Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[pmcd9]

it will look like either Ocean Turquoise or Starburst

Definitely This One

~Paul

[theinevitable]

So. Several of you suggested replacing my shitty amp, I believe. Now that time has come, as shipping costs led to a decision to leave my amplifier in storage in St Louis for the summer. I can afford/will be able to afford something in the 3-400$ range. Any suggestions? My immediate impulse is something along the lines of "buy the most wattage I can get for 400$," but that is probably not the wisest. I don't really care about it having distortion, effects, emulation... all of that shit is meaningless to me, basically. I need to be able to plug my guitar into my Big Muff, and my big muff into the amp. I would then strike/strum the strings of the guitar, and the amplifier would make loud noises of a distorted quality. How do I best do this? To give you an idea of my inexperience, the tone on my 30-watt crate amplifier sounds pretty awesome to me at this point. I almost got a deal going over craigslist with this kid who was selling his 50W marshall tube amp, but he got weirded out (he was selling "Fender Telecaster and Marshall Amp, 500$" and was confused about why I wanted to buy just the amp. I think he realized that maybe it was a good 'un. damn.)

My main fear is that I'll go to the store and try out amps, and get tricked into buying one that is the wrong choice. I feel like guitar-store types are known for this. I am sorry for asking you all this question, but I am not really sure where to go with this problem.

Realistically, I am pretty bad at guitar, and I should just buy a crappy small amp. But I'd like to be able to play with other people. If I could ever find anyone to play with.

[smick]

Well, if you do a lot of practicing just for your head, you may want to pick up a Korg Pandora.   I have one of the older ones, and am eyeballing the PX4D.   Nice little boxes.  They do a lot of the basic effects that you'd want (Compression, a couple flavors of distortion, Overdrive, Flange, Autowah (Ottowa)) and some basic amp modeling.  They generally run 'bout a hun'red. 

Also, earlier Limmo gave some tips for buying a guitar.  The same thing goes for an amp.   Take your guitar to the store with you, since you KNOW what it sounds like.  Then start plugging into the amps.  For the longest time I was really intimidated by the music store dudes, and making any kind of noise in the store.   F' that.  Go in, twist all the knobs play through your single coils, play through your humbuckers, play with your tone all the way down, play with it all the way up, muff on, muff off.   Eventually you're going to fall in love with one of those amps.  It might not even be the more expensive one!

I just picked up a guitar the other day (For years I've been playing a fender accoustic, and a post-bankruptcy Kramer, both are plywood guitars.  Not excellent.) and I did the same thing.   Just cycled through a bunch of them.  I had an open budget for purchasing.  I didn't end up with the most expensive one I could buy, but this Godin SD just felt so good to play.   It came down between the Godin, and a G&L.   Both were nice.  But this Godin just felt RAD.   

So I can't give you any geekery about watts, or knob length or that stuff.   Just kinda play with em and decide which one you love. 

[theinevitable]

damn. I was afraid y'all'd say that.

[robot_god]

I don't really know anything about amps.  I have a Fender Twin Reverb, it is pretty good.  All amps are pretty ok.  All I know is that I really don't like Marshalls.  When I go to the rehearsal studio with some dudes, I usually pick a Soldano for a clean/slightly dirty tone.  They probably cost a fortune.

Since you're expecting to use a pedal for distortion, just make sure your amp has a real good clean channel.  I guess that is my problem with Marshalls, I think their clean channel is too mucky.

You can get probably find a decent Crate twin for $350.  Probably will have a handful of effects in it.

Also:  pick the amps up to see how heavy they are, for kicks.  Marshalls are significantly heavier.

[linnea]

Jeez, I wish I could play an instrument. I used to sing in a choir. That's about it.

Oh wait... I do love to spaz out with rhythm instruments, though.

[smick]

YOU ARE AN INSTRUMENT OF AWESOME.

So, I went to the music store after writing the last post to pick up the Korg PX4D.   I ended up picking up a Line6 TonePort.   I haven't ever played with any of their software modeling doodads.   I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with this thing.   It took a lot of the stupidness out of recording into Windows.  It does a bunch of cabinet modeling and effects modeling.   

[theinevitable]

yeah. so. I am having a lame episode about my guitar-playing, after hanging out with my friend. He is kind of lame, except about music. He is an incredible sax player-- it's his passion. His most prized possession is his sax, he brings it everywhere, etc. And somewhere during the course of the night, he started going off about jamming with people, and talking about who "had it" or whatever... and I realized that I really don't. I hate that I can't really be passionate about the guitar, if that makes any sense. I lack the drive to put effort into it, and I'm trying to remedy this. But, the problem I have is... I don't even know what I need to do. As of the 22nd I will have been playing the guitar for 4 years. I know some scales poorly. I know lots of chords. I know how to play some songs. But I feel like none of it comes together. I have dozens of half-written fragments of songs-- chord progressions, riffs, etc-- that I have no idea how to continue or finish. So. How do you find direction on something like this? I know, I know, "just express yourself"... but I don't really know how to even start to go about such a thing. Part of the issue is that I have no idea what I need to know to play like the guitarists I like. They all seem to be making it up as they go along. It's not as if I can go down to the store and buy "learn to play electric guitar, with J Mascis" or whatever. I mean... fuck. I like how I am having an "I'm so lazy! fuck!" crisis about playing the electric guitar.

[KeithHernandez]

I just played bass for over an hour and a half.  It was the first time I had played since finals.  Do you like playing?  Just make songs, no matter what, and slowly they get better, I guess is my advice.

[smick]

Your friend sounds like a poo head.  Jamming is it's own skill set.   Just like writing music is totally different from that.  One thing you might want to do is hit the tab sites and work through the phrases of the guitar players you like.  The bass player from my high school band would listen to the Cure for hours.   His base lines, even though they were all his own, would sound like the Cure.  (He didn't even have retarded otter mouth!)

Are you taking lessons at all?  I could see where that would lead you to feeling aimless.   A decent teacher could give you some direction to get you off the plateau you've hit.   (I'm actually about to take up some lessons for the same reason.)

[AugustWest]

When you are playing, however you play, do you enjoy it?  Does it relax you?  Does it put you in a meditative state?  Does it help you express your feelings?   

For the vast majority of us, music (like sports) is a pleasurable hobby or pastime.  As an amateur, your self-worth should not be affected by your musical chops.  Just play the way you enjoy and the good lord will provide.

That's not to say you shouldn't try for improvement.  You just shouldn't get bunged up about it.

[theinevitable]

yeah. I mean, I enjoy playing. It's more of a thing where I'm focusing on the guitar issue, because it's easier than focusing on the fact that I'm lazy about basically everything. I need a job, I need to work harder at school, etc.

Yeah, my issue with writing songs is that the ones that I like are the ones where I basically make up chords. And then I figure out what the chords are... and they're a 1-4-5 in A. I am not sure why this happens every single time. Basically I feel like I need to get better technically before I can play the kind of stuff I want to play... but I don't really know how to do that.

In regards to him being a poo-head, possibly. But he's a jazz type, so being able to jam is kind of essential.

I really feel, in addition, like playing with other people would help me a lot. But the one guy in charlotte I know who plays guitar is SUCH A JACKASS and he kicked me out of our garage band for sucking at the guitar. he basically plays guitar like it is his job, but... in a way that to me is really boring. he turns every song into this vaguely country-sounding jam band thing. Plus he is a jerk. Basically I need to find people who are around my skill level, I guess. Or who are better, but not jerks about it.

[theinevitable]

I mean, I don't know. Back when I first started learning, i could put in some hours every week learning scales/chords/whatever without thinking it wasn't fun. In fact, back then it was fun just to be able to learn new things.

[Limmo]

Part of the issue is that I have no idea what I need to know to play like the guitarists I like. They all seem to be making it up as they go along. It's not as if I can go down to the store and buy "learn to play electric guitar, with J Mascis" or whatever. I mean... fuck. I like how I am having an "I'm so lazy! fuck!" crisis about playing the electric guitar.

Actually, it sounds like you're having a crisis about NOT being lazy, but not knowing what to do.

Let's start off, please, with a list of the guitarists you want to play like.

[theinevitable]

yeah. well. Another problem is that I am all over the place in terms of what I want to play.
But basically:
Kurt Cobain
J Mascis
Pixies (Black Francis, Joey Santiago)
those guys from At The Drive-In (my secret shame)
basically Minor Threat/Black Flag type stuff (I can handle this. This is power chords.)
Reed/Morrison, the more rocking/dissonant/loud/awesome stuff. (velvets)
Ian MacKaye/Guy Piccioto
but also:
Mr Jimi Hendrix
various old blues guys such as that (no one in particular. just... electric blues stuff. From Carl Perkins to Hendrix is basically the stretch.)
This is stuff which I can obviously find easily on the internet.
but also:
The Replacements
Violent Femmes (Gordan Ganno?)
The various guitarists of The Feelies
Television
Built to Spill sometimes
the more fun, jangly part of the Velvets.

But the kind of stuff I write is in either the first group (punky!) or the last (guitar-pop!).

I am currently downloading the Power Tab files for bands I like. So far, this is pretty limited, other than every Jimi Hendrix song.

Basically I like too many different kinds of guitar music. When I pick up my guitar I typically tend to play bluesy stuff, as that is what I was into the most when I first started playing, and so that it most of what I learned back when I took lessons. Plus, as stated before, everything I play turns into a 1-4-5. Plus, there is a "Blues Scale," whereas there is not an "indie rock" scale.