Paff

Those Super Overdrive pedals are highly sought-after. I believe they can also be easily modified to make them sound identical to the Ibanez Tube Screamer

morriscroy

I figured out a long time ago, that it didn't matter what equipment I was using. Whether it was a $100 hunk of junk or a giant rig with tons of processing equipment, I would still sound the same (but louder with the latter).

morriscroy

Technical playing ability and a lot of practice made the biggest difference, than any piece of equipment I could buy.

morriscroy

I never used a tuner. I always tuned by ear via harmonics, which was good enough for my purposes. (Either to E or E-flat).

Paff

I struggled to tune for YEARS when I first started. I didn't know the harmonics method, and this was long before you could clip a $14 tuner onto your headstock. But I guess my struggles paid off as I can easily do it by ear now, with several harmonics on various strings to prevent the accumulation of error. People still look at me funny when I pull out that silver tuning fork, like it's an antique relic.

I remember seeing the great LA band The Dollyrots a couple of years ago, and they started a song only to realize Luis' guitar was horribly out of tune. They stopped, and he tuned up via his electronic tuner, but it must have malfunctioned because it still sounded bad. I guess he never learned tuning by ear, because the bassist, his wife Kelly, had to tune it for him. If that's not enough of an incentive to learn old-school tuning, I don't know what is.

Paff

This. My beloved SG sat idle much of the beginning of quarantine (though I've been listening to a TON of vinyl records and really digging them), but I literally dusted it off a couple of months ago and have been playing for several hours a day. Fingers were raw and bleeding, due to inactivity, but the calluses are back and I'm working through a lot of stuff that I could never play before. A few songs I'm playing are the Marshall Crenshaw version of Buddy Holly's Crying, Waiting, Hoping. It's a gorgeous solo, and I can play most parts of it, though the transitions on different licks still need smoothing out. Also the solos on Los Lobos' version of Come on Let's Go (this and the Crenshaw song are from the soundtrack of La Bamba, great record, go buy it), and Fleetwood Mac's I Don't Want to Know. Trying to play a Lindsay Buckingham solo is a tall order though.

This week I've started on the Overture to The Who's Tommy, and it's not as daunting as I'd thought. It's almost all chords, which I play far better than single string solos. This might end up being my "piece", the song I play if anyone asks me to play something. Mostly because there's no singing, and I suck at singing and playing at the same time. I tried for years to get Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard down. I can play the song perfectly, I can sing it perfectly, but I can't do both.

Hokeyboy

Lindsay Buckingham never gets his due as a guitarist. He's an incredible player

I'm not so much into learning songs lately as I am into theory and technique. I always had a "sloppy" style of playing in the sense that I would use inconsistent voicing with chords and, apparently, too much pick noise while I strummed. I've incorporated a bunch of picking exercises which I do every day and the improvement in my playing style has been eye-opening.

That said, I still enjoy seeking out new tunes to play. I'm a huge Dickey Betts fan but I never bothered to learn much Allman Bros. or his solo material. But man I had a blast learning Ramblin Man and parts of Blue Sky. My goal is to learn how to play the entirety of the latter's extended solo. At least the main melody.

Hokeyboy

One thing I haven't mastered yet: getting rid of guitar face

Toddarino

I’ve been in bands since I was 22 so about 20 years now. It initially started with me playing everything, however my guitar and bass skills are nonexistent. I was mediocre at best on drums. I just kept writing songs, but didn’t have the ability to play them. Eventually I roped some friends into joining. My friend who played bass normally switched to guitar and another friend with zero sense of rhythm played drums.
That lineup lasted two shows and the drummer left. The guitar player switched to drums and we got a new guy for that. This lineup lasted a while. We recorded a handful of songs played a bunch of shows and then finally found a bass player.
After a few years they all fell out and I had to replace everyone. It kinda became a revolving door for a while. Eventually we recorded our first real cd and played a bunch of cool places. This lineup broke up and I didn’t do much for a while besides write.
A few years ago the original bass player expressed interest and we got an old guitar player and drummer to rejoin. We demoed an album, but covid hit so now we are waiting to record.
overall there’s been 16 members I think. They all have a Todd name since the band is Toddarino & the Todds. I think I can remember them all. Toddarino, ToddE, ?, Le Todd, Toddette, Toddzilla, Tater Todd, Toddler, Toddball, Toddo, ?, Toddavano, RasToddfarian, ?,?. Shit I guess I can’t.

Hokeyboy

Why not "Todds & Sods"?

Toddarino

Damn that would have been a good one.

morriscroy

Similar story with me.

It took me quite awhile to figure out how to do the fifth-fret -> next-string tuning right (except the 4th->5th string). The only other tuning check I could figure out at the time, was whether the power chords sounded correct or not. It was less precise, especially if the intonation wasn't done correctly.

How I figured out the harmonics method of tuning, was from watching the guitar players at various nightclub gigs I use to go to every week back in the day. Seeing how they did it, I was able to figure it out after a few weeks/month of trial and error.

Paff

I wasn't so lucky, as I was too young to see bands play live at anything but large arena-type shows, where it was a guitar tech offstage doing the tuning.

I learned it from "The Guitar Handbook" by Ralph Denyer, a book I bought probably in 1984 or so, and is with me to this day (although the cover is falling off, and a lot of the pages are barely staying in). That book had EVERYTHING you need to know about guitar playing. It was how I learned barre chords, and why they work, a massive chord dictionary, etc. Probably learned more from that book than in any lesson I ever got. Hell, I used it this past week in learning Overture, 'cuz the music I was looking at told me to go from an open E to a 4th fret Ab7, and I don't do that shape of dominant 7th very well. The Guitar Handbook showed a very simple first fret shape that works perfectly.

morriscroy

At that age, I was going to the all-ages punk rock type gigs which were held at some nightclubs. They would put a huge "no booze" stamp on the back of your hand, if one didn't show any official identification stating one's age. (It took several days for that stamp to come off completely, even washing my hands frequently).

morriscroy

This sounds similar to the type of books I would have had at the time. I don't remember the author(s), nor the date of publication. (I can vaguely remember what the covers looked like, if I ever saw that same books again).

IIRC, it was mostly a bunch of chord charts with the tab layout for each chord. Both the barre chord layout, and the non-barre chord versions (such as G major or minor).

wendersfan

Oh, so it's a dick-measuring contest now? Fine.

Guitar-type things:

Fender Musicmaster
Fender Stratocaster
Fender Telecaster
Fender Precision
Fender Jazz Bass
Epiphone Les Paul
Epiphone ES-335
Squier Jazzmaster
Squier Jaguar
Ibanez Artcore something or other (it's a big jazz box)

Other things:

Yamaha Digital Piano
Tama drums

Amps:

Fender Bassman (drip-edge Silverface)
Vox AC 30
Vox Pathfinder
Peavey combo bass amp
Yamaha THR-10C modeling amp

And practically every effects pedal ever made.

Hokeyboy

Nice ween!

What are your thoughts on the Artcore vs the Epi 335? I've been wanting to dick around with a semi-hollow but I aint dropping the asking prices for a Gibson anytime soon.

Paff

Look up the Ibanez 335-copies from 1977-78. Gibson sued for copyright design and won, hence the short run. But it shouldn't cost more than a grand to pick one up. I have an SA-100, like in this picture:

wendersfan

The 335 and the Artcore I have are totally different beasts. The 335 is a really nice versatile guitar. The Artcore (I think it's a AF-75?) is a fully hollow-body jazz box. It plays smooth and sweet, but is really only a jazz guitar. I can't imagine playing it on a rock gig.

slop101

Me, I first picked up a guitar when I was 17 (late '80s), mostly to learn Zeppelin riffs. Before that, I tooled around a little with piano, violin, trumpet - none of them stuck, but guitar did.

I started with a cheap acoustic, took lessons for about a month, then learned on my own and then with other people. I first played at church, then from there (after getting a nice Les Paul as a college graduation present), I played some local punk/power-pop gigs with local bands, mostly as a live back-up guitar, rather than part of the recording unit. Which is the low-commitment I wanted - I love playing live, but I hate recording. That was all throughout the '90s (played some local shows where we opened for bands that went on to worldwide acclaim). That kinda ended when I hit my 30s, and I still played, still as a live back-up guitarist, but now for local singer-songwriters mostly women playing in coffee shops and bars - that was low-commitment fun as well.

I've been fortunate to have some great connections throughout the guitar industry... The Rickenbacker shop is my work-neighbor, so I have hookups there. I knew (know?) the lead artist-rep at Fender (who now runs their custom shop), who would get me guitars at cost. I buy wood from the same person who sells wood to Taylor guitars, so he hooked me up with the guy who runs their shop to make me a custom Koa guitar at cost, and so on...

So having tried all kinds of guitars, I've found Gibsons to be my go-to electric guitars (and Taylors for acoustic). Gibsons are set up kinda crap out of the factory, but if you have a good guitar tech, it can be set up nicely - in comparison, Fenders tend to leave the factory not needing a setup. But after a setup, I far prefer Gibsons - I've had a few Teles, and while I liked them, I just kept gravitating back to Gibsons.

So here's the current family of electrics and amps...





from left to right...

Gibson Les Paul studio faded gold top w/ P90s (my cheapest and most played electric)
Standard LP circa '94
1969 Gibson 340
matte black 335, circa 2005
Gibson SG (late '90s?)
standard LP x2 (early '00?)
amps...
Vox 50th anniversary hand-wired AC15/AC30 combo in wood cabinet
Marshall JCM 800, 100 watts 2x12"
Orange tiny terror (my most used amp)
Mesa Boogie Mark 3 combo (my most versatile amp)

And since my "gigging" days are long behind me, I'm looking to sell 3 or 4 of the above guitars, along with a couple of those amps. I've put the Marshall up for sale a month ago, but no one's biting, since no one is playing live! The thing's a beast, and best for live. More than the other tube amps, it's gotta CRANK for a good tone.

and here's that custom Taylor I was talking about...





(I have another acoustic Taylor, not pictured, that's older and my go-to guitar, and my most played one, also not pictured, more pedals than I can count - my least used (for shows), but most fun to use is the Brian May pedal, which recreates a lot of his tones - sounds especially great through the Vox)

Paff

It's always amusing, if I'm just jamming with friends, someone will want to play my SG. When I hand it to them, I always say "It's not for sale". They respond with "Jeez Paff, I don't want to BUY it, I just wanna try it."

They'll strum around on it for a few minutes, play a few licks, then look at me dead serious and say "How much you want for it?"

Tom Banjo

Anyone have any experience doing multitrack recording with an iPhone or iPad? I’ve used GarageBand off and on for years, but it’s always been with a cheap mic and no interface. Right now I’m looking into how Cubasis 3 compares as a DAW. And looking into audio interfaces like the iRigs, Steinberg UR12, and FocusRite Scarlett 2i2. Anyone have experience with any of those?

wendersfan

SGs are really nice to play - light and comfortable, especially compared to Les Pauls, which sound great yet feel like you're playing a cinder block with a guitar neck attached. The problem I've always had with SGs, other than the 'neck dive' issue, is they just feel so fragile, like, if I gigged with one I'd end up snapping it in half.

That said, a cherry red SG Special with P-90s is my dream solidbody, for reasons that have nothing at all to do with a certain guitar player of a certain '60s-era mod rock band.

slop101

You're not wrong, and two of the les Pauls I have are heavy as hell, but two of them are "weigh-relieved". And while purists scoff at weight-relieved LPs, playing them back-to-back, it's a negligible difference, IMO.

For a while, my SG was the only electric I played without a strap-lock (it was so light, why use one!), so, of course, in the middle of a gig, it falls off the strap as I'm playing, it's still in my left hand, but the body hits the concrete stage, cracking open the very thin/brittle wood surrounding the wiring. I tried gluing the pieces back together as best as I could, but I ended up taking it to a lutheir who fixed it a little better, but he also suggested a setup, and I'm glad he did - it played SO MUCH better after the setup, that I'm almost glad I broke it, as it's a far better guitar now than before it broke.

Paff

Greg Hetson of the Circle Jerks and Bad Religion? Yeah, I don't blame ya.