Your next guitar revisited

[fese]

Still saving for a Lowden. At the moment, this looks like "the one", but it will probably be gone by the time I can afford it...

https://www.peachguitars.com/guitars/ac ... -bevel.htm

I never had my hands on one, only heard them in videos and one time in person... yummy!
I could easily afford one, but cannot really justify the expense. Not with my current state of playing and the apparent lack of ambition to get better by practicing

[Hermetech Mastering]

I've been saving for years for one. If this one goes I'll just get one custom made and have to wait four months for it. I only started playing seriously about four years ago, but I am dedicated, 3-4 hours practise a day, five days a week, so reckon it'll be worth it!

[vurt]

its a sweet looking thing
have a friend with a lowden, they do have a nice tone.

not for me im a clumsy idiot, would be worried about dinking such a beauty!

[revvy]

Get a relic'd one then you don't have to worry about damaging it

[vurt]

Get a relic'd one then you don't have to worry about damaging it

conversely, i hate that!
like in the 80s when everyone started paying extra for ripped and overwashed jeans

earn your scars!

[Hermetech Mastering]

I've never been worried about dinking my guitars, I LOVE dinks, it shows the guitar has been well played and is loved, and it all adds to the history and character, IMO. Yes, I am sure I will curse the first time I dink the Lowden, but after that, the more the merrier.

I could understand if you were intending to sell a guitar on, you'd want to keep it in top nick, but I only buy gear for life now.

And agree on reliced guitars, absolutely HATE the idea!

[vurt]

im odd, electric i dont mind dinking so much, but my acoustics i do my best to not even have slight belt scratches on the back.

not sure why, when you consider an acoustic (ok maybe not 7 grandsworth) is perfect for festival campfires.
so its not really a rational thing

[MadDogE134]

some people have more dollars than sense lol nice looking guitar but about 4k overpriced at least

[Hermetech Mastering]

Pounds. Hey it's worth it to me, or I wouldn't have saved for years, no need to call my sense into question, I've thought very long and hard about it. You would barely cover the cost of the woods its made of, at the price you are talking about.

But I get you, I feel the same way about people spending so much money on cars, for example.

[revvy]

Get a relic'd one then you don't have to worry about damaging it

conversely, i hate that!
like in the 80s when everyone started paying extra for ripped and overwashed jeans

earn your scars!

My bass has got nitro finish which makes it so vulnerable to marks, broke my heart when I dinked after a day. I didn't know what nitro was til after. Almost a year in and playing it for around an hour a day, it's got a few more scars now - I'm at peace with that, natural relic is nice.

[fese]

some people have more dollars than sense lol nice looking guitar but about 4k overpriced at least

Very dumb comment. Just because you can’t appreciate beautiful, highest quality instruments and don’t know what goes into it doesn’t automatically mean it’s overpriced.
It can make absolute sense to pay that amount of money (and more) for an instrument that will bring you joy for the rest of your life!

[fese]

I've been saving for years for one. If this one goes I'll just get one custom made and have to wait four months for it. I only started playing seriously about four years ago, but I am dedicated, 3-4 hours practise a day, five days a week, so reckon it'll be worth it!

F*** me, how do you do that? Even without all my health issues and my concentration being shot after a day’s work, I’ve never been able (sadly) to get into a regular practice routine. I love playing guitar, but I’m somehow just too easily bored and after a couple of minutes doing the same stuff I lose concentration. Which is why I’m still shit.

[cptgone]

The most important thing IMHO is having fun.
If you have fun, you'll keep playing.
Why obsess over how good you are? If you keep at it, you'll get better, auto-magically
(Also, what's "good"? Some people like to play many notes-per-second, some try to play the 'right' notes, some feel restricted by tonality and do things to their guitars that might make even Zappa blush. Every artist has her/his own voice, it takes time for each voice to mature and grow, no need to try and rush that)

I used to know a guy who got pretty good at shredding, playing 24/7 cause he was bored out of his mind, alone at uni (before the internet hehe). He took over 'my' band, did 1 gig, and quit.
I'm still playing.

My guitar is the friend I reach for when life has me down.
It's also one of the friends I like to spend time with, now and then.
Doesn't have to be every day (although I do aim to make music every day; I have synths too, and cats claiming my lap for long naps). We're not married, my guitar and I, that keeps her neck nice and erect

I play until I'm done. No point in envying other people's stamina, done is done, that frees me to scratch other itches.

[Hermetech Mastering]

I've been saving for years for one. If this one goes I'll just get one custom made and have to wait four months for it. I only started playing seriously about four years ago, but I am dedicated, 3-4 hours practise a day, five days a week, so reckon it'll be worth it!

F*** me, how do you do that? Even without all my health issues and my concentration being shot after a day’s work, I’ve never been able (sadly) to get into a regular practice routine. I love playing guitar, but I’m somehow just too easily bored and after a couple of minutes doing the same stuff I lose concentration. Which is why I’m still shit.

I can only speak for myself. In 2015 I had a bit of a spiritual epiphany involving folk music, and ever since then I started to take guitar much more seriously. Been playing bass since I was 14, and guitar since around 2002, but always just "dicking around", never very seriously. In 2016 I started the Justin Beginner course, which is free, spent one year doing that. Moved from electric to acoustic. The next year 2017-2018 I spent doing the Justin Intermediate Method, which was well worth the little bit of cash for all the extra add-ons. In 2018-2019 I got much more heavily into fingerstyle with the classic Mark Hanson book, plus music theory and the Modes. This year things dropped off a bit as we had another global move followed immediately by a global pandemic, which shot my practise to pieces, but I am fully back into it now.

I do about 2 1/2-3 hours structured practise a day, most things in chunks of five minutes. Then I play for fun for an hour or so. I work from home so it's easier to fit it all in. I give myself weekends off and only pick up the guitar if I feel like it then. What I found is that making it a part of my life, an actual practise, even if sometimes I don't really feel like it, makes those amazing breakthroughs happen much more regularly than if I was one of those people who only ever pick it up when they feel like it, and never progress much. But you have to do what suits you. I realise I am very lucky to be able to devote this much time to it, at my stage in life (mid 40s).

I set myself short term, medium term, and long term goals on the guitar, write them down, and regularly review them. I regularly ditch old things and bring new things into the practise routine, which always keeps it fresh. I LOVE the way Justin teaches guitar, not just what to do, but WHY to do it, and his pedagogical stance really suits me. He teaches HOW to learn. When you get that, you realise you can learn anything via practising the right stuff. How many times have I seen on guitar forums someone complain that they just can't do this certain thing? Break down what you need to do into small chunks. Practise those chunks for five minutes a day, every day until you can do it, put the chunks together, keep practising, voila, you can do it. It's really not hard but it does take time and dedication, which it appears many people don't have.

As an example, I practised these guitar parts for over six months, every day, before I even thought about recording them. Both parts are single takes/no edits:

https://xetb.bandcamp.com/album/a-leaf-must-fall

So my recommendation is: Just try the Justin Beginner Course and see how you get on. At the start it's only 20 mins practise a day, which most people ought to be able to fit in. After that if you dig it and start designing your own practise routines, the world is literally your oyster.

And I don't consider myself "good" at all, I still feel very much like a beginner, I still have that mind set, I am always eager to learn and get better, and I hope that never ends.

[vurt]

wish i could devote that kind of time
sadly, at a similar age, my physical self will not allow it. lucky if i can get a good hour in one sitting before pain takes over.
so i personally prefer to just jam and have fun now when thats possible.
not that i wont ocassionally try new tricks, just dont have a practice regime as such any more