starting to play guitar seriously

I'm sucking more and more. Now I don't even have a guitar so my learning has been put to a hault. School has been handing me shit left and right and I'm falling behind. And when I went to buy a guitar, the only shit happened.

I went to Sam Ash in NYC to buy a ESP F-50 with a friend who is teaching me guitar. I find one and the guy says he's going to look in the back for a new one. He brings it out, I pay, get in my friend's car, and leave. I left the guitar in his car for two days until he just opened it to tune it. However, no ESP F-50 was in the ESP box. Instead, a $600 Fender Stratocaster was in there. I hate Fenders. =/ So I gave it to my friend and he's now going to buy me a different guitar in like 3 weeks when he can afford it.

Oh woe is me.

Im bumping this shiznite to tell anyone who is learning guitar to check out the book Fretboard Logic. Link is on the bottom of this post. It's a very cool book that tells you a lot about how the fretboard is set up and how to feel comfortable with it. It's a very intimidating thing, you know. Anyway the book wont make you a better player immediately but like I said, it makes you more comfortable going up and down the fretboard and I know that was something that was very awkward for me... at least until I picked up this book.

Also, my guitar teach at UCLA used the book to learn and he is fucking awesome. Not saying there is a 1-1 correlation but take it as you will.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

I started fanging about on a pos guitar a while ago, and I'm getting pretty decent at lead parts. Its like bass, only 10x easier. Chords on the other hand...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Raz0r

Instead, a $600 Fender Stratocaster was in there. I hate Fenders. =/

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I don't care for Strats myself, but have you ever played a Jazzmaster or a Jaguar? I love those guitars. Mustangs are nice too, through a lot of reverb, distortion, and delay effects. I've had my cherry red Jazzmaster since 1996 and it plays beautifully to this day. You can't beat the tremelo on those guitars, it's the only way you can get the sound of shoegaze bands like My Bloody Valentine. It costs a good deal for a nice Jazzmaster (or Jaguar) though ($700~$1200 for a reissue, $1300+ for a vintage one from the 60s). But a nice strat will run you that much too. I know some musicians who play nothing but strats.

My fave guitar is definitely a rickenbacker 360. Well, that's tied with a 1960s era Gretsch. Nothing plays as smoothly as them or has such a warm, clean tone.

Been playing since I was 10 (I'm now 24) by the way. I normally just bang about songs on one of my acoustics nowadays. I really love finger picking on an acoustic--such a nice process.

I used to be anti-fender until I picked up a J-bass. I was suprised at how much better a J-bass plays to a P-bass (matter of opinion).

and I heart the gretsch sound very much so, but I don't heart the price tag.


also, within a month or so, I will obtain my very own ricky!

http://www.rickenbacker.com/images/4003-x.jpg

ricky basses are so fucking sweet, they give me erections every day.

Yeah rick basses are nice, my brother has one. Have you played a Fender Bass-VI?
Those fucking rule. They're the world's first and only baritone guitar, sort of in between a guitar and a bass. You need special strings for them. They made them in the 60s, then reissued them in 96, but now they're hard to find again. My friend bought one of the 96 reissues (they were pricey, like $900+). Really beautiful instruments. The only major band that made full use of them was The Cure, as far as I know.

Sounds nice. Being from Australia, its about 100x harder to find rare instruments (hell, good instruments aren't that common). I doubt I'll ever get to see one.

Yeah I know what you mean. But Bass VI's are hard to find anywhere! Try finding strings for the things, that's even harder (haha). I did see a Bass VI on ebay about a year ago being sold from an Australian seller, so there was at least one down there! ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueskied

Yeah rick basses are nice, my brother has one. Have you played a Fender Bass-VI?
Those fucking rule. They're the world's first and only baritone guitar, sort of in between a guitar and a bass. You need special strings for them. They made them in the 60s, then reissued them in 96, but now they're hard to find again. My friend bought one of the 96 reissues (they were pricey, like $900+). Really beautiful instruments. The only major band that made full use of them was The Cure, as far as I know.

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God, is that what that was? I passedup one of those at a pawn shop because I don't play bass. I was like "wow, that is one short Bass"

I am beginning to reach the level of competence. Its getting to be my eighth month of playing guitar, on and off somewhat during the past 2, but everytime I pick it up I feel better and more comfortable with it. Where I can try to play a song and it sounds like the song, not a choppy, sloppy, ugly mangling of... something.

There's still a lot I cant do, obviously, and Im not very good, but its beginning to look within reach. I started to feel this way maybe... end of June, and now its better.