If you are jumping, it must be off of an amp or the drum riser, and must be accompanied by a big-sweep guitar strum!! Kerrangggg!!!
Welcome back - I remember your username from previous exchanges. If you care to, remind us how long you’ve been playing…genre(s) of music you play…type of gear - you know, the basics!
Sure! I’m 40 and have been playing since age 14, so that means I…should be much better at the guitar than I am right now. 
I’m a rock guitarist by nature, but under that wide umbrella I’ve done everything from pretty grimy punk rock, to ska, to shoegazey drone music. Anything I can get to from standard tuning is fair game.
My current band, Decibel Trust, is kind of a 90s indie meets 70s power pop thing. I’m aiming for Husker Du meets Guided by Voices meets Cheap Trick, but I’m not sure whether or not I’m actually hitting it. After 25 years of being the sideman, this is the first band where I’ve been the lead singer, so that’s nerve-wracking in a way that music has not been for me in a loooooooong time. :eek:
Gear? That’s there’s my native language. Here’s a recent rig pic from practice. My main guitar (for 12 years now and counting) is a 1999 Gibson Les Paul Custom with Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz pickups. Others have come and gone over the years, but my current #2 (and as a lefty, I try never to play a gig without a backup) is a 2013 American Standard Telecaster which I have come to love dearly. Amp is a Mesa/Boogie Mark III into a Mesa 4x12 cabinet. All my effects come from a TC Electronic Nova System on the floor. The Nova lives on a homemade pedalboard along with the footswitches from the Mesa, an Ernie Ball volume pedal, and an ISP Decimator II which I only use if I’m playing someplace with really noisy lights or power.
I just checked out “Space Rock” from here at work and dug it. I really like the man riff. Will check out the rest from home.
Sweet. Love the Custom - my first Truly Special™ guitar was a Custom. As by-tor can attest (sorry, man) I haven’t been the most diligent listener - I choose to blame the new job.
So - welcome back. What’s up - where ya been and what’s on your guitar mind?
Okay, I bought a guitar. My sister is making noises about retiring from Fender and I thought I’d get one. My only criteria was that it be pretty. It’s a Takamine and according to the tech guys in her office, it has good tone. A beginner guitar, I guess.
Anyway, now I suppose I need to learn to play it. What’s the best way? Lessons? Books? YouTube?
StG
I think for an absolute beginner, a couple of half hour classes from a decent teacher (as opposed to someone who is a good player but not necessarily a teacher) can make the initial learning curve easy and fun, and maybe nip some bad habits in the bud. I’m a largely self-taught player, but I’m very grateful for the few months of lessons I took when I was 15.
Once you’re an intermediate-to-advanced player, YouTube is a fantastic resource.
StG, yes, start with some lessons. You’ll learn how to tune it and how to read chord diagrams. Maybe some strumming techniques too. Maybe you’ll stay with the lessons, that’s cool. There’s a good chance your teacher will have you buy a book. That’s cool too.
In my case, the book my teacher had me get was a chord dictionary type. You’ll want one of those. After my lessons stopped, I continued by buying a Beatles songbook, mostly because I LOVED “I Should Have Known Better”. I learned that and most of the other songs in the book that I liked. Then I learned stuff from other guitar players and more books.
You don’t need a Beatles songbook. If there’s another artist whose songs you like, get their songbook. Besides just learning chords, learning a song you like makes you learn changing chords which will have to become second nature to you. One trick of mine that I always told my students to do (after a while, most every guitar player teaches someone else to play) was to practice in front of a mirror so they can watch their left hand on the fretboard. There’s 2 reasons I think this is a good idea: A) You can see where you’re placing your fingers. If you don’t use a mirror, you’ll be tilting the guitar upward and craning your head over to see where you’ve placed your fingers. Tilting the guitar like that makes it even harder for a new player to finger the chords. And 2), by watching you make chords in the mirror you learn to recognize what they look like when other people play them. So you’ll find it easier to pick up stuff from watching people play on TV or videos or just when they’re sitting across from you. Oh, and you’ll find yourself getting annoyed when the camera person doesn’t show the left hand of the guitarist.
And it’s useful to find a “Guitar Playing Buddy” who’s close to the same level you are. You’ll still manage to learn stuff from each other and you’ll encourage each other.
And if you keep at it, we’ll teach you the secret guitar player’s handshake.
Yay! I know you’ve been into guitar for a while, so hearing that you are trying to pick it up is great!
My niece is just starting, too - 25 years old in med school and needing a diversion. My two suggestions were to check out Justin Sandercoe’s justinguitar.com website and focus on the Beginner section. He’s done a great job with the intermediate and advanced lessons I pick at.
The other is the same thing I say every time on the Dope: set aside time to work on muscle memory, with a focus on learning about groove. Put a sports game or something else you like having on TV but don’t have to fully focus, and work on simple-groove-oriented stuff.
Single string riffs - play Smoke on the Water, the Peter Gunn theme - whatever. Focus on tapping your foot and being able to play and groove the riff. You aren’t struggling making chords, which jam you up and kill the groove. While playing, make crowd noises like the arena is going wild 
Multiple string riffs - play That’s What I Like About You using the bottom three strings on the guitar - E, A, D, A. Pick each open string - do it along with the song to get a feel for the riff. when you pick the string, you have to immediately drop your fret hand down on the string so it doesn’t ring out. Thus is the lesson: remember that you will spend 50% of your time make sounds you want, and 50% of your time keeping sounds you do NOT want from happening. They don’t tell you that part. Sit in front of the TV, work on grooving that multi-string riff and make crowd noises. Do the same thing with La Bamba - open strings D, G, A, G. Go wild!
Dry strumming - lay your fret hand flat across the strings so they don’t sound and practice strumming up and down in an even, rhythmic way. When you get a feel, play the open string groove like What I Like, then alternate with dry strumming, then back to the single string groove. If you can transition between the two and keep the rhythm going, you are onto something.
In the meantime, do your homework on basic chords and scales. By the time you start to get those down, your groove will be ready and you can start trying to play the chords within a groove.
Best of luck - and whatever keeps you playing is ALWAYS better than “doing the right thing” that makes practicing seem like work. Screw that.
By the way - I assume folks saw the news that the first production Stratocaster just sold for $250,000
Folks have been wondering what it would go for. $250K is of course a LOT of money - but perhaps about…average?..for the price of a 1958-1960 Les Paul 'burst - only about 1,600 of those, but that particular Strat is standout and so I thought it would be a bit pricier…
I’ve been…around. I moved from SLC to Houston and back in the last six years, got remarried, took a break from this board. It’s been a roundabout trip.
What’s been on my guitar mind is my recently (three months ago) acquired Yamaha THR-10. This thing is absolutely awesome, to the point that I’ve started leaving my main rig at my drummer’s house. For my money, it’s the coolest guitar tool/toy to come out in years. I’m just so used to being disappointed by new guitar technology that it’s refreshing and surprising to find a gadget that does exactly what it claims to do, does it well, and at a reasonable price.
I’ve seen those amps at Guitar Center, but am not in the market for an amp, so haven’t checked them out. They are basically a digital modeling amp, yes? Like a Line 6, Behringer, etc…? What makes this Yamaha stand out to you?
It sounds great. Its five models are thinly veiled clones of a BF Deluxe, AC30, Plexi, JCM800, and Dual Rectifier. It’s impressive how closely they nailed not only the sounds but the feel and response - the JCM800 model, when cranked, reacts very much like an actual Marshall as you roll back the guitar’s volume. When you dime the Deluxe, it compresses and spits much like a cranked small amp. Having owned Line 6 products, this thing far outclasses them in the sound quality department. Soundwise, it’s more in the realm of the newer generation of modelers like the AxeFx and Eleven Rack, only at a fraction of the price. Speaking as a guy who’s been leery of modelers since the beginning, I recognize the use of this thing and plan on keeping it.
It’s loaded with super convenient touches for home jamming and recording. It has an aux in, so that I can play over songs or YouTube jam tracks and have everything come out of the speakers, mixed to my taste. It has an aux out, so that I can record straight to my laptop using the provided Cubase software (that it comes with a free copy of Cubase, even the “lite” version, for under $300 is a crazy deal). It works great with headphones, through its own speakers, or through my computer speakers.
Basically, it’s just nice to have something this small, this convenient, and this powerful for this price. It’s the ultimate living room amp. Mine lives under my coffee table and gets switched on anytime I feel like noodling around, quickly recording a riff or idea, or just wailing over a 15-minute blues backing track on YouTube.
Wow - that sounds interesting and versatile. Thanks for the review!
OneCentStamp I listened to your band. The music sounded very professional and catchy. I think “The Drill” is my favorite. Your guitar doubling is really tight. I know that takes skill.
Your voice sounds a lot younger than 40. I normally have a bad reaction to a lot of music that is new to me, due to not liking the vocals. I did not have that reaction to your vocals, so that was a nice surprise.
What effects were you using on “Hookers Give Lousy Backrubs”? It sounded like a phaser, maybe.
Anyway, good job.
Thanks, that’s very kind! It’s odd, “The Drill” is probably the song that gets the most positive attention, and it was the one that was almost an afterthought for us, and we figured nobody would like. Just goes to show you can’t always tell, especially when it comes to your own material.
And thank you for the kind words about my singing. As I stated upthread, this is the first time I’ve been the lead singer (and primary lyricist), and it’s amazing how new and frankly daunting it seemed, in comparison to how easy and confident it feels to play the guitar.
Effects on “Hookers”: you have a good ear! Yes, that’s a phaser patch from the TC Electronic unit. Phaser has always been my go-to modulation effect. One side (left, IIRC) is the simple progression of broken chords, the other side (right, IIRC) is me doing swells with the volume pedal, pretending to be a keyboardist, just trying to fill the mix out a little.
Again, thanks so much for listening. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
So - I made time and listened a bit - you guys are great!
by-tor - listened to Space Rock and 44 - really liked them both. I hear a lot of the British NWOBHM* band UFO - similar tone and scale work like Michael Schenker. Do you listen to them? Very cool stuff - and the matches with the visuals were cool.
OnceCentStamp - I listened to the Drill and Hookers. Good songs - I love how you are laying it all out there - you sing like you mean it. Your lead work sounds David Gilmourish - fluid and melodic. Nice.
*New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Common term to metalers; gibberish to the mainstream.
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that man…but perhaps it’s for the best. Finally got my Avid/ProTools Express/Amplitube setup where it’s working right and man, along with that badass Schecter…it’s a really nice little setup for playing at home.
I highly, highly recommend Amplitube 3 ($100 digital download from Sweetwater) to anyone on a budget or that has little kids and wants them to sleep through the night. The amp/pedal/cabs/rack effects/mic positioning, etc options are essentially limitless. It works seamlessly as a plug in to ProTools and latency is not an issue if you have the right kind of audio interface with your PC as it acts as your system clock. It’s literally incredible!
Thanks again for helping on the journey, Squeegee! Hope everything works out for the best with your family.
My impression of Takamine is that they make excellent acoustic guitars and that it’s not a beginner guitar at all, although you can certainly use it that way.
WordMan I haven’t heard much UFO I will check them out.
Do you have any recordings online? It would be interesting to hear your playing.
Try their live double album, Strangers in the Night. Has a 70’s feel, but I hope you’ll hear the influence in Schenker’s playing. Very influential.
As for me - nah, I really don’t have anything online. I am just a meat-and-potatoes rock/blues rhythm player. Good with a groove, but nothing standout.
Not sure if this helps anyone with their GAS, but Guitar Center currently has 2 models of the Gibson Les Paul Studio for $599, free shipping