What are you listening to right now?

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Word
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Word »

I didn't finish my master thesis yet, I didn't finish learning how to program and do all the 3D stuff yet, but I did buy an electric guitar and watched some online guitar lessons. It's a generic Fender knockoff but to me it sounds pretty decent:
https://www.amazon.com/Squier-Fender-Bu ... itar+white
Can you recommend sites/youtube channels to learn? I know there's an abundancy out there, but I wonder if you guys prefer a particular one.


In other news, I'm now checking out The Deep Dark Woods and Grandbrothers.
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sinewav
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by sinewav »

Word wrote:It's a generic Fender knockoff but to me it sounds pretty decent:
Lesson 1: Don't let guitar snobbery dictate what a "good" guitar is. A guitar is good if it is playable and sounds nice to your ears. Part of learning guitar is getting to know every component intimately. Adjusting the bridge and truss rod, and replacing pickups can turn even the cheapest guitars into magnificent instruments.
Word wrote:Can you recommend sites/youtube channels to learn?
Unfortunately I can't recommend anything; I learned how to play before the World Wide Web existed. However, I will say that you should find a balance between learning and playing songs you like, doing boring exercises to increase strength/dexterity/speed, and exploring the guitar without preconception!
Word wrote:In other news, I'm now checking out The Deep Dark Woods and Grandbrothers.
You've got some great music taste Word, always like your posts the best.
Word
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Word »

sinewav wrote:Adjusting the bridge and truss rod, and replacing pickups can turn even the cheapest guitars into magnificent instruments.
Yes, I'm already reading a little about how to do that, but for the moment I'm really happy with the instrument in its current state. Once I'm finished with all the other stuff I'd like to spray-paint the white body a little.
However, I will say that you should find a balance between learning and playing songs you like, doing boring exercises to increase strength/dexterity/speed, and exploring the guitar without preconception!
Thanks, that's a great tip. I had some acoustic guitar lessons as a teenager - the simplified flamenco/folk song exercises in my book never really appealed much to me, but I'm slowly getting to a point where I can play those tunes again.
You've got some great music taste Word, always like your posts the best.
So do you, so that means a lot :-)
Word
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Word »

Two "audio doodles" I just recorded. I'm still struggling with the basic chords (so I didn't use any chords there), but this is something I thought of spontaneously. It's probably not very good, but I like the amplifier distortion in the second recording and the completely accidental "build-up" at the end of the third one (which leads nowhere though). I feel like a good riff might be buried somewhere at around 0:43, but it's really just me stroking two strings and alternating between two to four frets. I don't even remember how exactly I did it, but it should be easy to recreate. >< The amp I got is a Fender Mustang I.
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sinewav
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by sinewav »

Word wrote:It's probably not very good...
It's raw, I love it. I've always been jealous of this kind of "play." Once you learn how to play an instrument well it is hard to experiment like this. Same thing for art. I used to do the design work for one of my bands. My guitar player once drew a silly sketch that really captured something and It became the center of our "brand." I couldn't have made it because once you get good at art it's hard to create something raw, childlike, and fun. It's why I'm always looking to for new media to explore so I can have these kind of moments.

Thanks for sharing!
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Word »

Haha, thank you! :-) That's a cool anecdote.
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Lucifer
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Lucifer »

sinewav wrote:
Word wrote:It's a generic Fender knockoff but to me it sounds pretty decent:
Lesson 1: Don't let guitar snobbery dictate what a "good" guitar is. A guitar is good if it is playable and sounds nice to your ears. Part of learning guitar is getting to know every component intimately. Adjusting the bridge and truss rod, and replacing pickups can turn even the cheapest guitars into magnificent instruments.
I just worked on my warlock, actually. I wax potted the old SD hot rail pickup that I had hanging around, got it wired in (my son ended up doing the work that finally worked), adjusted the truss rod and put the right spacers in the neck/body joint (?) so I have a decent string height.

The thing sounds great now, is what I'm saying.

I bought a cute little Danelectro headphone amp that runs on a 9v battery. I have to turn the volume on the guitar down low to get a clean tone out of it, but then I run it through my Boss metal pedal and it just sounds fantastic.

The guitar itself was a cheap pawn shop purchase, and suffered some damage later when I went a little nuts (ongoing mental health crap that I'm working on). She doesn't look like much, but she's got it where it counts.
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sinewav
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by sinewav »

Lucifer wrote:I just worked on my warlock, actually.
Post pics, plz.

A few months ago I replaced the pickguard on my electric. It had a huge crack since the early 90s. Glad I finally got it done. Pic below. I don't own any "metal" guitars anymore, just this no-name one with a single coil and a single-space humbucker. It gets a pretty good range of tone. It's the same one I used on my Arma inspired masterpiece years ago.

I also painted my Bently bass over the summer. The original color was this cherry stain shit I always hated and almost made me not buy the bass (but it plays sooooo nice and every single person who's touched it has said "wow.") I ****** up the paint job a bit, mostly because the color I wanted doesn't exist and I has to mix two cans of spray paint on the fly. One of these days I might pay someone to lacquer it, though it mostly sits in a case these days. :/
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Misery
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Misery »

That paint job on your Bently bass doesn't look too bad, sinewav!

I just recently made an upgrade on an old Alvarez bass that I bought over 20 years ago. I got a used Hipshot Kickass bridge for it. It has breathed new life into it! But I need to get stainless steel saddle inserts for it. The brass ones give it a little too dark of a tone for my tastes. I like a brighter bass tone with harmonic overtones that stainless steel saddles can give you.
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saragei
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by saragei »

Never trust a species that grins all the time. It’s up to something. —Terry Pratchett, Pyramids
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Word
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Word »

Hey sara, it's been a long time :D

Guitar update: I bought a Blackstar Fly 3 (the full package with the extension cabinet and the power supply; saved 30€ because it was "used" (just sent/brought back to the shop in brand new condition). If you haven't seen one of the countless youtube reviews already, it's great! I use rechargeable batteries so I can go play outdoors with it.
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sinewav
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by sinewav »

Word wrote:I bought a Blackstar Fly 3
Oh damn, I never once considered buying a battery powered amp but that thing rocks. The review you posted is great. I have a friend who bought the Marshall amp (he mostly just loves the brand) and he'll be amazed by that review.

Give us an update on the battery life (and if it makes any cools sounds when the battery is dying).
Word
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Word »

These are the batteries I use, they're relatively cheap. I was outside yesterday for like 5 hours and for 2 or 3 hours on the day before that, and I have turned the volume up to 25-30 %, which is already pretty loud if you sit right next to the amp, even with the distortion turned off. Didn't have to change the batteries yet, but probably thanks to the relatively low volume I use, they last a few hours longer than the official product details suggest (I also didn't use the extension cabinet for now, to save some energy and because I don't want to carry it around for now).
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Word »

the batteries are still going strong although I used the blackstar for at least another 5 hours at 25% volume... (I practiced a lot more than that during the last weeks, but to get the chord changes right, I don't need an amp, and I used my old classical guitar* when I was at my parents' house).

*I'm not quite sure about the brand. My father said he and my uncle got it from a guy who built the guitars himself, but it says "Made in Korea" on the neck and if you look through the sound hole, you see the "PEERLESS"-lettering.
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Lucifer
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Re: What are you listening to right now?

Post by Lucifer »

Heh, I have a Danelectro amp that's also battery-powered. Not using it much, so I don't have anything to report on it other than it sounds great, and is surprisingly loud for a battery-powered amp.
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