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Can you give us a brief summary of that seminar Jerome, it sounds fascinating. I've looked for any real discussion on the improving of wood online for a while but as yet not  found real reasoning. You could be my enlightenment.

The real thrust of my argument was regarding solid body (no tone chambers) electric guitars. To me it's notable that electric guitars can be made of plywood (early Fender strats), plexiglass (Dan Armstrongs etc), fibreglass (60's Airlines), masonite chipboard (current cheap Danelectros). Whilst guitars made from these materials aren't top flight neither are they hideously flawed soundwise. Last month's 'Guitar and Bass Magazine' featured a one off electric guitar made from copper piping which was said to have a nice jazzy tone...

Obviously there are some materials that shouldn't be used. A cork electric body would dampen the string sound horribly as the bridge and neck would hardly resonate against it. A guitar body made from cast metal or granite would sustain to extreme lengths. Inbetween we have a world of choices. Clearly wood is a great material, it has the right acoustic properties, but does ageing really contribute? Part the problem is luthiers are already dealing with fine tone woods and appreciating tonal differences most of us wouldn't notice. They are after a maximum result. However electric guitars make optimal fairly easy to achieve.

I'm struggling to re-Google a New York luthier's web page that tried to dissuade customers from bringing in old electric guitars for repair/refurb. His reasoning was cost of replacing parts, resetting necks etc. was greater than buying a decent new guitar. Nowhere did he mention the magic of an old guitar body/neck.

Any thoughts?

Drop D won't really suit barre chords for a beginner/improver. The whole liberating aspect of Barre chords is once you learn the F shape and the B shape you can apply it anywhere on the neck. Suddenly sharps and flats are in easy reach. Also once you've learnt a song as a pattern of barre moves you can raise or lower pitch just by shifting everything up or down a fret.

OK now, so you can play full F on all strings, three fingers out in front and your first covering all strings on first fret? Does it ring good and proper? Now move it up two frets. You've just made barre G on the third fret. A is up on fifth and so on. So if the song demands quick moves between G A and F you can keep the one barre shape and zoom back and forth.

If you're wanting to play like Greenday though you'll find full blown barre chords with distortion are a bit over the top. Try doing barres but only playing a few of the strings. Low strings will make for growling and broody. High strings should sizzle and sing. You are now on the way to powerchords.

PS. You may be in the rut because you are restricting repetoire, look to try oldies, ballads, country, folk, whatever will give you new technique and insight.

I find the thing with the White Pages books is at first you think 'why did I pay for all these songs I don't know or don't like'. Then you come across a song you've not been able to play, follow the tab and voila it works, then you're glad you paid for it.

Nailing a song : priceless.

1) Practise different strum patterns, try them out on songs, see how well they fit.

2) Have you learnt finger-picking? If you can master the basic 'clawhammer' travis pick you will sound different. Great for softer, slower songs.

3) Buy a chorus pedal, switch it on for numbers that need more oomph!

4) Get a different guitar. Say you have a bright, sparkley acoustic look to buy a boomy, boxy semi. Change guitars to fit different songs.

5) Get Ralph Argesta's 'Blues: Jam Trax' book and CD. Get your repetitive friend to play the basic I IV progressions whilst you improvise. When you get a nice sounding improvisation tab it out for Sunday best ;-)

Can you describe your guitar to us Vise? You say old, I was wondering if you have an old 'floating bridge' type Gibson/Gretsch-alike, these might put many a guitar tech off their stride as there are at least 5 different types. Some jazz boxes simply have a wooden bridge, indeed your if your guitar is a 50s/60s semi type it may have started with a high action, fingers were tougher in those days...

A few months ago Phil I was getting obsessed with a clean playing sound, the sort of thing you hear on Buddy Holly solos and early sixties (pre-Beatle) hits. Only problem was small amps couldn't deliver it. Took a big combo that would take up a big chunk of money and house space :-(

Just picked up the Xmas 'Guitar and Bass Magazine' and they have a round up cheap Les Pauls and they give the clear Wesley LP a decent review, only downside mentioned is it's heavy but tone wise they say it's OK.

Time to widen your net GK, we'd all like to play a fast rocker first off but it takes alot of work to get to the level I hear in Wolfmother.

First off you need to get the open chords E A D then G C F nailed. This will open up a whole load of songs to you but don't restrict yourself to just hard rock. Once you've worked out how to play B chords (see loads of posts here) then you are barre chord territory which is the basis for alot of the up and down the neck work I saw Wolfmother doing. Leave soloing and quick riffs like the one that's all over 'Woman' to later, speed exercises can make grown men cry.

All the heavy groups started off playing simple songs like 'Knocking On Heavens Door' and 'Brown Eyed Girl'. All rock guitar gods started with slow blues improvisations. They just kept at until they got good and fast.

"You guy's have any experience with acoustic basses??"

I have a friend with an acoustic bass and have played it a few times. First off the tone is very different, much more mellow and laid back. Second the acoustic output is not great despite the dreadnought-esque body, you can't really match the grunt and thump of a bass amp with wood unless you go up to a full size double bass (which has certain portability/fragility problems). So if your kitchen has a power socket any electric bass and a simple 30wattt bass cube will have you rockin more, but try one in a shop some people fall in love with that acoustic bass tone...

In general covers were the norm in recorded music right up into the sixties. It was only post-Beatles that the music press became obsessed with originality. This suited the music industry who were after cutting costs by sacking A&R/songwriters. Hence in the sixties Carol King, Burt Bacharach, Ellie Greenwich were all recast as singer-songwriters to varying degrees of success.

Phil, I have alot of Diamond stuff but never bumped into his 'I'm A Believer' apart from as a live concert track.

Suspicious Minds - amazing live version on the 'At The International Hotel' official bootleg, at this point it's a new song to Elvis so he really cuts into it, no messing about just raw rocking.