biggsy
New Metal Member
my dad has an old acoustic somewhere so i might as well save some money and play that. i prefer the sound of acoustic anyway. done deal
guitar advice
- Thread starter angelofdeath9308
- Start date
It doesn't really matter if it's acoustic or electric. It's important (that is, only if you wanna be good at it) to start with exercises to develop your fingers because without that you won't be able to play shit.
Alas, acoustic is great 'cause you can carry it anywhere and still have a sound. Thus you can utilize on the spot all those moments when you're taking a shit and an inspiration suddenly comes a knocking...and let's face it, everybody get's inspired on the toilet.
Eventually, if not immediately, get both.
Alas, acoustic is great 'cause you can carry it anywhere and still have a sound. Thus you can utilize on the spot all those moments when you're taking a shit and an inspiration suddenly comes a knocking...and let's face it, everybody get's inspired on the toilet.
Eventually, if not immediately, get both.
Stormwatch
Cock.
I've got 6 Jacksons - an SL3, KE3, RR3, DK2, DK2M, JDR-94; an Epiphone Black Beauty Les Paul and an old strat copy. I've put Seymour Duncan, EMG and Bill Lawrence pickups in all of them.
I'd definetely recommend an Epiphone Les Paul, or SG, or a Jackson. Get a used one, you can find good Jacksons, like the KE3 or DK2 on ebay for very good prices. You'll also get better pickups in a Jackson than Epiphone - the Epiphone pickups are very microphonic and will feedback horrendously if you ever join a band.
The important thing is that the guitar is set up correctly - even a more expensive guitar can be set up badly so the action is high, trem won't stay in tune etc. My crappy old cheapo strat copy (a Marlin!) plays well cos I set it up properly and put nice pickups in it for not a lot of £££.
Buy a decent used Jackson off ebay, get one of Dan Erlewine's maintenance books at the same time and learn how to look after the guitar.
I'd definetely recommend an Epiphone Les Paul, or SG, or a Jackson. Get a used one, you can find good Jacksons, like the KE3 or DK2 on ebay for very good prices. You'll also get better pickups in a Jackson than Epiphone - the Epiphone pickups are very microphonic and will feedback horrendously if you ever join a band.
The important thing is that the guitar is set up correctly - even a more expensive guitar can be set up badly so the action is high, trem won't stay in tune etc. My crappy old cheapo strat copy (a Marlin!) plays well cos I set it up properly and put nice pickups in it for not a lot of £££.
Buy a decent used Jackson off ebay, get one of Dan Erlewine's maintenance books at the same time and learn how to look after the guitar.
Kir-ir-Bannog
...no ordinary rabbit
I also have a black beauty, in fact i picked it up half price (reduced from £675 to £345) just because some one had put some tiny dents in the back (you can harldy see them unless you get close and let the light shine across the back in certain way). It's a nice guitar, the sustain is fantastic and so is the tone. Not cheap wood at all, the body is mahogany and the fretboard is maple. I seriously doubt there is any discernable difference between that and a Gibson, when it is set up nicely (as I had done for about £40). Plus one can always put better pickups in when you have a bit of spare cash (as the poster above did). It keeps tune very well. the fret board may not be as fast as a very good strat or an Ibanez, but what it lacks in this dept, it makes up for in tone and sustain.
Sure a Gibson would be lovely, but an Epiphone is more than fine (especially when you're going to be doing nothing but messing around at home and have no ambition to be a professional musician - e.g. me).
Stormwatch
Cock.
I've played Gibsons and my Epi sounded better, looks better, and played better than any of them. It also weighs a lot more which I like!
It may be because my Epi is set up perfectly, and has three Seymour Duncans in it, I don't know, but it proved to me that for my needs an Epiphone is fine.
As for your comment about the fret board not being fast - well, it's all in the fingers. I can play as fast on my Epi as I can on any of my Jacksons.
Point is - you're right, an Epiphone is a fantastic first guitar, and after some upgrades like a setup and new pickups, will last for a lifetime.
Kir-ir-Bannog
...no ordinary rabbit
i agree, except that i cannot all be in the fingers, as as soon as i pick up an ibenez, i can play a lot quicker. however, i do wonder if that is because of the thickness of the neck rather than the fretboard. because even though i can play faster on a 'nez, my left hand gets tired faster and this i believe is due to the narrow neck.
however, it must also have something to do with the jumbo frets on the 'nez as well. i think that the frets on a good strat are slightly curved which also allows slightly faster fretwork perhaps, the epiphone / gibson frets seem to me to be a bit "flatter".
mikael has said that a PRS has the speed of a strat and the tone of a gibson -which is the best of both worlds, i have yet to try out a PRS for my self. But then with a PRS we are talking ££££ / $$$$.
i think ultimately it comes down to preference and what your hands / fingers are shaped like. some people get along fine with guitars that others think are real pigs to play. I often wonder how much better a guitarist i could be if my hands were shaped differently, i have large palms and quite short fingers (in proportion), which doesn't really help in certain situations.
- Oct 8, 2005
- 506
- 0
- 16
That'd be me too, I just need a guitar to mess around with.
this epiphone les paul special 2 is looking pretty tempting too. i think i might go to a guitar shop like someone on here said and try some out though.
look, epiphone is a great guitar. just because u buy an epi and not a PRS or gibson, doesnt mean youll have this horrid, trashy sounding guitar that will fall apart after a few weeks. its still a great guitar. it may not be AS good as the more expensive varieties, but the difference in quality (imo) in a higher end guitar isnt worth the money payed if you are anything less than an expert
or loaded
or loaded
I would start with a cheap acoustic and see if you kinda get it or not and than if you do and feel good enough get an electric.
decent post I guess but lol @ "usually youll finger pick" and you're forgetting the part where a steel string acoustic is all around much harder on your left hand (for barring stuff and all) than an electric will ever be. Also I think mistakes on a distorted guitar are much LESS obvious than on an acoustic.
^
Ummmm....no. They are obvious alright when you produce a mess of a sound as the result of sloppy playing.
There's no "masking" mistakes whatsoever.
Ummmm....no. They are obvious alright when you produce a mess of a sound as the result of sloppy playing.
There's no "masking" mistakes whatsoever.
There's certainly no masking mistakes with an acoustic guitar. With electric, obviously you can't just play random shit but if you miss a note it's much less likely someone will notice. At most, it's equally hard to mask mistakes, but harder? lol no.
I first started playing on a steel string acoustic guitar. This wasn't because I intended to be primarily an acoustic player or anything. I find these first months playing exclusively on the steel string invaluable to my progression as a guitarist. The acoustic not only built my finger strength a lot better than an electric guitar would have, but, as some have been saying, it didn't allow me to cheat when missing a note. I can't tell you how many times I've seen amateur guitarists think they're the shit, playing sixteenth note passages while only hitting 1/3 of them correctly. It's undeniable that distortion allows young guitarists to cheat in this way. So, regardless of what one chooses to start with, I would advise (obviously) to practice exclusively clean (without distortion).
Yea, playing with a steel string guitar builds you up sorta like running with weights does for running or something. Once you can play with that extra difficulty, it's just a breeze without.
although thats true, practising on an electric for the purpose of being an electric guitarist is important. taking the running example, distance runners practise running distances to improve, rather than running short distances.
i use to have an old shitty steelstring that i would play, and it was alot tougher to fret and slide on because the action sucked etc. but its so much easier to play an electric that you dont really need the extra strength or whatever. i think finger dexterity is what people should seek to improve more, and you can do that on acoustic or electric
i use to have an old shitty steelstring that i would play, and it was alot tougher to fret and slide on because the action sucked etc. but its so much easier to play an electric that you dont really need the extra strength or whatever. i think finger dexterity is what people should seek to improve more, and you can do that on acoustic or electric
To rid you disease
Member
- Jul 5, 2008
- 592
- 0
- 16
so what, suddenly we are talking about the first few weeks in ones progression as a guitarist? your fingers will adjust, why dont you just rub them against a brick wall or soemthing if you want the finger tips to harden. if you are still feeling imense pain when youve gone past the mary had a little lamb stage, then youve got extremely weak fingers.
i still dont understand mistakes would be less obvious on an acoustic, ive encountered countless examples of people being decent acoustic players but once they start playing an electric guitar on distortion they cant mute for shit and its all noisy as hell. i remember myself after playing a few months on my brothers acoustic guitar, i couldnt keep a rhytmn for shit but i thought it sounded decent anyways. once i got an electric guitar all my riffs got stuck in themselves cuz i left most of the notes ringing by not lifting my fingers after each struck note and didnt care to mute them afterwards.
i can see the point in knowing how to play both sorts to be an as versatile player as possible, starting off with acoustic with the only idea in your head being that this will be more efficient for your future electric guitar skills than starting with an electric is just stupid.
on the other hand, there are those that got crappy ears and simply cant hear how bad they are playing. like "oh my god, theres distortion inbetween me and the sound, i cant make out any notes, this must be a great way to disguise my mistakes", but for people who can actually hear what you are playing you are doing the oposite of hiding youre mistakes: youre isntead making them a tenfold more obvious.
biggsy
New Metal Member
To rid you disease
Member
- Jul 5, 2008
- 592
- 0
- 16
my point was its only something thatll matter the first few weeks, if youre gna decide what guitar to choose depending on that, then youre not exactly thinking of the future. most people go from nylon to electric to acoustic with steel strings. first shock will be from nylon to the electric and the other step wont really be noticeable.
All in all, it's equally important to practice both with distortion and without it, so as to develop accuracy and control over your playing. EOD lol.
