Mickguard

Unfortunately the HFCS lobby won -- the EU caved, and in the last couple of years they've been adding HFCS everywhere. And-- no ****-- you can literally watch the population expand. Used to be that everyone was skinny here, especially the little kids. Nowadays there's always at least one fatty, and usually several in every group. It's disturbing. And so obvious.

I used to drink Coke...until I moved to Europe. Where they don't believe in massive cups of ice. So you're able to taste what that stuff really tastes like when it's not ice cold. Really, it's revolting. But then, this is true for all sodas. I challenge anyone to drink a lukewarm soda and actually enjoy it. The worst part is that they've replaced sugar with all that fake stuff. High-fructose corn syrup is pretty nasty stuff -- your body simply doesn't know how to deal with it, much less digest it. There's some pretty strong evidence that it's one of the main culprits behind the massive surge in obesity (more on that in a moment). But even worse than HFCS is aspartame. That stuff is pure, outright poison. It should never have been allowed onto the market as a food additive, and in fact the FDA blocked it for nearly two decades. That is until Donald Rumsfeld was hired on as CEO of Searle (the company that developed the stuff), round about the time Ronald Reagan was elected as president. Next thing you know, asparame suddenly gets full approval. And soon after, the incidence of brain tumors increased at an exponential rate. And not long after that, the incidence of neurological disorders skyrocketed. Not to mention that regular drinkers of diet sodas are as prone if not more so to becoming obese. Part of the reason behind this (and with HFCS) is that, with ordinary sugar, your body knows when it has had enough, and it's very difficult to take more -- you become physically ill, in other words. But the body produces none of these signals when ingesting false sugars. In fact, there's evidence to suggest that the body counter-reacts to the false sugars by packing on more fat, possibly because the body goes into 'starvation' mode. Why are these products out there? Because they're far less expensive than true sugar. They certainly weren't developed for our health. If they're that dangerous, why are they allowed on the market? Because politicians are wimps--or collaborators-- when it comes to big money. Yeah, yeah, I know, this is supposed to be an exercise for something else. Anyway, don't take my word for it. Do your own research. There's an excellent documentary about aspartame, you can watch it on Google Video: Sweet Misery Maybe some of you will think twice about the kind of crap you're putting into your body.

I wear a respirator, not a dust mask. The type with screw on filters. They're not expensive, more effective than dust masks, you can switch the filters (for paint/finish). And I have no problems with fogging with them.

I have an amp stand -- it angles the amp back so you can direct the sound to your ears, not your feet or your butt (in the case of a chair). If you're miked, of course, you can get the amp through the monitor, but I still like to have the sound coming from behind me. You can achieve much the same thing with a piece of two-by-four though. One thing I've found is that every gig is going to sound differently-- and it's not always going to sound great up there, but it's up to you to pull it together and put on a show anyway. Show is really important -- most people will forgive a bit of roughness to the sound if you're entertaining them. Nothing worse than watching a bunch of nervous guys stare at their instruments (and yeah, no noodling). If you're having fun, then the people watching you will have fun too. So the stage is definitely the place to let loose. The more 'real' you look as you're playing, the more people will take you seriously, the more fun they'll have too. Which also means, the less downtime, the better (unless your singer is good at banter) -- so you need to be sure your guitar is going to stay tuned (but you should have a pedal tuner with a mute function too). So whatever works--locking tuners, string savers, blocking the trem. Some people never go out of tune, some guitars just naturally hold up well. I find that my maple neck guitars are more stable tuning-wise. It definitely helps to uncase the guitar and let it sit out on the stage for a good period of time before the set. That's not always possible though. But if you don't have tuning issues during practice, you might not have problems during the set (although it's more difficult to control the temperature/humidity changes, especially if there are lights). Personally, I get too amped up to be able to stop and tune during a set, so I make my guitars as tune-proof as possible. Strap locks are a necessity. I also use those little tab-like things that slip on over the button and spin to lock down. Oh, and make sure you loop your lead through your strap, so you don't accidentally step on it and pull it out. Ditto with the amp side--the lead should be wrapped around the handle, it'll keep the lead from getting bent when the bass player steps on it. And the bass player will step on everything. Guaranteed. I wouldn't worry about the pick holder thing, but I never drop picks. But it'd be just as easy taking them from a pocket, or from a piece of tape stuck to a mike stand or whatever. Getting on stage to play is something you learn how to do too. The only way to practice that though is to get on stage. (With my current group, we occasionally invite people to come watch our practices, we'll end up doing a set for them, it's a lot of fun). There's nothing better than being onstage though, especially when it's all flowing, and it clicks with the audience. You get this energy from them...it really feels like flying.

Still have no idea what you are talking about I see... It's just that I can't stand that ultra-clean acoustic tone they use in metal these days. Haven't those people every heard of amplifiers? Distortion pedals? Ah wait. Drak's back. So you're just practicing on me, right?

Scale length is the relationship between the nut and the saddles (the High E saddle specifically). This must be spot on for the guitar to work. You could try angling the end of the fretboard -- so only the treble strings actually have 24 frets -- then angle the pickup. It would look cool too. But since this is a metal guitar, I really don't see how pickup placement will affect all that much -- since that sound is so heavily processed anyway.

Actually no. We played a show the other night where the singer of the other band came out and did a solo set --just him and his telecaster. He played a bunch of covers (wish I remembered which ones-- one of them was Jessica Simpson by Adam Green), and it sounded really great. Right now my teacher has me working on a piece from Beppe Gambetta -- pretty interesting stuff, but not much in the way of vocals....(he grunts a few times at the end of the song...) And he's working up the tab for Molly Hatchet's version of Wild Horses -- there's some nice acoustic work there.

The problem is more that I just don't know much about acoustic music. And I'm really looking for material that's going to make me stretch as a player. Most of the singer-songwriter stuff is really simplistic, which makes sense in its way. But it's not going to make me a better player. It's one of the reasons I like playing Ian Anderson's acoustic stuff so much -- it's pretty complex guitar work and he's usually singing at the same time.

Here's a Dave Matthews song that's along the lines of the type of song I'm looking for... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYJ4rBW5yOU

Heh...I'm looking for tunes a little bit less virtuoso than Tommy Emmanuel ...unbelievable...watching him on youtube right now....

Since the body has been routed for the bridge already, then you'll have to make sure that the neck matches the body -- sure the neck is a 25.5" scale and so is the body --but what you'll need to determine is whether the body was cut for a 22-fret neck, a 24-fret neck, or, in your case a 24-fret with ovehang. The easiest way to do this of course is to fit the neck to the body, put the bridge in, measure from the nut to the high E saddle -- THAT measurement needs to be exactly 25.5" . After you've assured yourself of that, you can probably carve the jackson's heel to match the body.

Right, we're at a bit of a crossroads in my guitar lessons, because my teacher's having trouble finding material that will help me move forward. A big part of the problem is that I'm not very good at articulating to him what I'm looking for, partly because I don't really know much of what's out there in terms of acoustic guitar music. I'm a singer first, and as a guitarist, I really prefer rhythm to lead --no noodlin' solos for me. My goal though is to develop a rhythmic playing style that incorporates some lead type work. Too much of the acoustic music I'm finding is blues oriented, and I'm just not into that, especcially not for singing. I'm not really into the heavily folky stuff either. Also, I flatpick -- don't like to use my fingers. Like I said, I'm a singer-- so it really helps me to be able to sing a song while I'm learning the guitar part for it, the song has a better chance of ending up in my repetoire. (I have a pretty low voice, means I can't pull off a lot of singers, like Plant, Daltry, et al ). We hit on a few Jethro Tull songs -- One White Duck, Wondrin Aloud, Cheap Day Return-- which I really enjoy playing, because the guitar parts are relatively challenging and his voice remains within my own range. Since I'm a huge fan of Lou Reed, he came up with the tab of some of his songs -- Perfect Day, Caroline Says, The Bed. (He also gave me some tab from Vintersorg-- it's instrumental, but, damn after playing that stuff, I made a huge leap forward with my technique). Now I'm looking for other song suggestions -- particularly songs that will help push my technique forward a bit. Could also be electric guitar parts that lend themselves to acoustic playing. So what songs do you play that help push you forward? What do you play to impress the people at the music store? Thanks for any ideas!

Wasn't that exactly the same question? I don't really get it. Is this the same guitar? Are you saying you made the same mistake twice? Why not cut the neck pocket the proper length, and set the bridge accordingly?

Sounds like you need to take the guitar back to the tech, tell him to give you the playable guitar you paid for.

I always use a spark-plug gap measuring tool, one with fairely fine blades. I like the relief at about 0.25 mm. Put a capo on the first fret, hold the string down at about the 14th fret, measure at the 6th or 7th fret.

Look, I appreciate that you want to learn how to do the set up yourself and all, and I think that's a great objective and something you definitely should learn down the road. But this is your ONLY working guitar. Any 'fix' you might attempt right now will only put it out of commission, for a few days, weeks, or forever. Especially if you keep monkeying around with that truss rod. So suck it up and just take the guitar to the tech at the store -- pay for the set up. It won't cost you much, you'll probably get a fresh set of strings for the price too. If you haven't abused the guitar, then there's no reason for the guitar to be in as bad shape as you think it is. FWIW, sighting down the neck isn't really all the easy to do -- the twist is probably an optical illusion. At any rate, no point in panicking about it until you've had a professional at least look at the guitar. The buzzing could be caused by any number of different reasons. But you just don't have the tools to track them down right now. If the tech can't fix it, then start looking into a replacement neck. Chances are though, a good tech will have it sorted out within half an hour.

I like to replace stock nuts with the 'slippery' type (usually Graph Tech). That's a personal thing, has to do with my dislike for tuning up onstage. I've found no issues with radius (although I haven't tried replace the nut on the vintage-style neck I have with its' 7.5" radius). Not all of Fender's slots are radiused -- it's easy enough to figure that out though--look at the original nut. Replacement nuts often have small tabs for accomodating a non-radiused slot -- just remove the tabs if the slot is radiused. Or you can buy a nonradiused nut, if you know that's what you're dealing with. Also, keep in mind you'll still have to adjust the slots (if you buy a pre-slotted nut). Although I've found Graphtech's nuts to be pretty damn close to where it's not always needed. Be careful with removing the nut -- sometimes they're fitted really tightly in the slot. I've had to destroy a couple to get them out.

Just to add my 2 cents... at this point (wet sanding) you're trying to level the surface--eliminating the orange peel-- but especially to remove the sanding scratches. Because the mirror comes through when there are no scratches to deflect the light. Or better put, when the scratches are so small they no longer deflect the light. You can achieve this without wet-sanding, it's just a lot more difficult.

Yeah, I don't go for super-low action, I don't play guitar that way (not even close). My setups tend to stick close to the Fender spec. I prefer some relief -- about 0.25 mm at the sixth fret--don't know if that qualifies as 'too much' though... The thing with trying to set the bridge first is...well, you're more likely to need to reset it again anyway.

I set the relief first -- I place a capo on the first fret and hold the string down at about the 14th fret with a finger while I measure the gap. In other words, bridge height has nothing to do with this step. Neither does the nut height -- but I've always used preslotted nuts, so they're already approximately at the proper height (I adjust the slots after I've set the relief).

Some of the guitars coming out of China these days are really impressive. My Hofner Verythin CT cost me 400 euros...I can find absolutely no flaws at all with this guitar--even the setup was damn near perfect. I replaced the bridge pickup, but only because the original was a bit too mellow/jazzy for my taste. Nice, lightweight guitar, looks beautiful onstage (cherry red, natch!). My current favorite guitar. Damn...I just realized my entire rig these days was built in China. Ah well. As for the OP's question: really, if you're planning on building your kid a guitar, then the value will be pretty near priceless. You could build an excellent guitar for 200 bucks...or a 1000 bucks -- a lot of the price depends on the hardware: lot of hype out there, lot of insanely overpriced parts that promise you the world but end up being only modestly better than any other similar part. But he doesn't need an expensive guitar to make progress with his playing -- he just needs a guitar he really likes. A higher price tag won't make him like the guitar more. Fancy-looking wood won't make him play better either. If he's happy with the Ibanez, take him out shopping for cool pedals instead!

New guitar? Used guitar? Try placing a capo on the first fret-- are the open chords still out of tune? If not, then the nut probably isn't properly cut -- best take the guitar to the tech at a store and have him do a full set up, since there might be other issues to sort out. A setup doesn't cost much and will save you a lot of effort. There's a good setup guide on the PG main site, if you want to give it a go yourself.

Dingus, this is a new guitar or used? Regardless, don't touch the guitar yet -- take it a shop and have it properly set up by a tech. You can ask him to explain what he's doing, he might let you hang out and watch the process. No offense, but from your post, it's obvious you're not ready to attempt the setup by yourself. So either take the time do some research on the subject--there are a lot of setup guides out there-- or pay a pro. It's not expensive and it will transform the guitar. If you bought this from a shop, they should do the setup for free. Shame on them for giving you an unplayable guitar.

I accidentally stumbled across this forum while looking for info on cigar box guitars. Next thing I knew, I started dreaming about building my own. Never touched a power tool in my life up to that point. So it's all you guys' fault. :D

I have the Trem King, works really well, a huge improvement over the Fender trem. Probably not as insane as the Floyd Rose or Kahler type from what I've seen. And kind of pricey. Have a search for the Trem King thread here somewhere -- someone posted a couple of other options -- there's a FR-style retrofit too, I think. If you don't care about using the trem, then just block it -- it's easy enough to do : you can put all five springs on there, which will pull the bridge flat to the body. You'd still be able to use the trem a little bit (downwards), and it'll be less likely to go out of tune. If you don't want it at all, just block it with a piece of wood. Easy enough. Other considerations if you want a trem that stays in tune: locking tuners, graphite/graph tech nut, string trees, and saddles. Although with all that hardware, you'll have one expensive Squier....