Best Guitar Advice You Ever Got

[tapper mike]

Yes.... and he's looking at the keys so two fails. However it was a reply to revvy who's first instrument was an organ.

[Bodhisan]

The revelation that there are intonation devices on electrics and acoustics. Sometimes you’ve got to compromise, but man, I never could figure out why my perfectly tuned G string could be such a sharp A on a D chord. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed - and that was not so much good advice as it was an education.

[tapper mike]

The revelation that there are intonation devices on electrics and acoustics. Sometimes you’ve got to compromise, but man, I never could figure out why my perfectly tuned G string could be such a sharp A on a D chord. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed - and that was not so much good advice as it was an education.

I had a similar revelation few years ago. Back in the 70's I read an article about cheaper guitars and wolf tones. I never heard a wolf tone on any guitar cheap or expensive and i blew the article off thinking this guy thinks people should only play expensive guitars that I cant afford.

Decades later I've got this strat and strange tones are coming from it. It was a Strat Plus EC signature so I wondered if it was a hidden feature I couldn't figure out what to call it. Eventually I had to sell the strat. Then a few years back I stumbled on this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOQkvGyCUAE

[Bodhisan]

The revelation that there are intonation devices on electrics and acoustics. Sometimes you’ve got to compromise, but man, I never could figure out why my perfectly tuned G string could be such a sharp A on a D chord. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed - and that was not so much good advice as it was an education.

I had a similar revelation few years ago. Back in the 70's I read an article about cheaper guitars and wolf tones. I never heard a wolf tone on any guitar cheap or expensive and i blew the article off thinking this guy thinks people should only play expensive guitars that I cant afford.

Decades later I've got this strat and strange tones are coming from it. It was a Strat Plus EC signature so I wondered if it was a hidden feature I couldn't figure out what to call it. Eventually I had to sell the strat. Then a few years back I stumbled on this video.

Good lord...talk about a rabbit hole. That is new to me - but I'm no guitar expert.

I don't want to turn this into a Cheech and Chong "While you played me that song I wrote another song," but in getting rid of a guitar that you didn't need to, I once drunkenly stepped on the neck of my Gibson SG, a lefty from the late 60's, and cracked it just below the headstock. I was so shocked and almost frightened at what I had done, I went downstairs from my L.A. apartment and, in the stupor I was in, quietly threw it into the dumpster, like disposing a corpse, then crept back upstairs. When I went to a guitar store to shop for another, I told the guy what had happened, and he said he could fix it. I retrieved it from the dumpster, and he did glue it back together, quite well - you can hardly tell - and I still have that guitar (that happened in 1989).

[tapper mike]

Great story

[thunder1677]

Make sure you thumb is dynamic when your playing. Economize your picking for efficient speed.

[JS_SEA]

I remember a rehearsal years ago
the band was just jamming
they used to perform own compositions
or their version of a famous song
I was just watching and listening
the guitarist played some Hendrix solo
almost exactly like on original track
can not remember the song any more
drummer stopped playing and said
"Create, don't imitate!"
This is a general advice not just for
guitarists to find your own style by
focusing more on ad-libbing
than only trying to learn a piece
note for note.
Imo a mix of both worlds is good
but with more focus on ad-libbing

[YannCaniz]

I bought a cajon one year ago (which is an amazing instrument) and I really improve my guitar rhythm.
Most of guitarist see the guitar as a melodic instrument and don't focus that much on rhythm and percussion (for acoustic' ones).

[illian]

I'm new to guitar, which strat should I buy to learn?

[Uncle E]

What’s your budget?

[GreyLion]

I'm new to guitar, which strat should I buy to learn?

If you just gotta have a Strat, here's a Rhett Schull video that might help you make some decisions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EojbjRPON4

Back on topic -- I got good advice from my dad when I was young. Don't buy new guitars if you can help it. Go to fifty or sixty pawn shops first to check out your options.

That advice got less useful with the rise of the net and all of the shops signing into ebay.

But I got some really awesome guitars cheap for a couple of decades.

[Uncle E]

I’ll tell a short version of my stolen guitar story since I’ve told it too many times: it was a Strat with no finish and no branding on the headstock, as ugly and cheap looking as you’ll ever find. Guy who stole it couldn’t have gotten more than $100 for it. What the thief and no pawn shop could know is it was made of about $2,000 worth of parts (Warmoth chambered body, Warmoth neck, Kinman pickups, etc.) and was as good as or better than a $4,000 custom shop Fender. So deals can still be had out there!

[GreyLion]

Oww! My tragic theft story was when somebody broke into our house and stole my old American Standard Strat, many years ago.

This does not compare to your loss. I liked my Strat, but it wasn't all that special and was easily replaced.

[Bee_Abney]

The best guitar advice I ever got was probably 'Slow down, George!' (My name is not George.) This advice was from a friend of my dad's, from whom I bought my first electric guitar.

Fast is great, but get it right, and play with feeling, and all that...

One of the best guitar exercises I was ever told about was from a friend of mine. He had an amazing musical ear and liked to play any tune that he'd heard, from game show theme music, to musical numbers. Anything that wasn't something he knew well. He was brilliant at it. I was terrible! I'm not great even now, but it was such a great exercise for learning to play melodically, and to improvise based on the notes you wanted to hear rather than the patterns that your muscle memory leads you towards.

[Bee_Abney]

I’ll tell a short version of my stolen guitar story since I’ve told it too many times: it was a Strat with no finish and no branding on the headstock, as ugly and cheap looking as you’ll ever find. Guy who stole it couldn’t have gotten more than $100 for it. What the thief and no pawn shop could know is it was made of about $2,000 worth of parts (Warmoth chambered body, Warmoth neck, Kinman pickups, etc.) and was as good as or better than a $4,000 custom shop Fender. So deals can still be had out there!

That's horrible! Everyone lost, and you most of all.