The Guitar Thread

[Blastronaut 1236]

Jesus that's a pretty damning report. I know my way around a basic setup for the most part but re-frets and neck resets are two jobs I'd definitely leave for pro's. Mental they'd "teach" someone serious work like that on a fairly expensive guitar (hope to fuck it wasn't a maple neck). Surely you practice on bit of scrap wood or an old beater neck for a while before tackling a nice axe.

 

Would've thought a maintenance course would have consisted of just action, intonation, relief, pickup height etc and making sure you did it all in the right order to avoid giving yourself more work. Sounds like they dropped you in the deep end and didn't give a fuck if you sank or swam, knowing you'd be gone in a few days. 

 

@Andrew If it were me I'd go for the V but I do quite like the look of that white thing with the black binding, whatever it is.

 

[Gemmill 34508]

Aye it was bullshit in hindsight. I definitely came away thinking I was a clever fucker, but quickly found out I'd just fucked my guitar. 

 

It should have been exactly the things you listed, or else a refret on a guitar I didn't give a shit about. Thankfully it was a rosewood neck. They had me carving the nut from a blank as well then curving the edges, sawing the nut slots etc. 

 

When I took it to Dave he couldn't believe the state of the nut. I mean I know there's a personal responsibility thing, and they would probably argue it was my job to fix this stuff myself before I left, but they "signed off" on everything and they also claimed that any mistakes would be rectified by their luthiers before you left. Which was complete bollocks. 

 

I met that Ben fucker, the main lad, as well cos he came around interviewing everyone for their YouTube channel. Which was fucking awkward.

 

[Andrew 4223]

The Music Man was tempting until I found out how much the guy wanted for it

 

If you take the buy now of the Tele which I've set at a (admittedly fairly high) $6500 he wants to give me $500 plus the music man.

 

So hes valuing that at about £3000, reverbs price history on right handers of these hasn't got one selling for over $2750nz in over two years.

 

The white one is a Schecter Keith Merrow signature, which I am also pretty tempted by, of course that and the ibanez were the ones that particular person was least wanting to lose so hes having a think.

[Andrew 4223]

33 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

I met that Ben fucker, the main lad, as well cos he came around interviewing everyone for their YouTube channel. Which was fucking awkward.

 

 

I've watched a fair few of their videos and there is something about him that just feels awkward, like he is not particularly natural or comfortable in front of a camera.

 

[Tom 13861]

Is this every left handed guitar in New Zealand?  
 

Id agree with the Music Man or the white shredd looking thing with the open wood belly & one pick up.

[Blastronaut 1236]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

 

I've watched a fair few of their videos and there is something about him that just feels awkward, like he is not particularly natural or comfortable in front of a camera.

 

 

It's ages since I watched any of his videos but aye there's something a bit off about his whole manner. Gemmill's experience makes me think he's probably more interested in shilling his products and services than actually trying to educate anyone and share his knowledge, which would be fine if he wasn't selling educational courses.

 

I'd be fucking raging if I was in Gemmill's boat. That almost akin to an apprentice mechanic getting told to strip and rebuild his own cars engine on his first day. 

 

19 minutes ago, Tom said:

Is this every left handed guitar in New Zealand?  
 

 

 

I was thinking less about NZ but genuinely baffled at how many lefties are on this thread.

[Andrew 4223]

29 minutes ago, Tom said:

Is this every left handed guitar in New Zealand?  
 

Id agree with the Music Man or the white shredd looking thing with the open wood belly & one pick up.

 

It may well be, the guy with all the kiesels, schecter and ibanez is someone I've actually bought a guitar off before  starting to think I now know every left hander in the country.

[Blastronaut 1236]

40 minutes ago, Tom said:

Or the white shredd looking thing with the open wood belly & one pick up.

 

You're not seriously trading a custom shop Tele for another Tele shaped thing with less hardware and half a paintjob?

 

 

[Andrew 4223]

If there was some cash involved I'd consider it tbh, don't get me wrong the CS tele is great but its not really very...me.

 

I've contrived to assemble a blues rock rig when I really just like playing metal for the most part.

[Blastronaut 1236]

12 minutes ago, Andrew said:

 

I've contrived to assemble a blues rock rig when I really just like playing metal for the most part.

 

Thats me in a nutshell tbh. What's interesting is that I think out "metal" tastes are polar opposites.

 

Edit: I only say that to counter the  notion that "metal" is some sort of musical dead-end. Not a dig at your tastes at all.

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Blastronaut

[Tom 13861]

Tbh I like the look of Andrew’s tele but on a personal level feel like I couldn’t get much more out of a custom shop job than a high end Squier tele, that’s just me. 
 

They are nice guitars mind.

[Andrew 4223]

13 minutes ago, Blastronaut said:

 

Thats me in a nutshell tbh. What's interesting is that I think out "metal" tastes are polar opposites.

 

Edit: I only say that to counter the  notion that "metal" is some sort of musical dead-end. Not a dig at your tastes at all.

 

 

TBF I do play a fairly wide range (or try to anyway) so I get what you mean, theres some stuff that has never done it for me under the "metal" umbrella

[Tom 13861]

Btw - @Gemmill

 

How did those Waza headphones work out? I can’t imagine headphones ever replacing an amp so I’m interested! 

[Andrew 4223]

I am wheeler dealing like nobodies business.

Sold my highway one strat for double what I paid for it 18 months ago.

Just picked up a Katana mk2 Head and the footswitch thing for £300, about half its new value.

 

[Gemmill 34508]

7 hours ago, Tom said:

Btw - @Gemmill

 

How did those Waza headphones work out? I can’t imagine headphones ever replacing an amp so I’m interested! 

 

Aye they're great. The difference between these and other headphone type amps (or just plugging headphones into something) is night and day. 

 

They've got this weird thing where you can position the amp in the room, so when you turn your head, the amp stays where it is and the sound shifts round in your head. 

 

Also there's stage or studio setting which basically reflects the size of the room you're in - reverb comes as an effect, this is entirely just to mirror the feeling of being in an actual physical space. 

 

You can pipe backing tracks in, and the volume is managed independently so you can set your levels. You can also position the track (think, the band) in the room too, so you can put the band and your amp behind you and pretend you're at the Albert Hall.

 

As a practice tool, they're fucking incredible, you can get lost for hours, and you're bothering nobody with the noise. 

Edited January 7, 2022 by Gemmill

[Tom 13861]

That sounds class tbh  

I just watched the Andertons review on the back of this post and the lads look genuinely blown away.

Im after some kind of purchase and I’m tempted to wait for a Manson special edition or something, as they’ve closed the custom shop for now. So may put that on the long term list and play Wembley with some blues backing tracks  

Also I noticed the andertons lads used it with a pedal board which is a great feature!

[Gemmill 34508]

Aye I've not tried the pedal board thing but theoretically it absolutely should work. 

Get it! Like I say, from a practice point of view you can fuck about all night with backing tracks on. If you did use it with a pedal board, I don't see why you couldn't use a looper in the signal chain too. 

The That Pedal Show blokes did a video on practice tools and one of them was saying it's completely changed the way he practices. And those are fuddy duddy corksniffers who won't play with anything if the tech came after the 60s.

[Tom 13861]

Tbh it’s very rare I get any stick from the neighbours but taking that out of the equation altogether without sacrificing any quality sounds very appealing. 
 

Aye if the pedal Show wankers like it, it must be good  

[Blastronaut 1236]

4 hours ago, Gemmill said:

...fuddy duddy corksniffers who won't play with anything if the tech came after the 60s.

Oi! I feel attacked. In my case its not really a choice though and more just being a bit slow to adapt and a proper tight bastard when it comes to buying guitar gear. If I absolutely have to buy something I'll usually look for something that I can either fix myself when it inevitably breaks or is cheap enough to replace without completely fucking the family budget. I wasn't always this way like.

I can't fucking stand Dan and Mick but will admit to occasionally watching their videos just to see what rebranded pedal from 50 years ago they're shilling. The Tonebender episode with Josh Scott was actually really good though, but I'm fairly convinced they have some sort of contract with Macaris that would also explain how much they hyped up the Dope Priest (the D.A.M / Emanating Fist pedal guy now builds for Macaris).

4 hours ago, Gemmill said:

If you did use it with a pedal board, I don't see why you couldn't use a looper

I really need to practice more with my looper, can't use it for shit unless I'm playing really fucking slow. Always just miss the click by a fraction so the loop is always off, end up just using it to record like a few minutes of something and then work out a second part over it without having to get out the laptop and load up cubase.

Edited January 7, 2022 by Blastronaut

[Tom 13861]

What kind of looper have you got?

The TC Electronic ones are absolutely rapid and pretty cheap.

[Gemmill 34508]

18 minutes ago, Blastronaut said:

Oi! I feel attacked. In my case its not really a choice though and more just being a bit slow to adapt and a proper tight bastard when it comes to buying guitar gear. If I absolutely have to buy something I'll usually look for something that I can either fix myself when it inevitably breaks or is cheap enough to replace without completely fucking the family budget. I wasn't always this way like.

I can't fucking stand Dan and Mick but will admit to occasionally watching their videos just to see what rebranded pedal from 50 years ago they're shilling. The Tonebender episode with Josh Scott was actually really good though, but I'm fairly convinced they have some sort of contract with Macaris that would also explain how much they hyped up the Dope Priest (the D.A.M / Emanating Fist pedal guy now builds for Macaris).

I really need to practice more with my looper, can't use it for shit unless I'm playing really fucking slow. Always just miss the click by a fraction so the loop is always off, end up just using it to record like a few minutes of something and then work out a second part over it without having to get out the laptop and load up cubase.

Wasn't attacking you, I can't stand those two bellends. 

 

[Blastronaut 1236]

33 minutes ago, Tom said:

What kind of looper have you got?

The TC Electronic ones are absolutely rapid and pretty cheap.

It's just some cheap off-brand Chinese Ditto clone I got for like £30. The problem is me rather than pedal. One of my closest friends is a drummer and it works fine when I let him set the in and out. If I'm playing a really slow tempo or really concentrating I can usually get it bang on at least half the time, I just a drunk clumsy prick that can't get my hands and feet to work in sync. Can't work a wah for shit either. I think my feet work on the on beat and my hand on the off beat (or vice versa) which is either a curse of the whole dominant hand/dominant eye mismatch or just a convenient excuse for being a lazy bastard and not practicing.

27 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

Wasn't attacking you, I can't stand those two bellends.

Nah I got that, just saw that description of them and thought "ah fuck. Is that me?". A bit like the time a mate of mine finally realised Neil Oliver was a bellend and I reacted by immediately going to get a haircut.

[Gemmill 34508]

The thing that made a massive difference for me with timing is fixing my alternate picking so that the on beat is ALWAYS a downstroke and the offbeat is ALWAYS an up stroke. It's what the country lads do apparently and it totally worked for me once I got over the fact that I was "pretending" to pick even when I was really just doing a pull off or hammer on, just to keep in time. 

It forces you to sort of keep your hand moving even when you're not playing a string. And it forces you to ALWAYS start the new bar with a downstroke. 

I used to try and learn things and the first battle was trying to work out how the picking should go. Now I don't have to cos this forces me to do it one way. 

Helps with looping just cos you're always super focused on the start of the new bar with your picking hand, and your foot just follows it. 

[Gemmill 34508]

I've just re read that and I'm a proper boring cunt. Sorry.

 

[Blastronaut 1236]

Probably good advice though tbf. I'm mostly fine with timing when there's a metronome or someone else setting the beat and all I have to do is worry about what my hands are doing.

It all just falls apart for me when I have to think about my technique or anything that's going on. Basically I can only play when my thoughts are occupied by "I quite like this Speyside malt, what's it called again?" and all I have to worry about is the possibility of it getting spilled. Everything else that goes wrong is the drummers fault.