[Strafe]

Yup yup. Got it.

Whoops. I know like every single one of those songs. I actually listened to Buckets an hour ago <_< Hehehhh. My badd. Lol. Then I'll bet that pedal was a great buy for you.

Today was day one of Jazz tryouts, and tomorrow's day two. I'm wondering why no one else in the school can play guitar. At this rate, I'll end up making it into jazz I on both Alto and Guitar, and I dunno how that will work out.

[Warrior4Christ]

Yup yup. Got it.

Whoops. I know like every single one of those songs. I actually listened to Buckets an hour ago <_< Hehehhh. My badd. Lol. Then I'll bet that pedal was a great buy for you.

Today was day one of Jazz tryouts, and tomorrow's day two. I'm wondering why no one else in the school can play guitar. At this rate, I'll end up making it into jazz I on both Alto and Guitar, and I dunno how that will work out.

Pssh, no I hate them! Hehe, nah, I do love them all...
I just notice it more because I play bass perhaps...

A one man band... but wouldn't it just be up to you what to chose?

[Strafe]

Yeah, I chose to keep up with Sax, and play guitar for the lower band. Sax is more of my "Primary" instrument even though I like guitar more.

Anyways, My pedalboard is crapping out on me, so I need to replace some of the cables. I bought a 6 pack of really cheap ones, and they broke down after a month. tsk. tsk. Oh well, lesson learned.

[BlueDiamonds]

Yeah, with guitar stuff I usually never buy cheap stuff. I bought a cheap guitar to begin with and that just made the whole trip a lot more frustrating. The strings were way to high, it was an electric and much harder to play than my acoustic, and it went out of tune so often! It had mechanical problems...Bleh!

[Strafe]

OKAY! Finally something to write about! I just got done recording the first song I ever take a legit guitar solo in... albeit a 15 second solo. But still, I think it turned out pretty well:

http://soundcloud.com/mattkimdemos/roman-candles

[Syreth]

OKAY! Finally something to write about! I just got done recording the first song I ever take a legit guitar solo in... albeit a 15 second solo. But still, I think it turned out pretty well:

http://soundcloud.com/mattkimdemos/roman-candles

Actually dude, in all honesty, the song itself is so well written that the guitar solo kind of falls out of the spotlight for me. And I mean that to say that it's really an excellently written song. You've got some real talent there.

[Strafe]

Lol. I thought so too. Listening to it, it almost seems a bit out of place. Oh well. It was fun to record and put together. Except for the drums, which is the most annoying thing ever.

[armeck]

this is really random, and doesn't fit in the conversation at all. but. does anyone know of a good online resource to learn guitar? i basically know nothing about playing it so. i'm not really sure how to tell a good resource from a bad one.

[Strafe]

Hey! Don't worry about being off topic. That's just how things are.

I never learned to watch videos, or go online for resources until recently. When I first started, I had this little Hal Leonard Book that I practiced every now and then. After a while of fundamentals, I just played everything I could hear, picked up random tabs, wrote songs, and just jammed.

But it depends a little bit if guitar is your first instrument or not. If it is, then you'll have a really hard time learning music in general without a teacher. If you already play like the piano or a general tonal instrument, it will be much easier to get into. You don't want to develop bad habits, or have terrible rhythm.

But the foundation is important. You have to get through the boring stuff first. The stuff where you sound so incredibly terrible that you want to quit. If you can get over that, it's all easy from there. Practice a lot to get things down.

So I don't know what's good, but since I had been playing piano for 7 years, and sax for 5 when I started guitar, I started with "Hal Leonard Guitar Method," where the first book is really geared towards absolute beginners and has these great little play along tracks. A lot of the online stuff is a bit too complex or not enough in detail for beginners. If you really want to start and get good, go buy a book.

You'll have to pay anyways. Good online videos and resources cost money, and being a beginner, can be confusing. At least in my experience.

[armeck]

i don't play any other instruments, though i do know a bit about music, i run the sound system at church (if that means anything) yeah i guess i could get a book from the library, and i will have to start with acoustic guitar (because that's all i can get now) but thanks a lot man, i was about to give up but i might try this again

[Strafe]

Ooh. Pretty good idea about the library. Saves some money.

Yeah anytime dude! Stop by this thread again whenever you feel like it. And glad I could help.