New Hobby

[Murgatroy]

So with all the big changes in my life in the last couple of months, I have decided to try a new hobby. I am really working on making every experience a good one, and keeping a positive attitude, and honestly, it is working great, even if I do have a bit of animosity still buried in my heart. I know it is unjustified, but I still won't drink a Dr Pepper...

 

It is an interest I have had nearly all my life, but it something I have never really acted on with any seriousness.

 

When I was in highschool a group of us decided we would make a band. We played at a couple of talent shows and when we were older a couple of 'teen clubs' and a bar. We did a college competition once, but we were way out of our league. I played the drums, and then later the bass, as no one else wanted to play bass, but drummers were easier to find. Honestly we weren't good, but we had a lot of fun doing it.

 

I always wanted to play the guitar. But as I was the guy that would get things done, it was easier to just pick up the bass than have a dozen guys all wanting to play the guitar and no one to drum or play bass. Well, fast forward twenty something years, and I have a daughter who decided she wanted to learn to play music.

 

So we signed her up for the local children's orchestra and bought her a violin. And a guitar. So that lead to me getting a guitar. And well, if there is one thing I understand, it is excess.

 

So a half of a dozen guitars later, I have one really great looking den/office. 

 

The upside of this is that I have actually been practicing and learning.

 

Right now we are working on the 'cowboy chords.' A C D G E and transitioning between them. I actually feel like I have made more progress in the last month than I did in a few years of pretending when I was kid.

 

The next step I am going to is learning how to do my own set-up and intonation. I will wind up having more money in the proper tools than I currently do in my guinea pig Squier Bullet, but it will be a fun process and valuable if I decide down the road to upgrade past the $200 guitar mark. Or dump $400 into a $100 guitar...

 

Which lets be honest, anyone who knows me knows I am going to trick out the $100 guitar to get every last ounce of performance.

[TrickyNicky]

:clap:  :clap:  :clap:  :clap: Someone to nerd out on guitar stuff on TGO chat!

 

Murg, let me make a recommendation right off the bat that will save you mucho aggravation and even a bit of expense. 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-3rd/dp/0879309210/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445709483&sr=8-1&keywords=dan+erlewine

 

Is the quintessential guide for taking your maintenance into your own hands. This book contains all the information in Dans other book 'how to make your guitar play and sound great' and ads to it with a bit of repair info. Really highly recommended. 

 

Most all this stuff is criminally easy, but among players there is a bit of a stigma sometimes with DIY setups I'll never understand. A guy like you likely has about every tool he's going to need already, but there may be a few to buy yet. Oh the humanity, buying tools :panic: ....

[Murgatroy]

Already have both of his books and one dedicated directly to the Strat.

[Murgatroy]

It is the dedicated tools I need, the radius gauges and some stuff from Fret Guru.

 

I am not a professional, and don't have any aspirations to be. I just want to help my heathen learn to appreciate music beyond pop and have fun myself. Part of the problem I am running into is the 'collector' side of me is going rampant. I currently have two Squier Strats, a Bullet and the 'good' Affinity in HSS, an Epiphone Les Paul Special II, a Fender FA100 acoustic (a screaming deal for a demo at $50!!) and my daughter has a mini Strat and a little acoustic. Then we have the ukulele (oh what fun!) and her violin.

 

Now I want a Jackson Dinky since I have wanted one ever since I first laid eyes on one.

 

And a Telecaster.

 

And an Explorer.

 

And a Jackson Rhoads...

 

I really want to put a set of Lace Sensors (blue, silver and red) in the Bullet and upgrade all of the wiring and pots. I don't have the skills to justify that yet, but I have a set of TUSQ saddles, nut and trees in my cart on Amazon, it is just a steep price to drop $100 (some of the specialty tools included) to upgrade a $100 guitar when I have only been at it a month. But I think that is half of the fun for me.

Edited October 24, 2015 by Murgatroy

[56FordGuy]

I'd be doing good just to learn to play, never mind the rest of it. :lol:

YouTube videos and a book, just need to find more time to practice.

[DWARREN123]

Well all I can say is may you have much good luck with your hobby and the money to pursue it.

[DaveTN]

Funny seeing this right now. At 15 I got a drum set and started learning to play. At 16 I sold it to get my first car and pay for insurance. I am now 61 and have never sat behind a set of drums since.

But all of a sudden I thought I wanted to do it again. The wife saw me looking at drum sets and said “Why are you looking at those?” I told her I’m thinking about getting a set of drums and learning to play. She ask me where I planned on putting them and I told her the living room. She gave me a dirty look and said the neighbors would hear them.

I’m also a technology junkie and low and behold; the two met. I thought electronic practice drums would cost a lot, but I found a set for about $400 that has pretty good reviews.

So now everyone I tell about my ideas says “You are too old”.

Sounds like you might be under 40 though; good luck.

[gregintenn]

My boys wanted to learn to play guitar. I'm not much of a teacher, and they have negative patience, so after 15 minutes of Smoke on the Water, they gave up. They expected to play like Stevie Ray Vaughn in one day. :shrug:

[TrickyNicky]

So now everyone I tell about my ideas says “You are too old”.
 

Horse hucky. I don't know that I'd try to go for machine gun like double bass hits, but I don't see you as the heavy metal type anyway :D. If your expectation is to have fun and develop, I can't see how anyone would be too old to start or restart an instrument IMO.

[Grand Torino]

Good luck with your new hobby. Everybody needs one. :up:

[Jonnin]

nice!

 

Guitars are like guns really, at least acostics : many an expensive one is all eye candy and no sound.   Unlike guns you can play with them and get your money back if you change your mind.   I inherited 2 of dads... a martin that we sold for over 3x what he had paid for it,  and we kept a Gallagher that is much easier to play (easier to mash the strings down).  Its very plain and no frills, but it sounds way better than the ultra pricey and fancy martin did.   Even so, speaking of excesses ... none of us including him were good enough to justify these instruments (seriously we know the basic chords, major, minor and can strum like campfire kum by ya or something), but its easy to get excited and dump cash into hobbies, as we all know! 

 

I am very interested in how your DIY works out on improving the sound, keep us posted.   It sounds like a very interesting project... 

[Murgatroy]

Today wound up with a 20w Fender Mustang 1 modeling amp following me home. Used at $50 was something I couldn't pass up. It is going to take some time just to learn how to use the amp, but at least it will save me money on buying pedals and stuff that I don't need, but I sure do want.

 

I will admit that the necks on the Jackson guitars I fondled today felt absolutely amazing, even on the lower end ones. That is something that continues to amaze me. My first (latest attempt) guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul Special, it has a painted neck, and it felt fine. Until I bought a Squier Strat, that had just a plain finished neck. The feel was so different and I could move up and down the neck without 'sticking.' That of course led to my second Squier. Today, now that I actually know how to do something other than just look at them hanging on the wall I tried a few different guitars, and the Jackson neck was amazing. It was very had to walk out the of the store without one.

[Murgatroy]

So my daughter and I are still going at it. She practices the guitar daily, she is frustrated because I keep her going over the same stuff for a week at a time before we move on to the next lesson.

 

I recently upgraded my Bullet to a full Tusq treatment, nut, saddles and trees, it sounds amazingly better, but I still get fret buzz even after setting it up and adjusting the neck. It isn't bad, but it still happens on the low E string for the first five frets. It is pretty annoying, and will be my next beast to conquer. Neither my higher end Squier (is there such a thing?) nor my Les Paul Special suffer from this problem.

 

I am currently learning some Dwight Yoakam, Guitars, Cadillacs being among my favorite songs.

 

While I am a metal head from way back who considers Metallica and Iron Maiden the greatest bands ever while being heavily into avant garde music such as Sleigh Bells, Purity Ring and Matt and Kim, I think I would have been happiest in my life playing in a Bakersfield band.

 

That is my inner peace.

 

I got the heathen a keyboard for Christmas, I can't keep her off them at the music store. Those and the drums, but we are currently suffering sanctions on importation of acoustic percussion instruments into the home.

[TrickyNicky]

Did you get a fret rocker yet? Could be a few high frets making trouble for you. If you haven't got the fancy schmancy stewmac rocker an old credit card works great. Check over the areas effected by the buzz and see if you don't have one or two unlevel frets in there. If you do, don't break out the leveling files just yet, report back and we can work it out.

 

Do you guys have a teacher yet? A good teacher during these formative years is a godsend later on. It seems crazy shelling out a dollar a minute or more to have someone watch you go through chord changes and what all, but a GOOD teacher will correct bad habits before they form and set you on the path to success you won't fully appreciate for a few years at lest. If you are anywhere near a university with a music program you can most likely get a student there to teach for relatively cheap and someone going for their bachelors or masters in playing guitar will be in a very good position to get you going.

[Murgatroy]

So today I finally had the intestinal fortitude to plug in at Guitar Center. This was a big step for me. I felt like a kid. I left the house with the intent to buy a decent guitar of the upper lower tier. I was a man on the mission.

 

I narrowed it down to a Butterscotch Blonde Squier Telecaster Affinity with a nice maple fretboard and a nice smooth neck like butter, or this used Vintage Sunburst Epiphone Les Paul Standard. So after fondling a few guitars and deciding that it would be one of those two, I set down next to a Mustang amp similar to the one I had at home, made sure no one was looking and ran through the limited amount of skill I have. Swapped guitars and did it again, and again, and after a while I quit swapping. I started playing with the sound and took the victor to the counter. I was sad that my normal sales guy was off, as he is pretty groovy, and I got that typical snot nosed punk, but it was fine. 

 

I am not sure what won me over, but the Epiphone was the definite winner.

 

I know that compared to a lot on here, I have no skill, but man, I am having fun with this. I really wish I had the patience when I started this journey twenty years ago, because I can only imagine how much better I would be now. 

 

Here is a picture of the group, with my daughter's guitars as well.

 

Edited November 29, 2015 by Murgatroy

[Murgatroy]

So, I am not an awesome guitar player, but I don't suck anymore either.

 

I have found my groove, and I can sit and noodle away for hours at a time and be amazed that I should have been in bed hours ago.

 

I found some cat on Youtube, and I don't know what it is about him, but it is super simple to understand what he is playing, and how to make my fingers at least mimic within reason what he does. I am sure part of it is the fact that I spend about an hour a day noodling, but there is something about what he plays. It is simple, but full at the same time.

 

The Mule, the Squier Bullet I have has been fully set up and intonated and man, with just the bridge pickup and some string bending, I can really tell why these are some well loved guitars. That sound is amazing. Then on the other hand, my new to me Epiphone Les Paul, with some simple power chords and palm muting, and I can tell why every heavy metal band in the world has one of these in their arsenal.

 

I can spend an entire afternoon just playing with the settings on my amp and going back and forth between the two of them to see how each one reacts to the same riff, and they are clearly two different animals. 

 

My daughter is having fun as well, she always feels special when she gets to plug into the amp and crank it up.

 

 

 

 

 

I can only hope that everyone has something that helps them relax and shed stress like this, in a healthy manner. Because man, it feels great to actually be doing something that can be recognized as music.