T-Nation Guitar Players' Thread

Off Topic
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[quote]Otto the Ecto wrote:
Man, everyone has been playing since they were little. I picked up my first guitar about a year ago and im 25!!!

I guess that something to look forward to… WHEN IM 40!!! /sadface[/quote]

Dude I didn’t start til I was 27. I figure I’ll just practice my balls off and see where it gets me. My friend that started about the same time as me always complains about how he wishes he would have started younger, and he’s 4 years younger than me.

Fuck that shit, just man up and put in the hours. Get better every day. It’s no different than lifting weights. Pay your dues and get results.

Speaking of the comparison between lifting weights, what is the guitar playing equivalent to squats, deads, bench, pullups, rows, and military? What are the core things that you can’t not do? What would you practice every day if you had to do it all over again from the beginning?

Any other general advice to myself and my fellow late-starters?

Feel free to assume that we’re already practicing a minimum of an hour a day.

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[quote]Steel Nation wrote:

[quote]Otto the Ecto wrote:
Man, everyone has been playing since they were little. I picked up my first guitar about a year ago and im 25!!!

I guess that something to look forward to… WHEN IM 40!!! /sadface[/quote]

Dude I didn’t start til I was 27. I figure I’ll just practice my balls off and see where it gets me. My friend that started about the same time as me always complains about how he wishes he would have started younger, and he’s 4 years younger than me.

Fuck that shit, just man up and put in the hours. Get better every day. It’s no different than lifting weights. Pay your dues and get results.

Speaking of the comparison between lifting weights, what is the guitar playing equivalent to squats, deads, bench, pullups, rows, and military? What are the core things that you can’t not do? What would you practice every day if you had to do it all over again from the beginning?

Any other general advice to myself and my fellow late-starters?

Feel free to assume that we’re already practicing a minimum of an hour a day.[/quote]

Yea, I pretty much picked up guitar since fucking up my elbow at beginning of this year (which has put me off training indefinately)… It’s replaced training in a way.

I too would like to know any ‘core’ exercises/skills to pick up from you guitar vets…

coff up the goods!

123

How/when did you find your tone?

I discovered my first tone when we first got the band up and running roughly 10 years ago. Just really tried hard to get a decent sound out of the equipment we had at the time. Took some patience and elbow grease but it worked. It’s evolved a bit since then, but plateaued in 2007/2008 and hasn’t changed much from there.

Who influenced it?

Mostly 80’s thrash, and early 90’s death metal. That and my band mates. When your playing with a group of people you can’t just sound how you want to- you have to compromise in order to make the whole band sound great. Lots of times I’ve had sick sounds but haven’t been able to unleash them due to this, but we end up sounding better altogether, so its worthwhile.

What does your rig look like?

Very simple live setup. I realize that back home is much different than USA for gear. Playing ability and skill would trump gear. You could have two guys play the same gear and sound very different. Over here it seems like most of the players I’ve met are trying to compensate for their lack of ability by having a million different effects pedals and play with copious amounts of reverb.

Live set up for most swedish melodic death metal bands:
Guitar->Tuner->Distortion 1->Distortion 2->Amp

Mine:
Guitar->Tuner->Amp

Playing in the US too many times have I been asked what is it about my gear that makes me sound so great. Same answer everytime… “its in the hands” Personally I learned this first hand from Anders Bjorler (At the Gates, The Haunted)

Does anyone need more than one guitar for a gig?

At least 2 guitars and usually 1 more for back up.

@Steel:

Modeling amps are good for just jamming practice but it terms of getting YOUR sound your better off with a “regular” amp IMO.

Gus G is my boy. I represent “home” everyday (hes originally Greek but spent much time in Sweden)

Get a new amp. Try out many different types and see which one speaks in YOUR tongue! Don’t worry too much about solidstate vs tube and all that… just find an amp with YOUR voicing. Once you do that, you have much less to worry about, tone-wise.

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[quote]Otto the Ecto wrote:

[quote]Steel Nation wrote:

[quote]Otto the Ecto wrote:
Man, everyone has been playing since they were little. I picked up my first guitar about a year ago and im 25!!!

I guess that something to look forward to… WHEN IM 40!!! /sadface[/quote]

Dude I didn’t start til I was 27. I figure I’ll just practice my balls off and see where it gets me. My friend that started about the same time as me always complains about how he wishes he would have started younger, and he’s 4 years younger than me.

Fuck that shit, just man up and put in the hours. Get better every day. It’s no different than lifting weights. Pay your dues and get results.

Speaking of the comparison between lifting weights, what is the guitar playing equivalent to squats, deads, bench, pullups, rows, and military? What are the core things that you can’t not do? What would you practice every day if you had to do it all over again from the beginning?

Any other general advice to myself and my fellow late-starters?

Feel free to assume that we’re already practicing a minimum of an hour a day.[/quote]

Yea, I pretty much picked up guitar since fucking up my elbow at beginning of this year (which has put me off training indefinately)… It’s replaced training in a way.

I too would like to know any ‘core’ exercises/skills to pick up from you guitar vets…

coff up the goods![/quote]

Well I’m no vet but here goes:

Good picking technique. I seriously recommend practicing hard at this. Being able to flow across your fretboard easily will come with good picking technique among other things. I suggest that along with alternate picking you have your hand at economy picking. I’ll put up some vids with this post that explain some of this stuff.

Economy:

Alternate by the king of it, Paul Gilbert:

I’m not saying you need to become a robot but every now and then you come across something that you would love to learn but bad technique gets in the way. I mean I don’t stick to any rules when I’m playing but when I want to pull out a fast picked run across the fretboard its good to have the picking technique down so that it doesn’t sound like a complete mess. Marty Friedman sure as hell hasn’t stuck to any rules. Dude picks like a spaz but still, he clearly has good technique.

I picked up a ton of stuff from Paul Gilbert. This Arpeggio lesson is one that I love. I love throwing patterns like these into solos and its also a great picking exercise for both economy and alternate.

I just wunna throw some up other cool videos for you guys. Maybe some of you haven’t seen em before.

Shawn Lane, one of my favourite guitarists, is just beyond incredible. I bought his instructional DVD and its awesome. I picked up a lot of good stuff from him.

And heres a The Shattered Fortress solo from John Petrucci (DT) by some guy on youtube. Mind = mince after watching this.

OH and other thing: Practice finger… mobility? lol. Seriously, like pulling off and hammering on with you pinky and every other finger. Just 2 fingers, one being the pinky, and practice that over and over to a click for time and increase the time every “workout” haha. Then pair the next finger up with your pinky and do the same. For real, a fast pinky makes for easy playing. And work on 4 notes per string, like a chromatic scale if you like, and bring it back and fourth like 1,2,3,4,3,2,1,2,3,4, etc. That shit is tricky. Or maybe just for me…

125


I don’t know if this would work but I’m gonna throw an idea by you guys. My friend/flat mate/band member is a sound engineer and has recording equipment set up in his room. If I put together a rhythm track with drums and put it up for DL or on youtube would you guys record yourselves jamming to it and then we can piece them together to make some sort of G3 vibe T-Nation jam? haha

EDIT: or a back track from somewhere else. Whatever…

126

[quote]tokyopop wrote:
I don’t know if this would work but I’m gonna throw an idea by you guys. My friend/flat mate/band member is a sound engineer and has recording equipment set up in his room. If I put together a rhythm track with drums and put it up for DL or on youtube would you guys record yourselves jamming to it and then we can piece them together to make some sort of G3 vibe T-Nation jam? haha

EDIT: or a back track from somewhere else. Whatever… [/quote]

Ha! I was just starting to piece together a back track to jam to in Reaper. These days, I do more mixing/prod than playing just by virtue of being on the road so much for work and having other stuff going on in life etc (why I left my band).

127

[quote]Steel Nation wrote:
This is just a discussion generating Q:

How/when did you find your tone? Who influenced it? What does your rig look like? Does anyone need more than one guitar for a gig?

[/quote]
this is great! guitar questions on T-Nation.
for me tone would be something you never really settle for. I think when I hear some one else’s tone, then I try and adjust my own. whatever is inspiring at that period of your musical tastes.

I did listen to a lot of Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath in my formative years though. also, Bob Marley is a genius rhythm guitar player. Keith Richards is another one. so I would say that those guys had a major influence in how I come to recognize a tone that I try to emulate.

as far a my set up, I usually dont bring an amp, I dont have a roadie, and the load out klls me if i brought all my gear, ater the gig. I just usually call ahead and ask. I usuallyy would be given choices and I take it from there.

My sep up would be .10 strings D Ã??ddario’s, the main guitar I use now is a Fender Deluxe Stratocaster left hand, then it would be plugged into my powered Gator pedal board, and on it would be an Ernie Ball wah, into a Korg Black Box tuner, into a Boss BD2 Blues Driver with the Monte Allum H2o+ mod kit installed. ( I love this thing!) then into an Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phase Shifter, then a Boss Octaver pedal just to be weird, then into a Boss Delay/Reverb. (I forgot the model #)

I usually dont bring more than one guitar per gig.
edit: I forgot, I have a few amps, some solid stae some tube. i like the sound of a tube amp. there is nothing that compares to th warmth. but as far as amps go, I play a Marshall JCM900 combo 2x12. A Fender Concert Series1x12. my dads Mesa Boogie MarkIIII. a small Vox, forgot the model. A Peavey Studio Pro. A Crate Vintage Series 30w.
Guitars I have a Fender American Standard Strat, black rosewood board.
A maple neck American Tele, then A Gibson Les Paul tobacco sunburst, the Fender Deluxe, A 78 Gibson Flying V. which I have been meaning to restore. A Road Series OMM Martin Acousic and A Dean Performer Series Acoustic.

128

[quote]solidkhalid wrote:
How/when did you find your tone?

I discovered my first tone when we first got the band up and running roughly 10 years ago. Just really tried hard to get a decent sound out of the equipment we had at the time. Took some patience and elbow grease but it worked. It’s evolved a bit since then, but plateaued in 2007/2008 and hasn’t changed much from there.

Who influenced it?

Mostly 80’s thrash, and early 90’s death metal. That and my band mates. When your playing with a group of people you can’t just sound how you want to- you have to compromise in order to make the whole band sound great. Lots of times I’ve had sick sounds but haven’t been able to unleash them due to this, but we end up sounding better altogether, so its worthwhile.

What does your rig look like?

Very simple live setup. I realize that back home is much different than USA for gear. Playing ability and skill would trump gear. You could have two guys play the same gear and sound very different. Over here it seems like most of the players I’ve met are trying to compensate for their lack of ability by having a million different effects pedals and play with copious amounts of reverb.

Live set up for most swedish melodic death metal bands:
Guitar->Tuner->Distortion 1->Distortion 2->Amp

Mine:
Guitar->Tuner->Amp

Playing in the US too many times have I been asked what is it about my gear that makes me sound so great. Same answer everytime… “its in the hands” Personally I learned this first hand from Anders Bjorler (At the Gates, The Haunted)

Does anyone need more than one guitar for a gig?

At least 2 guitars and usually 1 more for back up.

@Steel:

Modeling amps are good for just jamming practice but it terms of getting YOUR sound your better off with a “regular” amp IMO.

Gus G is my boy. I represent “home” everyday (hes originally Greek but spent much time in Sweden)

Get a new amp. Try out many different types and see which one speaks in YOUR tongue! Don’t worry too much about solidstate vs tube and all that… just find an amp with YOUR voicing. Once you do that, you have much less to worry about, tone-wise.[/quote]

I have to agree with Khalid \m/

129

[quote]tokyopop wrote:
I don’t know if this would work but I’m gonna throw an idea by you guys. My friend/flat mate/band member is a sound engineer and has recording equipment set up in his room. If I put together a rhythm track with drums and put it up for DL or on youtube would you guys record yourselves jamming to it and then we can piece them together to make some sort of G3 vibe T-Nation jam? haha

EDIT: or a back track from somewhere else. Whatever… [/quote]
that would be awesome

130

Thanks for those vids tokyopop :slight_smile:

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Pic of my old Foxxe Barrington (screamin demon semour duncan) floyd rose fun to play and a stock pic of my new guitar. The strat is so nice you can feel the difference. Boss ME-50 is fun too. Used to have a bunch of stomp boxes but most were slowly being destroyed.

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[quote]musclegym wrote:
Pic of my old Foxxe Barrington (screamin demon semour duncan) floyd rose fun to play and a stock pic of my new guitar. The strat is so nice you can feel the difference. Boss ME-50 is fun too. Used to have a bunch of stomp boxes but most were slowly being destroyed.[/quote]

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[quote]tokyopop wrote:
I don’t know if this would work but I’m gonna throw an idea by you guys. My friend/flat mate/band member is a sound engineer and has recording equipment set up in his room. If I put together a rhythm track with drums and put it up for DL or on youtube would you guys record yourselves jamming to it and then we can piece them together to make some sort of G3 vibe T-Nation jam? haha

EDIT: or a back track from somewhere else. Whatever… [/quote]

I would do it for sure. Obviously not going to be too great but I’ll do what I can.

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that Boss ME 50 looks cool. I have yet to discover multi effects modules.

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[quote]BlaZe wrote:
that Boss ME 50 looks cool. I have yet to discover multi effects modules.[/quote]
I used to use a zoom 9000 but it kept freezing up and programing it stunk. This is pretty easy and fun to use the wah pedal doesn’t have quite the range a single unit would have but it has tons of goofy stuff to keep you busy.

136

[quote]musclegym wrote:

[quote]BlaZe wrote:
that Boss ME 50 looks cool. I have yet to discover multi effects modules.[/quote]
I used to use a zoom 9000 but it kept freezing up and programing it stunk. This is pretty easy and fun to use the wah pedal doesn’t have quite the range a single unit would have but it has tons of goofy stuff to keep you busy.[/quote]

Yeah thats exactly why I never got into the multi effects, because of the Zooms going around.
The delays would be cool, but the distortion would really be lacking.
That Boss Me 50 sounds really cool though

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[quote]BlaZe wrote:

[quote]musclegym wrote:

[quote]BlaZe wrote:
that Boss ME 50 looks cool. I have yet to discover multi effects modules.[/quote]
I used to use a zoom 9000 but it kept freezing up and programing it stunk. This is pretty easy and fun to use the wah pedal doesn’t have quite the range a single unit would have but it has tons of goofy stuff to keep you busy.[/quote]

Yeah thats exactly why I never got into the multi effects, because of the Zooms going around.
The delays would be cool, but the distortion would really be lacking.
That Boss Me 50 sounds really cool though[/quote]
I sent the zoom back 2 times and on the third I said scrap it. I had a couple of stomp boxes so I used those for a while. I loved my digitech delay but I sold most of them to get the ME. I am very happy with it. It has more than I would ever use. Like I said it is just fun to screw around on.
I saw someone mention the Roland jazz chorus I use to have a friend that played through it all the time that was a nice amp. I need an upgrade. My Dean Markley is ok just tired of it.

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IIRC Roland Jazz Chorus is the go-to clean amp most professional studios are using at the moment (and have been for the last AT LEAST 15 years)

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[quote]solidkhalid wrote:
IIRC Roland Jazz Chorus is the go-to clean amp most professional studios are using at the moment (and have been for the last AT LEAST 15 years)[/quote]

Yea - the Roland JC has been the standard for clean tones for a long time.

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[quote]solidkhalid wrote:
IIRC Roland Jazz Chorus is the go-to clean amp most professional studios are using at the moment (and have been for …[/quote]

… since the 70’s.