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Guitar players of GAF- Post pics of your guitars and gear

blackjaw

Member
Man, I'm so out of the loop on effects pedals these days - I'm totally clueless with these names. The last one I bought was a RAT distortion (which I lost) and the rest of my gear are old Boss and Ibanez stomp boxes.

Tuner, Sampler, delay, reverb/pad

Lots of really unique stuff coming out of small companies these days!
 

NEO0MJ

Member
So it seems the cable plug port for my guitar is going a bit loose and I'm not sure I can go to the workshop to have it fixed due to my schedule. Any tips on fixing it?
 

Scottify

Member
You could check and see if the nut is just loose and try to tighten it. If the nut is already tight you could also try taking the jack out and see if the connector is bent a little and not connecting with the cable fully and try to bend it a little back.

If neither of those are the case you could try taking the panel off the back of the control cavity and see if a cable isn't fully connected or something like that. Short of taking it to a tech those may be your best options.
 
You have to remove the panel on the back to get to the nut inside for most guitars. Just a tightening should do it. If it gets too loose it can twist off the wired connections. It happened to mine, I had re-solder everything.
 
Here's a Kickstarter I'm backing for the P-Link pickup exchange system. It's a "shell" that you wire a pickup into, that then can be swapped into an installed cradle in the pickup cavity. I have a Hofner Shorty travel guitar that I like its stock humbucker pickup, but have also always wanted to swap it out for something different. This would perfectly fit that idea! $100 gives me 3 different pickup shells, though unless the Kickstarter catches fire in the next couple weeks, probably won't get funded.

Any Aussie guitar players know anything about Pratley Guitars?
 

The Llama

Member
Do we have a GuitarGAF thread besides this one? If not I might make one, makes more sense rather than just having a gear pics thread I feel like.

Here's my current setup, a Schecter C-1 Classic, Mesa Mark V head, 2x12 Avatar cabinet with Celestion V30's, a Dirty Little Secret v3, and a TS808:

nm0V7dl.jpg


As kickass as it is, I always want more pedals... lol.
 
Well, this is basically also a guitar chat thread as well. Keeps everything in one place.

Also nice set-up. I have the small version of your amp which is excellent.
 

The Llama

Member
The 25 or the 35 (I don't even think there's a difference between the wattage)? I've listened to a lot of clips of the 25 and it sounds pretty amazing, definitely matches up with the big V. I'm still glad I have the big V just because I like having three channels, though the three modes the 25/35 are missing (Tweed, Edge, and Mark I) are three of the four I use the least (the fourth being Extreme, though I have a feeling I'd use it more if I could crank it).
 

Formless

Member
I have the V:25. Only two problems with it which are not really big deals

1. The crunch setting isn't separate from the clean/fat settings since they're on the same channel. If I want my metal tone with access to clean and a light overdrive, I'll need a pedal or something.

2. No MIDI control, so if I want a bunch of pedals and want to switch channels + pedals at the same time it'll take some work. I haven't done much research on this though I'm sure there's a solution..
 
Do we have a GuitarGAF thread besides this one? If not I might make one, makes more sense rather than just having a gear pics thread I feel like.
.

may as well make a fresh thread since this one started in 2008 and is so buried in the community forum that most would-be posters dont know about it
 
I have the V:25. Only two problems with it which are not really big deals

1. The crunch setting isn't separate from the clean/fat settings since they're on the same channel. If I want my metal tone with access to clean and a light overdrive, I'll need a pedal or something.

2. No MIDI control, so if I want a bunch of pedals and want to switch channels + pedals at the same time it'll take some work. I haven't done much research on this though I'm sure there's a solution..

I have the 25 as well. What I do, I keep it on channel 2 for a metal tone then just switch to channel 1 for a more clean tone.
 

Scottify

Member
I've started my first project guitar. I bought an Epiphone Les Paul Special at the local pawnshop for $60. I've torn it all apart and am in the process of repainting it now. I've also got a bunch of parts on order and I'm hoping I can turn it from a guitar that was in really bad shape to something I can actually play all the time.

I'll be upgrading with Hipshot locking tuners, Graphtech nut, Tonepros bridge & tailpiece, new pots and switches and a set of Seymour Duncans. A JB in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck.

Here are a couple before and in progress pictures. I'll post more as I move along in the process.






 
may as well make a fresh thread since this one started in 2008 and is so buried in the community forum that most would-be posters dont know about it

Agreed. I'd also like to see a more all-inclusive Guitar thread - gear, practice tips, cover videos, guitarist discussions, theory, tone, album recs, etc.
The ultimate-guitar forum is terrible. I think GAF can make a much better guitar community.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Agreed. I'd also like to see a more all-inclusive Guitar thread - gear, practice tips, cover videos, guitarist discussions, theory, tone, album recs, etc.
The ultimate-guitar forum is terrible. I think GAF can make a much better guitar community.

The very old Harmony Central forums (when it was still vbulletin based) were pretty entertaining, but it eventually got sold to some vendor and I stopped going there. It was also weird because I never was any good at guitar and had stopped playing for such a long time after I start using it regularly. I think I only left for good after I discovered GAF.

I always feel weird in guitar communities these days. I'm not a good, or even talented player, but I really do enjoy playing what I can and enjoying trying to get a great sound (on a reasonable flogger's budget, of course), but these days it always feels like so much of the online guitar community is firmly committed to chugga-chugga metal, if that makes sense (lol). I used to be like that too, which is funny. These days when I see a guy with a really nice PRS or Les Paul who starts a video and then I see the Diesel VH4 or whatever super brutal distortion amp, I get sad because guitars rarely sound all that different through that degree of compression and distortion.
 

Caderfix

Member

Too old for chuggs? What a mark.

Seriously though, I am a metal guitar player and I enjoy chuggs quite a bit, but, for the most part, it does sound very similar. I totally get what you're saying with communities being too focused on this specific area and all that.

I realized a few years ago that, to me, being able to hear every note in a big chord is more satisfying than those overly aggressive tones I used to like so much.
 

The Llama

Member
The very old Harmony Central forums (when it was still vbulletin based) were pretty entertaining, but it eventually got sold to some vendor and I stopped going there

Ahhh yes, old HC was so good. Then they did that weird redesign (must be like 7-8 years ago now?) and it's been terrible ever since.

Also, I'll start a guitargaf thread. I can make it in OT and then mods will eventually move it over to Community once it gets established, right? I don't need to make it in Community right off the bat?
 
yah i like the idea of a catch-all guitar discussion space. someone makes a how do i play thread every 4-6 months in the main ot so i feel there's definitely interest. besides, this has nominally been the gear thread and thus might turn off beginners.

definitely think the first post should have a fairly comprehensive "where do i start" guide. requisite justinguitar link but some opinions on good beginner guitars and amps etc. i can lend a hand of course.

Also, I'll start a guitargaf thread. I can make it in OT and then mods will eventually move it over to Community once it gets established, right? I don't need to make it in Community right off the bat?

you can make it in ot, since there wont be a yuge amount of traffic it may just stay there (the piano thread is a couple years old and is still on the main forum).

may wanna ask mods to lock this thread once it's up.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Also, I'll start a guitargaf thread. I can make it in OT and then mods will eventually move it over to Community once it gets established, right? I don't need to make it in Community right off the bat?

If you want help with anything (banners/writing) just PM me!
 

The Llama

Member
Started writing something earlier, will hopefully get it posted by the weekend. If anyone has anything they think should be added, feel free to post here or PM me.
 
Fellow gaffers, I have a question for you...

I own an Ibanez Jem and today I broke the first string, so tomorrow I plan to clean the neck and change all the strings since they are pretty beat up, but before that I want to know:

Is it normal for the first string to remain tense when pushing the whammy bar toward the fretboard? (like when you are doing a dive bomb).

When I do that, pushing it until I can't push anymore, all the strings end very loose, except for the first one, which, as I said, remains super tight.

I've been trying to find info about it in order to know if my floyd rose is properly set up or not, but so far without success.

Some extra info:

- I'm using 0.09 strings as suggested by Ibanez.
- When not pushing or pulling the whammy bar, the tremolo remains in a neutral position (not tilted forward nor backward).
- Overall, when in a neutral position, when I'm playing, the strings feel tight. I know as a beginner player, I can't expect to be able to do awesome bendings like the pros, but still, when I watch a Steve Vai video (for example and since I'm using the very same guitar model), I end truly puzzled at how loose the strings look when he does bendings, like the strings have much less tension.

Thanks a lot for any help :)
 
Fellow gaffers, I have a question for you...

I own an Ibanez Jem and today I broke the first string, so tomorrow I plan to clean the neck and change all the strings since they are pretty beat up, but before that I want to know:

Is it normal for the first string to remain tense when pushing the whammy bar toward the fretboard? (like when you are doing a dive bomb).

When I do that, pushing it until I can't push anymore, all the strings end very loose, except for the first one, which, as I said, remains super tight.

I've been trying to find info about it in order to know if my floyd rose is properly set up or not, but so far without success.

Some extra info:

- I'm using 0.09 strings as suggested by Ibanez.
- When not pushing or pulling the whammy bar, the tremolo remains in a neutral position (not tilted forward nor backward).
- Overall, when in a neutral position, when I'm playing, the strings feel tight. I know as a beginner player, I can't expect to be able to do awesome bendings like the pros, but still, when I watch a Steve Vai video (for example and since I'm using the very same guitar model), I end truly puzzled at how loose the strings look when he does bendings, like the strings have much less tension.

Thanks a lot for any help :)

Sounds like your action is too high, meaning your strings are too high off the fretboard. You'll need to use the tiny hex key on your Floyd Rose and slide the string saddles to lower the strings. You don't want to lower it too much or the strings will buzz on the fret. Guys like Steve Vai have their action set super low so they can not only bend easily, but it also helps for shredding. Your tremolo float setting sounds fine, so it's likely your string action - especially your high E-string.
 
Take your guitar to a shop for a pro set-up. It's the best ~$50 you can spend towards your guitar.

Until a string snaps or tremolo gets wacky. I always say learn to set up your guitar yourself if you can - it's really not that hard. With youtube today, you can learn to do a lot of those simple things you used to have to pay for.
 
Sounds like your action is too high, meaning your strings are too high off the fretboard. You'll need to use the tiny hex key on your Floyd Rose and slide the string saddles to lower the strings. You don't want to lower it too much or the strings will buzz on the fret. Guys like Steve Vai have their action set super low so they can not only bend easily, but it also helps for shredding. Your tremolo float setting sounds fine, so it's likely your string action - especially your high E-string.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

I think my action is already low, but I'll check it again.

Take your guitar to a shop for a pro set-up. It's the best ~$50 you can spend towards your guitar.

I live in a rather small city in Chile where as far as I know there is no competent luthier/tech repair shop, so it's not an option for me.

I bought this guitar from another guy. The price asked was very good and to my surprise, the guitar was in mint condition. But... it was dirty as hell, not only the frets, but the whole instrument, so I did something that I'm sure most will find stupid (considering I was just starting to dip into this marvelous guitar world)...

I disassembled it completely, it ended 100% torn apart :D, so I was able to clean even the smallest piece.

Obviously I knew the floating tremolo set up is the only really hard part to get right and I watched a fair amount of videos about it and also read these two excellent guides...

http://forum.ibanez.com/yaf_postst69978_MEGATRON-S-FLOATING-TREM-GUIDE.aspx

http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/setup/index.htm

So, at the end I think I did a very good job, considering it was my first guitar and so far my only "problem" is what I mentioned about the "stiff" strings. Even considering that, the guitar sounds amazing.

Until a string snaps or tremolo gets wacky. I always say learn to set up your guitar yourself if you can - it's really not that hard. With youtube today, you can learn to do a lot of those simple things you used to have to pay for.

That's my motto. I love to do everything by myself.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
So my friend told me that a good trick to learn when playing is to anchor your fretting hand using your pinky finger to make it easier to know which string your close to. However I've been accidentally muting the strings because my palm ends up to close to them. Any ideas on this?
 

The Llama

Member
Guitar playing is, well, guitar playing, so there's hardly ever a right or wrong answer, but the general advice I see is to avoid anchoring.
 

blackjaw

Member
Guitar playing is, well, guitar playing, so there's hardly ever a right or wrong answer, but the general advice I see is to avoid anchoring.

I agree with this. I've had a few lessons over the past...too many years...and none of the instructors have ever recommended anchoring

Practice and practice and more practice will fix whatever problem you have finding frets or strings. Repetition and good technique is the answer. Slow at first and build up to faster.
 
So did that new thread ever get made?
I'm trying to learn Creeping Death right now but man the downpicking is killing me, I can do it but my wrist gets tired. My movements are fairly tight and entirely wrist oriented which is what the generally accepted method is but is that fatigue natural and just something I'll have to power through and my endurance will get better or am I doing something wrong?
It's holding me back from learning a lot of Metallica songs
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The one thing that drives me absolutely crazy is that every time someone starts up a "I want to learn electric guitar" thread, the response is invariably "start on an acoustic so you train your hands more quickly since its harder to play." But that's just wrong wrong wrong for a ton of reasons. You should start by playing what you are excited about playing because playing something that's not what you want to play and harder to play is far more likely to make you quit.

I firmly believe that piece of bad advice is something that was invented by parents who don't want their kids playing noisy electrics and newfangled rock and/or roll.
 
The one thing that drives me absolutely crazy is that every time someone starts up a "I want to learn electric guitar" thread, the response is invariably "start on an acoustic so you train your hands more quickly since its harder to play." But that's just wrong wrong wrong for a ton of reasons. You should start by playing what you are excited about playing because playing something that's not what you want to play and harder to play is far more likely to make you quit.

I firmly believe that piece of bad advice is something that was invented by parents who don't want their kids playing noisy electrics and newfangled rock and/or roll.

If I never see another Mel Bay instructional book, it'll be too damn soon.
 
So did that new thread ever get made?
I'm trying to learn Creeping Death right now but man the downpicking is killing me, I can do it but my wrist gets tired. My movements are fairly tight and entirely wrist oriented which is what the generally accepted method is but is that fatigue natural and just something I'll have to power through and my endurance will get better or am I doing something wrong?
It's holding me back from learning a lot of Metallica songs

Yeah, I've been playing lots of Maiden and Priest lately and some songs have been downpicking hell. It's weird though - some days my wrist-forearm area would be in agony, then I would pick up the guitar the next morning and downpick fluidly like nothing without any discomfort. But the more I play the song, generally the less painful it gets. There's definitely a correct "physical" way to do it to reduce stress - but I don't know what that is cuz I like to power through my shit - I need to feel the burn so to speak. To me it's a mental thing where I go into a "zone" and the pain is kinda blocked out.

The one thing that drives me absolutely crazy is that every time someone starts up a "I want to learn electric guitar" thread, the response is invariably "start on an acoustic so you train your hands more quickly since its harder to play." But that's just wrong wrong wrong for a ton of reasons. You should start by playing what you are excited about playing because playing something that's not what you want to play and harder to play is far more likely to make you quit.

I firmly believe that piece of bad advice is something that was invented by parents who don't want their kids playing noisy electrics and newfangled rock and/or roll.

I totally agree. It's ridiculous to learn Crazy Train on an acoustic. "That one guitar!" in Jukebox Hero is about an electric guitar. No Guitar God story starts with soft acoustic strums in the bedroom. It's about falling in love with the electric guitar sound.
 
So did that new thread ever get made?
I'm trying to learn Creeping Death right now but man the downpicking is killing me, I can do it but my wrist gets tired. My movements are fairly tight and entirely wrist oriented which is what the generally accepted method is but is that fatigue natural and just something I'll have to power through and my endurance will get better or am I doing something wrong?
It's holding me back from learning a lot of Metallica songs

I feel you. I know a few metallica songs but some of them I can get through about half the song at normal speed before hand gets tired. One I've been trying to do lately is Blackened, and I can't make it all the way through. Same with creeping death.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
I'm trying to learn Creeping Death right now but man the downpicking is killing me, I can do it but my wrist gets tired.

What do you mean by downpicking?

The one thing that drives me absolutely crazy is that every time someone starts up a "I want to learn electric guitar" thread, the response is invariably "start on an acoustic so you train your hands more quickly since its harder to play." But that's just wrong wrong wrong for a ton of reasons. You should start by playing what you are excited about playing because playing something that's not what you want to play and harder to play is far more likely to make you quit.

I firmly believe that piece of bad advice is something that was invented by parents who don't want their kids playing noisy electrics and newfangled rock and/or roll.

Nah, I just think it's something that people don't really think about that only sounds good in theory, like saying a person should start learning a fighting game by picking the Ryu up first and then choosing a more complex character.
 

MrCow

Member
So did that new thread ever get made?
I'm trying to learn Creeping Death right now but man the downpicking is killing me, I can do it but my wrist gets tired. My movements are fairly tight and entirely wrist oriented which is what the generally accepted method is but is that fatigue natural and just something I'll have to power through and my endurance will get better or am I doing something wrong?
It's holding me back from learning a lot of Metallica songs

just keep at it! the more you do it, the more you get used to it and your stamina will improve

i'm currently half learning (not really motivated right now..) the new song Hardwired and here the tempo of the triplet downpicking is really killing me!
 
just keep at it! the more you do it, the more you get used to it and your stamina will improve

i'm currently half learning (not really motivated right now..) the new song Hardwired and here the tempo of the triplet downpicking is really killing me!
Ah, well good to know that my practice isn't going to waste! Hardwired, Blackened, Fight fire with fire, disposable heroes, damage inc and Moth into flame are all on my "Metallica songs I want to learn" list but goddamn is James a picking monster on these tracks.

What do you mean by downpicking?
Just like...down picking. Just only picking downwards rather than down then back up (alternate picking)
I feel you. I know a few metallica songs but some of them I can get through about half the song at normal speed before hand gets tired. One I've been trying to do lately is Blackened, and I can't make it all the way through. Same with creeping death.
Pretty much how I play Master of Puppets. Creeping Death I'm getting better at, playing the riff slower and carefully definitely helps with my technique and relieving fatigue. But I guess the best thing I've found that helps is to really keep your picking hand anchored on the bridge around the base of your palm, at least it seems to help a lot for me rather than floating your hand which is advice I've seen for speed picking.
 

MrCow

Member
But I guess the best thing I've found that helps is to really keep your picking hand anchored on the bridge around the base of your palm, at least it seems to help a lot for me rather than floating your hand which is advice I've seen for speed picking.

from my experience this is the best thing you can do. if you want to improve your speed it's best to learn it r e a l l y slow, note for note until you have memorized the part fully. then gradually increase speed, slowly but steady until you can finally play it up to speed.

.. i know most of the time we just want to hop in and play and it should sound cool right away and argh this is to hard i'm never going to learn a new a song again .. <- this is me most of the time, i have to remind my self to slow down all the time
 
from my experience this is the best thing you can do. if you want to improve your speed it's best to learn it r e a l l y slow, note for note until you have memorized the part fully. then gradually increase speed, slowly but steady until you can finally play it up to speed.

.. i know most of the time we just want to hop in and play and it should sound cool right away and argh this is to hard i'm never going to learn a new a song again .. <- this is me most of the time, i have to remind my self to slow down all the time

That's generally how I feel trying to learn metal songs and that's without the solos (because speed picking is beyond me)

For Creeping Death I try to play the riff up to speed till my wrist gets tired then play it at about 50% until I've regained my stamina and I think that helps a lot.

I really should start learning how to solo though, learning others and improvising my own which is probably my biggest failure as a guitarist.
 
Oh, I see. But why? Only reason I see to just downpick is if you need to play the string with more power.
Required for certain styles of play. Alternate picking and downpicking sound different and are used differently but rarely interchangeably. Some stuff you can only play by alternate picking and some stuff you can only play by downpicking. Downpicking is also used very often in metal and was popularized by Dave Mustaine of Megadeth(and formerly Metallica) and James Hetfield of Metallica who is a master at it and it's employed in a large number of thrashy Metallica's thrashy discography one way or another.
It would be nearly impossible to play "The Four Horsemen" by Metallica correctly without alternate picking, if not just flat out undoable and the same goes for trying to play songs like Creeping Death without downpicking. It does add more power to the sound but many metal songs are made with that in mind, especially Metallica songs.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
That makes sense. Also...

It would be nearly impossible to play "Mechanix" by Megadeth correctly without alternate picking, if not just flat out undoable and the same goes for trying to play songs like Creeping Death without downpicking.

Fixed :D

So sense you guys seem familiar with the subject how is it best to play Tornado by Megadeth?
 
That makes sense. Also...



Fixed :D

So sense you guys seem familiar with the subject how is it best to play Tornado by Megadeth?
Definitely downpicking, I was actually going to mention it in my post but decided to stick with Metallica. Also Four Horsemen is like an extended version of Mechanix (and Mechanix was still a Metallica demo before it was released on Killing is my Business.) But to return to your question I can't really see alternate picking being effective for the riffs in that song. Solo is a different story though
 
New thread get posted yet and I miss it?

I always feel weird in guitar communities these days. I'm not a good, or even talented player, but I really do enjoy playing what I can and enjoying trying to get a great sound, but these days it always feels like so much of the online guitar community is firmly committed to chugga-chugga metal, if that makes sense (lol).

Just play and talk about what you want. I play mostly-blues without a pick on electric guitars strung with .011s and a wound third.

So my friend told me that a good trick to learn when playing is to anchor your fretting hand using your pinky finger to make it easier to know which string your close to.

I'm struggling to understand how you would anchor your fretting hand with your pinky. Most anchoring discussion/criticism is focused on the picking/strumming hand.

You should start by playing what you are excited about playing because playing something that's not what you want to play and harder to play is far more likely to make you quit.

Should be in every guitar thread near the top.


 
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