Gonna try and make a little music, play a little tune...

[Lex]

Budget rig, Epiphone SG-PRO/Fender Mustang amp: arty::nos::dothewave:





Yes, I actually bought a cable, I didn't want to take time to make one, plus he said they replace it if it goes bad.

[madmac]

Very nice Doug!. I didn't know you played. What is your style?. What do you play?.

[Kevin P]

I didn't know you played. And I was wondering if you were going to use a CAT cable.

[Lex]

I started to try and play many many years ago, and got frustrated and quit. My style is bad beginner, haha.

I have a guitar, I can make some noise and am working on some chords. I also dabble with note finding with music, just playing. I figure I pick up a little something from working on the transisions to minor notes and back, as I work on chords. I am evaluating training materials online, finding what I can, and taking advice from who I can get it from. So far, I've worked on lower fret chords mostly. Maybe I will get better with it. The rig has impressed me for what I invested in it. Guitar Center, both new. I got out the door with amp, guitar, strap, stand, and picks for 560.00

The guitar was on sale for 280.00!

I could have made the cable, but I didn't have a low rider 1/8" plug for the guitar side. Plus, I didn't want to wait to build it. I wanted to try the rig out! 19 bucks, and he said if it fails for any reason, bring it back, and I get another cable. Works for me... He said I didn't have to worry about receipt, or packaging or anything.

I found a good chord site, and a site for tuning. I have watched a few UTube videos, will be doing more as I can... See how I can progress without taking lessons hopefully.

[Hdale85]

I tried to do it on my own but had a hard time with hand placement and what not, so I started taking lessons at a music shop, excellent teacher and was only like 15 bucks per lesson. Unfortunately situations changed and I couldn't keep doing it. Maybe I can again some day soon though.

[madmac]

I started to try and play many many years ago, and got frustrated and quit. My style is bad beginner, haha.

I have a guitar, I can make some noise and am working on some chords. I also dabble with note finding with music, just playing. I figure I pick up a little something from working on the transisions to minor notes and back, as I work on chords. I am evaluating training materials online, finding what I can, and taking advice from who I can get it from. So far, I've worked on lower fret chords mostly. Maybe I will get better with it. The rig has impressed me for what I invested in it. Guitar Center, both new. I got out the door with amp, guitar, strap, stand, and picks for 560.00

The guitar was on sale for 280.00!

I could have made the cable, but I didn't have a low rider 1/8" plug for the guitar side. Plus, I didn't want to wait to build it. I wanted to try the rig out! 19 bucks, and he said if it fails for any reason, bring it back, and I get another cable. Works for me... He said I didn't have to worry about receipt, or packaging or anything.

I found a good chord site, and a site for tuning. I have watched a few UTube videos, will be doing more as I can... See how I can progress without taking lessons hopefully.

Doug, There's a great Android app called gStrings that will help you tune your guitar. That app does a better, more accurate job at tuning my guitars than my bought, stand alone tuner!. Go figure!

I've been playing acoustic for about 30 years now and all I tell you is that it takes time and practice to play well. However, if you pick up the guitar daily and play for only about 10-15 mins, you could be playing a song from beginning to end in about a year! Go for it!

[Lex]

You must be very good by now Dan. What is your STYLE?

I expect I will be bluesy/jazz/light rock interest. I have no real objective other than to have fun, learn, and entertain myself. So, we'll see.

I found a web site online where you just press the string, and tune by it, worked well for me. I also found a good site for chords. I am considering a self paced teaching method, rather than taking lessons that involve me going somewhere, doing things at a set time, this way, I just do it when I want and have time.

[Hdale85]

Yeah I was basically able to set any time and even reschedule if needed, there wasn't any sort of set schedule except when I set an appointment. It was just nice to talk out some things and get help with techniques and nice for someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong lol.

[Lex]

I figure I may get to that point, but as long as I can learn on my own and not develop to many bad habits, I will be ok. I have a friend that might help me some, he's a former teacher and former band mate from many many years ago. He might enjoy helping me out some. I don't think he can play a whole lot now, well, as he calls it "with these clubs"? He's a BIG guy, and he's large boned and he has big fingers. It makes fine guitar work a little more difficult. However, he may have been just snowing me a bit, he was always a pretty good guitarist. He knew chords upon chords upon chords. Technically, he was our best guitarist, but he didn't have the soul of a soloist. We had another guy that had it all, he could have been great if he had went after it, but no drive.

Well, we'll see, I may let Chris know what I am doing. But I am sure he stays pretty darn busy. He might give me some tips. He is not in the business now. He's actually in the moving and storage biz with a former student of his. that became his life's work. Funny how things work out.

I really like this guy over on guitarlessons.com though, he seems very easy to learn from

I have made genuine progress since buying my guitar and amp on Friday. I know several chords already and am beginning to logically figure some things out on my own, feeling my way around. I took piano for a good bit of my youth, and as I said, did try guitar once already, and played drums in a band, so I am not like like a total novice starting out I guess. But I am in another strict sense of the word, very much a beginner. :-)

I know G, D, A, E, C on fret one already, and am beginning to transition quicker. Working on strumming technique, and working on note picking, and pecking out old tunes one note at a time like house of Rising Sun, you know... Just getting my feet wet! I played along single note style with some Nora Jones last night, had a little fun with that. Been playing with the amp and it's effects. The Fender Mustang is VERY capable for $200.00.

[madmac]

Hey Doug,

My style is folk, folk rock, and light rock. I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert on the music of James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot. I also play some other stuff like Eagles, America, Blue Rodeo, Neil Young etc.

It's really cool that you played drums at one point because one of the biggest challenges I have with my students is their understanding of the concept of rhythm and tempo when they play.

Playing along with CD's is a great way to learn songs and learn rhythm/ tempo. Sounds like your on the right track!

Check out my website.......

http://danielmaddenguitar.weebly.com

[Lex]

Thanks Dan, I will check out your site now. Well, I am excited about learning, so that's cool. Sounds like some good acoustic material you are a specialist on!

If I keep playing, I am sure a quality acoustic will be in my future. first I have to dedicate myself to the craft some, and see some improvement, then I will consider better equipment once I consider myself a true "guitarist",

Gonna go check out what this weebly is...

[Lex]

Listened to some of your demo work there Dan, very nice job!!! Your pretty good, seriously. Thanks for sharing that.

Doug

[madmac]

Listened to some of your demo work there Dan, very nice job!!! Your pretty good, seriously. Thanks for sharing that.

Doug

Thanks a lot Doug !

[dyazdani]

I have a Mustang also, agree, very nice for the price. I use it's built in tuner from time to time. I also have a fairly high end "bench" tuner that I use if I'm doing a setup or something.

[Hdale85]

I had an Ovation, and it was excellent sounding. Although a bit weird if you play in a big open room or a room that has a lot of acoustic dampening as the sound doesn't radiate from the back side so if the front side gets absorbed or has nothing to reflect off the sound is quite strange to yourself. But if you were in front of it that thing sounded beautiful. I'd easily get another Ovation if I got an acoustic.

This is the one I had http://www.ovationguitars.com/guitar...-burst-w-case/

Another nice thing was the cut away in the contour back, so it really fit nicely up against the body where as most other acoustics I had tried felt uncomfortable.

[Lex]

Danish, I saw something on it that said tuner, but I wasn't sure about that. I honestly, have not really tapped into full potential of that amp yet. I found the instructions a little lackluster.

I bought a stand alone tuner today, he tried to sell me a clip on that tunes via vibrations, no audio. That may work well, but I had a hard time buying into it! Plus, I don't really want to be plugging and unplugging this deal on the head all the time. I wound up going with a Delta tuner, not very high end, like 19 bucks, and it has 1/4" input and does audio tuning. My built in tuner on my acoustic didn't seem to be working right earlier, so I wound up correcting the tune with the audio mic pickup on the tuner. Then when I tuned my SG copy, I found that plugging in was good if I wasn't amped. The guitar just didn't generate enough volume to use the audible tuning without being amped, then you get all kinds of reflexive sound, etc... I wound up making a trip to the shack and getting a cheap patch cable to use on my tuner. I was so cheap, I didn't even get 1/4 to 1/4. They had a 1/4 to 1/8" that was less money, so I bought it, since I had a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter sitting around not being used. The adapter came with a set of decent headphones I bought a long time ago, I kept it in the case for my phones, so I knew where it was. They came as 1/8", but included the gold plated adapter, so I used it on the patch cable, why not. I am thinking it's possible I may be able to use the cable in alternate situations too, we shall see how that works out... Well, I did wind up using the 1/4 to 1/8 to plug the guitar into the audio input on my computer, but there is a delay on the audio, that is not really acceptable. All I wanted to do was use it to play along with my educational videos I am watching. But it didn't work out so well, oh well. That delay is weird.




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