Well, that done did it, indeed! Also, I just found out that my tuner only recognizes the notes of the open strings.
Hm. You know, this thing is settling up decently. One last issue. My A string. When I pluck it, something vibrates in… not harmony, no. More like ‘in annoying buzz’. The strings above and below it are tuned properly, so they shouldn’t be resonating.
Any ideas on what that is?
(I can’t believe how much easier this is to practice with now it’s not cutting fine lines into my skin every time I slide past a fret.)
Quasi, the problem is, I have about $100 worth of guitar. Technically, it’s a stratocaster, but it’s not really. However, thanks to you guys, and a little letting go of pointless frustration, I’m back on my original plan. Make all my mistakes on this piece of junk, keep working, and then get a good guitar later. (and give this to my dad who always wanted one.)
As far as the Pignose, I’ve got a Squier-10. But the microamp I just got is a Fender-1. 1 blazing amp of power. Runs off a 9-Volt, so I don’t have to worry about finding an outlet to plug in. This is important.
It’s pretty quiet, but it’s working for me.
I asked my guitar teacher to teach me the song about a month ago. As we were working on it, with my iPod playing the song on my teacher’s speakers, the door to the classroom opened. It was another of the school’s teachers… “I love that song…I haven’t heard it in years! Who does it??”
He is, indeed:
And, yeah, that was me. Good memory! No, that’s not why I was looking at one…a friend of a friend was looking to sell one. I didn’t end up buying it (he didn’t return my last e-mail); I still just have the Epi Les Paul.
As with many rock songs, there’s the easy way and the subtle way - on one hand, when Keith Richards is playing in Open G, he famously states “all you need is 3 chords, two fingers and 1 asshole” but if you actually try to play it with all the nuance and groove that Keef does, every song is a master class…
…as I always say, I spent half my playing time working on new challenges and half rockin’ out to Smoke on the Water on 1 string - you have to both grow and have fun…
E - glad you are learning more about guitar set up - a good tuner that can detect 12-fret harmonics so you can compare them to the fretted 12th note to check intonation is very helpful; learning to DIY is good, especially if you leave your guitar out of its case and/or live in a place with seasonal variance; adjusting intonation in Winter and Summer is easy to do and can be a very good thing.
**kenobi **- I remember scoping out Iris’ guitar - back in the day, it stood out because it was retro - i.e., not pointy!
Yeah, okay, so this tuner I have isn’t as good as I thought it was. It shows chord positions, it doesn’t tell me if the chord sounds right. I thought it would from the package. What’s a good tuner?
No clue - meaning, I have tried a bunch of the $20 - $30 kind from Guitar Center and they all seem basically fine. To me, tuners are like, I dunno, oregano - you know how you are at the store and you see it, and try to remember whether you have some; it’s pretty inexpensive, so just to be sure, you buy some? I have a ton of tuners.
I have a few Korg ones - they are fine. Try to find ones with big, readable digital numbers or a very clear dial - you may not gig, but you may find yourself in various lighting conditions…and make sure it is chromatic - i.e., can show the full Western scale, not just EADGBE - you will need alternate tunings at some point…
Could be one of a few of things. First thing I’d check is the string behind the nut. Put your finger on the string between the nut and the tuning peg, pluck it, and see if you still hear it. If that does the trick, then it’s probably a poorly cut nut slot - something that you shouldn’t fix yourself because you have to be pretty precise and there’s a high chance of mucking things up. Can’t tell you how much nut material I went through before I could do it confidently…
Another possible cause could be the strings saddle. Sometimes the small allen wrench height adjustment screws can become a little loose and not fully contact the bridge plate. To test this, place your finger on the string’s saddle and press down lightly. Then pluck the string and see if the vibration goes away. If this is the case, you just need to turn one of those little allen screws clockwise to get it to contact the bridge plate.
Another possibility is a sympathetic vibration coming from the tremolo springs (if you have a whammy bar - I’m pretty sure you do). This is quite common with strat type guitars and usually only occurs when a certain note is played. I have a strat that does it whenever I play a B flat anywhere on the neck. It’s not an annoying buzz though, it’s actually the spring vibrating at the same frequency as the string and it should sound like the same tone as the note. It doesn’t really bug me, but if I have this issue with the guitars I build, I’ll put a little of this spongy packaging material between the springs and the bottom of the spring cavity which keeps them from vibrating…
Chromatic tuners display all the notes, not just EADBGE. Got it. That’s what I ‘need’. Or at least am looking for.
Further examination says it’s low E, not A… or at least it’s easier to reproduce on low E. It’s not the tremolo spring vibration, I can make that happen, and it sounds completely different. I think it’s the E-string hitting a fret, it sounds like it’s happening somewhere on the neck, and if I pluck it then let the tip of my fingernail rest on it, I get a similar buzz. Further examination says the bridge saddle is screwed in the lowest, that is, this is the longest string on the guitar.
The saddles are not loose, though.
Is this any good? I saw it at one of my local music stores (the one that tried to sell me a set of $15 strings) packed in with a tuner of some kind.
I have discovered that there are four stores in my reasonable vicinity:
A: Tiny, not much of a selection, but apparently really good stuff in it.
B: The store I grew up going to (Clarinet, guitar the first time through but it was mumble years ago and my hands have forgotten what they knew and I learned jack from the teacher.) which is dusty, now operated by a guy who doesn’t even know anything about music instruments (I think he’s just the weekend guy), but seems to have decent used stuff .
and a big selection.
C: Store that has things the others don’t, people at the counter are on top of things but I’m pretty sure they’re sharps, as they tried to sell me $15 strings when I just wanted a set of 9s. Carries large variety of Hannah Montana stuff, off-brand cheap guitars.
D: Sam Ash. Too Hip For The Room, but actually not bad. Enormous selection, but if you don’t know what you want, you’re not gonna find it.
If you’re getting fret buzz on the low E string, it’s probably due to the action being to low, the neck needing adjustment, or a combination of the two. To raise the action, just turn those allen screws on the saddle clockwise and raise the height of the saddle, which effectively will raise the height of the string off the fret board. Now, if you raise the action to a point the the saddle is equal in height or higher than the A string’s saddle, then you probably have a neck issue, which can be a little harder to fix.
Neck issues come in four types: up-bow, down-bow, flattened, or twisted. The first three are relatively easy to correct by adjusting the truss rod which is a steel rod that runs through the center of the neck that works against the string tension to keep the neck stable and in balance. However, these three conditions are usually evident by fret buzz on every string at the same point on the neck, which doesn’t sound like your issue. Adjusting a truss rod is a fairly easy process that requires a few basic tools. I never read the Hal Leonard book you linked to, but I do have this one:
Dan Erlewine is a god in guitar repair/building circles and he definitely knows his stuff. A very informative book. Learning this stuff and being able to do it yourself is very benficial to even the beginning player.
A twisted neck is more of a problem and usually would require a refret, or for more serious cases, a brand new neck, which is a job for a pro. Let’s hope it’s the action, eh?
I have some questions about the guitar (and these ones aren’t as out there as the one about guitar duels) and music in general which I’ve been wondering about ever since I tried to teach myself guitar awhile back (and gave up because I’m lazy (and the strings badly needed replacement: they buzzed even when you played a shallow open string)).
I know precious little about musical theory (I know that the definition of music varies from culture to culture and person to person, yet music is defined from the most cautious point of view as “organized sound throughout time”). This definition, although exact, leaves no space for key factors of musical theory, such as melody, harmony, rhythm, tone, pitch, intervals, and timbre (and although I speak of them, I could only give the vaguest definitions of all of them). And by this definition, organized speech could be considered music. So herein lies my first question: could somebody give me a better explanation of what music is, as opposed to an exact definition? And if nobody can provide me with an explanation, can somebody at least point me towards a book which covers the basic terms of musical theory (and I don’t mean just how to read sheet music). I’m planning on taking mandolin lessons later this year, and a good idea of what music wouldn’t hurt. Send this as a message if you don’t want to discuss it here.
Next, why does the fifth fret method go 5-5-5-4-5? I understand this has something to do with intervals and getting a richer tone, but an explanation would help.
Third (this one’s not as complex as the others), is a seven-string guitar tuned like an average guitar with one string just higher or lower in pitch, or is it tuned like a different albeit similar instrument?
I tend to broadly think of music as “organized sound created with the intent to evoke sensory response” - i.e., man-made sounds designed to tickle our ears.
To my knowledge, the tuning of a guitar, which I believe you are referring to, was started because it was “close enough to everything,” i.e., facilitated the easiest fingerings across keys, although you still end up favoring A and E, as discussed recently.
For shredders, they will often had a high A string; for death metallers, they will usually go low and add a low B string. Tuning otherwise stays the same - although with metal, that usually means a dropped D tuning or the whole tuning dropped a step or three.
Hm. Raising and shortening the saddle seems to have maybe done it. MwNNRules: No idea.
As for a definition of music, I’m willin’ to give it a shot, but… maaaybe I’ll let someone else handle it first. It’s probably easier than defining jazz. (Man, if you gotta ask you’ll never know.)
Random question: How the heck do you drop a key or three (eg, drop D) without the strings going all loose or… all tight and snapping. I thought it was just fingering lower on the neck, and using a finger to barre things, but I’m guessing not? (or a capo)
Tangential gear score: we needed another PA cab for a drum monitor. I managed to find a 1979 Randall RPA-4 (4x10 tower) at a local thrift store for $50. Awesome. Everything works perfectly. No shredded speakers.
I tried it out with my Peavey Classic 30, thinking to go for a serious old-school vibe. Unfortunately, it behaves as you’d expect a PA cab to behave - a little harsh on the top end. Not TOO bad, but a deal-killer for me. Ah well, we needed the extra PA output anyway.
Better than my own definition because it mentions what music is made for: getting a reaction.
Okay. Actually your answer was probably worthy of more than just “okay”, but I wouldn’t be able to comment here due to lack of knowledge regarding the guitar’s pitch.
Cool. This one leads me to another question, which I’ll put at the bottom of my post.
Yeah, I’d definitely rather define music than a particular style of music. I wouldn’t know where to start: once I looked up “rock and roll” in the dictionary and the given definition was something like “a style of music influenced by blues and folk music and characterized by accentuated rhythms”. From an exact point of view, that probably isn’t a bad definition, but defining it just misses the point. There aren’t words for it. That’s why I asked for a definition of music in general, instead of an explanation for the nuances of a musical genre.
My latest question: what constitutes a guitar in the broadest sense? If a guitar can have seven strings, what else can it have while still being considered a guitar? From what I know there are three basic types of stringed instruments (excluding the piano, which I put as a percussion instrument because the keys are struck, which what makes it percussion): bowed ones, which are obviously bowed, including the viola, violin, cello, and double-bass; harps and the like, which are plucked and have a frame, which includes lyres and harps; and lastly lutes (I’m aware that this word can also be used to refer to an instrument included in this class, not just a class of instruments), which are plucked and the following features: a body, a neck, and a head. The guitar is obviously a lute, so my definition of an average guitar is “a lute with six strings”. But it’s obvious that this doesn’t always apply: firstly, I’ve seen cases where the guitar is not a lute, such as the Chapman Stick (not a lute because it has no body, and no clearly defined head), and other oddities such as the harp-guitar (if I was hesitant to call the Chapman Stick a true guitar, what can I say to this?); secondly, there’s the matter of guitars having more than six strings (variations run from 6 - 12, and 4 - 12 counting bass guitars). What I’m getting at here is this: the only thing that is consistent among all the variations I’ve mentioned is plucked strings. To me the harp guitar is the oddest variation, and the one I’d really hesitate to call a guitar even in the broadest sense (some of them look like normal guitars with a frame like appendage, others use extended uppercuts to work like a frame). I could probably go on for some length about all the strange guitars and guitarlike things I’ve seen, but instead I’ll cut it here by restating my point: how would you define a guitar?
That must have been really cool! Details! Puleeze?
MIPSIMS addition to the thread:
I just added a new member of the family today – an Epiphone Dot Studio. I was jonesing for a Gibson-scale guitar, because my guitar teacher is giving me all these hand-breaker chords jazz chords lately, which are easier on a Gibson/Epi 24 3/4" scale than my Tele and Schecter’s 25 1/2" scale. Plus I’ve never owned a semi-hollow before and the tone just grabbed me. And it was dirt cheap ($299!) and Guitar Center has a 30-day return policy, so what the hell, I snagged it. I’ve had maybe a couple of hours at home with the new kid, we’re still getting used to each other, but its quite a fun guitar.
Are you trying to describe an “A” style bar chord? e.g. a D major chord:
5 x x x x x x <-index finger
6 - - - - - -
7 - - x x x - <- ring finger
I can play this easily on an electric guitar and have the first string sound correctly. I can see this shape being very difficult on an acoustic, but on an electric it requires practice and patience for most folks, but is quite doable.
No, that’s not why I was looking at one…a friend of a friend was looking to sell one. I didn’t end up buying it (he didn’t return my last e-mail); I still just have the Epi Les Paul.
but if you actually try to play it with all the nuance and groove that Keef does, every song is a master class…