UESP Forums

Well, they'd probably sound like Dr Feelgood - not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

ah sweet i wud like to join!
i play guitar an bass, among severa
difrent instruments. im prety good but cant solo worth a dam, but im better on bass
i gotz a Jackson Randy Rhoads V, Epi LP Junior, Squire Strat, Tetomas acoustic an an ibanez bass
an im in 4 bands, 3 guitar, 1 bass
do i qualify??

I remembered earlier how much fun just plugging in an electric guitar and rocking out is. Especially if a Big Muff is involved...

And for all my talk about all the guitars I want, I also really can't see any of them feeling as comfortable to play as my Ibanez does. Kudos to you, for stopping the production of idiot-rock guitars for long enough to design the Artcore AFS77. Of course, being a thinline hollowbody with a centre-block and a brace of PAF-style humbuckers it owes quite a lot to the Gibson ES-335, the best guitar... in the world!

Though I baulk at the term 'axeman' (irony's no excuse, Veck!), here's my selection of variously mine/variously not, axes which I use.

Taylor cutaway, Kottke signature - primary weapon of choice
Jazz bass - primary weapon of I-Can't-Be-Arsed-To-Change-The-Strings...
Strat - it may be a Mex, but it can still sound ridiculously, classically lovely
Seagull S6 - wot i did lern 2 play on (it's a dreadnought, and if any mid-range acoustic sounds acoustic, that Seagull's it. that thing's still got some punchy volume on it)
Manuel Raimundo 660 elec/acoustic cutaway - acoustic fingerpicking's my particular poison, and that is a quality bit of kit. Gorgeous to play, and its treble notes sound like bells. Made my very nice angels.

Other than knowing what I play, and how to play what I want, I'm not good on hardware. As I've no real need to use the Peavey Classic 30 in t'other room, I'm an amp-noob. Self-made samples and a pair of 'phones is my more natural habitat! Sample clean - then f*** s*** up, as necessary.

As far as 'I want a...' buys: a Marxophone.
Here's the frighteningly winsome Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes, introducing (and, aside from the Marxophone, I know I speak for r on this when I say; swoon.)

Can anyone give me tips or instructions on filing down the bridge of my Yamaha FG300a acoustic? I swear, at the 12th fret,the strings are like 12mm from the fretboard.

The best thing to do with an acoustic is to get it done professionally. Obviously with an electric if you over-adjust you just twist your Allen key the other way to correct the problem, but if you file an acoustic's bridge down too much you're pretty rubber ducked, really...

Wot r just sed.

If you have a fair few years experience with adusting necks, bridges and nuts, then depending on the guitar it's very do-able - although it's easier to raise than to lower the action. Otherwise, it's too big a risk.

I've got a few projects going on right now.

Foremost, I'm composing an instrumental Progressive Metal-esque piece, which so far I have about 60 bars written. So far it has 5 tempo changes, 3 key changes, but surprisingly I haven't worked in any good time signature modulation so it's at 4/4 for right now. It mainly toggles between Ab and Db Melodic Major and when it jumps to 182 BPMs I use Eb Harmonic Minor, for a neo-classicalish touch. But the guitar work is not the only highlight of the song: I'm writing several synths tracks, mostly SynthStrings and other string tones, but some pianos and brass section for when it goes down to 68 BPMs. Though I'm far from complete I think it's interesting juxtaposition of different tempos, keys and instruments will make it a solid track.

In relation to the above piece I've revamped my efforts to relearn piano and I'm practicing an hour a day again. I'm using a lot of my guitar theory knowledge to try and help translate some of the more advanced lessons and techniques I've been looking up/learning. Still, it's been going slow since I've lost a lot of my skill at actually playing the piano.

And then there's my acoustic work. I've been trying to get some gigs playing my classical work at parties, social balls, wine tastings, and other aristocratic crap of that nature, in hopes of raking in some extra cash. I got a few guys I'm waiting on a call from. I think the biggest problem with me trying to get gigs is I need to find people dull enough to actually pay me to play a bunch of Bach/Tchaikovsky/Beethoven pieces on a $250 nylon string, which in turn means the gig has to be relatively small because I can't plug into an amp, and my fingerstyle playing isn't as loud as if I were using a pick. Aside from that, I'm working on doing an acoustic/vocal cover of Star One's "Digital Rain". Epic song, but I think I might need a guest vocalist or two because there are like 3 different singers on the normal recording, one of which is female, in addition to the studio multitracking.

And in the quest for shredding, I've been working on my sweep picking arpeggios lately. Coming up with original arpeggios is becoming tougher and tougher, because every time I get a good idea for one I find out some band already has that arpeggio shape/progression in their song. <.<

The more astute of you may have read that I bought a banjo last weekend. Here's how that's going...

1) By and large the string layout's fine, because it's just open G and that's what I play guitar in quite a lot. But I am having trouble with that weird little drone string that's in entirely the wrong order and responsible for the Heath Robinson tuning peg halfway along the neck.

2) I've already developed a hybrid style of clawhammer and flatpicking. Go me. I've decided that regular clawhammer isn't for me - it's apparently the easiest playing style in the world, but that's a lie.

3) Instrument evolution reached a peak in the way that a banjo is tuned. Normally it's in The Key Of God (G), but like a harmonica the dominant of that key falls quite nicely to hand too. I tend to gravitate towards D minor rather than major - the saddest of all keys, of course.

4) The bloody thing's a pain to keep in tune. I thought my Bigsby-equipped Ibanez was bad...

Another gear plugging post to resurrect this, I'm afraid...

What a great little thing my Line6 Pocket Pod Express is. It's a little red blob the size of a wallet, and jammed into it are 5 amp models (Fender Twin and Deluxe Reverbs, a Vox AC30, a Marshall JCM2000 and a Mesa Dual Rectifier) that crucially sound like the amps they're trying to emulate, three modulation effects (chorus, flanger and tremolo), two reverbs, delay with tap tempo and even a tuner. Plug your guitar into it and a pair of headphones in the other end and you're away. It can run off batteries or a standard Boss-style power supply. I use it for pretty much all my gigs with the duo because it's a hell of a lot easier to carry to a gig than an amp - the harmonica goes in one end and the other goes into the PA and it still sounds like I'm playing into a cooking Fender valve amp. It makes recording guitars ridiculously easy too. And all this for £45, which would buy you either an absolutely awful amp or most of a Big Muff.