Search options (Page 4 of 27)

The metal guitar came from one simple innovation. The Marhsall amp, an amp meant to give gain effects. To exploit the early Marshall stacks the weapon of choice was the Gibson Les Paul. It's pickup power and sustain created the early heavy rock sound that got harder and heavier to become metal.

Now amps and pedals will inject gain to the extent that any electric guitar can do metal. The Cult's lead player uses a Gretsch White Falcon. Status Quo use telecasters. Loadsa metal players use strats.

You mentioned shred. Well players who want fast above anything else look for something like an Ibanez Gem, a real smooth unrestrictive neck for ultra light strings.

If you haven't got a Line 6 Pocket Pod Phil splash out on one, they're an education in a plastic shell. With the same guitar you can go jazz, metal, country, blues at the flick of a dial or button. Even within one amp model you can drive it clean (low gain, low guitar volume) or crank both up and in comes that metal rock distortion...

440 is the standard pitch, you're unlikely to bump into anything else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_%28m … .28A440.29

Good luck with the chords (particularly F and B) ;-)

I'm with mixter on this one. Intonation rarely relates to action, what it does tie up with is the amount of pressure you use to hold the strings with. Try this with an electric tuner. Hold a string on the 12th fret and watch the tuner pitch. If you fret it lightly you'll get a different pitch from if you really clamp down on the strings (sometimes almost a semitone's worth). Now action may be forcing the way you fret so perhaps that's where SouthPaw is coming from. A low action could help you develop a featherlight technique. High action may force you to play with a grip of steel.

Same dilemma applies to the lightness vs tone argument. Sure heavy strings help develop finger strength but they also force a big intonation adjustment. Remember most of the classic 60s players created light string sets for bending using banjo strings. No on criticises their tone, partly because tone is something you create...

Sounds like you got a food one Russell. There's alot of snobbery in guitars particularly snob attitude related to country of origin. Back in the 70s everyone talked about 'jap crap', now those japanese built copies are highly collectible and MIJ is a hallmark of quality.

What people are doing is trying to insist that 'all American built guitars are quality', 'all Chinese built guitars are rubbish' which is obviously nonsense. China's build skills have been coming on leaps and bounds.

My recommendation is get out to real shops, clap your hands on real guitars and ignore the name, the brand and the country of origin. Counterfeits only work because the fake logo convinces the seller, if the listened and felt the wood fakers would be out of business. Buy off the net, buy deaf and blind

Piezo's are typically used in electro-acoustic guitars. If that lapslide is anything like the Epiphone Ultra II then that piezo will give an acoustic sounding output. The blend knob should be so you can combine the electric and 'acoustic' sounds for a best of both worlds.

Easy, the player every time.

SRV's bass player described his strat as a nasty finger shredder, apparently Stevie often had bleeding fingers after gigs and tried to harden the tips with superglue. EVH's 'frankenstein' was described as 'crap' by reviewers when a replica came out. Joe Strummer's telecaster is heavy and could hardly be intonated it's so worn, yet in his hands it was Clash magic.

Wannabee luthiers are gifting big players with special models all the time. Often the player never plays the gift but the manufacturer trumpets the 'endorsement' anyway. Minarik were very cheeky with Lemmy suggesting he'd switched from Rickenbacker to their bass, picture of Lem with it looks like a photoshop job too!

There's no simple answer to this one. Take the Les Paul, in the 50s it was not as futuristic as the strat and the humbuckers didn't jump out and take the world by storm. It was only in the 70s that the new breed of hi-gain amps let loose the sustain lurking in those goldtops. 70s players weren't trying to ape 50s idols, John Lennon even had his LP stripped back to brown wood. Also with Les Paul's you need to differentiate between the Standard's with P-90s (a single coil type) and Customs with humbuckers, at least that's the general rule.

The telecaster is another guitar that did OK in the 50s but name a famous tele player? Telecasters lacked outright glamour which is why punk players like Chrissie Hynde and Joe Strummer found them great work tools.

Makers like Gretsch and Rickenbacker suffer from high price tags and limited quantities. Sure they have a following (the Beatles, the Jam) but it's the sheer ubiquity of Fenders that make them so well known.

Hallmark is an odd word RH, Fender were quality in the 50s/60s but fell markedly in the 70s. Even today when it comes to value for money non-big-name makers will give you more. I'm currently very impressed with Blade (Levinson). It's all a matter of if you want that Fender headstock. The net abounds with fake logo transfers for people who want the branding, even when they don't own the real thing.

Personally I try to ignore brands and logos. This is a tricky act to pull-off, we all have a lifetime of product images. But I find putting hands on real guitars speaks volumes. Since my fingers don't touch the headstock and my ears can't hear branding...

First off Roswell you need to focus in on the kind of guitar and sorta sound you want. Your current list has some jazzy hollow-bodies mixed with full-on solids. How about a) a thinline telecaster or b) an Epiphone Ultra Les Paul?

The thinline has an f-hole and cavities so sounds lighter than a normal nasal telecaster. The Epi Ultra has tone chambers that again make it less of rock-monster and an acoustic pickup that could be very useful for Beatles strummers.

Second do check out the shops. Often the stores have items not in the online catalogue. Could be someone's just traded in a leftie bargain. Try the right hand models. Even though they'll be upside down you should get a feel for frets, body finish, weight, actual colour etc. All things you can't judge online. Look on it as a research trip where you won't be buying. Pace yourself, don't try anything you hate, get home and don't think about all the dozens of guitars you tried. Next day certain guitars should beckon...

You may need to slack off the strings just enough so that the little wheel will go the other way. The the bridge you should be able to raise the bridge just enough for the string action to be back to optimum. Can take a bit of trial and error, annoying I know to keep retightening just to find it needs 'just a bit more'.

1) AKAIK there's no one special rock scale, if anything I'd say the minor pentatonics account for most rock. Don't get hung up on right or wrong scales. Try them out and see what works.

3) Try singing what you are playing, just making mouth noises that match the notes. Immediately you should find that if what you are 'singing' is dull then you'll adjust how you are playing to be more expressive. You'll also notice that when the pros play scorching solos they make faces and move their lips (Joe Walsh certainly does) which comes from this technique.

"What is the most common "FAMILY NAME" in the USA."

Easy google search, Smith.

http://genealogy.about.com/library/week … rnames.htm

The other question is harder, you'll need to google it yourself. I'd reckon 'John'.

Quite simply Phil for much of the last century being a musician was not considered a proper profession for a woman. Even into the sixties the number of women playing any kind of instrument in any band was tiny. The exception appears to be singing, but even here male vocalist tend to be more numerous.

Things only really started to change with punk. Female vocal stylings got more like mens and women started getting into bands. It has nothing to do with instrument shape. There's alot of sex in rock'n'roll and alot of musicians have played up this angle. But really the electric guitar is more like a penis. Don't believe me do a search on 'Wangcaster'.