Guitar Geeks?

[CheezWizHed]

Any guitar geeks out there? I bought my first guitar 15 years ago - a Washburn D10M and am considering an upgrade. Looking at a Taylor GS Mini KOA (drooling maybe?).

 

Any opinions? Any favorite acoustic guitars?

[jerichoholicninja]

I have 2 electric guitars, 2 acoustics, and bought a bass when lockdown started. I enjoy playing but know next to nothing about the technical mumbo jumbo and whatnot. As long as I can make loud noises with it it's good enough for me.

[CheezWizHed]

I took a couple years of lessons years ago and got to "campfire strummer" level. With COVID, I started online lessons and trying to take improve my technical mumbo jumbo abilities.

 

What guitars do you have? Which one is loudest?

[jerichoholicninja]

I have a Fender Squire which was the first guitar I got in high school. From what I understand it's bargain basement entry level. It's served me well but I think the wiring is starting to go somewhere. It cuts out and has static and I'm pretty sure the pickup selector doesn't even do anything anymore. My son likes the whammy bar so that's a plus.

 

Then I bought an Ibanez Gio from a friend who had bought it from their cousin. It is by far my favorite guitar I've ever played. It sounds good enough and loud enough for me and I can play for a long time without any wrist or finger soreness which I can't say about any of my other guitars.

 

I have an acoustic/electric I got for Christmas like 10 years ago. It's an RW Jameson whatever that means. This is my second favorite. I have actually never changed the strings on it which I guess I'm supposed to have done probably 100 times by now. But it still sounds good and stays in tune so why mess with it? I think the pickups are shot but I never use it electric anyway.

 

My other acoustic is a piece of crap I got at a garage sale. It is terrible. It doesn't have a name on it I assume because no company would every want to put their name on such a crap product. I tuned it once and it stayed tuned for about 5 seconds. I let my kids bang on it.

 

I bought the bass to mess around with during the apocalypse. It's a Glarry. It's good enough for me.

 

I would say the Ibanez is the loudest. It came with a nice, large amp which I blew out a couple years ago. I've always wanted to get a new one but I don't see any reason to spend a couple hundred bucks on something that will have almost zero purpose for me. When I want to play electric I plug into my Macbook and use Garage Band through headphones. And if I want to get real crazy I hook my laptop up to the stereo in the basement and jam out while my 4 year old bangs away on his makeshift drum set.

[CheezWizHed]

Sounds like a rockin' family band!

 

Crank it up!

 

I'm fully acoustic - my kids make enough noise! I have my Wasburn, a Traveler Guitar Mark III, and a cheap kids guitar that I teach them on. My Washburn is a Mahogany and very mellow sound - my guitar teacher would tune it for me (initially) just so he could play it.

 

My Mark III looks like a small electric guitar and built so I can put it in an overhead compartment of an airplane. I used to travel a LOT and could play this in a hotel with headphones (like you are using your computer). Or in my living room with the chaos around me.

[JimH5]

My 16-yo daughter begged me for a guitar this summer and we bought her an entry level Strat copy and a small used practice amp.

 

For Christmas, she's getting a Spark amp by Positive Grid. I read good reviews abour its flexibility and built in effects, so I hope she likes it. It seems to offer lots of things to boost creativity, both onboard and on a connected app.

[JosephC]

I was strictly a Gibson man back when I played, which I haven't done for the last 15 years. I still have one old Les Paul in case I ever decide to play again. It breaks my heart to hear that the quality of Gibson has substantially dropped over the last 10 years or so.

[owbc]

I've always wanted to learn guitar and I'm finally getting at acoustic guitar for Christmas. So...how should I learn? There are a lot of options out there. Would prefer some structure and happy to pay a few bucks a month for a good online tutorial series.

[jerichoholicninja]

I've always wanted to learn guitar and I'm finally getting at acoustic guitar for Christmas. So...how should I learn? There are a lot of options out there. Would prefer some structure and happy to pay a few bucks a month for a good online tutorial series.

 

For me, I started with whatever book came with my guitar. That taught me a good chunk of open position chords. Every time I tried to take some sort of formal tutorial I got bored real fast. I have no interest in becoming a "legitimate" musician or anything so music theory and stuff like that doesn't hold my interest at all. I've taught myself by learning how to play songs I like and I've certainly picked up a bunch of the technical stuff by doing that. There's probably rudimentary stuff I don't know but there's also stuff I do know that's way beyond my ability because I've just learned whatever I found interesting. Overall I feel proficient enough for what I want to be.

 

I don't have anything specific to recommend but I'll just say if something isn't working for you don't be afraid to try something else. Unless you're trying to be a classically trained or professional musician there's really no right or wrong way to learn.

[CheezWizHed]

Some years ago, I did two years of in-person lessons and got to "campfire strummer" level - know how to hold the guitar, learned the basic chords, read music, etc... I played a lot after, but struggled to really increase any skills.

 

Last November, I started Tony's Acoustic Challenge and I'm really enjoying it. It is very structured and focused more on practicing new things instead of perfecting one thing at a time. 5 days a week you have something new to practice and he wants a minimum of 10 min/day - preferably more of course. But it is amazing what just 10/min per day working on a skill will do.

 

He does have a 30 day starter course for new guitar players to teach the basics, but I've not tried it as I felt I was past that. So I'm not sure how it would be starting as a new player. I paid $200 for a year subscription and I'm really liking it. But certainly go through the starter videos before paying (though there is a 2 month money back guarantee too). One nice feature of TAC is the community around it also. There is a forum to ask questions or celebrate victories. There are also online jam sessions (and live jam when COVID wasn't a problem). But TAC doesn't really teach you songs (there is a $$ add-on, but that isn't the point of the lessons). Like you said, I wanted some structure and TAC does a good job of simply saying - play this for 10 min then come back tomorrow for another 10 min.

 

Yousician is kind of the opposite - more like playing guitar hero. Their lessons are a little more rudimentary and if you don't really get good at the one song they have you play, you'll struggle to continue to move up. But they also have a free time-limited way to use the app (like 15 min/day). I had the one year subscription and enjoyed it, but didn't progress like I hoped. I still play the free side for 10-15 min occasionally when I want to play a song.

 

Two others I've looked into are the Fender online and Masters' series. But I've not tried them, but look interesting.

[CheezWizHed]

Every time I tried to take some sort of formal tutorial I got bored real fast.

 

I'll add that knowing your learning style and playing goals are very important for what direction you take too. Like jerichoholicninja posted here, he got bored with the more formal and preferred to just have fun and pick up stuff. I'm the type that needed a structure to help me learn it.

 

I'd poke around at a few sites (including tutorials on YouTube) and see what works best for you.

 

And "Party on Wayne!"

[owbc]

Some years ago, I did two years of in-person lessons and got to "campfire strummer" level - know how to hold the guitar, learned the basic chords, read music, etc... I played a lot after, but struggled to really increase any skills.

 

Last November, I started Tony's Acoustic Challenge and I'm really enjoying it. It is very structured and focused more on practicing new things instead of perfecting one thing at a time. 5 days a week you have something new to practice and he wants a minimum of 10 min/day - preferably more of course. But it is amazing what just 10/min per day working on a skill will do.

 

He does have a 30 day starter course for new guitar players to teach the basics, but I've not tried it as I felt I was past that. So I'm not sure how it would be starting as a new player. I paid $200 for a year subscription and I'm really liking it. But certainly go through the starter videos before paying (though there is a 2 month money back guarantee too). One nice feature of TAC is the community around it also. There is a forum to ask questions or celebrate victories. There are also online jam sessions (and live jam when COVID wasn't a problem). But TAC doesn't really teach you songs (there is a $$ add-on, but that isn't the point of the lessons). Like you said, I wanted some structure and TAC does a good job of simply saying - play this for 10 min then come back tomorrow for another 10 min.

 

Yousician is kind of the opposite - more like playing guitar hero. Their lessons are a little more rudimentary and if you don't really get good at the one song they have you play, you'll struggle to continue to move up. But they also have a free time-limited way to use the app (like 15 min/day). I had the one year subscription and enjoyed it, but didn't progress like I hoped. I still play the free side for 10-15 min occasionally when I want to play a song.

 

Two others I've looked into are the Fender online and Masters' series. But I've not tried them, but look interesting.

 

Thanks--super helpful! I feel the same way--if I'm doing to do this I actually want to pick up some real skill which means structured lessons and learning some theory. It's tempting to want to learn songs but based on my piano lessons as a kid I know it's incredibly frustrating for me to try to learn something above your 'skill' level. Although there are some people who like to learn that way...

[DuWayne Steurer]

Les paul studio and a les custom. I have an esp that I like and a schechter damien that I like more than I thought I would.

 

I have a gibby explorer that sounds great but is pretty cumbersome and clunky to play sitting down.

[homer]

I've always wanted to learn guitar and I'm finally getting at acoustic guitar for Christmas. So...how should I learn? There are a lot of options out there. Would prefer some structure and happy to pay a few bucks a month for a good online tutorial series.

 

ultimateguitar.com has 80% off a one year subscription through tomorrow I think. You can get tabs for pretty much any guitar related song you can think of along with online assistance on how to play them and a backing track (which is pretty cool). I would never pay full price for it but at 80% off I think it's worth it if you are learning how to play.

 

It might work best in conjunction w lessons or online tutorials but if you'd rather learn on your own this might be one notch above youtube.

[CheezWizHed]

In years past, I've been a contributor on ultimateguitar.com (uploading my own tabbed songs), but it frustrated me at times when you spend time learning someone's song and find out it is "off". The rating help some, but it still takes some diligence to weed out the good from the bad.

 

What exactly does the subscription gain? What sort of online assistance? Videos or a chat forum? I've noticed they added some features over the last year or so, but hadn't gone back to investigate.

[nate82]

I have used this in the past and it works out nicely no guessing on the tabs as it comes straight from the musicians that created the music.

 

https://rocksmith.ubisoft.com/rocksmith/en-us/home/

[homer]

In years past, I've been a contributor on ultimateguitar.com (uploading my own tabbed songs), but it frustrated me at times when you spend time learning someone's song and find out it is "off". The rating help some, but it still takes some diligence to weed out the good from the bad.

 

What exactly does the subscription gain? What sort of online assistance? Videos or a chat forum? I've noticed they added some features over the last year or so, but hadn't gone back to investigate.

 

I am not sure what is there for non-subscribers but I believe the backing tracks (you can turn each instrument track on/off individually), and interactive tab playback (there's a fretboard that lights up as each note is struck upon playback).

 

I think this video covers all the differences: