Francois Caron

I bought my gee-tar! Yee ha! (with picts)

I was able to purchase my guitar this evening, a Godin Exit-22 S with mahogany body, rock maple neck and 22 fret maple fingerboard. Along with the guitar, I also bought a Fender Frontman amp model 15R, a Digiflex CPP-15 cable, a spare set of Godin guitar strings, a neck strap, a guitar stand (a model commonly used by the store), and a few assorted picks. I still need to purchase a tuning fork.

Here's a picture of the main elements.



A close-up of the pick-ups. Two single coils and one humbucker. The bridge is fixed.



An image of the cable (sorry, slightly fuzzy). I bought this one because the cable itself is a Canare GS-6 guitar cable. And I use Canare cables for my home theater's interconnects.



This is the back of the gig bag. There's a second pocket behind the fishnet pocket at the bottom, and there's a second pocket behind the front top pocket.



This is the front of the gig bag with the shoulder straps. There's yet another pocket behind it.



The gig bag is truly impressive. There are plenty of pockets, there are handles all over the place, and it even includes a shoulder strap for carrying it on your side. This is NOT a cheap throwaway bag they're giving you here! This bag has a lot of value in it!

The guitar came pre-tuned from the store and sounded great when one of the clerks demoed it for me last night. There's enough sonic flexibility in the guitar to play pretty much anything that may interest me.

The guitar with the gig bag cost me $450 CDN plus tax. The amp cost me $170 CDN plus tax. All in all, an excellent deal.

But now I have to learn how to play this guitar. Time to practice my scales! My neighbours are going to HATE me!

Again, thanks for all your help.

Mike Brogan

Looks nice, good luck.

I'd recommend getting an electric tuner instead of a tuning fork. You can get one for under $10 (US) and it plugs right into your guitar.

Francois Caron

Mike, any brands you would recommend? I'll be heading back to the store probably today.

A follow-up on the amp, they didn't have any Roland or Crate models on hand. They did have a small Marshall amp, but they steered me towards the Fender models instead. We tried one with reverb and one without. It sounded reasonable. The price difference between the two was only thirty bucks.

Also, I didn't find the Flip-It On Stage stand as was recommended by Jeff. But the no-name brand they use themselves is of reasonable quality and does have a locking strap around the neck.

Philip_G

Cool!
keep us posted on how the lessons go.

My DVDs

Philip Hamm

That guitar is goregeous!!! Congratulations.

My advice is to spend less time on scales and more time on chords. What would you rather play, solos or songs? Knowing chords is much more useful for a playing guitarrist, and using chord tones can be really effective in soloing, moreso than ramping up and down scales.

The best tuner I've ever used (including very expensive rack mount ones) is a $14.99 Korg. Picks up the low "B" on my 5 and 6 string basses instantly. AVOID "Quick Tune" tuners, just about anything else is perfect. Forks work great for acoustic guitars, but not really for electric.

You can't go wrong with a Fender practice amp IMO.

Practice practice practice!!!!!

Philip Hamm
Moderator Emeritus

Mike Brogan

Francois,
I use a Korg GA30 for my acoustic, electric and bass guitars and have had no problems. Like I said, it's cheap (I think I paid $9.95 for it) and beats tuning by ear. And if you do want to do it audibly it also gives you a tone for each sting. There are more expensive Chromatic tuners out there, Korg also makes these. I'm not an expert on them so you might want to search the net for a good guitar gear review site. Anyway, here's a link to what I have.

Korg GA30

Philip_G

these two threads make me want to buy a guitar

My DVDs

Philip_T

Sweet!
Nice looking guitar Francois. Of course, you know, Smoke on the Water has to be the 1st song you learn.
I can still remember my 1st guitar. What a POS. I think the strings were actually from a power line. The thing was homemade, never stayed in tune and had no paint. I much prefer my current guitar.


Good luck with your new toy!

Edit: found a better picture, but mines red.

Zen Butler

Very cool Francois. Looks very nice. My main electric is a 1985 Carvin v220, it's extremely heavy. Ebony fretboard. I replaced that lame Kahler Tremelo system years ago with a Badass fixed bridge. Mine is very similar to the one below, minus the "whammy bar" set-up. Should post a pic.

Evan M.

Looks GREAT!! Congratulations!! You must be psyched!

I agree that starting out learning the basic open major and minor chords is the way to go at first. Once you get them down....and it won't be long if you practice....then you can move up to the dreaded bar chords and then scales. Scales ARE very important to learn for electric guitar......but should stay on the back burner for the first few weeks. I think I remember you saying you have a background in music so I am sure you know how to read music....or at least understand it. If you do not know than LEARN!! I regret not doing it right off. I am blessed with a great ear but a great ear will only get you so far. Once I learned how to read (basic learning) things went to a new level.

And yes...Smoke on the Water or Peter Gun will probably come first LOL . Ironicaly though with Smoke on the Water people learn it (basic) on the E string by doing open, 3rd fret 5th fret....open 3rd, 6th, 5th....open 3rd, 5th, 3rd, open. But the REAL way to play it is on 2 totaly different strings. Once you llearn that than peter gun is really the same notes. You'll have a b