Gorecki

According to Mel-Bay, the "right" way

YEEEPIN GANIPGANADS! SOMEONE'S QUOTE'N MEL-BAY!

Sorry, I couldn't Help myself!

2) I can't pick properly.

Instead of how you were supposed to kinda anchor on da bridge and span your little finger by the volume knob, I clench my fists as though i'm gonna knock someone out, and pick like that, can someone give me tips on how to pick properly, because even though I try, I can't adapt to the proper style.

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It's extremely good that you are asking about picking technique! There are way too many shredder type quys with no right hand development, which is fine until you turn the distortion pedal off or pickup an acoustic.

There is no absolute one way of hand placement and picking. Most often the biggest concern is to not doing something limiting or harmful (carpel tunnel or tendonitis).

A ‘Death Grip’ however is rarely appropriate. This suggests tension and it’s difficult to play relaxed and/or controlled in a ridged state. Also, without that relaxed grip, you’ll wear yourself out for no reason. Hard music doesn’t have to be played hard to sound hard.

For single note work:

The pick grip is preference based. I hold them fairly traditionally, between the thumb & index finger.

Alternate picking practice is essential.

Flipping the wrist, I’ve found I have the most control with a rigid wrist, if you start playing very fast phrases, you’ll see the benefit of a rigid wrist, but again not all will agree with me.

Picking style, I use my three remaining fingers to act like a guide over the strings being anchored on the pick guard or body. They keep the height of the pick off the strings consistent and float up and down the guard / body as the rigid wrist moves up/down, sort of like a record needle.

Right hand placement is again preference based. I use two, for Les Pauls and acoustics, I rest on the bridge and pick from behind it. On strat styles and related, I rest near or in front of the bridge and pick from in front of it.

My 2 1/2 cents (you got a free upgrade)

I never was one for effects or pedals but I recently picked up the new TonePort from Line6......I have loaded the software but due to bowhunting season life has been temporarily placed on hold    I should get around to playing with it next week when gune season starts and I have to hang up my bow for 11 days.

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That brings up a point for clarification. I'm not really looking for effects, more so 'shapes' and 'tones', that's where the thoughts of 'modelling' preamps may be inspirational.

Maybe I'm just bored with the sound of my bass which is a P-Style Yamaha with EMG's? My thinking is if I can get some different shapes without having to go through all the effort in my DAW.

I presume you'll enjoy the TonePort, I picked up a GuitarPort a while ago and been very happy with it. Haven't used it to record yet (other than loops of myself to noodle over) but expect to because I've dialed in some interesting sounds I expect to try out.

At home (I hesitate to call it a "home studio"...) I double-track the bass.  One channel is direct-in, the other channel is through my guitar rig (Digitech RP1 preamp with its own effects loop out to a bunch of boutique pedals and then into a 2x10 guitar combo amp, miked). 

So the DI channel provides the foundation, and the miked-amp channel provides the "special effects" and I have both available for separate EQ-ing and mix-down.  It's like studio bi-amping.

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That's an interesting thought! I've used a guitar preamp before and even run through the rig entirely but was never happy with the sound (for rock mic'd 4x12 cabs was fine but not for much else) and went to direct only because of it. Never tried a blended feed for bass.

Howdy Fellas,

This year I'm on a small quest to expand my bass sounds inventory. Historically I would run direct to the board, most often with some compression and tweak sounds as I went Or I would use midi for a double bass or electric. Now I'd like to get some inspiration from pre-shaped bass tones.

I'm only doing this for studio tracks as I'm not a 'bass player'. I've been looking over some of the lower end stuff but haven't heard much yet.

Looked at things like:

DigiTech BP80 Bass Multi-Effect Pedal

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=bass...ase_pid/150847/

Behringer Bass V-AMP Modeling Preamp

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=bass...ase_pid/480692/

Any of you 'real' bass players have experience, suggestions, favorites? Suggest away!

Matt (GuitarFrenzy) has some links still I believe on his site or in his forums.

http://www.guitarfrenzy.com

I believe our very own Jehle used a stock tele kit configuration on some of his toons and for clean tele purposes sounded okay. The Saga stuff isn't by any stretch 'good' but with some aftermarket can be made into a decent guitar.

http://www.bellyjellymusic.com/

Yeah, After looking.

In the middle of this tune I believe.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~jehle/guitar-MP3/Thunderhead.mp3

Bill? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

There is quite a few rewievs on harmony-central, but I don't realy trust them.  I don't expect high-end stuff at that price, but I do bevive they are better than the ones I have lying around. I even think they are splitable? Today I have 13 different on my pick-up combinations on my guitar. with splitable PUs I'll have even more... I'm starting to loose controll here...

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After looking them over, they've got a hot to cool gradient in pickup output so you could even get away with swapping the middle and neck if you want yet another sound combination. The most important thing is what sort of music are you going to use them for? Rock n Blues type stuff, you'll be safe.

It really doesn't look like it's a bad deal. You can get them directly from their site @ $59.95 if you have trouble winning the bid for less.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/casetof3lilk1.html

Only took me 10days to move it, mostly by myself.   Just finished assembling and modding a new workbench this evening.   Looking foreward to finishing up my current project in a new 'home'.

Looks like a finished room inside a big warehouse, then I noticed a mannequin torso thru one of the windows?

Did you move, or just move your shop to another location?

It's a finished room upstairs at my work, which is a warehouse. I just moved the shop. I have no idea what you mean by the mannequin...

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Ohh gawd, sorry cheap monitor and florecent lighting at work, it's the violins reflection in the window....

here you go  (no audio sample though)

http://guitar.zentao.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23956

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Thanks for trying!!

This pretty much sums up the useful info from that thread - "for the price of GFS what have you got to loose?", lets see, money, time, effort and patience.

Only took me 10days to move it, mostly by myself.  Just finished assembling and modding a new workbench this evening.  Looking foreward to finishing up my current project in a new 'home'.

Looks like a finished room inside a big warehouse, then I noticed a mannequin torso thru one of the windows?

Did you move, or just move your shop to another location?

Looks cozy!

If you have a question about a particular GFS product, email ... (I can't remember the guy's name).  He's easy to deal with, and supplies wiring diagrams with all his pickups.

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Jay I believe and he is responsive. I didn't find HC very helpful as what reviews I saw at the time were from nominally experienced people who say 'Like' alot and nothing regarding Jazz application.

Let us know what you find out.

I'm looking for a set of new pickups for my corean strat-copy, as my friend wants his Fenders back. The guitar has a Fender-sized bridge and a gibson sized nut, so normal pickups with bobins don't match. I'm therefor looking for rail-type single coils.

Since I am a student, I can't afford diMarzios or Duncans. I've heard about GFS pickups, and read that they get good rewievs. I'm thinking of buying the lil' killer pickups. Anyone tried them? I'm a litle sceptic, as they go for 55$ for three of them. Sound to good to be true....

The PU's

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I've been courious about these for some time, had some discussions and looked as much as I could. I've concluded.

They are reverse wired.

I still haven't seen a useful review yet.

I still haven't heard a sample.

There are no detailed metrics (dc resistance, res peak,freq response..nothing) about the pickups at guitarfetish.com

Sure looks like a nifty little amp. I'd bypass the 10" Jensen as quickly as I could. A 2x10 or 2x12 box would probably do it some good. I would try Celestion Vintage 30's for that tube environment.

Sure looks like Rosewood to me too. Nice lookin guitar though, got character!

Dude, you're going to be nervous and that's that! All you can do is know what you're playing inside and out and keep focused on what it is you're doing, not getting distracted by the mammalian protuberances bouncing up and down in the front row.

Next, picking classic material? Classic to who? Or do you mean Classic as in classical?

The most fun I ever had doing a high school thing is having a choir backing while doing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody! The crowd, the choir, and the school totally loved it!

What would be neat is if you get to build your own guitar from scratch before you hit the stage.. lol

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What would be really neat is if you actually learned how to play guitar with it!

To support some of the expressed.

Furman doesn't make something that truly 'conditions power' below $500.00, everything else below even though labeled as a Power Conditioner is only a line voltage monitor reading from 90 to 128V, it doesn't regulate the voltage.

I've thought for years they should be forced to remove the word 'Conditioner' from their product when it isn't anything but a rack mount power strip.

I have at least one (some cases two) of these lower end Furman units in all of my racks but my purposes are to be able to turn everything I want to off with one switch and keep wiring clean so that one or two cables go from the rack to the wall. Everything else is neatly wired inside the rack.

The easiest low cost upgrade is to simply get a lower end UPS to go between the wall and the Furman, this will stave off most power burps and brown outs.

I found this new game by accident.  It's called Guitar Hero and here is the link...

Pretty cool game it looks like, but I think I'll stick to playing a real guitar.. lol

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Man, they'll release anything on a Playstation these days.

"Unleash hellish rock death upon your foes at the touch of the whammy bar." ...hello, doesn't that sound a little kinky?

The pickups are GFS "Dream 90"s bought on ebay from guitarfetish.com.  The colour is "black mother of pearl".

And she sounds awesome!!

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I was just going to ask if the pickups are GFS P90's and now I don't have too.

From the sounds of it you really like them?

Congrats on your first scratch build!

Why don't u sing something and play it?

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Because I have a voice that would curdle milk?

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I have a two word response to that! Bob Dylan

My attempt at a point is the man really doesn't have a 'nice' voice and sometimes you'll be suprised that people think diffently of how you sound than you do.

Well, looks like GF is gonna need a title change to 'GOTM 2x loser' and shamefully so. You're doing very impressive and classy work Matt! This JV-1's finish should be called 'Blood Burst', it's a great lookin guit-fiddle and with the pickup selection bet it's a very dimensional player.

Be proud!

Don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I cannot resist this:

Why not an electric ukulele?

http://photobucket.com/albums/b162/SwedishLuthier123/uke.jpg

I've build this for my brothers 30th birthday. Its a mahogany thinline body, spruce top, mahogany neck and rosewood fret board.

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That looks like half of a P-Bass pickup, is it?

This may be a stupid question but here it goes:  If you roll off the volume on your guitar to clean up the tone, don't you also have a significant volume drop?  If so how are you compensating for it?

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It really depends on how 'gain' is attained, usually cleaner passages aren't as 'loud' as distorted ones anyway. I think the cause and effect is considerably more obvious with tubed gear vs solid state. In getting high gain out of tubes, natural compression kicks in and when that heat is reduced the quazi compression effect is as well. So, a higher gain setting on tubes with the volume on the guitar somewhere around 2 will give a cleaner (varies) sound with the ability to bite on a hard stroke.

So, it sounds as if the desire is to recreate the sonic range of a big tubed amp with a little peavey solid state, you'll be at it a while. This almost sounds like some starters I've run into, "I want that Malmsteen sound...well, go buy a few Marshall stacks, a pricy audio engineer and *start* from there because that 15 watt Crate combo isn't gonna cut it."

Thanks, I was looking for a tutorial that I could trust. One more question. I am a total noob, so please don't laugh. Someone told me that I can't take all the strings off at once without adjusting tension on the truss rod. Is that true ?

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You CAN take off all the strings at once without causing neck issues, BUT YOU SHOULDN'T because it COULD have negative affects and if it's a strat style with a tremolo, you'll likely drive yourself nuts (as a self proclaimed noob) trying to get it back in tune.

All strings very in string tension, even the same gauge from vendor to vendor. It is best to setup the guitar for a particular gauge string from a particular vendor, even then variances can occur.