I bought my gee-tar! Yee ha! (with picts) (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Ulmer]

Well, it is also true that many songs, especially in the hard rock/metal genres, are very difficult to transpose, good musicianship or not - if you want to keep the arrangement. Even playing SOTW in E requires your bass player to use a five string to match Glover's arrangement.

I use capos on electrics when necessary - I just don't solo on the tremolo bar while capoed.

 

[Francois Caron]

An update.

I've been pretty busy these last few weeks so I haven't been practicing as much as I should. In fact, I seem to spend more time modifying the equipment than practicing. I've been "tweaking" just about everything in almost the same way I've "tweaked" my computer with a Dremel rotary tool!

Here's what I've done up to now.

- Replaced the 250K linear pots with 500K audio log pots
- Rewired everything using the star grounding technique thus removing almost all the ground loops
- Replaced the unshielded single coil pickup wires with braid shielded Canare microphone cable
- Removed the "cheater" resistor on the volume pot (allows a linear pot to act like a log pot)
- Replaced the capacitor on the tone pot (the original higher value cap would turn the sound to mush)

The new guitar amp also fell prey to my mod-itis. I've purchased a Roland Micro-Cube during Christmas and replaced the tinny sounding 5" Chinese made speaker with an Italian made Jensen 5" all-purpose speaker driver. It doesn't play as loudly as before (8 ohm instead of 4 ohm) but the sound drop-off is minimal and the amp sounds so much better.

As for the Fender Frontman II 15R I've originally purchased, it's out of the picture. My condo is susceptible to radio frequency interference and the Fender is affected by it to the point where I don't like all the noise that comes out of it. It's for sale if anyone is interested. The Roland Micro-Cube however is powered by 9 volts DC using a wall-wart or batteries, and that helps isolate it against much of the interference. And if I need more power, I might be able to use a 30 watt Roland stage monitor and plug the Micro-Cube in it. As a pre-processor, the Micro-Cube does a decent job.

But now my mod-itis is getting pretty bad. I'm now experimenting with the idea of winding my own guitar pickups! For the cost of two new pickups, I could set myself up with enough equipment to wind just about any type of guitar pickup I want to try out. One of the design ideas I have in mind is a single coil style noise cancelling hex pickup where each pole is individually wound.

And now I believe I have GAS because I'm considering the Godin Freeway Classic or the new Floyd Rose as my next purchase! They look real nice in the store!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to try some 10-46 strings on my Exit-22. Gotta readjust the intonation and hope the nut can handle the new string size otherwise I'll have to find myself a saw...

 

[Joe D]

It sounds like you've been busy with your guitar, but have you played it at all?

Do not go out and buy a guitar with a Floyd Rose on it. Learn on the fixed bridge guitar first and after you've learned the instrument you want a Floyd, get one. But right now it is only going to make the instrument more difficult.

I enjoy the program Guitar Pro.

www.guitar-pro.com

It is a midi based program that you can play along with.

www.mysongbook.com has thousands of Guitar Pro files.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Damn, Zen even has a lightning-bolt guitar. is there no limit to his coolness!

 

[Alex Prosak]

Just came across this thread. That's a very nice looking guitar you picked up! I just got into learning to play the guitar myself and picked up a Epiphone Les Paul Custom

and a Little Martin acoustic/electric for my son. We've been having a blast learning together.

My one regret is getting the crappy little Marshall practice amp. I knew that I was already going to be in big trouble with my wife for going over budget and I didn't want to make things worse. I wish I had now as she wasn't as pissed as I thought she might be. I'm looking at getting a tube amp as I love their sound, maybe an entry level VOX, not sure yet.

 

[Francois Caron]

Joe, don't worry. I won't buy a new guitar any time soon. But it's nice to know I can pick one off the rack and strum it a bit just to get a feel for it. And yes, I have been practicing a bit, just not as much as I would have thought. But that's all right. I bought the thing to help me relax and to learn how it works, not to become so obsessive over it that I push everything else in my life to the side.

When summer comes, I do plan on practicing a bit more during weeknights especially since the sun will set so late in the day that I won't be able to turn on my front projection system until 10 PM.

Alex, nice axe. Epi Les Pauls have a decent reputation. Have fun!

Oh! Belle et Bum is on now! Live music, music, music! Gotta go!

 

[Tim Hoover]

Uhoh...Francois is moving up string gauges now! I've been playing 10s for years and have recently moved up to 11s, which I really dig. A buddy of mine plays 13s, and suffice to say I don't have the forearm strength to play on those bridge cables.

While we're on the topic of strings, what is everyone's preferred brand? It's an oft-overlooked part of the process, and one that can make a big difference. For the record, I love the Rotosound nickel-plated ones. In a 10-gauge, they'd be the Roto Yellows. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the Roto guys give me enough at every summer NAMM show to keep me stocked for most of the year