The Musicians Thread

[Green Gecko]

I play guitar.




...

I was going to leave it at that for once but I just HAVE to post some pics of my Ibanez Prestige S2170SE because I love it more and more every day. It is such a defined instrument and looks like no other Ibanez (it's a special edition so there aren't a bazillion of them either):




Mahogany body, figured ebony top, 5-piece maple and bubinga Wizard-II neck with jumbo frets. Double locking ball-bearing-based two-way ZPS trem. EMG 85 active ceramic rail pup in bridge and 81 active alnico 5 rail humbucker on the neck.

On locking tuners: I haven't found mine to be a problem at all. The tuning stability is amazing on this guitar (although from what I have read/seen/played/experienced the Zero Point System Ibanez trems are easier to maintain than Floyd Rose are) which more than makes up for its relative inflexibility in tuning and string adjustment, which isn't a problem for me as I quite deliberately play in standard tuning 95% of the time to keep my harmonic options open and with average gauge strings. This trem is AWESOME for trem-heavy technique and the frets are blissful. The locking system is really important for keeping such a flexible trem in tune. If you change tunings a lot, simply remove the locking nut from the neck, but if you have a floating trem you are going to get issues with tuning stability with the neck lock off. On Ibanez ZPS bridges though, they have this stopping block that the trem comes to sit against when you relax the trem, the "zero point", eliminating that particular problem with full floating Floyd Rose trems.

I picked up tapping in a week or so (although I already had pretty good left and right hand stamina from classical/Spanish/folk fingerpicking style) mainly because with a low action the frets are so easy to sound. I'm by no means fantastic at it but this guitar does make it considerably easier.

I bought it second hand with EMG 81 and 85 active pickups installed, which means zero noise, fat sound, incredibly full frequency response, really nice resonance from the mahogany body and ridiculously epic sustain and drive. Having said that, I mainly love this guitar for its sound on the neck pick-up - brilliant for jazzy runs and delicate playing. And the bridge screams, if only my technique suited that better (overdriven fingerpicking guitar doesn't really work unless you really work with the thumbnail, but the bridge pup is great for the twang and stronger articulation).

Only drawback is some nail markings on the back of the neck, but I don't notice them while playing and will get them polished out at some point. And need to get a cap for the unused middle pickup routing.

If it is possible to have the fullest, hugest sounding combination of a Strat form factor and weight, Les Paul warmth and sustain with Ibanez shred/tap-happy neck, this guitar is it.

I use random Peavey and Marshal practice amps scattered about my mate's houses and usually Marshal JCM-800 or 900 heads (which sound strawberry floating INCREDIBLE with this guitar - it's all about the pick-ups) rented at studios. I'm considering Vox AC-30, Marshall DSL-2000 and Peavy Valveking amps at the moment, as they're all I can sensibly afford. I am not wasting this guitar on a solid state amp - I'm sorry but they just do not sound as good for my style of playing.

KazemI is my guitar/gaming buddy and I play some kind of neo-classical jazz rock latino fusion at the moment with a touch of blues and funk. I'm in a psychedelic post-punk (I don't mean shitty indie bands that call themselves post-punk, I mean mad no-wave stuff) prog rock band; we play in Brighton and we play loud.

Besides that I write a bit of house, electronica and kind of electroacoustic stuff on all the compuitery gear. I'm doing soundtracks and scores for film students and learning how to master in 5.1.

Songwriting has been a small thing for me since I was 11 but playing live in any capacity is the single best thing ever. Next gig is July.

Oh look I did a tl;dr again..

[Green Gecko]

I just found an add for an Orange AD30TC dual channel 30W all-valve amp going for £1,142 on GAK... for £550. I'm not saying where.

MEGA tempted to say the least!! A small Orange amp costs nearly that much and some Marshall Combos are more expensive (Orange is way better).

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/ad-30-tc/10234



Was thinking of a Vox AC-30 for £700 but if these amps are bashing about for those prices second hand.. I could't justify it getting a Vox.

I'm currently borrowing a makes Peavy Rage 158 15W amp which is hardly doing my Ibanez justice!! Love playing through JCM heads but too fizzy for me, hence why I was looking at something more articulate and full like a Vox.. but Orange are the gooseberry fool when it comes to full tone.

[Corazon de Leon]

I've been slowly but surely learning how to play simple bass guitar tunes in my spare time around the house recently. My brother's been playing for around a year now(he's getting pretty good actually), so I've decided that I'd like to learn it myself. I've been slowly learning the different basslines to Orion by Metallica, but it's stupidly outside my skill level at the moment.

[~Earl Grey~]

[Green Gecko]

I want a Korg Polysix. My mate has one and it is the fattest most 80s sounding synth ever (analogue oscillators too).



Used it in our last rehearsal, and it immediately turned everything into some kind of space funk rock. Went a bit Daft Punk at one point with the pitch/mod wheels.

[~Earl Grey~]

Looks sexy.

It's been a while since I've bought a proper synth. I just get cheap home keyboards from Cash Gen - There's usually some decent sounds on them though. That Yamaha one I posted (the top one) is actually a cut-down FM synth. Even thought it looks like a home keyboard, you can edit the presets quite extensively.

[It'sNotLupus]

I've just discovered the wonder of the Bebot synth. Its amazing.

[~Earl Grey~]

My favourite synth:

[Green Gecko]

The best thing about vintage analogue synths is that you get full control with all the knobs on the unit - no rotary controls or LCD screens to fiddle about with to program sounds. For that reason alone I find them much more fun to play because of the knob-twiddling wankery you can get away with, and the surprisingly results you can get by just strawberry floating about with it.

The Polysix in unison mode (where it automatically detunes the 6 voices slightly from oneanother) is the fatest thing I've ever heard, through a big Roland keyboar/PA amp. And then there's the arpeggiator combined with the various filters and envolopes.

[~Earl Grey~]

That's why I like the MS2000 - pretty much every performance function has its own knob/button. You can navigate the menu (for precision adjustment) if you want, but nothing beats proper controls.

[Red Yoshi]

I just ordered a white bound Telecaster kit

It should be arriving for the beginning of next week, and i'm going to try a cherry burst finish on it

I'll be keeping a blog of my progress if anyone is interested.

[frogg]

I just ordered a white bound Telecaster kit

It should be arriving for the beginning of next week, and i'm going to try a cherry burst finish on it

I'll be keeping a blog of my progress if anyone is interested.

Post tons of pics man, that sounds awesome.

[Red Yoshi]

That's the finish i'll be aiming for. Eeek!

[Red Yoshi]

Well i have my Telecaster kit now

Great quality, the binding is superb I shall start work on Monday, as well as launching a blog to document my progress. I'm dead excited!

[SEP]

Well i have my Telecaster kit now

Great quality, the binding is superb I shall start work on Monday, as well as launching a blog to document my progress. I'm dead excited!

I shall look forward to it!

[Pred]

After reading this thread a while ago I had a go at playing guitar again. I had played a bit when studying Music at high school but I didn't play after that.

I've got a cheap Squier acoustic. It's actually my Mum's but she's never played it so at least I have something to play. I've had a look at a few tabs online and have been trying to play Iron Man (I still need to learn the solo and the outro) and More Than a Feeling (I've only learnt the main riff and chorus at the moment).

I would like to get an electric guitar at some point and I've been having a look at a few websites. It'll be a while before I can get one so hopefully I'll have learnt a few more songs and improved my playing when I start visiting local shops.

[Ario]

Can any of you guitarists on here do the Hetfield style fast downpicking? I'm trying to master it for some riffs which cant be alt picked or sound crap if not downpicked, but it's a real bitch! On a good day I can just about do it at 110 bpm (4 notes per beat).

[Mr Thropwimp]

Can any of you guitarists on here do the Hetfield style fast downpicking? I'm trying to master it for some riffs which cant be alt picked or sound crap if not downpicked, but it's a real bitch! On a good day I can just about do it at 110 bpm (4 notes per beat).

That's odd because alt-picking is often the bit where things become awkward. Constant down picks just requires a very fast hand, whereas alt-picking requires a very good sense of rhythm.

[Green Gecko]

I'm totally lost when it comes to plectrum techniques because I universally fingerpick, even for "rawk" guitar. It lacks attack but it means I can greatly vary the expression of every note because there are a bazillion ways to pluck with different fingers at different speeds in different locations at different angles and with different parts of the nails or fingers or both. And then there's rasguado (flamenco) on electric which is just nuts. Combined with slap and touch style.

It's pretty win to be honest but I can't really shred (although I can using almost entirely slurs), so some day I guess I'll have to learn to use a plec.

[John Galt]

Can any of you guitarists on here do the Hetfield style fast downpicking? I'm trying to master it for some riffs which cant be alt picked or sound crap if not downpicked, but it's a real bitch! On a good day I can just about do it at 110 bpm (4 notes per beat).

That's odd because alt-picking is often the bit where things become awkward. Constant down picks just requires a very fast hand, whereas alt-picking requires a very good sense of rhythm.

For me I started off down picking as most do, then learnt alternate picking but then realised that some of the riffs I were playing using alternate picking that should have been purely down picked were next to impossible for me to play. I've since built it up to where I can play most Metallica riffs the way they should be but I never really practices to improve - it just improved the more I played.

It's hard to imagine not being able to do something as simple as alternate picking as it just comes naturally to me now - even choosing the right starting direction without really knowing the riff - but I do remember when I first learnt how to do it and how frustrating it was. Definitely a technique everyone should master though.