Skip the electrics for now. Get your hands on a acoustic with high action (strings are further away from the fret board) for like, maybe a C-note at a pawn shop or sumfin. Learn on that. Then buy an electric and a decent amp after a year or so. Your fingers will be stronger and faster and more accurate, especially if you are into blues.
With said acoustic, get some old Muddy Waters, john Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, and some old BB King and play along.
You’ll be spankin the 12 and 16 bar blues in no time.
[quote]admbaum wrote:
Skip the electrics for now. Get your hands on a acoustic with high action (strings are further away from the fret board) for like, maybe a C-note at a pawn shop or sumfin. Learn on that. Then buy an electric and a decent amp after a year or so. Your fingers will be stronger and faster and more accurate, especially if you are into blues.
With said acoustic, get some old Muddy Waters, john Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, and some old BB King and play along.
You’ll be spankin the 12 and 16 bar blues in no time. [/quote]
This also great advice. You’ll be surprised how better you get when you build up some strength and callusus on your finger tips which in turn helps prevent deadaning of the open strings. I fucking hate when you play an open chord and you hear ring ring thud ring. After playing an acoustic for awhile the neck of an electric will feel tiny and soooo good lol.
I hope I don’t come off as a know it all because I’m not it’s just stuff I’ve picked up over time. As far as living in an apartment and noise maybe get a little affects box with a headphone jack, Zoom makes a few beginner ones that work great and have a bunch of cool sounds. One other thing, don’t get sucked into thinking you need a floating bridge/whammy bar, it will just distract you from what you really should be working on…playing music. My 2c.
[quote]Ct. Rockula wrote:
Is it too hard to start on an electric? I found one for 50.00 bucks
IBANEX GAX70…? Used
[/quote]
Fuck you guys got it good in America when it comes to prices!
Cheap guitars have cheap pick-ups, cheap hardware, frets etc. All this leads to a shit experiance. Guitars also sound different because of the kinds of wood used. The SG that Steelnation has, which is gorgeous BTW, has a body made out of basswood probably which will sound different than mine which is made out of mahogany. If your looking for a certain sound you’ll have to go into a store to see what feels and sounds right to you. For example Gibson make guitars that are made in Korea and Amrerica, by all apperances they look identicle but when you look at the specs the American one has better pick-ups and machine heads etc. which means they cost more and sound differant to a degree. I’m not saying the Korean one is total crap, it’s not, it’s just the way it is. When you see a cheaper one and you say “wow, look at the beutifull wood grain on that” Wrong!, it’s a faux grain, it’s sticker and not a real sunburst finish like Carlos Santana plays. Looks cool but it ain’t the real McCoy.
It’s not wrong to start on an electric per say but if you get an acoustic first you will build up strength faster imo. If I can relate this to weight training…think of an acoustic as compound excersises and an electric as assistance ones. Build a good solid foundation first, then move into the pretty boy excersises that make the vampire girls swoon lol. Can’t go wrong either way really. Start networking with friends to see if someone that knows someone that has one sitting in a closet that you can borrow for awhile. Guitar might not be for you after all, (not a crime) and that way you can save a little dough.
edit/That esp has a mohogany body but you get the idea.
You’ve got the right idea getting a cheap guitar, why would you get an expensive guitar before you ear can tell the difference between it and a dirt cheap one?
[quote]Eric 2.0 wrote:
You’ve got the right idea getting a cheap guitar, why would you get an expensive guitar before you ear can tell the difference between it and a dirt cheap one? [/quote]
If you had ever played a <$150 guitar, then you would know the answer to that question. Cheap hardware = inferior playing experience. But have fun playing a guitar with shitty action and weak pickups that never stays in tune…if that’s your thing.
OP: I have to emphasize - don’t buy anything without playing it first. A $75 guitar will sound and feel like a $75 guitar.
Go to a shop and just play around. It’s difficult to recommend a specific guitar, because you’ll inevitably find one that just beckons to you.
[quote]Eric 2.0 wrote:
You’ve got the right idea getting a cheap guitar, why would you get an expensive guitar before you ear can tell the difference between it and a dirt cheap one? [/quote]
I know what your saying but the world needs folks with more money than brains(not you CT.R)…how else would I find a guitar like mine for sale barely used for so cheap
bcingu…when I was shopping around for an upgrade I was trying differant ones out and then I picked up a Charvel strat, it felt perfect for me right away, you just know when it’s the right one.
Oh, and 007 made a great point. If you start out on a steel-string acoustic, transitioning to electric will be like child’s play because of the finger strength that you’ll have developed. Not to discourage you from starting with an electric, though. Especially if Santana is your thing.
[quote]Ct. Rockula wrote:
Is it too hard to start on an electric? I found one for 50.00 bucks
IBANEX GAX70…? Used
[/quote]
Do you have an amp?
If you do, go for it.
If you dont, get an acoustic. An electric solid body with no amp is kinda depressing cause you really cant hear what you are really doing, like the way you hit the string. You can feel it though the guitar…sort of, but its just not the same.
You should pick up Santana relatively quickly. He never played or recorded anything amazingly hard to play. But he was deeply rooted in the blues. Start with the roots of blues and work your way up. In the video, the guys was just running through blues scales with teh bendz and vibrato here and there.
[quote]Eric 2.0 wrote:
You’ve got the right idea getting a cheap guitar, why would you get an expensive guitar before you ear can tell the difference between it and a dirt cheap one? [/quote]
If you had ever played a <$150 guitar, then you would know the answer to that question. Cheap hardware = inferior playing experience. But have fun playing a guitar with shitty action and weak pickups that never stays in tune…if that’s your thing.
OP: I have to emphasize - don’t buy anything without playing it first. A $75 guitar will sound and feel like a $75 guitar.
Go to a shop and just play around. It’s difficult to recommend a specific guitar, because you’ll inevitably find one that just beckons to you.[/quote]
d00d…what do you think a player that can rock out on a cheap-o, 5 dollar plank of drift wood can do when they get their hands on something like a Brian Moore MC/1?
